Getting paid for your online sales

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to many first time sellers online is "how do I get my money from my customers?". There are several options. First there is pay by check but almost everyone knows the down side to accepting checks from people you don't know. Even after depositing them you could still be hit with a returned check fee or the check clears after 15 days for some odd reason. Money orders are not much better since there has been a rash of counterfeit money orders going around for some time now.

Your only real options are PayPal (which has been known to transfer funds out of people's checking accounts without their knowledge) or use a credit card processing company. I have personally used PayPal and have had no problems with them so far. I don't like the fees they charge on each transaction but that is typical of most credit card processing fees charged by many other companies. If you decide to go with a company that processes your customers transactions then you must shop around for the best set up price and the per transaction fees. Some website hosting companies also have ecommerce enabled and also offer credit card processing if you have a website hosted with them. Make absolutely sure that the company that is processing your customers credit transactions is a secure and encrypted site. The last thing you want to be associated with is an unsecure and untrusted credit card processing company.