The Globe and Mail: E-tailer credits cheap billing for success

The Globe and Mail: E-tailer credits cheap billing for success: "

Credit card companies are concerned about on-line fraud - both by criminals posing as consumers and charlatans posing as merchants - so they make it difficult and costly for small and medium enterprises to obtain merchant accounts.

To sell on-line, many SMEs have taken the same route as Ms. Reid and turned to the third-party credit card processing companies that are springing up to cater to small on-line merchants.

Receiving payments on-line is becoming easier for small businesses, thanks to the growing number of services available, but there are still legal considerations.

Merchants who use third-party software to process credit card information, for example, do not receive their customers' credit card numbers and are not responsible for the security of credit card information.

However, they are responsible for compliances under PIPEDA, Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. That means they have to ensure that any credit card processing company they use complies with the privacy provisions of the act, just as many credit card processing companies ensure that potential merchants comply with PIPEDA before signing them up.

That hasn't deterred Ms. Reid from shopping around on the Internet for an on-line payment system. Although CCNow is an American company, Ms. Reid said she has never had a privacy or security complaint from her customers. 'The whole process is straightforward and secure.'

And Ms. Reid particularly likes the fact that her service allows customers to choose to pay in U.S. or Canadian dollars - and soon in euros - truly making http://www.solnapugs.com an international business even though it operates out of her home."