is how they make their money). Some others charge as much as $400.00. The only other

expense will be that you need a terminal or software product to process the credit cards, which you can lease from them for about $30 a month (this is what we do and this is what I recommend you do). You should be able to get a discount rate of 2% to 3%. They will provide you with a fully turnkey package for the Internet (including a shopping cart if you need one) so you can start taking orders online right away. They do everything for you to get your business set up and have great customer service, I cannot recommend them higher. We have been so happy with them that we just started a strategic alliance with them and are now hosting some of their webpages on our website (see Insider Secrets 2 - 39 NOTES: http://www.marketingtips.com/merchantaccount.htm l.). If you don’t want to use this company, there are literally hundreds of different brokers out there. Just look at the back of DM magazine (Direct Mail Magazine) and you will find handfuls of advertisements of brokers who want your business. We recommend the company previously mentioned, as they specialize in online and home based business. We have used them many times with great success. Details of #3: A fulfillment house is a company that is designed to do all your "dirty work". They will take your orders through an 800 number with live operators who will keep track of your customer data base, provide some customer service, process credit cards, and ship out orders. In other words, they make running your business completely hands free. These companies have their own merchant credit card accounts and will let you use them to process your orders for a fee. The fee is usually a 5% discount rate instead of the normal 2% to 3% you would pay if you had your own accounts. If you are only processing a few thousands dollars’ worth of orders every month, this is the way to go. But if you are doing more business than that, it is more cost effective to get your own credit card, merchant accounts. Also, please note that most fulfillment houses will only allow you to charge orders to their credit card account when the orders come in through the 800 number line (they will not let you use their credit card account for direct sales from the Internet), which can cause problems if you are doing any kind of volume. Details of #4: Companies like Ibill and NetSales let you use their merchant accounts. The upside Insider Secrets 2 - 40 NOTES: is that you can be set up to take credit cards within 3-5 days because you are using their merchant accounts. The down side is that they charge you a processing fee of 11-15% of the selling price (percentage depends on the volume you are doing). This is how they make their money. VISA/MC charges them 3% and they take the rest of the fee for managing your account, setting your order forms up, processing your orders, and managing the hassle of paying out checks to you for orders processed. Also note that you will not get paid for the sales for up to 60 days after your customers order. When you get can get your own merchant accounts like in option #1 or #2 for $30 a month and only pay 2-3% of sales… you can see why option #1 and #2 are a much better route (and a lot more inexpensive!). 7.