Credit Card Machine Buyer’s Guide

You want to start accept credit cards but don’t know where to start? – Please keep reading for our credit card machine buyer’s guide on what you need and the steps you need to follow to start accepting card payments from your customers.

Step 1

You need an account with a organisation called a “Card Acquirer“.  The Card Acquirer will process credit and debit card payments on your behalf and will deposit the funds in your chosen bank account.  The services provided by the Card Acquirer are called “Merchant Services”.  When you open an account with City Networks we will create a merchant services account for you with one of our carefully selected panel of acquirers.  The charges for your merchant account will be calculated as a small percentage of the value of each transaction processed.  The percentage is dependent on the industry in which you operate and the total value of transactions you process.

Step 2

You need to decide how quickly you want to receive your funds.  The options are as follows:

• Standard Settlement – You receive your funds two to three business days after the transaction was processed on the card machine or payment gateway;

• Faster Processing – You have the option to receive the funds as same day settlement for a small daily fee from the time the transaction was processed on the card machine, or as standard, by next day settlement in to your business bank account.

Step 3

You need to decide how you want to take card payments e.g. do you want to use a physical card machine which you pass to your customers, do you want to take payments on your website or do you want to take payments over the phone etc.  There are five options as follows: