What is a merchant account and payment gateway and how do they work with Merchant Stronghold?

by Merchant Stronghold High Risk Merchant

This past week our top support questions were, “What is a merchant account and payment gateway and how do they work with Merchant Stronghold?” This is a great question and it is important for Merchant Stronghold customers to understand what they are and how they work together with Merchant Stronghold.

What is a merchant account?

A merchant account is a type of bank account that enables businesses to accept payment by debit or credit cards. A merchant account is necessary because it’s what allows you to accept recurring credit card payments from your customers. Before you can even begin using Merchant Stronghold, you will need to set up a merchant account. (You can, however, test Merchant Stronghold without having a live merchant account/payment gateway with the free Merchant Stronghold developer plan.)

What is a payment gateway?

In order to get paid, you will need a payment gateway. A payment gateway facilitates the secure transfer of information between your website and your merchant account. Your payment gateway will transmit your customers’ billing information to your merchant bank so that payments can be deposited into your internet merchant account each month.

How do they work with Merchant Stronghold?

Explaining how a merchant account and payment gateway work together with Merchant Stronghold can be complicated. In short, your merchant account and payment gateway work together to allow you to process credit card transactions and collect the money in your bank account. Merchant Stronghold builds upon these systems to add a new layer of functionality (ex: dunning, billing intelligence, subscription management) and all of these systems work together to form your recurring billing platform.

About the Author:

Apoorv Joshi is the chief marketing officer for retail and online payment gateway and merchant account service Merchant Stronghold LLC