What You Need To Know When Opening A Merchant Account

As a business, it is essential to accept numerous payment options to give customers an easier and convenient way to pay for products or services from your business. The ecommerce business platform has grown tremendously over the years providing consumers with different options to pay for products or services online, which puts your business at an advantage.

So if you are looking to open a merchant account, here are some things you need to know.

You need a business account.

It is essential to have a business account if you want to open a merchant account. This also applies to people who have sole proprietorships. It takes a few minutes to open a business account in any bank. All you need is your EIN {Employer Identification Number} and your business license. If your business is a sole proprietorship with no employees, you can use your social security number as your EIN.

The payment processor will use your business account to process any fees, and that’s where the payment processing company will deposit all your funds made by consumers using online payment methods or card payments.

You need a business license to open a merchant account

If your business is up and running, you must have a business license of some sort. Ensure you go to the Secretary of State’s website and register for a business license if you don’t have one.

A business license is essential because the merchant account underwriters need to review the license and file a copy to ensure you are a legit business.

Different payment options may require different merchant accounts

If you want to accept various payment methods for your business, such as credit cards, you need one merchant account. 

If you also wish to accept eChecks, you will need to use another payment processor, hence another merchant account.

It can take one day for your merchant account to be active

After submitting all the documents needed and approved, your merchant account can be active in one day. 

Merchant account underwriters operate within the same hours as banks, so keep that in mind when submitting your merchant account application. Applications submitted after hours will be reviewed the next business day.

You can use the same merchant account from your brick-and-mortar store to your online store.

One advantage of opening merchant accounts is transferring the account from your brick-and-mortar store to your online store. This will be done if both platforms use the same location.

If you already have a merchant account for your office or store, you can ask the representative helping you with your merchant account if it’s transferrable.

You have to ensure you are PCI compliant.

It’s a requirement for businesses owning merchant accounts to be PCI compliant. To be PCI compliant means that you are securely processing customers’ credit card payments and actively protecting their information from hackers. 

Ensure all your systems are updated, secure customer information by not storing sensitive data, using antivirus software on all your systems, and having strong policies about user IDs and passwords to avoid any security breaches.