Timeshare Merchant Accounts

Timeshare merchant accounts are facilities offered by financial account providers that will allow your timeshare business to accept credit or debit card payments both in-person and over the internet or by phone.

As more and more people in daily life choose credit and debit cards as their preferred method of payment, it is becoming more and more important that businesses acquire merchant accounts to process those cards. Usually this kind of facility will involve a financial agreement between the bank and your timeshare business, although in many cases it may also involve a third party who processes the card payment and sends the payment to the bank.

When dealing with third parties as well as the bank, the most important thing is that you select the right bank, as often merchant account providers will have strict rules and regulations to which third parties must adhere. This reflects to your benefit and means that a well-known and reputable bank will ensure that they only work with well-known and respectable third parties to process card payments.

Merchant services will cover both your online and offline transactions. This can allow your businesses to process payments both in-store, on the phone and over the internet. For phone and in-person transactions this will require a terminal in which a client inserts their card and enters their pin if they are physically in the shop, or for which they provide their card details and verbally authorize a transaction if they are only available on the phone. Internet transactions will usually require a third-party website that will take the card details, process payment, and confirm to your timeshare website that the card has been charged.

This is known as a payment gateway, and very often the payment gateway is provided by a third party, although sometimes banks will provide a payment gateway with their merchant account. Payment gateways will work over a secure connection to collect and process card details, and access your websiteís shopping cart to confirm any purchases. Once this has been done, they will report back to inform that the transaction has been successful and pass back any important shipping details. A payment gateway will usually have two aspects ñ a virtual terminal that allows a customer to input their details and which works much as a real terminal would in real life; and secure API connection that allows the gateway to contact both your website and the bank that provides merchant facilities.

Timeshare businesses are becoming increasingly popular and more and more businesses are seeing their internet trade increase. It is also becoming more popular to pay by credit card, therefore it makes perfect sense that new businesses should have the ability to accept card payments both in-person and over the internet. Due to the high value of timeshare transactions it is also very important to ensure that you find an account provider who has sophisticated fraud detection facilities and who can ensure you are covered in the event of transaction problems.

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