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What is a Merchant Account?
A bank account required for e-commerce business that enables an organization to accept credit and debit cards.
How Does a Merchant Account Work?
A merchant account consists of a relationship in between an acquiring bank, a merchant, and a payment gateway. Through this relationship, a service can lawfully accept credit and debit card payments online from a cardholder purchasing an excellent or service from said service. Payment processors, independent sales organizations, and member provider can also belong to a Merchant Account contract. Merchant Accounts are required to abide by the policies set by card associations, such as Visa or MasterCard: each merchant account applies to one set of credit/debit cards.
Merchant accounts go through varying fees. These fees can either be carried out through recurring billing or as a percentage of each deal, or sometimes both.
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