osCommerce and Authorize.net

[BenWeb]

Hi-
I'm starting a new site and have been looking at merchant accounts like Charge.com, which uses Authorize.net. In osCommerce there is an Authorize.net module. If I use that, can I bypass the merchant account and use Authorize.net directly? (and avoid all the merchant account fees?)

Thanks,
Ben

[stevel]

No, you can't. First, you can't avoid merchant account fees - you'll pay them to someone no matter what you do. If I understand correctly, authorize.net works through resellers exclusively, so while the module is there for the actual processing, you still need an account with one of the resellers. Other payment gateways work differently, but ALL charge fees. You'll have to figure out what your expected volume is in number and typical size of transactions to decide which gateway makes the most sense for you. (I can't advise you on a choice, as I don't use any of them. The owners of the store whose site I run process charges offline through their established merchant account.)

[BenWeb]

Thanks Steve. I kind of figured as much, but I thought I'd ask anyway.