http://www.paymentsgateway.com/ - "At Payments Gateway we understand how critical payments are to any organization, which drives us to develop and continually evolve one the most popular and innovative payment processing solutions on the market. Payments Gateway provides organizations of all types and sizes a flexible, reliable and cost effective tool for automating and managing their payment processing functions. The role of Payments Gateway continues to expand as we strive to provide customers with first-class performance and reliability, secure and compliant payments, adaptive technologies, a broad array of solutions including a complete range of payment types, and competitive transparent pricing with no surprises. From credit cards to electronic checks, point-of-sale to the Internet, or payments via phone or fax, Payments Gateway is the only payment processor your business will ever need. Organizations can work directly with Payments Gateway and join the thousands of satisfied customers throughout North America which depend on Payments Gateway to process millions of transactions each and every month."

1. Difference between Payment Gateway and Merchant Account
Merchant account is the bank account of retailer that permits payments from the debit or credit cards
of the consumers. On the other hand, payment gateway is not a bank account yet it only serves as a
terminal for authorization and verification of transactions in debit or credit card processing.
Payment gateways and merchant account are sometimes speculated as one for the point that both
works with financial transactions. But in fact they are both completely different from one another even
though they are allies when it comes to financial transactions and online marketing business.

2. What is merchant account?
Merchant account is a form of bank account that permits debit or credit card payments for
services or any goods provided in any company. It essentially deals with all the financial
transactions in your company such as credit card payments.
Many people decided to use a merchant account since it has wonderful advantages to both the
consumers and the retailers. To the customers, it helps them save time and answers the trouble of
paying payments that are cash-only. They can purchase expensive items too from shops without
being concerned about bringing considerable sums of money on their purses. To the retailers, it
helps them from consistently sorting all the checks and cash in their company because almost
everything can be carried out electronically.
Having a merchant account is not simple and it is not for free. It means that account providers
demand fees to each and every services and transactions completed in the merchant account.
That's the reason why there are policies, terms, and conditions that sellers should completely
understand and some things that sellers should think about before a merchant account can be
accepted by any account providers. Most of these aspects are very important too especially to
account providers since these factors will provide them the guarantee that your company would
be solid enough to protect against financial crisis or economic instabilities because account
providers are also affected when that occurs.

3. What is payment gateway?
Payment gateway, on the other hand, is not a banking account but it acts as a verification and
authorization agent on the part of the retailer. Payment gateway is the middle line between the
online store of the retailers and the financial transactions between the debit and credit card of
the consumers to the merchant account of the retailers. It works as a terminal for credit or debit
card transaction and validation details encryptions.
Payment gateways are extremely useful in Internet transactions. It is in Internet transactions
that a payment gateway is linked to a merchant account.
As you can observe from this payment gateway to merchant account comparison, there is a real
lot going on while you are sitting there waiting to check out. Think of it when you do a credit
purchase next time. It normally takes place so fast and with the aid of the internet, you can
notice that your financial transaction will be completed before you get through the processing
yourself!