ProPay is a merchant account provider that allows small businesses to accept credit card payments from their customers. The service is primarily web based, although any type of company can use it, not just web stores. I have been using the service for six years and it has been a great benefit to my business.
You fill out a form on the company’s website (propay.com). Accounts are registered in the individual owner’s name and Social Security Number, not a business name. This wasn’t a problem for me, although corporations and partnerships may want to discuss this with their lawyer or accountant first. Sign some papers and you are ready to begin accepting credit card payments.
All account activity is done through the secure website. Enter a credit card number, expiration date, the amount to charge
and a couple other pieces of information and submit. ProPay debits the customer’s card and adds the funds to your account. It’s really about as simple as it could be. There are no batches to process and reconcile each day. Anyone comfortable with PayPal or other online payment systems will be immediately comfortable using ProPay. You can transfer your funds to your checking account as often as you like. The transfer takes two or three business days to clear.
The system is fairly reliable, although to website is unavailable from time to time for maintenance or due to technical problems. It doesn’t happen often (maybe once every month or two) and the outages are usually brief (minutes or a couple of hours), but it still be inconvenient.
In addition to the online processing, ProPay ...
