What
are
merchant
services?
The
term
merchant
services
covers
a
lot
of
ground.
It
describes
the
hardware,
software,
and
financial
services
required
for
a
business
to
accept
credit,
debit,
and
contactless
payments,
both
in-person
and
online.
What
is
a
merchant
account?
A
merchant
account
is
what
connects
a
business's
bank
account
to
their
merchant
service
provider.
The
business
and
the
provider
enter
into
a
merchant
agreement
that
allows
the
business
to
accept
and
process
credit,
debit,
and
other
forms
of
payment,
and
get
the
funds
deposited
in
the
business's
bank
account.
Why
do
businesses
need
merchant
service
providers?
Merchant
service
providers
allow
businesses
accept
payments
...
These
days,
when
a
customer
has
a
bad
experience
they
are
apt
to
want
to
go
online
and
write
about
it.
Reviews
sites
like
Yelp,
Google,
and
Tripadvisor
provide
a
ready
forum
for
customer
reviews
online,
and
it
turns
out
people
read
them.
Stats
like
"88%
of
consumers
trust
online
reviews
as
much
as
personal
recommendations"
and
"92%
of
people
regularly
read
online
reviews"
cannot
be
ignored.
Online
reviews,
good
and
bad,
have
a
huge
impact
on
a
business's
brand
and
success,
but
with
so
many
review
sites
and
so
many
reviews
being
written
and
read
by
so
many
people,
...
The
answer
in
most
cases
is
yes.
More
and
more
merchants
these
days
are
choosing
to
pass
on
the
cost
of
credit
card
acceptance
to
the
cardholder
by
charging
extra
to
pay
with
a
credit
card.
Charging
to
pay
by
card
has
been
around
for
years
in
one
form
or
another,
but
with
the
recent
card
brand
settlement
allowing
surcharging
and
advances
in
surcharging
payment
tech,
merchant
adoption
of
the
practice
has
been
gaining
steam
in
recent
years.
However,
since
we
are
talking
about
credit
card
processing,
there
is,
of
course,
a
great
deal
of
confusion
about
how
it
all
...
