A merchant account is (a separate account but) linked to your bank account and lets a business conduct electronic transactions including credit card, ebt & debit cards, gift cards, QR Codes, NFC and even e-checks that can be used as instruments to fund a sale. Today, the ability to accept payments on various platforms such as e-commerce, electronic checks, mobile payments, face to face or in store, in-app purchases and more is referred to as ‘Omni Channel’. Merchant Account Providers tend to process transactions at various Rates & Fees. These rates are contingent on various conditions that determine the rate applied by the issuing agencies. Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express and others publish and dictate the bare rates and the account providers can ‘tack on’ additional funds to cover their costs. These are known as interchange rates. Checks also carry rates depending on how the merchant wants to process their e-check transactions. The main components of these rates and fees are: Business Type, Card Input & Card Type. When determining the overall costs associated with establishing a merchant account things like equipment costs, application fees, leasing costs, cancellation and termination fees must all be considered. If the merchant is already processing electronically, their current processing statement can be reviewed to uncover costs that are too high, hidden costs and other fees associated with transactions. NTC does this routinely with competitors statements. The NTC Application process is simple and has a high approval rate and can establish a working account in less than 48 hours in best cases.

There are benefits like the green aspect of these transactions, and faster access to cash (2-3 days or nightly 24 hour deposits) as well as the security that comes along with them for both merchant and customer. There are however, some high risk categories and forbidden categories that prevent a merchant account being approved for certain types of business or the ways transactions are conducted in certain categories. National Transaction Corporation is an MSP of U.S. Bank and provides merchant accounts to many businesses and specializes in a few business categories providing merchant accounts in both the U.S., Canada and abroad.