NOCHEX - Any reason not to?

[willQ4u]

Has anyone heard anything significantly bad about Nochex?

I was tempted to go the PayPal route but I am now considering Nochex, while PayPal is the most prolific of the non merchant systems, it seems to have quite a bit of bad press – It has even got a damming website forum dedicated to it: www.paypalsucks.com

Fortunately, we started out with reliable clients that made payment by cheque and BACS so we have never had to rely on online payment. But now we are receiving an increasing number of enquiries from individuals wanting to use our services and we need to offer alternative methods of payment to accommodate.

Whether you are a start up or established in business I think the cardinal rule is to try to keep costs down. I do not see any point in splashing out money on anything that may not prove be profitable enough to follow through.

Going the merchant route (with HSBC) means paying a £200 initial fee, £20 per month along with their slice for transactions; is this prudent? Then there is the web site, up until now we have had a web site, more for web presence than anything else and our server is not SSL equipped. Moving to another service provider that offers SSL involves more cost, time effort and hassle!

I think that it is about time that the banks got their act together. They obviously have the finance acumen but they seem to have lost their Business sense somewhere along their road to riches. Offering an initial non merchant solution to start ups and business that need to trial ecommerce would entice and encourage loyalty to them - If I have to consider PayPal as a solution they can be sure that I wouldn’t think twice about choosing a new bank at a later stage.

But back to the initial question, NOCHEX, any horror stories?


willQ4u

[Webstuff]

Will, I've been looking at Nochex as well, but the major problem (and the only one so far) that I have found, is that they don't seem to accept international buyers at all. Would this be a problem for you?

[lisastorey]

while PayPal is the most prolific of the non merchant systems, it seems to have quite a bit of bad press

Hi, we have been using Paypal for a good couple of years and been nothing but impressed by the service and support we received. There is some talking on the forums of people being put off buying things through Paypal but we haven't had any feedback from our customers to support this.

That said we have just become incorporated so are going to change to a merchant supplier.

[Webstuff]

I've not had the same experience; customers have contacted me specifically asking to pay through something other than PayPal, and I've found their customer support to be appalling, either taking a very long time to reply (sometimes over a week), or simply not replying, so I've had to repeat my question and wait an extra week or so. I'm very glad to hear that you haven't had the same problems, but I certainly wouldn't recommend them ;)

[Ozzy]

The problem with PayPal is that its mainly a US company, and works to US practices which don't fit in with the UK.
NoChex seems to be more and more popular but they "don't do" international as I understand it.

I would recommend getting a bank merchant account if I were you, and you don't need the 20 a month because you wont need a terminal machine if all your transaction are going to online or card holder not present. That will open up your choices of what payment provider to use.
Then look at the likes of NoChex, Worldpay, Protx and DataCash. These seem to be the most popular choices for people.

[lisastorey]

I have also been looking at PPPay.com this afternoon and they seem on a par with Paypal, they were recommended on the following website (backed by the DTI)

http://www.electronic-payments.co.uk

Its worth taking a look at the website

[RockLinks]

Why not let the customer choose the payment method? I personally highly reccomend Nochex and have started building websites that only accept Nochex.

[tommy]

I have to say that I have been looking around for a online payment client to deal with all my online transactions. I did look at paypal first and did have a few quieries which their FAQ's didnt answer, so sent a couple of questions for them to reply back.

I got a reply back in 4 days and the other question in 5 days, in that time I got in contact with Nochex asked them questions they got back to me the following morning with my question answered clearly and everything l needed to get sorted.

So I have now got Nochex all ready for my site ready to be released. I know that you are saying about international buyers but as mine is for UK only this is absolutely perfect for needs.

[bobt]

PayPal seems a bit like marmite - you either like it or think it sucks!

I've read some real horror stories about PayPal and it seems that everthings ok so long as everything is running fine. It all falls apart though as soon as theres a problem.

Their support seems really bad but when PayPals working then it seems to work ok.

[RockLinks]

Well i can safely say when nochex gets popular it will go worldwide.

[Webstuff]

The real problem with PayPal is their method for handling chargebacks; I've got not problem with a customer getting their money back, but they don't ask you for any details you have on the transaction, and don't require any explaination from the customer requesting the chargeback, they simply give them back their money. Up to sixty days later. AFTER they've recieved the merchandise. Tsk, is all I can say... When I've contacted them asking for an explaination (formally) I've recieved no reply, which is a bit rude really. There are also no end of websites with stories about people who have lost massive sums of money from this happening...

[willQ4u]

Thanks for your input guys. I have taken the Nochex route since nobody has had any real bad experiences with them and non UK cards are not so much of a problem for my business.

I do see the advantages of offering more than one means of payment but for the time being I do not want to have to deal with chargeback and fraud issues * methods of payment.

[sontrex]

Hi Guys,

If you are looking for secure and efficient payment processing solutions you sholud looking towards Payment Service Provider. For instance E-Clear provides complete card processing service with fraud protection services.

[cuckoo]

Has anyone heard anything significantly bad about Nochex?

...

But back to the initial question, NOCHEX, any horror stories?


willQ4u

Well, you did ask for horror stories...
www . ukbusinessforums . co . uk /forums/showthread.php?t=72434&highlight=nochex (remove the spaces)

A point to bear in mind is that "Nochex" will show on your customers statement - not your company name.

I am interested in using them as well - please update the forum with how you get on.

[JackieC]

I have had no difficulties with Nochex so far. They would not let me onto their "merchant account" which is the one that lets you go International and over £100 etc., presumably because I did not have any trading history. However, a few weeks ago, they emailed to say that they were revising their "risk policy" and, as a result, they would now let me have "Merchant" status. Mind you, that was a few weeks ago - I am still waiting.

[keyaudioads]

Nochecx will charge if your account is inactive for a certain time - so unless you get frequent account activity - read the small print. I set up payments on a site a few years ago to accept paypal and nochex, but only received a couple of payments via nochex. Majority of customers opted for paypal. I never got the money from nochex, and due to inactivity - they charged me. So i ended up closing the account and going with paypal.

[darrenfties]

I have a internet based company fepprint.com that accepts payments for printed products and all credit cards are processed through NOCHEX excellent service

Thanks
Darren

[Megahertz]

Just a different perspective- we have a merchant account with Barclays Merchant Services and we used Protx as the gateway bewteen our website and BMS. It works very well, and was really easy to set up. At the time I set this up I applied for a PayPal merchant account but heard NOTHING from them (ever.) But about 3 months later they started sending me automated invoices (thankfully for zero as we didn't ever use it)

As a consumer I would prefer to go for a site using a merchant account and payment provider, I think many people think that PayPal is only used by startups who can't get a 'proper' account. I think this applies to a lesser degree to Nochex, although this is purely my opinion and not based on any research!

[sontrex]

Hi
I just wonder how much they charge you (I mean Barclays ) for merchant account any annual fees or something could you explain

Many thanks

[Steve2507]

Quick question - why are we bringing up a thread that is 44 months old?

If you have a new question, surely it is better to start a new thread, or am I missing something?

[cuckoo]

UKBF's time is off. This was only opened on Monday I think.

[Steve2507]

You are missing something - UKBF's time is off. This was only opened on Monday I think.The date onthe op is 17th April 2005, 21:13

[AndySmit]

I've used Nochex for about 18 months but moved because I was seeing a very high number of bailed carts every day at checkout for no reason compared to Paypal which was almost 100% successful. I have since moved to Worldpay and rarely get bailed carts. I don't think Nochex accept all cards and the support is poor. Nochex is cheap to start up but expensive in the long run as you will have loads of bailed carts. Worldpay incorporates a merchant account and telephone service which more than pays the £15 a month charge. If you are serious about trading online use a decent payment system, the money you may lose for each bailed cart will easily pay for the monthly charge at Worldpay.