How to Become a Credit Card Provider

If you've recently started a business, one of your primary objectives should be to maximize your potential for revenue intake. One crucial step to achieving this goal is making sure your customers aren't limited in how they can pay for the goods and services your business offers. By becoming a credit-card provider, you will offer customers the convenience of knowing they can use any form of payment they have on hand when they visit your business.

• 1

  Register your business with your Secretary of State's office. While credit-card processors will not require you to show proof of incorporation or even to submit the "Tax ID" number with which the state will provide you once you incorporate, it's a good idea to be legal, which entails paying taxes on earnings, if you transact electronically.

• 2

  Set up an account with a credit-card processor such as "Propay," "CDG Commerce" or "US Merchant Systems." Once you have completed the registration process, you can process customers' credit cards in real time via the website of your processor of choice, a capability that can come in handy if your shop has a wireless Internet connection or if you can surf the web on a mobile device.

• 3

  Obtain signage and accessories. Contact your processor and ask the representative to send you a "Visa/Mastercard" sign that you can post to let prospective customers know you accept credit cards. Additionally, ask to purchase a "virtual terminal" if you wish to "swipe" credit cards and store the information that way, rather than having to access your processor's website for every transaction.