Okay, so I run a webhosting business, so to say, and would like to know how I could get credit cards working on my website, for payments. Currently, I am accpeting paypal and alertpay.

I have heard of "merchant accounts". Is this what I'm looking for?

Yep

and Paypal can handle non-account holder credit card transactions anyway

and Paypal can handle non-account holder credit card transactions anyway

What did you mean by that last bit?

The buyer doesn't have to be a Paypal account holder to pay using a credit card via PayPal. Provided it is a dollar account with paypal.com they can simply use it as a gateway.

If you are intending to run a long-term business, I think nothing goes against own merchant contracts (it just means that you have signed a contract with a company that processes your credit card payment data).

If you have a local bank account, I would speak with your accountant about merchant contracts.

You might be interested in modernbill (http://www.modernbill.com/) or a software package like it. Just google "isp billing" and you'll find about a million of them.

These applications work with your merchant account to handle the recurring billing, and will interface with a control panel like plesk to automate account creation.

Most businesses that use paypal or 2co are being charged very high pricing to set-up, not to mention the expensive monthly fees and rates on any of the cards.

Opening a merchant account is a very simple task only requiring that you have a valid business checking account and business license. If you are a sole proprietor / owner of a business, you may even be able to deposit the funds into your personal account.

Each merchant account is different and the best decision you could make is to get set-up correctly with everything from the start.

Give us a call if you need help setting up a merchant account...

Opening a merchant account is a very simple task only requiring that you have a valid business checking account and business license. If you are a sole proprietor / owner of a business, you may even be able to deposit the funds into your personal account.

I would just temper that a little bit...
It may be true, but it's locally true....

When I looked to open a merchan account in Switzerland, where I reside, there is 1 and only provider that federate every banks of the country, and the price are so ridiculously high, that you better go with paypal if you don't end up selling thousands of products...

From their subscrption PDF (1 us$ =~ 0.9 CHF as of today):

Saferpay E-Commerce 850 CHF (base packet)
Saferpay Card Authorization Interface 3000 CHF
Transaction package (valid 12 month, price per month):
100 transactions 100 CHF
500 transactions 350 CHF
1000 transactions 500 CHF
5000 transactions 1750 CHF
10000 transactions 3000 CHF

International cards setup fees:
Master card, Visa, Amex, Diners club, JCB: 100 CHF per card
Maestro, DCC: 100 CHF per card

That means that for a small E-commerce, who will provide ccards payment with Visa and Mastercard (the 2 most often used in Europe) with 500 transactions per month, it would cost me around 4400 $ to setup, and then 350$ per month, regardless of the quantity of transactions.
And they still take a fee on each transaction you process....

I know that you need money to make money, but I'm pretty sure that many peoples before me where stoped because of that.
So, for small account, I think it may be way cheaper to go the paypal way if you intend to charge small amounts and not in big quantities.

I am also selling online and using paypal for accepting payments. You have to set up a merchant account with paypal then put a "buy now" button on your website. The instructions are on the paypal site. This directs the customer directly to paypal....... but...... I can't figure out how to make it so my customers can pay without a paypal account. I.e. once they click on the buy now button, how to send them directly to the page where they enter their credit card information. Chrishirst...... any suggestions?

International accounts can be expensive to set-up and the rates are a little higher, however it's not as expensive as you might think.

We work with several offshore banks to set-up international accounts for our clients and the set-up fee never exceeds $795. We have set-up some with $0 set-up fee. Rates differ for each account.

The difference in Paypal and a real e-com account is in the pudding. A customer would rather put in their info and buy a product now vs. go to paypal, sign up, get verified, go back to your site, and then put all the info in.
By the time they leave your site, they are usually gone.

It's not always about what the business needs, you have to think about what the customer needs.

Look around and find the right plan that suits your budget and your business.

If you need help, let us know...