New Start-Up - Paypal or Merchant Account (eg WorldPay)

[allsquare]

If you were looking to start up an ecommerce website, what would your thoughts be on using PayPal initially before moving onto a PSP such as Worldpay or Protx ?

Would your decision change, should it be B2B instead of B2C?

Your thoughts are appreciated.

TIA

[KidsBeeHappy]

Paypal come with a lot of strings, and a imbalance of power. If you are prepared to accept/trade under those circumstances then no-one can argue against the fact that the customers do love it (the reasons they love it are exactly the reasons you as a merchant will grow to hate it!).

If you are FSB, then Streamline do a free merchant account with reduced rates. Worldpay have a special streamline deal whereby no monthly fees etc, only transaction fees. Protx also work happily with streamline. Protx also have an excellent VSP which makes Mail Order/Telephone payments delightfully easy.

i have no experience of any of the other merchant accounts.

[Burden]

i know alot of people go for Paypal as the first thing to save setup costs and integration and works well. Some people say it puts people off but it totally depends what your selling and your target market... i would save even if you go to Protx etc always have Paypal as an option because people who do use it love it for its name thats known as being secure and alot of studenty people use it.

[stugster]

My vote's for Google Checkout :)
I personally hate Paypal, and I'm not a fan of Worldpay's pricing

[HC-Martin]

My vote's for Google Checkout :)


Same here....but lots of people have said to me they don't/won't use it.

Have others noticed this?

[serrano]

Setting up using Paypal initially is a good move. However some customers don't like it so a few months down the line you need to have alternatives. Gets you off the ground though.

We dealt in Paypal initially for our first year and then introduced cc payments over the phone with our Spanish bank, i234i makes the valid point of it depends on what you are selling...

All within their means, initially Paypal is a sensible answer but have a plan in place to implement other payment systems - this is crucial.

[Island Computer Repairs]

Using Paypal, Nochex and Google Checkout at this time.

I personally would like to take credit card payments direct within the next 12 months :)

[Eagle]

My advice as always is to give customers a wide [b]choice[b] in payment methods. With 150 million user accounts, ignore PayPal at your peril. :)

[KidsBeeHappy]

My advice as always is to give customers a wide [b]choice[b] in payment methods. With 150 million user accounts, ignore PayPal at your peril. :)


Just remember to clear your account out daily :D

[RJH Enterprises]

When you say paypal do you mean the std paypal or are you referring to paypay payment pro uk?

I feel any store that only offers paypal/google etc operates on a part time / amateur level, I know this is not true but it is the image you will display to customers.

I always feel it is better to offer card payments along side these others. Paypal can be funny if they don't like your set up - I'd personally suggest worldpay etc etc but you will need a business bank account, and then they take care of the IMA and payment gateway. You will need to have about £300 spare to pay upfront in fees though!

Cheers
Rob

[Peter Bowen]

Protx and Worldpay can both accept paypal so if you go for one of these you've got paypal covered.

I started with paypal and then got scared off reading the horror stories. If it's for a bit of pocket money maybe paypal is ok but I'd be very reluctant to build an entire business on their foundation.

Having said that - other people have had no problems with paypal.

Cheers

Pete

[Martin P]

I was on the phone to Streamline this evening

They want a
£250 Set up fee
And
2.65% of credit card transactions
3.75% of business credit card transactions
38p for debit card transactions

Then Worldpay would want
1% of credit card transactions
13p for debit card transactions

Would defiantly have to set a minimum purchase amount for debit cards at that price (like Royal Mail)

What's Protx like?

I agree with a lot of what's said before^
I'd like to offer Google Checkout and PayPal
But also offer credit and debit cards through a payment processor as I do think it looks better

Trouble is, I set PayPal as the cap for my fees and don't really want to pay more than 3.4% + 20p for a transaction

[Peter Bowen]

We have protx and worldpay. I like worldpay for recurring billing and protx for once off sales (for us right now protx is faster to pay out than worldpay).

I found the protx integration a little more cumbersome than the worldpay but neither was significantly difficult and both are well documented.

[Christiane]

You can get much cheaper rates with Streamline if you are an FSB member, but the Worldpay rates are very low, is there a catch?

Bear in mind that with worldpay you don't get your money straight away, so think about your cashflow. With protx, it's in your account in 3 working days.

With protx (10p per transaction), you still need an internet merchant account. I have protx to collect the card details and Streamline to process the payment.

I offer Paypal, card payments and cheques, and the most popular payment is by card, then Paypal then cheques. Paypal accounts for about a third of my transactions.

[KidsBeeHappy]

With FSB there will be no set up fee, i think, and cheaper rates. It costs £150 for first year fsb, and then £100 per year renewal. Streamline transaction rates will also be cheaper.

Worldpay's worldpay/streamline rates are very good. It's that old back scratching thing as they're both part of the RBS group.

Also, with worldpay/streamline you can get your money straight away, there is no waiting period with the account I had set up. Check this with your worldpay contact, but don't assume that you need to wait.

And if you use the pair together then they can move quite quickly in setting it all up.

[Martin P]

With FSB there will be no set up fee, i think, and cheaper rates. It costs £150 for first year fsb, and then £100 per year renewal. Streamline transaction rates will also be cheaper.

Worldpay's worldpay/streamline rates are very good. It's that old back scratching thing as they're both part of the RBS group.

Also, with worldpay/streamline you can get your money straight away, there is no waiting period with the account I had set up. Check this with your worldpay contact, but don't assume that you need to wait.

And if you use the pair together then they can move quite quickly in setting it all up.
Thats right, Streamline said it would only take 3 working days to reach my bank (using Worldpay). I thought that was quite good. That's worth knowing about the FSB, was thinking of joining at some point anyway