ADVANTAGES: Simply link your products to the validation service who then accepts credit card payment on your behalf. They check the card, do the processing and send payment for the amount you are owed. Your instant eCommerce solution!

DISADVANTAGES: None ... you will pay for the service, of course. Costs vary. The company has to make a profit and so charges you a few percentage points on the transaction in comparison to having your own online merchant account. A Merchant Account is an account set up between a retail company and a merchant bank which allows the retailer to accept a credit card order from a customer, and in turn receive the monies through the bank.

If you wish to accept credit cards online in your own or company name you will need your own internet merchant account. Obtaining a merchant account to accept credit cards on the Internet is more difficult than obtaining a 'regular' merchant account because the card is not presented nor is a signature obtained. You will also have the large added expense of providing a secure site for transactions ... and what a headache that is today. A merchant account is expensive - and unnecessary when you have the services of companies like 2CheckOut.com available to you!

2Checkout.com processed more than $113 million during 2003, and at May 2005 they have already processed more than $76 million.