Best Personal Merchant Accounts to Process Payments

Best Personal Merchant Accounts

Personal Merchant Accounts Technically, this is not really the same as a merchant account, it is more like an alternative to a merchant account. With one known exception (Bizhosting), these types of merchant accounts have not yet been integrated with a shopping cart type system, rather they are mostly used by individuals trying to sell products directly to each other through places like Ebay, Classified Ads, and other marketplace-type forums. These companies underwrite you as an individual and enable direct person to person transactions, most significantly credit card transactions. You can send money via e-mail, accept money via e-mail, process payments using a Palm Pilot or other PDA, and more. Everything is stored in your personal merchant account until you tell them to transfer it to your checking account. These services are terrific if you are not yet a full-scale business. In most cases, all you have to do to be approved is be a U.S. citizen with a valid social security number. How we Rated Them There are still very few of these types of services available, but we look for ease of use, pervasiveness, and the fees associated with each service.

The Winners

1st Place:	ProPay ProPay isn't the oldest or most experienced, but they are the most innovative. ProPay offers shopping cart integration through Bizhosting.com, and a variety of ways to transact payments on a direct person to person level. Other cool features include Palm software that lets you use your Palm Pilot to process credit card orders, and the ability to set your own credit limit and maximium charge limits. Look for ProPay to take over PayPal in this arena. Visit their site
2nd Place:	PayPal PayPal was one of the innovators of this type of account, and as such, they enjoy a large market share, mainly due to its popularity on EBay. They are a stable, easy to use service. Many companies are beginning to offer limited support for PayPal as a payment method within their shopping carts. Visit their site