Payment processor for adult sites?

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B

Bottled

Free Member
Jan 16, 2008
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  • #1
    I and a friend are currently working on starting a small business selling adult goods (sex toys, and such, no pornographic material), beginning by marketing towards the local student community (being students ourselves). We plan to set up an online store, so that selling between campuses and another local university is as simple as possible, however our main problem we've found is finding a good payment processor. Google Checkout and Paypal both have policies against adult goods, which is a shame, and the only processor with a good reputation we've found so far is Worldpay, who want a £200 setup fee and £30 a month to handle payments: Since our potential sales figures are by no means guaranteed yet (we've generally been met with positive reactions to the store from people we've talked to, but are well aware that due to the personal nature of the products we will be selling, this is unlikely to reflect our customer base), we don't believe that this is a wise investment at this point.

    Can anybody recommend a good payment processor that has no issues with the sale of adult goods?

    Cheers,
     

  • #2
    Paypal are usually fine with adult goods as long as kept within reasonable boundaries - ie Ann Summers type shop not anything hardcore. Never looked at Google checkout terms so don't know about them. It depends on the exact wording of the terms themselves.

    It's a highly competitive industry and requires a reasonable amount of money if your to make a success of it online. There are a few ukbf members who are in the industry.
     
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    B

    Bottled

    Free Member
    Jan 16, 2008
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  • #3
    Well, we're offering everything from toys to proper BDSM gear, so we're kind of wary about using them...

    We're aware of the competitive nature of the industry: We're more looking at competing with the local stores right now; we've garnered a fair amount of interest through word of mouth with the local student communities with our slightly more 'upfront' nature, compared to the local brick and mortar stores, have taken a few custom orders since we started getting the word out.

    The main reason we want to utilise e-commerce is to allow us to easily take orders from any of the campuses in the area without people needing to contact us directly, and of course some people have issues with actually speaking to someone about what they intend to buy in these cases; it's a situation where having a robot take orders for us over a human being is actually beneficial :)

    Out of interest, has anyone here had any experience with policy violations with Paypal? What would they do if they felt that our site didn't comply with their ethics policy?

    Many thanks!
     
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  • #4
    Paypal can close your account if they don't agree with what you are doing, but the only case on here I remember seeing related to R18 videos. Their acceptable use policy only says certain adult good (would imagine this is porn to be honest) https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/use/index_frame-outside. Why not just email their compliance section and ask the question?

    Certainly wasn't suggesting don't do it or don't use ecommerce, and you'll find quite a few threads relating to the industry on ukbf if you do a search, so that will highlight hosting companies, merchant accounts and other information relating to companies that are not adverse to the industry.

    Used to have a shop on ebay myself at one stage a few years ago - didn't stray into BDSM stuff though, just toys and lingerie, but I used Paypal and never had any problems.

    It definitely is an area that sells well online, and you're right people prefer to maintain a distance. Good on you for having a captive audience.
     
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    B

    Bottled

    Free Member
    Jan 16, 2008
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  • #5
    I've emailed Paypal on your advice, many thanks :)

    Looking at their policies however, they began to refuse the sale of adult goods through their service since around April 2003, so we may be sadly out of luck there, but certainly worth a try. We likely won't use them if there's a chance that they'll shut down our account without notice however - Someone trying to pay for an item, only to be met with a 'This account has been suspended.' screen would really put people off, and possibly spread rumours we would rather didn't exist ;)

    I will have a search around the forums, thanks! :)
     
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    E

    Echo's

  • #10
    Bottled said:
    Out of interest, has anyone here had any experience with policy violations with Paypal? What would they do if they felt that our site didn't comply with their ethics policy?

    Many thanks!
    Click to expand...

    Hi new here so hello to everyone

    Paypal are ok so long as you dont sell herbal items, erection rings or dvd's if they show sexual activity on the cover! If you violate these policies they suspend your account without warning. Happened to me a few months ago and took about 48 hours to resolve. I now use worldpay with paypal as an alternative.
     
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  • #12
    [FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, arial]Steve2507 was the other ukbf member I was trying to think of who I see on here a fair bit and who is in the same industry too, so he may also be able to point you in the direction of who he uses.[/FONT]
     
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    S

    Steve2507

  • #13
    boho said:
    [FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, arial]Steve2507 was the other ukbf member I was trying to think of who I see on here a fair bit and who is in the same industry too, so he may also be able to point you in the direction of who he uses.[/FONT]
    Click to expand...
    And as if by magic......

    Sorry to worry you but you are going to have a nightmare getting a merchant account, so much so that I personally wouldn't bother even looking at the banks. They have all moved away from the adult industry recently. If you have a good long standing business account with a branch and have good local branch connections you may stand a chance (using the old "if you don't give me this then I'll leave" approach).

    I'm told Bank of Ireland have recently changed their opinon so I am going to be getting in touch with them shortly (you never know). If you can get a merchant account then Protx, secpay, etc will all accept you.

    There are a number of companies where you can get payment services set up such as metacharge, however the charges are quite steep.

    Worldpay will take you on, but some of their conditions are stupid, like you can't have below belt naked photos (great for crotchless underwear:|).

    We use Nochex and Paypal. They are both happy with you selling adult goods as long as they are legal, so no R18's or unclassified dvds. Also stay away from room aromas (aka poppers), a law was recently passed which made some of the ingredients illegal. Most of the manufacturers have now changed the ingredients, but in my opinion stay away as banks may change their stance on them and stop you selling them (I know Barclays won't allow currenct merchants to sell them).

    Hope this helps.
     
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    M

    mediamole

  • #14
    Have you considered Actinic? It's an all-in-one e-commerce software package?

    Although they too have a policy regarding supporting sites such as yours, they do offer limited support and there are a number of payment providers that work in partnership with Actinic such as Protx
     
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    S

    Steve2507

  • #15
    mediamole said:
    Have you considered Actinic? It's an all-in-one e-commerce software package?

    Although they too have a policy regarding supporting sites such as yours, they do offer limited support and there are a number of payment providers that work in partnership with Actinic such as Protx
    Click to expand...
    It is not the software that is the problem, but the payment provider. Software providers say they work "in partnership" with banks etc, but at the end of the day it is up to the bank whether they accept the merchant or not.

    I think you are getting mixed up with a processor and a merchant bank. Protx are only the processor, they process the transaction on behalf of the bank and the customer. The bank themselves actually take the money.
     
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    E

    EASYSite

    Free Member
    Jan 17, 2008
    12
    0
    Uk, Peterborough
  • #16
    Hi,

    I have a online adult business selling toys, lingere, books, BDSM etc and we use metacharge. They are really good. and easy to set up.

    Would also like to offer my services, i am a designer and host and can help you out in the industry including contacts to great wholesalers.

    PLease pm me for more info, would love the opportunity to help you guys out.
     
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    M

    mattseo

    Free Member
    Jan 22, 2008
    27
    1
  • #20
    Paypal only supports USA adult sites :mad:

    My customers use Nochex for their Adult Toy Sites...

    visit nochex.com





    boho said:
    Paypal are usually fine with adult goods as long as kept within reasonable boundaries - ie Ann Summers type shop not anything hardcore. Never looked at Google checkout terms so don't know about them. It depends on the exact wording of the terms themselves.

    It's a highly competitive industry and requires a reasonable amount of money if your to make a success of it online. There are a few ukbf members who are in the industry.
    Click to expand...
     
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    P

    Paulyc

  • #25
    Bottled said:
    I and a friend are currently working on starting a small business selling adult goods (sex toys, and such, no pornographic material), beginning by marketing towards the local student community (being students ourselves). We plan to set up an online store, so that selling between campuses and another local university is as simple as possible, however our main problem we've found is finding a good payment processor. Google Checkout and Paypal both have policies against adult goods, which is a shame, and the only processor with a good reputation we've found so far is Worldpay, who want a £200 setup fee and £30 a month to handle payments: Since our potential sales figures are by no means guaranteed yet (we've generally been met with positive reactions to the store from people we've talked to, but are well aware that due to the personal nature of the products we will be selling, this is unlikely to reflect our customer base), we don't believe that this is a wise investment at this point.

    Can anybody recommend a good payment processor that has no issues with the sale of adult goods?

    Cheers,
    Click to expand...

    Hey bottled, did you manage to sort a merchant account? If not get in touch with Jay at Optimal Payments, they offer merchant accounts and payment gateway solution to the adult sector. Good rates too!
     
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    P

    Paulyc

  • #29
    Thanks Mr Wizard, thankfully after much searching I'm all sorted now. I was advised to contact Optimal Payments through another adult site (I cheekily emailed and asked who they used just playing dumb saying I wanted to be assured who was processing my card details). To be honest I didn't think for a minute Optimal supported adult content but to my amazement they do!! The best bit... I was up and running within 3 weeks!!
     
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    K

    kavauk

  • #30
    Google checkout accept all adult sites. Well, in the acceptable use it mentions no child pornography, but no mention of anything else adult related.

    Its driving me insane though, as they won't let clients with UK account sell in USD.
     
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    P

    PayVector

  • #31
    Iridium has a buy group in place for all legal adult sites with a European Acquiring Bank.

    If you need help drop me a PM and I will walk you through the process.

    The bank processes in all the main currencies but settlement is limited to USD,EUR,GBP.
     
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    P

    PayVector

  • #33
    Rates are specific to the Merchant and what exactly they are doing.

    Anything like Toys & DVDs, ie physical merchandise is considered high risk but you will not need to go on to the Mastercard high risk monitoring program.

    Anything with down loadable content, ie videos, images, stories, is considered by Mastercard to qualify for the Mastercard high risk monitoring program. There is a fee for this that Mastercard levies to the bank which then pass it on to the Merchant.
     
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    P

    PayVector

  • #34
    Steve,

    I had a look at your site and its pretty bog standard adult, not meaning that in a bad way, just that it has what you would expect.

    One thing that would come up though is the Chemist section. Online Chemists are another high risk processing issue all together. The banks risk person would go through each product to make sure its not on the sanction list. Its a pain but not a problem.
     
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    K

    kiberlain

    Free Member
    Feb 27, 2009
    6
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  • #35
    Emerchantpay are specialized in providing merchant accounts for adult merchants & websites and for such industries include:

    • Replica Products • Dating • Telemarketing • Multi-Level Marking • Cell Phone • Auctions • Travel • Pharmacy

    sales (at) emerchantpay.com
     
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