Need answer to basic question. Just incorporated in Illinois. Once configured, is my merchant account/storefront connected to my bank account? So, I can sweep funds from my merchant account into my bank acct? Correct?
It depends on who your merchant account is with.
If you merchant account it with the same bank as your account then you need to speak to your bank, if they are separate then you need to speak to your merchant account provider about withdrawing funds.
You normally need a payment gateway which is basically the bridge between your merchant account and your website.
thanks for responses. To clarify, if I’m using paypakl, I must connect a bank acct to paypal and then I can sweep monies from paypal into my bank acct… I am assuming this is the same structure for all/most payment gateways. True?
Yes. Paypal is a little different. It’s a 3rd party processor which is basically like using another company’s merchant account. They have the payment gateway functionality built in. You would need to attach your business or personal bank account to transfer to and from the paypal account.
With a payment gateway, you have a separate bank account which is attached to the merchant account. The funds are automatically deposited into the bank account a day or two after accepting the transaction. Unlike Paypal, a merchant account/payment gateway does not maintain a balance. Money goes directly to and from the bank account.
Thank you. My followup questions and the real reason for this post. Once the dollars flow to my account, the merchant cannot access those funds? Correct? Or does the Terms of Service allow certain conditions whereby the merchant can grab back funds (e.g. chargebacks, etc.)…?
With either of them a customer has the ability to dispute a transaction. With Paypal, the customer has 2 chances, once through the paypal dispute system and once through their card issuer. With a merchant account, the card holder can only dispute a transaction through their card issuer.
As far as pulling money, a merchant account will immediately attempt to pull money from the attached checking account if a card holder makes a chargeback. Paypal will not pull money from a bank account that I have ever seen, you would need to confirm this in their TOS. They do however make the account go into a negative balance if the disputed amount exceeds the balance in the account. Accounts with a negative balance for more than a few days are restricted, and must be brought into the positive before they allow the merchant to continue processing.
Ahhh… my suspicions confirmed. I’m not worried abt chargebacks, they are part of doing business. I don’t want to have a business bank acct with thousands of my dollars available for a merchant to sieze and/or trail back funds. So, I need two bank accounts. After a period of time, I can sweep money from my Account A (connected to my merchant account) to Account B – limiting my exposure… thank you for all the info.