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How To Accept Credit Cards

Being able to accept credit cards can open up a much broader income field for you. There are less and less people using cash these days. Most like the convenience of a credit or debit card. There are two common ways for people like you and me to accept credit/debit cards and one is MUCH easier than the other.

The first way is to open a merchant account: A merchant account allows you to act as a merchant and accept credit cards. You can do this with services such as Charge.com. You sign up with them, and in about 1-2 weeks you are contacted and either approved or disapproved. If you are approved you will be given either a portal to take credit card information online, or options to get a credit card machine for accepting credit cards offline.

You are charged monthly for this service, and also every time you make a transaction. Establishments and companies, such as restaurants, department stores, etc... have merchant accounts for accepting credit cards. They are probably eligible for much lower rates because of the amount of transactions they do but you can still be a one-man-show and have a merchant account of your own. Unfortunately, you may have to start off paying higher rates than most.

In my experience using merchant accounts, you have to sign up separately if you want to accept Discover, and American Express cards, which is kind of a pain.

The process of opening a merchant account I think is unwieldy, and Charge.com actually screwed up my information the during sign-up which delayed my approval and being sent the materials. I was generally unimpressed with the whole thing. That's why I feel this method is not ideal for buying and selling on Craigslist and I don't recommend this way unless you absolutely have to.

The second way is to use Paypal: You can accept credit cards using Paypal. And it is much more ideal for Craigslist buyers and sellers than opening a merchant account because it is easier and cheaper. Many people these days have a Paypal account. And most people don't know this but they can accept credit cards thru Paypal if they sign up for a Paypal Premier or Business account. Signing up for these accounts are FREE and easy. There are no monthly charges and you don't need to fill out anything separate to accept Discover or Am Ex cards. Paypal takes about 3.00% of each sale on credit card, which seems to be the going rate even for merchant accounts.

Paypal makes it so that ordinary people like you or me can accept credit cards easily. And it is by far the most recommended way to go about this.
By being able to accept credit cards, you open up a lot of income opportunities. And you'll be surprised how many people will be willing to give you their credit cards to pay for their items. If you come across as reputable and professional they will feel safe to give the information. And with Paypal, they can enter the information themselves without you even ever seeing their credit cards or their numbers if they use the Paypal “Buy Now” buttons.

Click here to go to Paypal. Sign up for a Premier account if you haven't already. They will have to verify you which may take a few days. When you are approved you will able to accept credit cards!

That about wraps up everything you need to know to post your items successfully on Cragislist. Read over the chapter again if you have to because this chapter is probably the most important in really boosting your profits. I hope you use what you learned in this chapter and make a fortune! Now onto buying techniques!