For many businesses selling online is a necessity - be it as the sole means of trading, or as an addition to a mail order business or 'brick and mortar' shop.

Whilst it is easy to just accept cheques, or invoice customers for online sales and process payments in the usual way this is not an ideal way of trading online. Customers often use the internet for a fast service, with most sales being paid for instantly with credit / debit cards or via other online payment accounts.

To accept credit / debit cards online additional arrangements would have to be put in place over and above those already in use with traditional business banking. There two main types of payment processor for online payments - Payment Service Providers (those which require a bank merchant account) and the all-in-one full service (no merchant account required).