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A merchant account is a special account which is setup for a business to allow and process credit card orders. After processing a customer’s credit card the business goes through a series of complex stages. The money transferred through the merchant account is then deposited into the business’s checking account within 2 to 3 business days. If you are a merchant on the Internet and expect to receive orders via phone, fax or mail then getting a Virtual Terminal solution (along with a Real-Time processing solution) is the best route to go. The Virtual Terminal is a secure website where you login and manually type in a customer’s credit card information. Once the information is submitted, it is securely processed and funds are then deposited into your merchant account within a few days. A Virtual Terminal can be accessed securely from any computer connected to the Internet. Most all Real-Time processing solutions also come with a Virtual Terminal at little or no additional cost. Virtual Terminals can also double as good mobile processing solutions

Merchants should also understand that with a real merchant account they are their processing their own sales either by allowing their customer to enter card data or by the merchant manually entering card data. They are entrusted with very sensitive credit card data. Have you ever noticed that with many 3rd party payments processing providers that are not real accounts often charge much more for allowing merchant’s access to their Virtual Terminal, which allows the merchant to enter their own sales as needed? Well this is because when the merchant can just take a card number and enter it themselves the risk of fraud does increase, as if the merchant isn’t the most honest business person they have the opportunity to steal card numbers and enter the numbers into the Virtual Terminal themselves at will.