Choosing an Online Payment Processor

[hijodeputa]

Took me quite some time to read through all the posts. Thanks to all the advices and sharing.

I want to expand my business to Asia and thinking whether is needed to find a local payment gateway there. Is Paypal popular in Asia? I know Worldpay has its own office in Singapore but I heard from other forums that it is not that well accepted. I found a few other choices. Payment Asia, Enets, Ccavenue etc... Any suggestions?

Also do they have any regulations on taxation? This could also be a headache in long term....

 

[saidexo]

There are various payment processors to choose from for a business website. They differ from one another for their some features as well advantages and disadvantages.
Yeah, maybe most entrepreneurs use paypal, but the fact is that there are still variable alternatives to paypal such as moneybookers, escrow, alertpay, stormpay, e-gold and so on.
Personally I prefer moneybookers, as in contrast to paypal it is international and available for any country in the world.

 

[Bonnie11]

SecureTrading are launching a Merchant Account Service next week at Internet World, with very competitive rates and an introductory offer. It is not showing on their website yet but definitely worth a call. 01248 672075

 

[springbrook99]

We use protx.
The original plan was to use nochex but we heard that they use another provider themselves so thought might as well go straight to where we needed to go.
Protx are cheap but youll need some programming knowledge to integrate it.
anyone started using Google checkout yet?how are you finding it?

We now implement Google Checkout as our preferred solution. Low transaction fees, quality brand and various other goodies such as email invoicing, google checkout icons etc.

Still offer Paypal as an alternative but I can't see how companies like Worldpay are going to retain a market share unless they change.

 

[deniser]

We have been using Paypal for the last 2 years and decided, now that the business is up and running, to swap to Secpay.
Our experience of Paypal is this:
On the plus side:
(i) no set up costs or monthly fees. You just pay as you go which is fantastic for a start uo business where you have no idea whether you will make the volumes necessary to justify hefty fees.
(ii) anyone using Ebay will be familiar with it and it is a very quick checkout process
(iii) it works in many countries around the world
(iv) the facility which allows you to send an invoice is useful
(v) refunds are free and you even get the proportion of the original fee reimbursed to you
(vi) fraud protection if you send goods up to £500 to a confirmed address by recorded delivery
(vii) you control when you transfer money to your bank account and you don't need a special business account if you don't want one.

The most annoying of the downsides are:

(i) some people see the work Paypal and immediately log out either because they mistakenly think they need a Paypal account or because they have had a bad experience with Paypal on an Ebay transaction
(ii) if you have ever had a Paypal acount it recognises your email address and doesn't allow you to pay with another credit/debit card and the customer goes round in circles because they can't remember their log in details
(iii) they are not interested in fraud. I have reported many instances of fraud to them and they take no action to suspend the account or do anything further.

On balance though it is excellent for a start up business but you must operate your own anti fraud measures which are quite obvious once you get going. Having been stung once, I detected the rest quite easily with some commonsense.

I have now changed to Secpay and am having some teething problems in that my overseas transactions are all failing because the house numbers and postcodes don't match up. I will try to set it at a lower security setting and see of that makes a difference.

Any other tips on Secpay would be much appreciated.

 

[NickLockett]

We're looking for an on-line payment soution which allows us to take cards for payment and which allows a transaction (verification) code to be used.

This needs to be sent to us and included on the bank statement so that the card transaction can be linked to the account holder.

The transaction on the statement would have the last 4 digits of the user account (***XXXX) and a unique transaction code (YYYYYYY).

i.e. Payment for CCOMMS Account ****XXXX Code YYYYYYYY

Anyone any idea who might provide this?

Looking at over 50k per month in transaction values
Thanks
Nick Locket

 

[Cheryl]

Hi, really interested to read the options here, we are looking to move forward in this field and have been recommended to take a look at Invapay they can automate invoicing and complete electronic payments. invapay.co.uk are not any of these lists so has anyone heard or had experience with them. They are obviously a smaller company rather than some of the big names in this thread but could that be a good thing???? They also do a pay as you go system so you only pay for the payments made or recieved via the electronic payment system, which would be good for us to start with.

 

[streetslocal]

Hi, really interested to read the options here, we are looking to move forward in this field and have been recommended to take a look at Invapay they can automate invoicing and complete electronic payments. invapay.co.uk are not any of these lists so has anyone heard or had experience with them. They are obviously a smaller company rather than some of the big names in this thread but could that be a good thing???? They also do a pay as you go system so you only pay for the payments made or recieved via the electronic payment system, which would be good for us to start with.

I wouldnt touch them.
Established since october,and a basic template website system that does not answer anything really.
Also the directors have been directors of many dissolved companies!

 

[PayPoint net]

Just to let you know that SECPay and Metacharge have re-branded to PayPoint.net. We still offer flexible payment gateway packages to merchants that already have an Internet Merchant Account; if you don’t, we can provide you with a complete solutions package (payment gateway + internet merchant account).

We started processing payments for many of our established merchants when they were just starting out, so check us out and get in contact, even if it's just for a chat to discuss your options.

 

[ukresident]

Getting started in E-Commerce - Choosing an
secpay

SecPay has now rebranded to PayPoint.net

 

Big advocate of Paypal here used it for 5 years.

Advantages Biggest in the world.

Everyone knows it.

Customers like it as a dispute nearly always goes in there favour.

No overheads monthly charges,do no business pay nowt.

simple to calculate your fee's.

reduced rates the more you sell.

Earl

 

[Gate2Shop]

Another to add to the list is g2s.com for handling accounts with or without previous merchant accounts set up. A truely full service provider.

 

[streetslocal]

Really?
I wonder out loud,do you own or work for that company?

 

[redgrape1985]

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']I have used both worldpay and PayPal although neither was appropriate for my business. Worldpay are very secure and have a relatively easy online system although their big letdown for me is the deferred settlement they offer. In my case (and I drop-ship) it was 30 days! NOT GOOD as I’m sure you understand about cash flow! PayPal on the other hand are arguably the worst company I have ever done business with although the customers love them as it is (let’s face it) easy and reliable to use. I would recommend protx, in my opinion the best gateway you can get with 2-3 days deferred settlement and an excellent online system, very user friendly.

 

[streetslocal]

Currently working for them, pal.
Is there something I could help you regarding our services or just asking about?

Its just it could come across as SPAM

 

[e-wiz]

Has anyone recently used HSBC's electronic end to end payment solution. I'm looking around and want to get sone insight on whether there are issues in integrating their service into websites?

 

[LightingGiants]

Thanks for this post just what I needed. Im just awaiting to open the bank account will sureley at these payment companies. Im i going the right way are payment companies a better solution to having your own payment thing on your site.

Thanks

 

[quikshop]

Another to add to the list is g2s.com for handling accounts with or without previous merchant accounts set up. A truely full service provider.

Too many unknowns about g2s.com, not entirely sure where their head office is but its not in the UK. There are other threads about this lot worth searching for on which Gate2Shop failed to answer some important questions. Avoid.

 

[roi_grong]

i've been using Moneybookers for the last 3 odd years, and I'm very happy with them. I have read complaints elsehwhere, but they have been very good with me.

I also used Paypal for a year, but I don't think their Terms and Conditions are particularly fair. Never had a problem with them either, but I dropped them last year.

 

[Electronica]

Try Patrasys.com, they are another good provider and have always been good to my business. Paypal never ever allowed us to accept more than £2000 on a single order. Patrasys allows us to transact up to £25000 on a single order.

 

[S Thatcher]

I wish I'd read the thread before launching in to offering payments on line for my customers. I didn't want anything on my site. I wanted to take a card or send and invoice. It seemed easy to set up with Pay Pal. Then a week in the whole thing went belly up. I'd set up a business account and then because as a business I'd done £1700 of business they blocked the account.
How can you offre a business account that defaults at £1700. I then had to re-confirm a whole load of othings such as card etc that I had already done, and then they said that my business was not welcome, but wouldn't tell me why an dthen would let me withdraw money for sales I'd made.
They are amateur in my opinion, great for selling your old tata for a few pence but I wouldn't go near them again.
I called RBS World pay and bingo off and running. Diffrent World.

 

[Ronney]

The real breakthrough in online money transfer was brought by private non-banking players, i.e. PayPal, Western Union, Epay, etc. These players defined an ingenious way of transferring money online through emails. All users need is to create an account and fund the account using credit card. The money can then be used to make payments, transfer to any bank, any country, and any account instantly. what makes it even better is transaction charges levied by these non-banking organizations, which is so economic that everyone can afford.

 

[quikshop]

Try Patrasys.com, they are another good provider and have always been good to my business. Paypal never ever allowed us to accept more than £2000 on a single order. Patrasys allows us to transact up to £25000 on a single order.

I suspect vested interests with Electronica, they do nothing but promote a service which has several threads on this forum about it... and neither are positive.

 

[Dominic Taylor]

I called RBS World pay and bingo off and running. Diffrent World.

A world of darkness, pain, and reconciliation dates which seem like the light at the end of the never-ending tunnel perhaps?

We acquired a Worldpay account as part of an acquisiton once. I say acquired - we actually had to setup an entirely new account which took oh, about 4 weeks, then found that they would hold £1k and take 30 days to send any money to us. Those were interesting times. We quickly migrated the entire operation to our primary systems (Protx, now Sagepay) and haven't looked back.

I highly recommend Protx. 2-3 days reconciliation, no 'reserve' amount, no complex fees. Just £20/month or 10p/transaction depending on your level. The next step is to get our Barclays merchant rates to decent levels, they want a meeting in-branch and I simply don't have the time. Amazing how you can do anything else over the phone, especially since they admit the branch staff are numpties....I've been by a branch on the phone to them and the girl said don't go in

What Sage will do to it is anyone's guess, but all seems good so far.

 

[stugster]

Keep in mind, everyone, that this thread is actually over four years old. Things change, fees change, special offers come and go.

 

[tevysim]

It is worth mentioning that I stopped using WorldPay because of their inability to detect fraudulent transactions. They may seem hype, but the amount of money that was drawn from my merchant account with them due to chargebacks is something that all of you need to be aware of.

We registered for the 2co.com service and guess what, even though you don't even need a business bank account, they have detected most fraudulent transactions.

I ended up paying more than 200 quid to them in less than 4 months. This is not good at all.

So I decided to drop the hype worldpay account and get one at 2co. Much happier customer with them!

It is very interesting discussion. it seems to me that all of you have different experience with those payment system.

Now, it is hard for me to choose payment system because i just start e-commerce.

 

[sanctu9]

For those of you who find that paypal and ebay are not good to deal with they are both owned by the same company I believe the same company that now owns skype who for no reason whatsoever take money out of your account for themselves if it is in there unused for over 3 months. Basically they are a law unto themselves and I have stayed well clear of any dealings with all those companies... shame really skype was pretty amazing prior to being bought out as was ebay...

 

[tevysim]

you mean that i should not use paypal, right?

 

[sanctu9]

well of course you can use them if you like but I myself don't.

 

[tevysim]

so how is your solution of payment system in order to make truth to buyer?

 

[GTrotter666]

We used to use PayPal. However their fees are relatively expensive. We now use Protx (Sage) and a merchant account with our bank. Makes debit card payment a hell of alot cheaper to accept and a small saving on credit cards.

I also found too many rejected transactions on PayPal (resulting in abandoned carts) which seems to have reduced with our new setup

Gary

 

[skyhi2]

Someone pointed out earlier in the thread ( well,it has been running for years ,that Paypal was only used by Fleabayers and people buying old tat.

My,how things have changed.

It`s now probably the most used checkout system on the net ( sure someone will correct me if i am wrong ).

It is now being used by quite a lot of Chinese Manufacturing houses,and getting as popular as Western Union.

Love it,or hate it,it is by far the most "popular" out there.

The Chinese in particular have a very different outlook on trading.

Take Western Union for example,frowned upon in the west ( usually ) as a breeding ground for scammers and the like,most Chinese suppliers use it as the " norm ".

Just my 2 cents.

Skyhi2

 

[sonofeve]

All,

Are there any reasons or indeed any traps to avoid when applying for a merchant account? Are there any reasons why they would refuse to grant any business a merchant account?

Many thanks in advance

Nigel

 

[websitedesign]

90% of websites will not require merchant accounts because of the expense in time and money.

For most sites a simple PayPal 'Buy Now!' button will work the best.
-globally accepted and trustworthy (unlike most smaller payment processors)
-don't need anything to set up and only takes a few minutes to insert code in website
-fees are per transaction and low compared to the alternatives

 

[quikshop]

Any shop that does not offer full card payment facilities through the more trusted UK payment service providers and just offer PayPal will be losing potential customers.

-fees are per transaction and low compared to the alternatives

Compared to what!? UK payment service providers are always cheaper than PayPal when used with a merchant account, often significantly cheaper.

-don't need anything to set up and only takes a few minutes to insert code in website

That is exactly why more seasoned online shoppers will avoid PayPal-only shops, anyone can set up a PayPal account with no credit or fraud checking.

With UK payment service providers you have to be financially viable to open an account.


PayPal is fine to trial a shop concept and to offer as an alternative means of payment but if you want your customers to take your shop seriously, offer them full card payment options through a UK based service.

 

[websitedesign]

I agree that if you are a company and sell large quantities of products online then registering for a merchant account is the best option....locally in the UK, even better.

"UK payment service providers are always cheaper than PayPal when used with a merchant account, often significantly cheaper."

How much does it cost to setup a merchant account and pay a designer/coder to implement a full service shopping cart into a website?

This isn't free or cheap.

Sure the cost per transaction is lower once the merchant account is set up compared to PayPal... but overall is it really cheaper for most websites? For most it is not.

PayPal is guaranteed payment and it is really hard to rip people off. 9/10 times they agree with the buyer when disagreements arise and they do offer full refunds in such cases...

 

[quikshop]

How much does it cost to setup a merchant account and pay a designer/coder to implement a full service shopping cart into a website?

The last merchant account we set up with RBSWorldpay was free and their payment service is already integrated into the Ecommerce platform we use, so zero cost to us.

You'll find that most UK payment services are easily or already integrated into popular open source and hosted Ecommerce solutions so there really is no major financial barrier to obtaining a merchant account and accepting card payments online.

Don't get me wrong, PayPal has its place and is a useful option to offer customers as an alternative but its a poor second to UK payment options for UK based retailers.

From a merchants point of view we actually removed the PayPal option for customers some months back from our martial arts shop and we've not seen any drop in orders at all, if anything there has been a steady increase although that's probably due other activities.

 

[sonofeve]

Has anyone heard of Crystal Payments based in Mauritius?

 

[payment gateway]

These days there are so many companies offering online payment solutions, its hard to know which one to go for. I think the biggest issue when choosing an online payment processor is how reliable they are. With the amount of online fraud going on, you need a payment gateway that is secure and that you customers can trust. So shop around, find out what other e-commerce websites are using and make an informed decision.

 

[Silky]

We chose Paypal....secure, well known..... and now we find they're out an out bully boys. They're currently reviewing our account and have put this on block for 5 whole weeks now (after our best year ever!)
http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=127915

I haven't read the rest of this thread yet but will do so, we're now desperately looking for a second payment processor if not a total replacement, Paypal's customer service is nothing short of abysmal.

Silky