With your own merchant account you must pay for expensive processing software, a secure server, customer service fees, monthly gateway fees or minimum transaction fees.

But there is solution to accept credit cards online without merchant account or with so-called free merchant account.

These free merchant accounts are provided by third party credit card processors that accept credit cards on your behalf and take a percentage of the cost of the transaction. This percentage is relatively higher than it would be if you had your own merchant account, but you only pay fees if you sell your product. There are usually no monthly fees.

It is also the simplest solution - sign up with a third party processor, insert several lines of HTML code, and that's it! The service provider will take care of the rest.

Online credit card processing companies will send you payment for all of your orders processed, minus their fee and a reserve fee. A reserve fee is withheld to cover charge backs you may have. If you have no charge backs within a period of time, your reserve will be refunded to you.

An excellent feature, many of these credit card processors offer is a build-in affiliate program for your own online business.

Third party credit card processors are the best option for small and just starting businesses, as well as for international (non-US) businesses where obtaining your own merchant account is too expensive or hard to get.

Third party credit card processors are cheaper as long as your total sales are low. When your monthly sales reach around $3000, you should consider to open your own merchant account.

Below is the list of the most popular online third party credit card processors that will process credit card orders for you without merchant account.

2Checkout.com

The service I use myself and recommend for others. Cheap and reliable. Sell products or services, just about anything.

Merchants with US or Canadian Bank accounts will have payments electronically deposited directly to any bank account at no cost.

Suppliers without a US Bank account can have their payments air mailed at no charge or have the option of an international wire payment.

Can be incorporated into almost any shopping cart that supports the authorize.net gateway.

Payments twice per month.
5% reserve fee, 90 day hold.
Chargeback fee of $10-30 per transaction.
Available for US and international merchants.

Setup: $49.
Orders by: Credit cards and online checks.
Transaction Fees: 5.5% + $0.45.

Bizhosting

Reasonably-priced, solid and popular business hosting service whose services include full featured business web site, site building tools, shopping cart, and store management tools.

Merchants receive a free merchant account through ProPay (US merchants only) allowing them credit card processing for VISA and MasterCard.

Other features include the discount manager (which lets merchants create and manage almost any type of sale imaginable), the order and customer managers, manual credit card processing capabilities and excellent site traffic statistics.

Visual sitebuilder allows merchants to build their store pages visually, by pointing and clicking. It makes it easy to see how the store is structured and to see your site the way your customers are going to see it.

Setup: Free.
Orders by: Credit cards.
Transaction Fees: 3.75% + $0.65.
Hosting: $17.95 per month.

Highly recommended for US merchants.

CCNow

Third party credit card processor intended to be used for tangible merchandise. This is defined as "physical products that are shipped to the Online Shopper's physical address".

Chargeback fee of $10-80 per transaction.
Reserve Funds are used if your sales earnings exceed $1000 in one semi-monthly pay period.
Issue checks in US Dollars: free.
Direct Deposit (USA only): free.
Wire Transfer: $40.
Payments twice per month.
Available for US and international merchants.

Setup: Free.
Orders by: Credit cards.
Monthly Fees:
USA - $9.95 + 9% of your total sales in excess of $100.00
International - $11.95 + 11% of your total sales in excess of $100.00.

ClickBank

ClickBank accepts customers who offer only downloadable products.
Provides free affiliate program management and your products will be promoted through their network of over 100,000 online affiliates.

Only issue checks. Charge $2.50 to process and send check.
Withhold 10% of each check which is released after about 90 days.
Payments twice per month.
Available for US and international merchants.

Setup: $49.95.
Orders by: Credit cards and online checks from the USA and Canada.
Transaction Fees: $1 + 7.5%.

Glo-Bill

Third party credit card processor accepting customers who sell membership. You can set your prices between $1.95 and $59.95.
Provide you with an affiliate program. They also have an innovative system that allows simple surfers to become your affiliates and thus increase your revenue.

Only issue checks. Charge $2.50 to process and send check.
Holds 7% of webmaster sales in rolling reserve for 6 months.
Weekly payments.

Setup: Free.
Orders by: Credit cards, online checks, phone billing.
Transaction Fees: 15.95%.

iBill

Turnkey e-commerce solution where iBill handles all banking, risk and affiliate management issues for Internet merchants selling almost all products and services.

Holds 10% of all transactions as a reserve for 6 months.
If chargebacks exceed 2.5%, a $15 fee is assessed with each chargeback.
Available for US and international merchants.
Payments twice per month.

Setup: Free.
Orders by: Credit cards, online checks, 1-900 phone billing.
Transaction Fees:
Credit cards: 15% for up to $10,000 total revenue for billing period. Graded reductions for increases in volume.
Online checks: 15%.
Telephone billing: 20-35%.

PayPal

Personal Accounts are free, but cannot accept credit card payments. Premier and Business Accounts are charged either the Standard or Merchant rate based on volume.

Buyer has to register as PayPal member. Membership available in 37 countries.

To withdraw your funds from PayPal (transfer to your bank account), there is no fee for US customers, varying fees for other countries (maximum is $1.50).

If you get even one chargeback on a single account, they freeze all your funds for 35 to 75 days.

Setup: Free.
Orders by: Credit cards or direct transfer.
Transaction Fees (Standard Rate): 2.9% + $0.30.

PaySystems

Popular low-cost third party credit card processor.
Sell both tangible and intangible items.
Rolling reserve for 6 months - 5%.
Available for US and international merchants.

Setup: $49.
Orders by: Credit cards.
Transaction Fees:
Type A - 3.95% + $1.00 if your per sale amount is lower.
Type B - 5.5% + $0.45 if your per sale amount is higher.

Share-It

E-commerce platform for selling your software via the Internet.
Based in Germany and allow you to accept US Dollars, Euros, or Pounds Sterling.

Fees for issuing monthly payments to you:
Transfer to your account (bank transfer): $2 (Germany = free).
Mailing a check: $5 (USA = free).
Direct Deposit (USA only): free.
Available for US and international merchants.
Payment once per month.

Setup: Free.
Orders by: Credit cards, money orders, bank/wire transfer, check, cash.
Transaction Fees: $2.95 +4%. After 1000 orders - $1.95 +4%.

V-Share

Third party credit card processor for software developers.
Chargeback fee of $20 per transaction applies when a transaction is charged back by your customer's bank.
Fees for issuing monthly payments to you:
USA Checks free of charge.
Eurocheck $12.
USA money transfer $21.
International wire transfer $21-40.
Available for US and international merchants.
Payment once per month.

Setup: Free.
Orders by: Credit cards, money orders, checks, cash, phone, fax or mail.
Transaction Fees: $3 +3% ($2 +3% if 1000+ orders/month) or 20% if price is less than $15.