Starting a new business can be both a rewarding and extremely taxing experience. While it could mean freedom from the drudgery of the nine to five, and a path towards wealth, it can also be a tremendous pain to make all the necessary arrangements to give yourself the best chance of financial success. One method of dealing with some of this pain, however, is to establish a merchant account.

A merchant account is, quite simply, an account that allows merchants to accept credit and debit card payments (and also, sometimes, non-monetary payment methods such as gift vouchers). Merchant accounts differ from regular bank accounts in that they charge a fee for the processing of any payments coming into the account.

These fees are intended to cover the cost of processing the transaction and checking the authorization of the buyer's payment method. While these fees fluctuate from bank to bank, they will always cut into a merchant's revenue.

The challenge in finding a merchant account, then, is in finding a balance between excellent, prompt and reliable service and the cost of the fees. While a bank may offer a merchant account with lower than usual fees, you may find that this particular account takes longer to clear payments than another, more expensive, account.

While it may seem like an attractive prospect to reduce you outgoings, you should always bear in mind that the customer will not be impressed by your slow service while you wait for their payment to reach your account. At the end of the day, it's down to the merchant to decide which account would be best for their business. For the sake of the business you have to hope that they choose wisely.