To accept credit card payments, you need to hire a merchant account service provider responsible for processing the credit card transactions. This service provider has to offer you a processing solution with features, rates, terms, service and incentives that are best suited to your business needs. A good place to start, prior to selecting your credit card processing solution, is to know the different types of merchant accounts available. Understanding the different merchant accounts and their features will enable you to understand the type of credit card processing solution you should go for.

Two-types of merchant accounts
They can be separated into two main categories:

Card-present merchant accounts
Card-not-present merchant accounts
Rates and fees applied to these accounts are determined on the basis of a simple rule:
Higher rates and fees are charged to merchants who accept credit card transactions that are considered to pose a higher risk.

Given this information, one can immediately deduce that rates charged on card-present merchant become an iso merchant services accounts are going to be generally lesser than those charged on card-not-present merchant accounts.