startup credit card issues

So here's the issue, I need to accept credit cards on my site, but I don't want to go through a merchant service, I want to go through visa/ amex/etc directly (it's a long story..). Now, to even get a quote, they need to know so many details, name, address, estimated income (how can I estimate income if I don't know what % is going to be taken by the CC company?).

I guess one question is, has anyone dealt with this before?

The other question is, (maybe it deserves its own thread)... In what order have you guys been doing things? I have someone who is goingto develop my site, but I don't have a name yet. I have ideas for names, and bought a couple potential domains, but haven't chosen. Do I need to register my company? Do i need legal entities this early in the game? All I want are quotes!! How can you see if this is going to work if no one is going to talk to someone who doesn't exist yet?

Check out PayPal. They have a program that allows users to pay with any type of credit card or PayPal account. It's easy to qualify and it's easy to add their checkout capability to your website. Good luck.

Look into http://www.fastspring.com/ type of service, they are slightly more expensive per transaction, but no monthly fee. So if your volume is low, they are pretty good.

I find Google Checkout is becoming a popular alternative to PayPal, however I believe it is restricted to US residents only.