Do I need a merchant bank account?

[ethelb]

Me again!

I am trying to set up an ecommerce shop and I have the hosting, the domain, the template etc all set up and live and will be using Wooecommerce and SagePay. I'm in the process of setting up the basic structure now. (I have had a lovely MN'er get in touch to help me too, so thanks very much!).

However, do I really have to have a merchant bank account? SagePay have sent me to a page saying I need to, but I will have v low takings (up to £1-2000 a month) and I would rather completely outsource all of the security stuff.

Has anyone here set up a merchant bank account for use on an ecommerce site? Who did you use and were they any good? And if so how feasible were the security requirements for a home-based business?

Hi Ethel, I have used SagePay on my website in the past but I stopped using it. The website wasn't generating much traffic and I couldn't justify the expense, I then cancelled it (the best thing I did) and now I just use Paypal at the website...

Thanks for your comments.

I think the really big cost with SagePay looks like the security certification authorisation company. They cost more than SagePay itself.

It's quite a high end product, but maybe I will try out PayPal first to see how many sales I make off my own steam (I am a not on the high street partner at the moment)

I might have found my answer in mijireh. Has anyone used this before?

Haven't heard of it, sorry, not a helpful reply... just marking my place

I work for a high street company which is medium sized and we generate about £2-3000 worth of Internet orders per month; we just use PayPal - very easy & hassle free.

The only thing that we have stipulated on the website is that we will only deliver to the main billing address to cover ourselves under PayPal's terms.