Carts / Transactions

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"It is difficult for online businesses in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere in the Middle East to obtain a merchant account and payment gateway due to low demand and high set-up cost. The local banks here don't encourage selling products that may incur a higher risk of credit card fraud, such as mobile phones and digital cameras. What are the alternatives? " -- Reuben

Fortunately, you'll find a number of alternate methods of taking credit cards. Merchants in 22 countries can use PayPal (www.paypal.com) where they can withdraw revenue to local bank accounts. WorldPay (www.worldpay.com) and PlanetPayment (www.planetpayment.com) facilitate merchants from many countries. Another approach is to use international-merchant-friendly companies such as 2CheckOut.com, Kagi.com, and CCNow.com to handle transactions and remit proceeds to you. A newer approach is for a company such as iKobo (www.ikobo.com) to receive credit card payments and then transmit money to far-flung merchants via ATM cards that merchants can use to obtain cash from any of thousands of ATM machines around the world.