Mmmmm - "It’s always better to go with your own merchant account money-wise" is a bit of a bold assertion, and not one I'm sure I agree with. Even with a merchant account, you still need a credit card processor to deal with the transactions and get the money to your account, and both they and your bank can take transaction fees. The per-transaction fee is typically lower than Paypal and the like, but if your volume is small then the setup costs can remove that benefit.
Chris - I don't really have a general feel for the minimum turnover, but once you have enough info you should be able to calculate it. Ask your client to check with his bank on their merchant account fees, and check up on the fees that would apply via Paypal etc - obviously, it becomes worthwhile to go the merchant account route once the fixed fees for the merchant account are overcome by the difference in transaction costs.
We use www. protx.com as our processor - we're quite low-volume but have a merchant account (take lots of telephone, mail orders etc), and they're only £20/mth with no transaction fees.
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