After auditing the European offers (for France and Austria), I found several providers (AtosOrigin for France and Mpay24 for Austria). Anyway, these providers cost more than any US third party providers (average of 10% per transaction + €0.5).

I was wondering:

• Would it be better to open an US bank account to be able to get a US merchant account? If yes, how? Who should we contact? Is this legal?
• Would it be better to continue with third party payment gateways and wait the opportunity, in a near future, to switch to a better EU offer (as soon as it will be available) ?
• Is there any other EU alternatives I am not aware of?

This question is, I guess, a redundant question to all NON-US businesses. Some countries may offer interresting alternatives to their customers but here, in EU, it seems there is still a lack of offers.
Maybe I wasn't able to find the good providers and some members here already found the beauty pearl.

Please share your lucky finds.

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Ever Tried 2checkout.com

They are good and cheap.

Hello,
if you are looking for accounts online then check this website they provide merchants accounts www.moneybookers.com and www.alertpay.com

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I second moneybrookers

As far as safe goes, it isn't so much a matter of location as it is of type of merchant account provider. Companies that offer true merchant accounts must register with Visa and MasterCard and pass a rigorous series of checks before they are allowed to offer merchant accounts. Third party processors on the other hand do not undergo this kind of scrutiny. As a result many have shut down owing their merchants thousands of dollars or they suddenly find themselves unable to process some credit cards as is the case with CCAvenue with MasterCard (see sources).