If you make your living by selling services and/or merchandise over the Internet, you really need a dependable payment gateway, such as Authorize.net, to help your business complete transactions as smoothly as possible.  Consequently, you may be galvanized to find an Authorize.net reseller – one that can provide the gateway to you in the most cost-effective manner.  The purpose of this article/blog entry is to better acquaint you with one of the most prominent gateways available and its related fees so that you can best decide which Authorize.net reseller to use.

A payment gateway is an e-commerce application or Internet-based mechanism that allows you to conduct business transactions online. The gateway basically gathers all of the information sent to you by the customer and then makes sure their credit card is able to cover the costs. Once this information is confirmed, the payment gateway ensures the authorized funds are deposited into your bank account.

While there are numerous payment gateway companies out there, one of the most popular and largest is Authorize.net. They are one of the most experienced gateway providers in the business as they’ve been around since 1996 and have an exemplary reputation as one of the leaders when it comes to Internet payment services. CyberSource Corporation, another quality Internet business, purchased Authorize.net in 2007 for $565 million.

The gateway system is quite easy to use with ecommerce web sites and it offers several free customer support options, including live chat, just in case you have any trouble using the application. It’s also an ideal tool for call centers, offline retail sites, mobile devices, mail orders and telephone orders. Another bonus of Authorize.net is its scalability, which allows businesses to scale up or down with relative ease.

Authorize.net is generally sold through a wide variety of companies which are known as Authorize.net resellers. This means you can buy their services from any one of the resellers you choose. This will allow you to shop around to find the reseller who can offer the best deal as their prices will vary.

While each Authorize.net reseller is an independent business, there are several fees that all of the companies will charge for the service and some optional ones. As a business person, your job is to compare them and try to find the best fees out there, but to also make sure you buy the service from a reputable seller and not a fly-by-night company that won’t be around to help you when you need it.

Set up fee

On old forums, some merchants have pointed out that that a gateway set up fee reminds them of death and taxes as there’s no real way to avoid it.  This is no longer true as many vendors now waive the start up or set up fee.  However, most Authorize.net resellers charge about $150, but if you look hard enough, you might be able to get it done for as low as $100, and of course if you look in the wrong places, you might be asked to fork out as much as $200 for the set up.

Monthly gateway fee

Just about every reseller will charge you a monthly fee. The cost typically depends on the type of services you include in the package and the reseller. The cost is generally between $10 and $50 each month.

Transaction fee

Again, this will vary from with each Authorize.net reseller, but you can expect to be hit between five and 20 cents for each transaction you complete.  Some companies waive any gateway transaction fee, and others stipulate that it is free up to a certain number of transactions (typically 250 transactions).

Fraud Detection Suite

The Authorize.net payment gateway offers a few fraud prevention tools at no cost, but you have the option of upgrading to the suite for about $5 a month if you choose.

Automated recurring billing

This service is helpful when it comes to collecting regular payments, such as subscriptions for example. It usually costs $10 a month.

Virtual terminal

A virtual terminal will let you accept phone, email, mail, and fax orders and will then use your computer access to manually process the transactions.  Some merchant account providers offer a virtual terminal at no additional expense; others may increase their set up and/or monthly fees by providing a virtual terminal in conjunction with the payment gateway.

eCheck.net

This service will let a customer designate an electronic check from their checking account. It usually costs a merchant between $10 and $30 each month for this service. Be aware that you might be charged a start up fee if you want to accept echecks.  (The processing rate to process an echeck should be less than that to process a credit card.)

Customer Information Manager

This service allows you to securely store important customer information in a database for $20 a month.

###

Typically, a vendor who offers Auth.net has liberty to change the set up, monthly, and transaction fees.  (The others rates fall under the domain of Auth.net.)

While there are a myriad of companies that may provide Authoriz.net, by contrasting the aforementioned rates, you’ll be able to locate the best Authorize.net reseller.