Merchant Account
Definition: A merchant account is a type of bank account that allows businesses to accept payments by debit or credit cards. So a merchant account is an agreement between a retailer, a merchant bank and payment processor for the settlement of credit card and/or debit card transactions. If you are going to operate an ecommerce business and want to accept credit card payments online, you need at least one Internet merchant account (even if you already have a merchant account, in many cases). An Internet merchant account is a merchant account specifically designed to handle online payment processing of credit cards. If you already have a merchant account, you’ll probably notice that another difference between the two is the fees; typically, the Internet merchant account fees are higher because of the assumed higher risks of online payment (as opposed to a face-to-face credit card or debit card transaction).
