Beginner payment processing

I will be creating an application that takes credit/debit payments. I have a couple questions tho. I have not decided which payment processor I will be using, but my question is if I am processing payments, do I need to have an account balance that matches or exceeds the amount I'm processing daily? If this is the case, or some case similar, could someone point me in the right direction for regulations on this? All help is much appreciated.

 

You do not typically need to have a balance that matches what you are processing.

I will this with the caveat that if you are selling certain higher risk products, or have extremely poor personal credit, the processor may want to see your bank account statements or sufficient personal financials, to make sure you have the money to cover potential chargebacks or refunds, but it really depends on the product you are selling. I don't know enough about exactly what you are doing to comment specifically. In-app and other app related digital payments are often blanketly labeled as high risk, so you may need to find a processor who specializes in this sort of payment acceptance. Again, it really depends on exactly what and how you are taking payments.

 

Its not so much a product I am selling, but a recurring monthly membership. I have just been reading about how there are regulations to taking payments like I need to have as much as im processing for security reasons. In my understanding I thought if I am using a payment processor they handle the responsibility, because I am not storing the card numbers in my personal server, nor am i processing the payments. Are there any processors you would recommend for processing recurring payments like this?

One more question, If I am using a payment processor do I also need a merchant service to handle all the payments being processed?

I appreciate your help and I know these are very beginner questions and I may need to do some more research.

 

typically merchant account and payment processor is 1 and the same thing. For subscription based business you will need to find payment processors like ccbill, verotel or similar that can handle the entire process including your affiliates and payments to them. Otherwise you will need to buy some script like amember or similar to get started and find a payment service provider that acceåt subscription based business.