I'm opening up a small business and I want to know how to compare Merchant Accounts/Credit Card Processing companies. I want the best service, with the most reasonable rates, and a processor that is trustworthy and experienced. Please provide me with a comparison chart and any other pertinent information I will need to choose a Merchant Account. Thank You.

Art Granville
Hemet, CA

I just went through this about a year and a half ago. I don't have charts for you, but here is some info that will help you wade through it all.

Generally the fees will be based on whether you are swiping the card or taking the info off the phone/over the net. Look for the best rates for each based on what percentage of your business (or anticipated business) will be done each way.

Watch for fees: Setup fee, monthly statement fee, per transaction fee, etc.

Read every word of the lengthy contract before you sign it.

I called a dozen vendors of merchant accounts before choosing the one I'm with now. I'll dig through our stuff to find who it was and let you know.

Since we needed to take them, but hardly ever get any, I found my local bank offered me the best service since we do all of the church banking with them. Most if you had little usage, had other fees and charges my local bank waived a lot of them if we keep so much money on deposit

I found it. Here's who I went through:
Goodrate.net.
(http://www.goodrate.net)
The processing is actually done through NPC (http://www.npc.net/), but either they do not sell direct to merchants, or the price through the middle guy was better... I forget which.

Gary is the guy I talked with at Goodrate. I set up 3 merchant accounts with him.

I'm not pushing him; definitely call around, including your bank as Fr_Chuck suggested. My bank is a small bank and referred me to another middleman that had higher rates... and the big banks here in town charged more than Goodrate was offering.