Guide to Free Credit Card Processing

By Rika Subana

free credit card processing machine

What if you could get the entire professional benefits of a paid merchant account or credit card processing service but all for free? If you like the idea of free credit card processing, start shopping at your community banks and credit unions to see what type of deals they can offer.

Many 3rd party credit card companies boast about providing merchants with free credit card processing services. Tempting merchants with a free credit card processing service, they brag about accepting credit cards online on behalf of the merchants, with low processing fees, extra costs etc. So you can start selling your products, whether digital or physical in a few minutes by signing up for a free account in their site. You don’t need for a setup fee like many other companies requires. But still, you have to be real careful in choosing free credit card processing.

Some companies impose fees of perhaps 15 to 25 cents per transaction or a monthly percentage fee overall of between 1% and 2%. The good news is there are some reliable popular companies that offer you free online payment processing services.

Free credit card processing might help you promote your website and products for a while. This credit card processing involves many things, such as the verification of the consumer’s credit card number, expiry date, and other data connected with credit cards. Unlike regular credit card processing, you don’t have to pay for expensive credit card processing software, customer service fees, a secure server, minimum transaction fees, and monthly gateway fees when using free credit card processing. But there are no real long term benefits. However, the transaction charges are usually so high that merchants end up paying more than the average rate.

If you opt to go with free credit card processing, it is advisable that you visit a credit processing firm to learn what kind of transactions are generally done in credit card processing. Lots of free credit card processing companies do not entail creating your own merchant account. Although today many online businesses make use of free credit card processing.

Another point to remember when you use free credit card processing is about hidden charges. There will be payment processing charges such as merchant account registration fee, high risk merchant fee, statements fees, monthly fees, wire fees and fraud prevention fees etc. What merchants can do to avoid becoming victims of such ‘free’ programs is to read the privacy policy and terms/conditions on the website for the certain program, or ask more experienced and trusted business owners regarding such companies. This will save merchants the hassle and loss liable to occur once trapped for the free credit card processing.

Last but not least point to consider, even if the free credit card processing option appears to save you money at first, is this a limited time offer? Of course, you can always check out the benefits of paying no transactions costs, and if permissible, switch to another system later if costs increase more than expected with free credit card processing for business owners.

Check out my other guide on Free Credit Card Processing!

Tags: free credit card processing, free credit card processing for, free credit card processing machine, free credit card processing software