Wake up, smell the coffee and face the fact that cash economy is winding down. Credit cards are ubiquitous, and if you involved in selling anything bigger than gum and newspapers, you should be open to accepting plastic. So if you're prepared to enter the hallowed world of "merchant acquiring", then keep reading.

The process of accept credit cards starts at the point of sale. Let's say for instance, your customer wants to purchase a new jumper. She hands you her credit card and store clerk swipes it, through the credit card terminal. Within a few seconds the authorization is complete, the receipt is handed to the customer, and she signs and walks away, with her new jumper. During the ?few seconds? of waiting, this is what happened. The moment you swiped the card, the number and all related card details traveled through the acquiring processor (which is either a bank, a merchant service provider or a third party credit card processor) to the company that issued the card (e.g. MasterCard). The company then requested authorization from the bank that had issued the card. Once the issuing bank approved the transaction, the approval code was instantly sent to the credit card company. The company then forwarded the same to the merchant service provider, which the sent it to your store clerk who swiped the card. It was long electronic journey but took only a few minutes to complete.

The story however hasn't ended. You haven't yet received your payment. The payment known as the settlement, takes place at the end of the day. The sales receipts are transmitted electronically from the credit card terminal to the merchant service processor, which minutely scans them for any discrepancy, and then routs them to the different credit card companies. They then capture the funds from the credit card holders? account and wire them into account of the merchant. Its here that the credit card processor deducts the processing fee also known as the discount rate which is typically 1.75 to 3% of the sales.

Now by logging onto Advanced Merchant services you can immediately sign up for a merchant account. By associating with Advanced Merchant services, you will get a number of unique benefits that will enable you to save a lot of precious cash. AMS is offering a free credit card terminal with every new account and as an internet merchant you are entitled to a free Authorize.Net payment gateway with Internet package 4. For any additional information, visit us at www.merchant-accounts.com.