Payment method new to UK seeks beta testers

[DIRECTebanking]

Firstly a big hello to everyone and I am looking forward to becoming a regular member on these forums.


Payment Network the company I work for is soon to be launching in the UK under the brand name DIRECTebanking.com and currently we are looking for about 5 UK based beta testers to try out our payment method.


The ideal tester would need to have a web shop that handles approx 500 transactions per week, preferably having the ability to integrate as an independent shop, it is a relatively simple integration and we would assist (at launch we will include our already existing payment providers and software cart clients along with some new UK specific partners) but we would like to avoid any prospective client having to go through the registration process twice.


We will be beta testing with a number of existing clients, but new clients would give us the opportunity to make sure certain features like merchant registration for example are correctly translated and fully functional for UK shops.


If you feel this could be of interest to you then please get in touch or post below, my contact details are in my profile, I am aware that the above information above is not much to go on but I do not want to come across as trying to plug our company (although to a degree it is unavoidable) and this is a genuine request for assistance. Please feel free to check out our client list and our partner list on our website it includes the likes of Dell, KLM, Moneybookers and Neteller.


For our part we will waive all fees (sign up and transactional) for the first three months (beta will last at most a month), I would like to point out that we reserve the right to decline anyone applying for beta testing if we feel that their profile does not properly match what we are looking for. For any questions you might have please get in touch by whatever means you prefer and I will respond fully and promptly.


Wishing everyone a great bank holiday.




James

[MGSteve]

James,

Couple of observations (please excuse me if they come over as a bit cynical!)

1) A website URL would be useful
2) You know that this could sound awfully like a scam to get credit card details?

I'm not saying it is, but you apprecaite it could sound like one. You'll also struggle to find anyone who does 500 transactions a month to beta test your system. Its a lot riding on the testing going well. If it all went tits up, you could end up costing your beta testers thousands of pounds in lost sales!

My advice to anyone wanting to take this on is thoroughly research the company, get references and make sure you can make use of a fall back payment system should the above system have problems!

[openmind]

I posted the same concerns here (http://www.a1businessforums.co.uk/forum/e-commerce-shopping-carts-payment-processors/9962-payment-method-new-uk-looking-beta-testers.html). I don't think it is a scam but I cannot see it catching on...

The web site is https://www.payment-network.com/en/bereichsauswahl.html

[IridiumCorp]

Phil - I have asked Post Bank in Germany to verify these guys.

[andrea_a]

Dear All

Thank you very much for replying the post of my colleague, James.

We fully understand your concerns. Therefore it might be interesting for you to know further details of the company. You can find a lot on the Payment Network website.

1. About Payment Network AG and DIRECTebanking.com
=============================================
The company has been founded beginning of 2006 and is a privately owned company registered in Munich. In 2008 a major German family office, Reimann Investors Advisory has invested in the company. The Reimann family has created world renowed brands such as Calgon, Clearsil, Vanish, Airwick under the Reckit Benckiser Corporation.

Under the German brand "sofortüberweisung.de" the e-payment system DIRECTebanking.com has become one of the two major players in Germany.

According to a study by the university of Regensburg last December, 21% of all online shops in Germany are using "sofortüberweisung.de" and another 17% are planning to integrate the solution.

Today over 10.000 merchants have registered for our service. Some of the players are mentioned above. See also:
ww.directebanking.com/references

Besides the merchants DIRECTebanking.com / sofortüberweisung.de is also offered by leading payment service providers such as Concardis, Saferpay, Global Collect, Moneybookers, Click&Buy, Neteller, Computop, Envoy, Adyen, Docdata Payments and others.

Last year we have processed several million transactions. This year our objective is to transfer a volume of about 1 bn. Euro (= approx. 900 m GBP).


2. Our relationship with banks
========================
For historic reasons our company has been operating 100% independent from any bank, although we obviously would prefer to work closely together with the banks due to trust reasons.

On the other side our bank independency is the reason why we were able to expand our system in 5 countries and offer a large bank coverage in every country. Comparable systems in Europe, belonging to local banks, were not able to expand.

Furthermore our bank independency also means, that we can offer much cheaper rates that for instance credit cards or other international e-payment systems. See:
ww.directebanking.com/fees

Last but not least, what is interesting, is that due to our success we have been able to start working together with major payment service providers fully owned by banks or companies owned by banks. I would like to mention Concardis (belonging to German banks) and Saferpay (belonging to SIX / Swiss banks).

Futhermore Moneybookers, ClickandBuy and Neteller are using us, while they must comply with FSA regulation.



3. Security and data privacy
======================

3.1. Fact: no fraud case to date
------------------------------------------

First of all I would like to emphasise that not one single case of identity theft has occured in over three years our system is live. This is mainly because our security measures rely a lot on the online banking security measure which are very high compared to other networks.

Now, obviously we would like to keep our system highly secure and trustworthy. Let me explain how.


3.2 TÜV certified data privacy
----------------------------------------
We are perfectly aware of the security needs merchants and their customers have. In fact our security measures and data privacy standards are extremly high. In order to make sure we keep these high standards we have been certified and tested by one of the most severe quality and security agencies in Germany, the TÜV Saarland according to the highest data privacy and quality assurance principles.

The certificate is also available under:
ww.directebanking.com/tuev

Obviously the most important part of the tests are data privacy requirements, especially the fact that we do not save data at any time and that no employee has ever access to these data.

Furthermore the TÜV is continuously testing our server environments and SSL encrypted connections on a regular basis.

We are aware of the fact that the TÜV is not very well known in the UK and are therefore evaluating several comparable institutes in the UK as well.


3.3 Insurance
-------------------
Although no case of identity theft has occured we offer an insurance against any fraud case occuring to the customer when using our system. We are thereby backed by a major global insurance company.


3.4 Customer protection programs
----------------------------------
In Europe we have been working closely together with Trusted Shops, the leading customer protection program in Germany. We are also looking at similar cooperation in UK and will be announcing such joint ventures on time.



I hope, this has clearified some concerns. However, we are of course very happy to answer every question you might have or evaluate any feedback.

Kind regards,
Andrea, COO

[andrea_a]

PS: Sorry for posting the URLs in such a strange manner. As a newbie you are actually not supposed to publish any URL, but this time I tought it might be important...

[enigma1]

andrea, regarding your payment gateway a good course is to attract developers and merchants who utilize some of the popular open source carts. Many of these carts are listed in the sourceforge.net.

You could publish the integration spec with few examples on the popular programming languages for each of the carts you think may be important. You will need to setup the payment module for each of the carts. I am familiar with osc for instance where typically representatives from gateways will upload a module as a contribution. From there they have a forum support thread where they can answer technical questions freelancers or merchants may have. You will also receive feedback for testing as many merchants are always on the lookout for gateways with low commission fees.

[andrea_a]

Hi

Thank you very much. Indeed the fees are very low for an international, secure payment method.

We actually offer standard gateways to approx. 80 shop solutions. Please check the following website:

ww.payment-network.com/en/vendor/sofortueberweisung-installation-a-shopsysteme.html

As you can see on the left hand menu there, we also offer specifications for own integrations (means for merchants not using a standard shop solution), as well as for shop solution providers and payment service providers themselves.

If there are any questions or if you see that an important standard shop solution is missing there, we are of course happy to provider further information or contact the solution providers directly.

Best regards,
Andrea

[DIRECTebanking]

Thanks enigma1 for your post I will have a look into it, Andrea is my COO based in Munich and I am based in Windsor working to get things started out in the UK, we do have such an area on our website. Can't post it but it is under the installation option, there are numerous copies for all the payment providers we are integrated into.



But I am going to check out your recommendation aswell.


James

[IridiumCorp]

I had a response from Post Bank contact. They are legit.