Becoming a credit card "aggregator" or avoiding it?
jacquesm: Sign up with an IPSP, this is one of those things you really do not want to do yourself. The demands that VISA/MC and so on place on you if you want to do your own processing are so high that it really doesn't pay off if you roll this just for your own site.And if you do roll it yourself get out of whatever business you are in and become an IPSP!Try to find an IPSP that uses 'segregated merchant accounts', in other words find one that makes each of their customers responsible for their own chargebacks and credits instead of putting them all in the same bin.The sign up process for such an IPSP will be a bit more involved but you can expect them to stick around instead of becoming the next IBill or DMR (both of which went down in flames taking a lot of their customers with them).Another upside to having your own merchant account is that there is no 'holdback' other than the 14 days or so it takes VISA/whoever to do the deposit.This is a very important difference because it will limit your exposure in case there is a problem, as well as make a material difference in your cash flow.- edit, some more arguments against being your own aggregator:1) you don't store peoples credit cards / expiries / cvv / other info of interest2) this means you are less of a target for hackers3) you are also less likely to be embarrassed by some employee walking out with all that sensitive info4) you will not have to go through the auditing that comes with storing such information