Payment Methods: Visa, MC, Google Checkout?

Looking into various methods of payment available to the site's users, I've begun to develop an appreciation for stores, bars, etc who have a minimum purchase requirement for credit cards. Per-transaction fees are rather high: about 3% (depending on the company's status: e-commerce results in a higher fee) of the total sale plus a mandatory $.23 or so. This doesn't work out too well for a gas station selling a candy bar for $.65.

Preferring cash to credit is against every major credit card's terms of service, of course, which makes minimum purchases a no no, but I can see the logic behind it.

This is one reason Google Checkout is an attractive option. They're offering no service charges through the end of 2007, and it's much simpler to set up than major credit cards. Of course, having the Visa/Mastercard/Amex option adds some legitimacy and flexibility, so I will likely use both options.

If you've never set up a Visa/MC/Amex account it requires a bit of work. You need to go to the www.visa.com (or whichever), where you apply for an account. At this point, you are given a lengthy list of merchants through which you can set up accounts. Within less than 15 minutes of registering, I received four emails and two phone calls from said merchants, which is either nice or annoying.

From there, you have to just pick one, from what I can tell. There are several sites out there to help you, but every merchant seems sort of the same once you select the lowest rates, etc. I suppose I'll go with one of the merchants who will give me QuickBooks (retailing for about $200) for free, which is apparently rather common.