A merchant account is an account that is established by a merchant (business) with a payment processor (also referred to as a merchant services provider) in order to accept Visa™, MasterCard®, American Express and other private label credit cards as well as debit cards. All transactional activity for your merchant account is itemized on your monthly merchant statement. Proceeds from credit and debit transactions are deposited to your business bank account, and fees and charges are debited from these accounts on a daily or monthly basis.

What Costs are Associated with setting up a Merchant Account?

Cost for setting up a merchant account are one-time fees that vary depending on the type of solution you require, the nature and size of your business, and the method(s) that you use to accept debit/credit payments. On average, application fees can range anywhere from $50 to $500, but as requirements for individual merchant accounts vary, so do the application fees.

The application fee covers the initial account set-up cost which includes application processing, credit approval, deployment of a terminal/solution and training.