Online payments

[www.iKabs.com]

We have been considering accepting online payments and I was wondering if any currently has this facility and if so, how it's working out. We currently accept telephone card transaction and monthly DDs but frankly 90% of our customers prefer to opt for payment on invoice so I am trying to establish how much value online payments would add to our service?

[rossmc]

Speak to Lynne at Stremline/WorldPay, she uses this forum and will help you out with advice on online payments.

[lynndevine@streamline.com]

Thanks Rossmc - If 90% pay by invoice then you really need realistic expectations of how many will switch to card payments. Many local authorities now use purchasing cards and quite a lot of suppliers/retailers have corporate credit and debit cards. However if you don't think it will be worthwhile for your business then don't do it. There are costs involved and savings to be made (lower banking charges for less cash and cheque activity through your account v cost of gateway/integrated kit/terminal hire plus processing charges).

[emerchant]

I have been involved with taking monthly card payments using WorldPay FuturePay as an alternative to DDs most people prefered it as it was less hassle to set up. One big downside is that the cards expired every now and then if 5% expire each month then thats 5 out of every 100 customers you have to contact to get new details from - this isnt a problem with DDs - just something to consider.

[RayB]

Not wanting to hijack the thread, but this is not OT, if you had to choose only one payment method for a B2B website, what payment portal would you choose?

We are ditching HSBC and looking at PayPal Pro.

The logic? - offers the option to pay by paypal account or credit card all in the one place with easy interface

Comments on this idea would be appreciated - and will hopefully help the OP

[rossmc]

I'm hijacking it again...Lynne from streamline, are you on your hols? Was hoping you'd contact me again re FuturePay.

[emerchant]

I would choose the best method for the following reasons:

Reputation
Security / Reliability
Fees and charges

The integration work is a one of fee and it shouldnt matter who you choose everything should work smoothly for the end customer (card holder / purchaser / whatever).

[thehunnipot]

Hey

Check out our website, just put in 'allpay.net Ltd' into google, also look at our other service 'go&pay' . We specialise in bill payment collections.

If you would like someone to come out to see you to give a demo please PM me your number and I can arrange this for you.

Regards

Kate

[Eagle]

PayPal

Harrods, Sony Ericsson, Boots and Eagle Imagery use it - to name a few well-known brands...
_

[RedEvo]

You know PayPal have had a dodgy rep over the years........but it works.

d

[ken_uk]

Lots of places are using paypal now, its getting quite widely accepted outside of the auction community.
The only drawback could be the risk of ending up being one of the people who end up posting on paypalsucks saying that paypal scr**d them over, many companies have been put in jeopardy due to paypal freezing accounts on a whim..

Make sure you fully read their terms and conditions, to see what they are capable of doing to your business at any time, and make sure your business could cope should it happen (Im not sure if you could get insurance against this sort of thing happening).

Saying that, I have had little trouble from them, apart from dire levels of support, bad documentation for development and the usual 'you won but your not getting your money back' type problems as a buyer.