Accepting all forms of payments anywhere and anytime can increase sales for businesses. Businesses rely on credit cards, debit cards, electronics checks, and traditional checks for payment for goods and services provided. Paying with cash for goods and services are declining rapidly and the wealthy and upper-middle class in the U.S. is not paying with cash at all. Credit and debit card payments for goods and services are around 30 percent of all retail transactions. Before selecting a credit card processing service, especially for that high risk credit card processing consider the following.

Security: Your business as well as the customer who is paying for your service and goods is more concerned about the security of the payment. Accepting credit card payments especially processing credit cards online will require signing an agreement to uphold Payment Cards Industry Data Security Standard (PCI). Your hardware that takes an imprint of a card as well as your software that allow you to take online payments should be secure to maximize protection for both parties.

Understand how the processing works: This involves several steps. You need to collect the card information electronically or manually, transfer collected data to a processor who verifies information and funds, and a payment processor who make the charge, create a new or use an existing merchant account and transfer money to your account where you can withdraw.
Understand what fees to be paid: In order to process credit cards you need to establish a merchant account with the processor or with your bank. Some charge monthly fee as well as a percentage for each transaction.

Additionally, credit card companies also charge fees. Make sure your merchant account allows online payments. Some high risk credit card processing businesses such as gambling or adult oriented businesses or declared by the credit card associations due to cancellations and other reasons may be charged higher fees. Shop around to get a better deal such as from www.charge.com.
Processing method: Technology is changing the methods of payments more rapidly than ever. Majority of business transactions are processing credit cards online. Among many methods from manual information entering such as card number to imbedded magnetic strip or electronic chip reading when the card swiped are available for your use. Consider convenience to your customer such as those provides by www.charge.com.