We all must have heard that a merchant account is needed for online money transactions with the help of debit and credit cards. But what exactly is a Merchant Account?
A Merchant Account is the account where the transacted money goes till the time it reaches the destined account of the merchant/businessman. The merchant account acts as a connecting link among all the different card transactions so that the money gets smoothly transferred from the consumers’ bank account to the business owner’s bank account.
Following are some characteristics and specialties of Merchant Account
1. Merchant Account is also called a holding account for the money being transacted until the payment processing is completed.
2. Merchant Account Service providers directly deal with the card networks and processors for smooth transactions.
3) Every Merchant account has a unique merchant ID for every business.
4. Merchant Account also provides extra security for every card processing and transactions, etc.
Along with the Characteristics come the advantages, and the following are some advantages of having a Merchant account for your business.
1. The most basic but very important benefit is that you can accept credit card and debit card payments for your business. Having more payment options help in the increase of business and there is easy money flow possible.
2. The first advantage connectively brings the second one. Where there is an increased rate of money processing through cards there is an increased rate of sales for any business.
3. Cash Management and handling become far easier due to online transactions made available by the merchant account.
4. There is zero possibility of bounced checks when there are online transactions, the hassle and penalty fees caused by bounced checks can be avoided by switching to online payments.
5. Merchant Account provides two way convenience, the flexibility in payment processing delights the customers and happy customers make the Business owners happy.
All this reasons are more than enough to tell you why a Merchant Account is needed for any small or large business.