After auditing the European offers (for France and Austria), I found several providers (AtosOrigin for France and Mpay24 for Austria). Anyway, these providers cost more than any US third party providers (average of 10% per transaction + €0.5).

I was wondering:

• Would it be better to open an US bank account to be able to get a US merchant account? If yes, how? Who should we contact? Is this legal?
• Would it be better to continue with third party payment gateways and wait the opportunity, in a near future, to switch to a better EU offer (as soon as it will be available) ?
• Is there any other EU alternatives I am not aware of?

This question is, I guess, a redundant question to all NON-US businesses. Some countries may offer interresting alternatives to their customers but here, in EU, it seems there is still a lack of offers.
Maybe I wasn't able to find the good providers and some members here already found the beauty pearl.

Please share your lucky finds.

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Some companies not based in the United States like opening a United States bank account. It can be quite difficult though. Some people have had success with Valis while others with eTrade. The problem with opening a US bank account is satisifying the YKYC (you know your customer) regulation.

You can also check with your local banks to see if they have partnerships with some banks in the United States. This is sometimes the case and will work.

With the merchant account, you would be looking at about 4% discount rate with a 5-day ACH hold. There is a $10,000 monthly limit as well

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Corey
Merchant Accounts | Toll Free Virtual Solutions | My Merchant Account Blog

Thank you Corey.
I discussed this topic on other forums and I came to the decision to not use off-shore agent services. Too tricky, not really legal and, above all, too risky.

Someone forwarded me to Chronopay. I don't know yet if they are a direct credit card processor (and propose then real merchant account). But they seem to be a solid company and propose the best rates around. Actually, we are considering them seriously.

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