Free internet merchant accounts are in demand these days. Because of the many freebies that merchants can get off merely paying regular fees, more and more online sellers are getting attracted. It's not a hype though.
A free internet merchant account is free for so many reasons. It may be free setup, free application, free shopping cart, or free sales tracking and reporting features. Wow -- for startup merchants and merchants on a tight budget, these mean a lot to get the business running. Credit card processing is a task to reckon with. No business is going to make a lot of money if it cannot accept and process various credit cards, whether online or not.
The great thing is that a free internet merchant account may not only offer freebies, it may also be less of a pain than having to deal with domestic accounts provided by big US banks. For example, if you were to apply one, you can get approved in a couple of days. You don't have to submit too much paperwork, or may have poor credit before and still be accepted as long as you weren't involved in fraud before. And like any other merchant accounts, the best thing is that you can still negotiate the transaction fees and discount rates. There is no catch to it.