In terms of banking, “merchant account” refers to a contract wherein the bank the bank that aims to acquire prolonged line of credit to a merchant that accepts payment transactions through card of a certain card association or brand. Merchant account is a very important factor in credit card transactions because the absence of which, nobody can purchase anything because the payments—regardless of the credit card brand—can’t be accepted.

Making the right decision when it comes to of merchant account providers

These days, there is a wider selection of merchant account providers. Since there is competition with other providers, it can be hard for a person to choose a merchant account provider since the different providers offer options that can be quite attractive. For some people, one option offered by a specific merchant account provider can be overwhelming since others offer basically the same value but with greater advantages.

In choosing a merchant account provider, people must always consider their utmost and immediate needs. As much as possible, they should not entertain other benefits that would not help them in the long run. Here are the things that people should look for in a merchant account provider:

1. The fee structure. All merchant account banks have their own fee structures. This fee structure generally involves the fees per month as well as the transaction fees. To attract more clients, many merchant banks offer comparatively lower fees but this does not mean that they are offering more benefits and they are at par when it comes to other merchant account providers. If you are on the process of choosing a merchant account provider, it is always best to ask for a “sample contract” so you can compare the rates and terms offered by other different merchant banks.

Through this, you can come up with your priority services and you can enjoy the benefits that you deserve. When it comes to discount fees, bear in mind that these should not exceed to 2.25% and $0.30 in each transaction and they vary depending on the types of credit cards available. You should also look for a merchant account provider that does not have monthly minimums and only charge not more than $25 for monthly statement fees.

2. The turnaround time. This is a very important factor to consider because this will give veer you away from financial hassles caused by time delay. When it comes to the deposits to your account, the time between a transaction such as sale and the deposit of the proceeds in your bank account is should not be more than 70 hours. Financial experts say that turnaround time is the best option especially if the merchant account comes from your own business bank.

3. The customer service. When applying for a merchant account, the ability of the provider to ensure your safety and credentials should be at hand. Good merchant account provider will ask for the domain registered to the account holder, for the “SSL” or the security, copy of the homepage, and at least two product pages.

4. The favorable terms. This is very important because it can give you more advantages as time goes by. One of the favorable terms includes the length of contract so you won’t be locked in unfavorable terms later on. And the bank reputation which include the operation hours, the tenure or the length of time in the industry or in the business, alternative options for payment processing when there is a system failure of course, its customer service and support.

In any credit card transaction or application, the merchant account should always be paid attention because it this will define how advantageous the future transactions for you would be.

As defined, merchant account is the account wherein a specific merchant deals with a certain bank to be able to make credit card payments possible. Without such account or contract, no transactions can be made because there will be no order in processing the payments made for purchase or orders.

Today, more and more banks as well as independent financial firms and companies are becoming merchant account providers because they have seen how much the credit card and its usage among consumers have grown. Many of them join the bandwagon because of its being lucrative. While others are getting into it to ensure that they will provide options for credit card users as well as the companies or business establishments will have smooth sailing business transactions in terms of payments and other financial processing.

How a merchant account is processed

With the advantaged of modern technology, there have been so many attempts to make merchant account processing easier. As many people would know, when one uses a credit card, he or she allows the funds to be transferred to his or her bank account in short span of time, usually not more than one week. This is to ensure that there will be smoother yet tighter cash flow.  When something goes wrong along the way of transactions and payments being made, there will be a disruption in the cash flow which will cause everyone involved delay as well as loss of investment.

To ensure that there will be lesser hassles in this type of payment system, merchant account processing has been made easier by eliminating the invoice payment system, which is among the primary causes of delay.  When there is an efficient merchant account processing, the credit card payment system will be in its proper place which will enable one to have easier purchases either online or on physical stores.

More and more companies today are coming up with their own ways to be able to develop a merchant account processing system that can offer the clients the best option they will have. Some of these companies go through outsource companies and ask them to handle the bulk of the workloads in terms of credit card processing so they can pay better attention to business details that will give the clientele much satisfaction.

When it comes to qualifying for a merchant account, the first thing that the merchant account providers question is the legitimacy of your business. This is because they would not want to encounter problems in terms of fraud and other related charges that might be filed against them. If you are applying for a merchant account, expect that merchant account providers will start with a basic background check including the assessment of your business’s credit history and a review of the owners as well as the officers that are listed on the application.

During this background check before the merchant account processing, the most important aspect that should be paid attention to is the incidence of the business’s “chargebacks” or the reversal of a certain sale which was credited to the owner’s account.

Most of the time, chargebacks come up because of certain errors which are either made by the bank of the card holder or a certain misunderstanding made by the customer him or herself.

What are Merchant Accounts?

The process of buying products through the internet has become so convenient that we become unaware that there is actually a complex system of commerce that goes with it. With the birth of the credit card, business owners have realized its potential on making their products more accessible to their target consumers. This is when merchant account providers come into the picture. Merchant account is way for business owners to accept payments through credit cards.

What are Payment Gateways?

Aside from the merchant account provider, there is also a middle party that oversees how the actual exchange of payment information takes place. It is the online version of  a cash register. Upon payment, the consumer enters encrypted information into the merchant’s web browser. The payment gateway then sends another encrypted information from the merchant account provider then into its acquiring back and lastly into the issuing bank. The seemingly complicated process of exchanging encrypted information between the different parties takes only around 3 seconds.

What should business owners look for in an eCommerce merchant account provider?

Reputation, integrity and compliance are some of the important characteristics that a merchant account provider should have. Business owners may study the history of the company by looking through the company’s financial statements, tax accounts, credit returns and its Dunn and Bradstreet credit file. The merchant account provider should also be properly registered to the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards (DSS) and is insured to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Business owners may also inquire with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to look for any complaints, if any, that have been filed against the merchant account provider.

The merchant account provider must also offer a reliable technical support. The technical support must be available for 24-hours through the net or the telephone. Most preferably, there is a qualified technician that would personally respond to any problems associated with either the software or hardware. A few seconds lost through a technical problem would also mean loss of profit.

Business owners should also look into the cost that the merchant account requires from them. There are additional costs to consider other than the typical costs that goes with merchant accounts like interchange fees, transaction fees and monthly fees. There are hosting fees, website maintenance and design costs and website start up fees. Most of the time, the less you pay for these additional costs, the less is the quality you get and the poorer service you give to your costumers.

What are the risks associated?

The risks associated with an eCommerce merchant account provider are basically the same as with the traditional merchant account provider. Fraud is the most common scam in online transactions. Hackers may enter into the system and transfer credits into their own accounts.  They may also steal the customers’ personal information from the merchant account system and use it for other fraudulent transactions.

Other risks may also be accounted to the part of the costumers. They may falsely claim that the product was not properly shipped, that it was not accurately described as it was on the website or that they may not actually have received.  The customer may also complain of unfair or incorrect billing.

What are some of the best eCommerce merchant account providers?

Charge.com easily tops most of the reviews of merchant account providers. Some other highly praised merchant account providers are Merchant Account Express, CyberBit and Electronic Transfer.

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On April 3 the Hot Searches in USA, according to google trends, the word “Anonymous Say Hello”.  Have you ever encountered a situation online that anonymous say hello?   In real life we encounter many times some one stops at you and say “hello” in most cases you will realize that  the anonymous as you old friend or some you know.

Also people is USA are more interested on Sania Mirza than Indians. Look at the search trends. I think Indians are more realistic and using the internet for real life issues.

According to newly released Year-End Google Zeitgeist 2009 for India, the global economic downturn and Satyam share price emerged as the fastest rising queries on Google India.

From Google Site

India mourned the untimely demise of the King of Pop and looked for the latest buzz word Twitter but without impacting the good old Indian railways and Gmail which emerged as the most popular online destinations. Young politicians like Rahul Gandhi and Sachin Pilot emerged as the new face of political leadership in the country. With Corporate woes and recession news, more people looked for ways to meditate and concentrate. Romance scored over action, fantasy and drama – with Love Aaj kal emerging as the most searched movie of the year, followed by Harry Potter and Slumdog Millionaire. Google Zeitgeist 2009 is a real reflection of the spirit of the nation – which saw all the ups and downs and yet remained true to its love for entertainment, peace and hope!

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ISRO Bhuvan Download

As promised earlier ISRO Launched a beta version of BHUVAN Earth Mapping Software for India.

About Bhuvan

Bhuvan gives you an easy way to experience, explore and visualize IRS images over Indian region
ISRO is well known amongst space faring nations for its world-leading reputation in developing new, indigenous and innovative service oriented applications using remote sensing technology. Over the past 2 decades, ISRO has mastered the art of developing these unique applications using various spectral, spatial and temporal resolutions offered by the versatile IRS satellites and these have been successfully institutionalized in many important areas of policy making, natural resources management, disaster support, and enhancing the quality of life across all sections of the society.

Bhuvan is an initiative to showcase this distinctiveness of Indian imaging capabilities including the thematic information derived from such imagery which could be of vital importance to common man with a focus on Indian region.  Bhuvan, an ambitious project of ISRO to take Indian images and thematic information in multiple spatial resolutions to people through a web portal through easy access to information on basic natural resources in the geospatial domain. Bhuvan  showcases  Indian images by the superimposition  of these IRS satellite imageries on 3D globe. It displays satellite images of varying resolution of India’s surface, allowing users to visually see things like cities and important places of interest looking perpendicularly down or at an oblique angle, with different perspectives and can navigate through 3D viewing environment. The degree of resolution showcased is based on the points of interest and popularity, but most of the Indian terrain is covered upto at least 5.8 meters of resolution with the least spatial resolution being 55 meters from AWifs Sensor. With such rich content, Bhuvan opens the door to graphic visualisation of digital geospatial India allowing individuals to experience the fully interactive terrain viewing capabilities.

Multi-resolution images from multi-sensor IRS satellites of India is seamlessly depicted through the Bhuvan web portal by enabling a common man to zoom into specific area of interest at high resolution. Bhuvan brings a whole lot of uniqueness in understanding our own natural resources whilst presenting beautiful images and thematic vectors generated from varieties of geospatial information. Bhuvan will also attempt to bring out the importance of multi-temporal data and to highlight the changes taking place to our natural resources, which will serve as a general awareness on our changing planet.  There are lot more special value added services which will be enabled onto the web portal in due course of time and each one of those services are going to be unique to preserving and conserving our precious natural resources through public participation.  We are sure the common man will get rich benefits from these Indian geospatial data services in days to come.

You can Download Bhuvan Here : http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in