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Accepting credit cards online
Q: I'm just starting out with my online gift store and I'm also selling through catalogs. This is all new to me, I don't know too much about it... I'm just getting my feet wet. Something is telling me that I'm trying to get in too deep. I've asked different people about taking credit cards as payment and I've been told it's way too much for me as I really don't have that much money. Could you please advise me the best and cheapest way to go about it?
A: Taking credit cards can greatly increase your sales. The convenience of the Internet and shopping with credit cards go hand in hand. Find a shopping cart that is already set up to work with a merchant account service. You can also have a shopping cart take card info, then you enter it manually in a secure online form your merchant account provides (echo–inc.com provides one very popular version of this system.) An even easier way to take credit card orders is with PayPal at PayPal.com. The service is free to use and is preferred by millions of consumers worldwide.
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