Have you realized that the lack of credit card acceptance on your Ebay and Overstock.com auctions is hurting the number of bids on your items? Are your customers asking you to accept their credit cards without them having to sign up for PayPal or other median service? Do you want to see your business grow with the rest of the Internet? There are alternatives to setting up a pricey merchant account to accept credit card payments and forcing your customers to sign up for an online financial service account. Auction Payments are all the rage for those who need a bit more than “cash, personal check and money orders only".

Besides not requiring a membership, auction payments have several benefits for auction sellers alike. For example, there’s no need for you to have a separate business checking account as all funds can be deposited automatically into your personal checking account, usually within just a few days. This keeps your personal account under the protection of federal banking regulations. Transferring your funds from one account to another, or carrying yet another debit card with you is a thing of the past. And if the need should arise, your processor can be contacted directly regarding any disputes or issues that come up. No third parties are involved.

A virtual terminal is available for you to manually process or change information on any transactions at any time and is great for phone orders and credit card returns and refunds. And for added consistency to your auctions, shipping and handling charges can be automatically calculated based on the item description. Saving your transactions in a file that’s compatible with your accounting software makes bookkeeping a snap.

If price is a concern to you, the pros for the cost of accepting credit cards definitely outweigh the cons. First of all, you are opening up your auctions to a completely new group of customers who use only their credit cards online. Second, you don’t have to wait days or even weeks to receive payment through the snail mail or for a personal check to clear. And lastly, the fees charged are typically a very small percentage plus a tiny nominal fee, so you will keep the vast majority (more than 92%) of your charged amount.

For your customers, be sure to find a service that’s completely secure and won’t compromise their information such as credit card numbers and any other sensitive data. Your customers will benefit as much as you while they’re thankful for your efforts and are sure to spread the word accordingly, ranking you high on their list as a preferred seller on your auction site.