Ask HN: What's a good way for my startup to accept credit card payments?

Get a merchant account if you can. Shop around. Although I haven't tried Fee Fighters, seems like it would be a good place to start for looking up a merchant account: http://feefighters.com/

Also merchant accounts often have a separate gateway but some banks own their own gateways which saves you money on top of the rates you negotiates. Factor this into the equation when you're shopping around.

depends. if you have low volume, paypal is really going to be your best option. i was rejected from merchant accounts for low estimated volumes. if you have higher volume, any merchant account will do, really.

consider using something like chargify, spreedly, cheddargetter, etc. to manage subscriptions and such. most also provide a nice professional interface for things like paypal.

HN superhero patio11 suggests spreedly+paypal.

I'd say get a merchant account so you can take direct payments from CC's.