Hi All,
I am researching what is the best way to accept payments on one of my websites and was just wondering if anyone has any preferences.
I was considering using paypal as they have an extensive API and can be easily integrated.
Any views would be welcomed.
Regards
Julian
Hi Julian,
Depends exactly what you are selling as your processor would vary based on requirements.
Paypal is obviously the most common, although I avoid it if possible if you want to do any sort of volume.
Few other less common options like Moneybookers and Google Checkout etc. Very high risk sites may even accept Western Union.
You could also use a third party affiliate program like Clickbank and have the added advantage of recruiting affiliates.
There are merchant companies who specialise in online sales (2checkout for example) who tend to be quite expensive but easy to get into and let you accept a range of payments (including Paypal).
And finally you have merchant accounts which you can usually set up through any good bank.
Hope that helps
Thomas
Hi Thomas,Originally Posted by meathead1234
Thanks for your swift reply. Do you know why Paypal is no good for large volumes? I thought their API was very advanced and geared up for heavy volumes. I need to take payment and then get a reply from the payment broker as to the quantity that was bought. With that information I then need to update my database.
People will be purchasing "Credits" you see. As soon as someone has bought a credit I want it to be instatntly available for them to use.
Regards
Julian
Are you able to tell us what niche you are in? Is it a physical or digital product? Am assuming digital as it's a coupon.
There are a number of horror stories about Paypal, I've been through a number of accounts. Paypal don't offer any buyer protection for digital goods and have a habit of limiting accounts without notice. I'd rather pay an extra few % and have a merchant processor who deals with all that rubbish for me - people can also use CC then. It's not the case that Paypal can't handle high volumes, as they certainly can, it's more the fact you could go to bed and wake up with a limited account and a lot of angry customers
Thomas
Hi Julian,
I'm looking into the same thing right now - for some reason I'm finding it all mind boggling as well. My so-called understanding thus far is this:
Paypal and CB (these are the main ones but there others) act as the merchant - so technically the customers are theirs not yours. Also refunds are in their hands. CB is famous for high refund rates.
Not sure about 2checkout as my research turned up a lot of complaints about lousy customer service - these threads were 2+ years old but I have found nothing to ensure me the customer service issues have gone away.
Authorize.net seems pretty pricey but they do provide true processing services where you are actually the merchant. This means the customer information belongs to your company and not theirs. They are also a "wholesaler" so they have many resellers competing for your business.
Now I'll take things from the bottom up:
Authorize.net - watch out for fees - I think these are what may be the killer. In addition to transaction fees, there are batch fees, transfer fees, fee fees (I"m only half-kidding). There are even fees for recurring charges - something I'm interested in.
Paypal - I've narrowed down the other sot just PP. They are easy to use and you pay for the privilege. The fees tend to be higher though incremental. The other danger I've heard about is paypal seems to like to freeze accounts without warning. The fact is I've heard this problem with just about every type of processor but pp seems to lead the pack.
With all the fees - there are two types - monthly and per transaction. With smaller volumes your overall costs tend to be higher and therefore a processor like pp is more competitive. As your volume rises, those monthly fees take a smaller chunk out of each transaction, thus making it more economical to go with something like Authorize.net.
One more caveat - the site I'm looking to buy now used pp so there is no way to "transfer" subscribers to me - remember they are technically pp's customers not the site owner's. This makes it harder to transition, easier to lose members and revenue. The owner recommended I switch if I have an eye towards flipping the site. While I have every intention of buying and holding in this case, who knows the future?
Realistically... how much volume do you expect to generate? It looks like I'm paying between 03 - 06+ % for US transactions via pp. I'm glad I did the math because I was thinking around 10% overall.
With authorize (their "retail" pricing) I'm looking at $20 per month plus $10 for recurring charges for $30 per month plus a $0.25 batch fee (processing a batch of cc transactions so they are deposited in your bank account) and a $0.10 transaction fee - most processors also charge a percentage like 02.5% I don't see such a charge here. I know some of their resellers so this.
Discounting the percentage and batch fees right now - 100 transactions would cost $30/100 = $0.30 + $0.10 = $0.40 each That's 4% on a $10 transaction. Looking at this I'm not sure I trust my math. Add in a 2.5% percentage and it is still only 6.5% - and that is for a $10 transaction.
If my figures are even close, I would say finding a true processor would be advantageous.
So the next question is, is there anyone here who can share an actual example from real life? Now you've SEEN the pain some fool like me endures trying to scope this all out. Anyone feeling merciful around here? Anyone here have a reseller account? I'd be more than happy to deal with someone I know here.
Andy
Hi Andy,
Thanks for the in depth reply.
My volumes will start off very low I expect
I think I am going to risk Paypal just to get it off the ground. All my customers will have to register on my website anyway so there is no way I can lose them (I will have all their details).
When I used to run a horse racing tipping service for my dad we used Netbanx - http://www1.netbanx.com/solutions that worked very well for us but did cost us £200 or so to setup. They may have changed so you might want to check them out. Of the 2 years we used them we only had 1 chargeback and the account was never frozen. We had a total of around 200 transactions I think. So I guess thats not bad ratio.
Regards
Julian
Hi Julian,Hi Andy,
Thanks for the in depth reply.
My volumes will start off very low I expect
I think I am going to risk Paypal just to get it off the ground. All my customers will have to register on my website anyway so there is no way I can lose them (I will have all their details).
When I used to run a horse racing tipping service for my dad we used Netbanx - http://www1.netbanx.com/solutions that worked very well for us but did cost us £200 or so to setup. They may have changed so you might want to check them out. Of the 2 years we used them we only had 1 chargeback and the account was never frozen. We had a total of around 200 transactions I think. So I guess thats not bad ratio.
Regards
Julian
After I crunched the numbers - a real pay processor started looking better and better for me - even with low volume. I'm still undecided because I'm already set up with pp so it would be easy for me... IF I end up buying this site. It's not a done deal yet.
Thanks for the lead on Netbankx - I wonder how much US biz they do as I'm on the other side of the pond. I'd hate to have to learn English just to process payments. :-)
Andy
lol, your right they are UK based so it would probably not be a good idea to use them. If you had any queries and needed to speak to someone the language gap might affect the kind of support you receive
The search is still on for me too. If I find out anything interesting I will post it to this thread.
Regards
Julian
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