Merchant services is a type of business service that helps companies accept and process credit card payments from customers. Merchant services providers typically offer businesses a credit card terminal, software to help track transactions and sometimes even funding to help cover the cost of credit card processing fees.
Businesses that use merchant services can either process credit card payments themselves or outsource the task to a third-party provider. If a business chooses to process credit card payments itself, it will need to obtain a merchant account from a bank or other financial institution. A merchant account allows businesses to accept credit card payments and deposit the funds into their bank account.
Merchant services, often labeled credit card processing, is the handling of electronic payment transactions. They're generally run through an account that a merchant sets up to facilitate credit card processing.
