eCommerce - Banks - Help or Hindrance!
Is your host up to it?Fancy doing it yourself? See our recommended reading list first then buy from Amazon at reduced rates!
High street banks merchant accounts.
Many High street banks today are becoming increasingly reluctant to help small business do online trading. Of course they deny this and will no doubt protest their innocence saying that they bend over backwards to help, but their idea of small business is turnover of two or three million!! that is obviously not a typical B&B or self catering cottage owners turnover! To many tourism business's figures like this are only for lottery winners.
The most frustrating thing about the banks is that they seem to just shrug their shoulders and pass the buck, you are passed to and fro and in the meantime your business is loosing business.
There are success stories though for the persistent, and of course for larger business the costs are quite reasonable, in fact merchant banks are probably the best option, and obviously secure.
We have had big problems in the past trying to setup merchant accounts that are affordable, terminals for accepting credit card payments cost up to £30 per month plus a percentage of each transaction is typically around 2%
Alternative means of online trading. 
Fortunately for small business there are alternatives to the high street banks.
We have listed a few of the best third party products below tht do most of the hard work for you, and spread the cost of maintaining a full financial processing system.
There is enought material here to fill a book, so if you are having problems with your regular bank, have a look at the alternatives below.
if you need to discuss options contact us for a chat.
www.worldpay.co.uk -------- www.ibill.com
Yahoo's paydirect ------------ www.nochex.co.uk
www.paypal.com ------------- www.bitpass.com
A final word on this, it is not always best to go for the lowest cost system, you need the system which is best suited to your particular online business. Seek professional advice on suitability.
