can i use my current merchant account?

Depending on your merchant account, you should be able to. Check with your merchant account people and they’ll get you dailed in. You can also easily use Paypal for your merchant needs.

There should be no reason you can’t. The rates will be different most likely though for online charges.

Visa and MasterCard require that you have a separate merchant account for all Internet sales. This is because Internet sales comprise the vast majority of Internet fraud and all Internet sales must be separated so if there is a problem with your Internet sales they can be stopped without affecting your non-Internet sales.

When processing an order placed over the Internet your POS software MUST be ECI compliant. ECI stands for “Electronic Commerce Indicator”. All Internet sales must send over a special flag that shows that transaction occurred over the Internet. All major payment gateways (Authorize.Net, Verisign, etc.) are ECI compliant. Most POS software is NOT compliant (PC Charge is ECI compliant). No credit card terminals are ECI compliant. This means you MUST either use a payment gateway or one of the few ECI compliant pieces of POS software available.

If you do not plan to use a payment gateway for instant payment and plan to run your sale through an ECI compliant piece of software you must make sure your website is PCI DSS compliant. The PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) dictates how to securely handle credit cards including storing it. Basically, you have some high hurdles to overcome to be compliant if you plan on storing/emailing credit card numbers for the sake of processing them manually later.

In practice a lot of companies ignore these guidelines but if you get caught, not only will you never be able to get a merchant account again, but you may get sued if your data is ever stolen.

In theory, yes. Your current merchant account should have capabilities to accept Internet transactions. Try to check with your merchant account provider if it’s possible – if not, get a separate merchant account. Search the Internet for one or try this site(I’m a customer):

In the event your current merchant account allows Internet transactions, you still need to get a payment gateway to process these transactions. Be careful & meticulous in choosing a merchant account, as well as a payment gateway.

You need to call your merchant account provider to get software for your online business. Do not pay for the software. I switched over to Simple Payment Systems because they have no annual fees, no start up costs.They give all software for free.And walk you through it all with 24 hour help. They beat all quotes from other companies guaranteed. They even pay for fees from your current merchant provider if you switch companies.
If you can not do it with your merchant account provider, and go with someone else, read all contracts, and check the “rip off report” online to protect you and your business.
Best wishes!