Looking for a payment solution

[electrician]

Hey guys,

I'm hoping some of you who are experienced in eCommerce maybe able to help me out as quite frankly I'm lost right now.

I'm an Electrician who's not long started his own company. I want to be able to accept CC payments.

Because of quite large startup costs, my first year was reported at a loss, despite taking a good amount of money. Because of this, we were rejected by streamline which was the first and obvious choice.

We're getting busier and busier and more and more people are asking if we accept Credit Cards, it's frustrating having to say no.

With the economy the way it is, it's understandable people want to pay via CC and I'd love to be able to facilitate it.

What are my other options. I looked briefly in to paypal but wasn't sure whether I could use a regular account or whether I'd need a business account.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

Les

[cmarks]

Business, yes - the rates are different too...

There's also ProTX - and use of a merchant bank account, WorldPay, and also CardNet (from LloydsTSB) - all simple to integrate to, WP offers you a merchant terminal too, so in theory, you could accept payments over the telephone if you were sat in front of your computer... It's not how WP intends it to be used, a recent sales system for telesales agents to input deals and bill customers I wrote makes use of it - so it's feasible. They do tend to hold onto your money for a while though...

If you wanted any pointers in how to integrate WP, I'd be happy to offer you some tips.

[bmvproperty.biz]

Paypal would be a good solution

[mattlast005]

Palpal is good but the fee's can get very costly for a business and really eat into your profit margins. If you are looking to advertise using PPC and you find that a beneficial way to market your business then Google CheckOut will be a great choice as there are great incentives. Another one I would highly recommend is Paypoint.

Hope this helps.

[jimbotri]

protx also give an option for you to input the details if you are near your PC, we have been very pleased with the service. Protx move the money to your account overnight regardless of amount unlike paypal.

To be fare to paypal , we started of with them as a cheap option to get the e-commerce site up and running , but then wanted something that was fairer on fees once we started to get a volume of orders

[mattlast005]

They pay it into your account overnight??!! If thats the case that's fantastic.

[jimbotri]

I should say 'Protx sends a batch settlement file to your merchant bank on a daily basis, containing all the authorisation codes obtained that day. It then takes the banks 3 to 4 days to pay this money into your business bank account, depending on the agreement you have with your bank.'

[mattlast005]

Seems very similar to Paypoint but sounds good :).

[sheilagard]

Hi
very small business so you need to consider other replies. However Paypal is very easy to set up and cheap. They will also offer credit cards if you wish.

Good Luck

Sheila

[Kernelpower_Ltd]

we use protx but paypoint are very good as well.

[moorjas]

Hi,
A simple way to take cards online is with PayPal Pro.
Gives you an online terminal - web payments and lots of other little tools.
No waiting for banks to pay out... !

All the best,
Peter

[Supplybus]

Protx is very good and this links nicely into our bank.

[KidsBeeHappy]

The FSB have this set up with a mobile credit card terminal company. I don't know too much about it because its not really relelvant to me. However, It would be something that would be good for you, being able to take CC payments on the spot with a mobile terminal.

That said. A laptop/netbook with 3g and Protxs VSP (virtual terminal), or Paypals (expensive) virtual terminal will do just the same thing. I guess it depends on how oftern you'll think you'll use it.

One thing to look at though is you're average transaction value. Paypal are around 4%, protx are £20pm up to I think 1000 transactions pquarter. Debit cards are usually pennies with a merchant account, and credit cards somewhere between 1.8% - 2.5% depending on the rates you get.

If you've a transaction of £250 and the customer pays by debit card, with paypal this is going to cost you £10, with a different gateway & a merchant account it's going to be less than 50p.

Are yours the type of bills that people pay with debit cards rather than credit cards?

[Wendy.Rule]

Hi

It depends if you want to spend time setting up the gateway for payment and a merchant account, versus just using a service that takes the money on your behalf and then pays you. The different structures can be found on the internet. The first is often cheaper, however there is a set up cost and effort. Fees are usually based on number of transactions so this can also make a difference if you can work out the likely volume per month.

We are using Protx with a merchant account. This required a reasonable level of effort to set up over a month or so, not all work but a lot of questions and waiting for answers and then testing. However this gives us the ability to make our own payment screens whereas a direct payment system is through their front end.

As others have said the other factor is the length of time the company will retain your payment, this varies across different merchant accounts and payment providers. However most are within a week or two. The reasons given to us is to reduce their exposure to a customer disputing a payment.

Regards
Wendy

[IridiumCorp]

Electrician,

What was your turnover year 1.

[Venka]

Join the FSB www.fsb.org.uk (http://www.fsb.org.uk) (I think it is about £100) and you will get reduced rates for Streamline, there is no set up fee then either.