Help! Question about taking online donations [View All]

[Orangepeel]

I want to add an online donations link to a website. I don't want to use paypal because I want it to look more professional, but I do need a cost effective option. Any recommendations?

As I understand it, I need two separate services. First, a service like Verisign that will process the donation securely. Then, a "merchant enabled" bank account that would deal with the credit cards and put the money in an account. The processing service would charge me a fee and the credit card service would charge a fee plus a percentage of the donation. Is that right?

Here are my questions:

1. Will we then have two bank accounts (our regular account and a separate online account)?
2. Do I need to buy an SSL certificate or would the company like verisign be an alternative to that?
3. If all we are doing is taking donations, then I don't need any special shopping cart software, do I?
4. Is Verisign the company I should go with?
5. What's reasonable for the merchant fees? Is it possible to find one without a monthly minimum?

Thanks! I'm kind of an idiot about these things (my web skills were all learned on the fly) so please explain it patiently!