Home / Why your own merchant account

What you actually get for the extra effort.

Hosted checkouts are easier to start with. A merchant account of your own is cheaper at volume, harder to lose, and negotiable. Here is the argument, and the case against it.

The four arguments

In roughly the order merchants come to care about them.

Rate

A published flat rate is priced for the average merchant. Your own account is priced for you, which matters once your volume or your card mix stops being average.

Account security

Platform accounts can be closed by policy, sometimes quickly and with funds held. A merchant agreement with an acquirer is a contract with notice periods and a named contact.

Category acceptance

Plenty of lawful businesses do not fit platform risk policies. An ISO underwrites you as a business rather than matching you against a category list.

Capability

Level III interchange, multiple MIDs, surcharging and ACH pricing are normal in the merchant account world and rare on hosted platforms.

The case against

Worth taking seriously before you switch anything.

effort

More moving parts

An application, an underwriting process, a gateway, a plugin and a relationship to maintain. A hosted checkout is one signup.

support

Two support lines

Gateway problems go to your processor, plugin problems come to us. Convenient when each is expert, frustrating when they disagree.

scale

It needs volume

Below roughly twenty thousand a month, the negotiated rate rarely beats a good flat rate by enough to justify the work.

How to decide. Take three months of statements, divide total fees by total processed volume, and you have your effective rate. Ask an ISO to quote against that number. If the difference does not cover the licence and the effort, stay where you are.

Questions

We would rather you made this decision properly than quickly.

Talk it through

What volume makes this worth it?

There is no universal number, but the arguments usually start working somewhere around twenty thousand a month, earlier if you sell to businesses or take large orders where ACH applies.

How do I find a processor?

Ask other merchants in your category rather than searching. Get at least two quotes, ask for interchange plus pricing in writing, and read the cancellation terms.

What is interchange plus?

Pricing where you pay the card network cost plus a fixed markup, disclosed separately. It is more transparent than a blended rate and usually cheaper at volume.

Can I switch back if it does not work out?

Yes. WooCommerce supports several gateways, so reverting is a settings change. The friction is stored cards, which do not move between platforms.

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