These problems have now been resolved and I’m happy to report that very shortly we will be open for business with a range of quality security products at great prices.

Please keep checking our the Total Security Products store for our go live date.

We look forward to serving you!

We approached this with a sense of trepidation as we had read about the trouble some others had had when dealing with the corporate banking behemoths. On reflection we need not have worried as it was a relatively painless process, if some what strung out.

Most banks offer some sort of merchant service, and the best advice we can give is to do your research and compare the costs and capabilities of each bank carefully. In the end what we looked for was the balance of cost, capability and flexibility that best met our requirements.

With this assesment completed we chose to go with Streamline as our merchant account provider. We called to arrange an appointment with their local account manager and got a slot within 3 days.

On the day of the appointment the account manager arrived promptly and patiently led us through our options and the costs of the services.  There are lots of forms to fill out, but most of it was self explanatory, and where we were unclear the account manager was there to give clarification.

When it came to the costs we were told that they would be able to waive the £300 arrangement fee if we were members of the Federation of Small Business (FSB -joining fee £200. Maybe more about this in a later blog!) . At the time we were not members, but the account manager said that if we promised to join, and send her our membership reference number when we recieved it she would give us that discount.  Another reason to be a FSB member is that the percentages charged per transaction are lower.

An important thing to note is that with some banks (including Streamline) you need to segment your merchant account and get more than one merchant number if you want to take transactions in more than one environment. For example, if you want to take payments on both your website and also by mail order/telephone order (MOTO)  you will need 2 numbers. Be sure to set this up at the same time, as we have been told by others who didn’t that it can be a bit of a pain to do afterwards.

The account manager also tried to sell us the Streamline’s Payment Service Provider (PSP) Worldpay.  Although Worldpay is a very capable PSP, used by thousands of businesses, we had already decided that they were not suitable for our business.  When we explained this to the account manager she accepted this immediately and didn’t push any further.

With all the forms completed and signed up we concluded our meeting and were told that, pending the regulatory checks, we would have our merchant account (and the all important merchant numbers) within 10 days. In the end this took about 15 business days, but they are in our possession now, and we are ready to connect to our PSP and get selling!

Although this is probably not the best step by step guide to the process of getting your merchant account, we hope that it might show that the process is no big deal and can be done by anyone!

Cheers,

Total Security Products