What is a payment service provider, and do you need one?
A payment service provider lets you accept cards and wallets without opening your own merchant account. What PSPs do, and how to choose one.
If you want to take card payments online, you have two broad options. You can open a merchant account directly with an acquiring bank, or you can use a payment service provider, usually shortened to PSP.
For most businesses, a PSP is the faster, simpler route. Here's what they do and how to pick one.
What a PSP does
A payment service provider sits between your business and the financial system. In one integration, it gives you:
- Acceptance of cards and wallets like Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and Google Pay.
- A checkout or payment form, often hosted so sensitive card data never touches your servers.
- Security and compliance, including PCI DSS certification, encryption and strong customer authentication.
- Fraud screening that scores each payment for risk before it's approved.
- Settlement and payouts, moving your money from the card networks into your bank account.
- A dashboard and reporting so your finance team can reconcile every payment.
PSP or merchant account?
With a traditional merchant account, you apply to an acquiring bank, go through underwriting, and often wait weeks. You typically also need a separate gateway to connect your website to the bank.
A PSP aggregates many businesses under its own acquiring relationships. That's why you can often be approved and live in a day rather than weeks.
| Payment service provider | Direct merchant account | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to go live | Hours to days | Weeks |
| Setup effort | One integration | Bank, gateway and processor |
| Operations | Provider handles most of it | Your team manages each vendor |
| Best for | Most online businesses | Very high volume merchants |
How to choose
Ask these questions of any provider you're considering:
- Which payment methods and countries does it support?
- How quickly will you be approved, and what documents are required?
- When do funds settle, and in which currencies can you be paid?
- Is its API well documented, and does it offer a test mode?
- What certifications does it hold, and how does it safeguard your funds?
- How does it handle disputes, and what tooling do you get to respond?
We built HansaPay around those questions: approval in about a day, settlement in 135+ currencies or USDT, and an API your engineers can learn in an afternoon.
Start accepting payments today
Open an account in minutes and take your first payment the same day.
Frequently asked questions
What does a payment service provider do?
A payment service provider lets businesses accept electronic payments such as cards and digital wallets. It handles the connection to card networks and banks, security and compliance, fraud screening, and paying out funds to the business.
Is a payment service provider the same as a merchant account?
No. A traditional merchant account is a dedicated account with an acquiring bank. A payment service provider aggregates many businesses under its own acquiring relationships, which makes onboarding much faster.
How long does it take to start with a payment service provider?
Often hours to a few days, depending on the provider and the checks it needs to run. With HansaPay, most businesses are live in about a day.