Q: What is a merchant account?

A: A merchant account is similar to a bank account but with the purpose of holding the funds received from credit and debit card sales taken by the merchant (you). Whenever a person with a credit card pays for something with their card, either offline or online, that money goes into a merchant account. From there the funds are wired to a normal business bank account, on either a daily or weekly basis; so if you wish to accept card payments, you will need a merchant account. This can either be opened directly with the acquiring bank (direct merchant account) or you can use a 3rd party solution (e.g. PayPal).

Q: What is an acquiring bank?

A: An acquiring bank, also referred to as the acquirer or processing bank, is a licensed financial institution that opens and maintains a merchant account. It acts as a middleman between the credit card processor and the card associations (Visa, MasterCard, etc). Because the credit card associations are not dealing directly with merchants, a merchant account is needed with a registered acquirer and this account acts as a repository for the money. The acquirer also takes the risk that you, as a merchant, will remain solvent, which is why it goes into every little detail when reviewing your application, to determine the risks and probability of refunds, chargebacks and loss of positive account balance.

Q: What is a payment processor?

A: Because the merchant account and payment gateway are very often provided together, this term tends to be used incorrectly as merchants misuse it when referring to a merchant account provider. In short, the payment processor is a company that technically processes credit and debit card payments (Visa/MasterCard). A processor is actually more suited as an alternative term for a payment gateway, because it's role is to provide a gateway which handles transaction requests and is integrated with different acquiring banks, other payment gateways and service providers, distributing data between this network and the merchants.

Q: What is a payment gateway?

A: When you accept payment from a client, card details need to be sent through the network to the acquiring bank, Visa/MasterCard and issuing bank to check if the cardholder has enough money to pay for the transaction. In a traditional brick-and-mortar retail shop this happens through a POS terminal (Point of Sale), a small machine that collects card data and sends it to the processor's or acquiring bank's gateway and then onwards to Visa/MasterCard. In an e-commerce (online-based) sale, this process happens through a web based application (online shop, phone app) which sends the transaction data to a payment gateway after the cardholder submits the checkout form.

In short, a gateway is an online application hosted by the processor, acquiring bank or other payment provider. This application receives transaction requests from a merchant (for example via an online shopping cart) and is connected to acquirer and to Visa/MasterCard and at the end of the line to the cardholder's card issuing bank to check for sufficient funds. Commonly and ideally, merchant accounts and payment gateways are arranged and provided by a single company as an all-in-one solution.

Q: What are the typical fees for accepting card payments?

A: Naturally all involved parties, from Card Schemes Visa/MasterCard, acquiring banks to payment processors, will charge a small fee for their services. Firstly, Card Schemes will charge the Interchange fees for usage of their network and to partially pay the card issuers. Secondly the acquirers take credit risk liability and for that typically charge between 50-200 basis points (0.5%-2.00%) from the transaction amount. Lastly, card processors and other payment institutions or companies involved will add few basis points and a fixed transaction fee for the use of their payment gateway (0.20 EUR in average).

So, typically speaking, for EU/UK online based business, you as a merchant can expect to pay around 2-3% plus 0.20 EUR per transaction. Final rate always depends on risk factors, category, geographical distribution and monthly volume.