The cost of a regular merchant account has fallen since this site was created, so consider carefully if you need a third party credit cards processor or can get your own Internet-specific merchant account.

Third Party credit card processor companies own merchant accounts with the additional rights to use that merchant account to accept credit card orders on behalf of other companies.

Generally it is illegal to obtain a merchant account for your company and then sell another companies goods through your account. As I mentioned, additional rights have to be bought to enable a company to accept credit card orders for another company or individual. The third party will have to levy fees to cover not only the cost of processing the transaction, but also their own costs, so they are more expensive on a per-transaction basis than having your own Internet-based merchant account to process credit cards. On the other hand, using a third party processor is a lot less hassle initially and could help you test your market quickly and cheaply.