Accepting payment without merchant account

[Adam Cox]

Hi, I have an online business and often have to accept random payments for between £10 - £250. For the past two years I've used paypal and emailed a paypal money request for the desired amount. It's a very convenient and simple process but they charge a huge fee and take a massive chunk of my cash!

Does anybody know of a decent, similar alternative. I looked into it briefly but don't really want to get a card machine etc - it's only a small online business.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Adam

 

[TradeboxMedia]

Hi Adam,

Unfortunately, the payment processing industry is, in my opinion, a corrupt monopoly at best.

You're stuck with a merchant services account (at a high fee) or with what you're doing with a service like PayPal.

That's for now, anyway.

Startups like Square and iZettle will probably change all this and democratise the market considerably. If you can hang on for a few months and wait for their UK launch, then this could be a good option.

Stephen.

 

[Strontium Dog]

What about just sending your bank details and getting them to do a transfer ?

Most banks do fsater payments now so you even get the funds same day.

Free !

 

[Adam Cox]

Thanks you two, good to know I'm not the only one put out by this. Yes might start doing more bank transfers, just not sure how professional it looks if it's for like £6?

Those two other options sound like they're worth waiting for. Good to know, thanks.

 

[SetupaCompany]

If it is only a small business doing relatively small amounts then, to be honest, at the moment I dont think there are really any better options than PayPal.

Paypals fees are around 4 to 4.5% which is not drastically different to if you have a proper merchant processing account and so for the small savings you would make I am not sure it would be worth the effort to change.

There are other similar services such as Moneybookers but they are very similar to PayPal and dont have the name recognition and dominance in the market so you may find clients are less willing to use them.

Instead you could always look at PayPals business solutions such as Hosted Pro which would give you a better checkout procedure, potentially lower fees but still allow the easy management of clients without needing a merchant account.