Updated September 20, 2024
What is a Merchant Account?
To fully understand an aggregated merchant account, it's important to understand the basics of how a dedicated merchant account works. A dedicated merchant account is necessary to accept credit card payments. That’s because a merchant account works with an acquiring bank as a middleman that facilitates the payment between credit card providers and the business. As a merchant, you'll work with a merchant account provider to obtain an account that holds the money from a debit or credit card and then transfers that money to your business bank account.
Even with your own merchant account, you'll still need to set up other systems to engage in credit card processing. For instance, you'll need a secure payment gateway and fraud protection. The good news is that traditional merchant account providers can usually help obtain those.
