Is there a way to link two oscommerce websites to one merchant account. Some how linking the two shopping carts so there are less fee's etc. If some one knows how to do this please let me know how. Thank you Also- I am using a Elavon merchant account. What is the best shopping cart to use with them if you have any experience with them Once again thank you for your information.
You can use a single payment gateway and use the same authentication credentials to process payments. Elevon (formerly Nova) is compatible with Authorize.net, which is what I would recommend using. One thing to be careful with is that the shoppers need to know what they are going to see on their statement or you will get chargebacks. It's a bad idea to run two completely different businesses through the same merchant account even if they sell the same thing. The names should be somewhat related or recognizable. Also, you cannot sell different types of products through the same merchant account (Ex: car parts, and baby clothing)... This will result in your account getting shut down if your process ever finds out about it.
We have an LLC (southern international trading company) that will be the company we are running the merchant account through. Selling car parts on one site and and car parts (but gas saving car parts) on the other. Do you think there will be a problem?
They sound close enough that they should be OK. Just make sure that your customers know what the charge will look like on their statement.
I am 100% certain if Elevon found out that you were using the same merchant account on two different websites that they would ask you to open a second account or else get match filed. You should either open that second account or merge those two sites before they find out. It's not worth the risk. You'll save about $25 sharing one account. That's not worth risking being match filed.