Payment Gateways - personal experience

[deniser]

I need to pick one of these payment gateways as they are pre-integrated with the site I want to use. I am going to go through all their T&C with a fine toothcomb but can anyone who uses any of these let me know:

1. whether they use a third party screening system such as 3rd Man and whether it is included in the price - can't find mention of it on some of the websites
2. whether there are any processing errors or quirks
3. whether customer service is good including out of hours in an emergency
4. anything else which is not apparent from the websites

Authorize.net
Braintree
CardStream
DataCash
eWAY Rapid 3.0
IATS Payments
Iridium
Nochex
Optimal Payments
Payment Express PxPay
PaymentExpress
PAYMILL
Realex
SagePay
SagePay Form
SOFORT Banking (DIRECTebanking)
WorldPay (Direct)

 

[seoswat]

I have used 3 of them in the past

Authorize.net
Sagepay
Worldpay

I cant answer your question about 3rd man but out of those 3 i would recommend sagepay.

I have heard good things however about Nochex so might be worth you having a bit more look into sagepay and Nochex

 

[HobbyMounts]

I'm new to Sagepay and would recommend them, not the cheapest but the support is excellent. Pretty sure its 365 days, 24/7 too. 3rd man is included.

 

[Nexolutions]

Hi there,
It would really depend on the Merchant Account and shopping cart your looking to use. As all gateways integrate with a select number of merchant accounts and or shopping carts.

Feel free to PM me as we deal with all of these aspects and could recommend both Gateways and/or Shopping Carts.

 

[pickaweb]

Worldpay, Sagepay and Paypal.

 

[CardswitcherUK]

deniser
whichever gateway you choose, remember you will also need a merchant account for most (not Paypal) and you do not need to choose the merchant account which the gateway will provide as default.

We have found that clients can make significant savings by arranging their own merchant account. All your gateway provider then needs is the provider name and your merchant account ID.

So if price is an element of your decision making, bear this in mind.

 

[TotallySport]

reliability is your many worry, sagepay have excellent customer service and support, plus a good range of docs and add ons, a while ago they went through some relability issues.

So you should have a backup, you should integrate two system, so if the first fails the second one kicks in.

There was a period where Iridium had a good presence on the forum and was highly recommended, but their web site hasn't progressed any, and I have never used them so not a recommendation.

 

[LMDServicesUK]

reliability is your many worry, sagepay have excellent customer service and support, plus a good range of docs and add ons, a while ago they went through some relability issues.

So you should have a backup, you should integrate two system, so if the first fails the second one kicks in.

There was a period where Iridium had a good presence on the forum and was highly recommended, but their web site hasn't progressed any, and I have never used them so not a recommendation.

Re Iridium..

They are alive and well and their platform has had 0 downtime since it inception, so a good option if reliability is important to you.

We work with them, so I am happy to endorse them accordingly.

 

[Nochexman]

deniser
whichever gateway you choose, remember you will also need a merchant account for most (not Paypal)

You do not need a merchant account if you use Nochex.

 

[CardswitcherUK]

You do not need a merchant account if you use Nochex.

apologies peter, had forgotten it was included in your 2.9% + 20p fee

 

[Spearmint]

Like the OP, I too am at this stage, however because of its popularity I was intending to use paypal from the outset with my website, until it went pear shape!

So what went wrong?

I set up my new business paypal account, and activated it, but when I had to link a bank account to that paypal account, I noticed that the business name that I'd previously selected, inserted itself automatically into the account name of the bank account that I wanted to use, but the account number I'd entered was in my personal name and not the business name. As a consequence of this, I deliberately avoided confirming it, until I'd checked with paypal, as I suspected that it would be rejected as the name and account numbers did not tally. So, I sent them an email to request their advice.

However, to my dismay I discovered that paypal's support is pathetic, for the reply that I got back from them wasn't specific to my question, but was an automatic reply covering a host of questions that I could have asked about my account.
I wasn't impressed with this at all, so I'm now considering another payment partner, and one that has real life support!

I'd appreciate any advice

 

[japancool]

Like the OP, I too am at this stage, however because of its popularity I was intending to use paypal from the outset with my website, until it went pear shape!

So what went wrong?

I set up my new business paypal account, and activated it, but when I had to link a bank account to that paypal account, I noticed that the business name that I'd previously selected, inserted itself automatically into the account name of the bank account that I wanted to use, but the account number I'd entered was in my personal name and not the business name. As a consequence of this, I deliberately avoided confirming it, until I'd checked with paypal, as I suspected that it would be rejected as the name and account numbers did not tally. So, I sent them an email to request their advice.

However, to my dismay I discovered that paypal's support is pathetic, for the reply that I got back from them wasn't specific to my question, but was an automatic reply covering a host of questions that I could have asked about my account.
I wasn't impressed with this at all, so I'm now considering another payment partner, and one that has real life support!

I'd appreciate any advice

Have you tried calling Paypal?

 

[deniser]

I already have a merchant account which is compatible with all the payment gateways in the list.

Working my way through them, not many have 3rd party fraud screening so this is limiting my options a fair bit.

 

[LMDServicesUK]

I already have a merchant account which is compatible with all the payment gateways in the list.

Working my way through them, not many have 3rd party fraud screening so this is limiting my options a fair bit.

Out of interest what do you define as a third party fraud screening facility / capability, and why do you feel it should be part of your chosen Payment Gateway service ?

Any competent gateway service will at the very least support AVS, CVV and Secure 3D which are all anti card fraud checks designed to protect both card holders and Merchants.

Am interested to seek your views as to what else you think should be included, as the majority of the anti fraud checks I am aware of, are carried out in real time by the Merchant Service Providers to protect their card holders (often from themselves..) as part of their continuous security and processing checks (e.g. hot list checks, unusual usage patterns, transactions from unexpected locations etc).

Just my thoughts of course..

 

[MikeCC]

when I had to link a bank account to that paypal account, I noticed that the business name that I'd previously selected, inserted itself automatically into the account name of the bank account that I wanted to use, but the account number I'd entered was in my personal name and not the business name.

However, to my dismay I discovered that paypal's support is pathetic, for the reply that I got back from them wasn't specific to my question, but was an automatic reply covering a host of questions that I could have asked about my account.

I don't think it will make any difference - the main thing is the sort code/account number being correct. Your experience of PayPal email support doesn't surprise me. They seem incapable of actually reading the question and replying to what you are asking. As suggested above, phone them for a result - much more helpful.

Although it's easy to set up, PayPal is expensive unless you consistently get income in their higher bands. Especially annoying they charge %age on debit cards which are fixed pennies elsewhere. Can also be a headache for customer claims as they ring fence funds until resolved.

Third Man service is useful if you have high value sales of desirable items - it's saved me a few times! Apart from SagePay, it seems quite hard to track down who else offers it although I recall seeing some doing as an extra cost option.

For merchant account, look at joining FSB for good Streamline rates that you won't get directly as a small business. We made a net saving after membership cost but will obviously depend on turnover.

 

[alanc]

@deniser

I've used SagePay since it was called Protx and never had a problem with them. They did have a couple of well-publicised outages when they were growing in size, but I've not seen a problem. Their support is very good, too.

 

[deniser]

Out of interest what do you define as a third party fraud screening facility / capability, and why do you feel it should be part of your chosen Payment Gateway service ?

Any competent gateway service will at the very least support AVS, CVV and Secure 3D which are all anti card fraud checks designed to protect both card holders and Merchants.

Am interested to seek your views as to what else you think should be included, as the majority of the anti fraud checks I am aware of, are carried out in real time by the Merchant Service Providers to protect their card holders (often from themselves..) as part of their continuous security and processing checks (e.g. hot list checks, unusual usage patterns, transactions from unexpected locations etc).

Just my thoughts of course..

1. We took the decision not to use 3D secure - apart from where it is compulsory with Maestro cards - because we would lose a disproportionate number of sales because people can't grasp it. We see lost sales even with maestro cards.

2. Address checks are useful but not definitive given that about 25% of our customers have their orders delivered to a different address. And many fraudsters know the victims's billing address.

3. We have had a lot of fraudulent transactions on our websites. Some of these have been flagged up by Third Man so we have cancelled them and not suffered a chargeback. Others we have spotted ourselves and then checked what information Third man has to help us make a decision.

4. We also have a lot of orders which look suspicious but are actually genuine. Without additional information we would err on the side of caution and cancel these genuine orders but as we can phone Third man we can find out the cardholder's history which helps us decide that the order is genuine.

I would really be lost without it.

 

[LMDServicesUK]

Tx for the explanation, it was very helpful and I will now go investigate Third Man accordingly..

However re your decisions concerning 3D Secure a couple of observations for you..

All new debit and credit cards as now issued in the UK are automatically enrolled into either the Secured by MasterCard or Verified by Visa schemes, and if a customer does not register their card, they will find that they cannot use it online. So longer term you will lose far more sales than by not having 3D Secure enabled than if you had 3D Secure turned on.

Furthermore do you know for certain the "lost" sales are because of 3D Secure being switched on, rather than because the card user did not know the code because the card was not theirs to use..

More importantly where 3D Secure is used to validate a transaction ANY Fraud risk is removed as the Fraud liability for that transaction is automatically transferred away from the Merchant back to the card holders issuing organisation, just as happens when you use a PIN number with a physical terminal.

Obviously it is your choice as a merchant not to use 3D Secure but remember it will mean every transaction you process will be processed at Non Qualifying rates which normally means an additional 10 p charge on Debit cards and upwards of up to 0.8% additional charge on a credit card transaction..

So there is a significant commercial impact as a result of switching off 3D Secure..

Hope this helps put the pros and cons of 3D Secure into perspective for you.

Mark

 

[deniser]

We aren't charged extra for not using 3D Secure by our merchant account although I know that others banks do. I fully appreciate the liability issue. This is something that we review annually.

What do you mean by "So longer term you will lose far more sales than by not having 3D Secure enabled than if you had 3D Secure turned on." ?

Surely if we as retailers choose not to use the extra layer of security on a card it won't make the transaction fail?

I agree that if liability shifts to the Bank with 3D secure then no extra checks will be necessary.

I wish they would make it compulsory for all banks and all cards. Then all customers would be forced to get to grips with it and it would not affect sales. But I suspect that current retailer liability for fraud suits the banks quite well.

 

[Nochexman]

1. We took the decision not to use 3D secure - apart from where it is compulsory with Maestro cards - because we would lose a disproportionate number of sales because people can't grasp it.

Hi deniser.

Hope you don't mind me asking, but when you say you were losing a disproprtionate number of sales due to 3D Secure, can you say what a disproportionate number of sales was?

Thanks
- Peter

 

[deniser]

Hi deniser.

Hope you don't mind me asking, but when you say you were losing a disproprtionate number of sales due to 3D Secure, can you say what a disproportionate number of sales was?

Thanks
- Peter

We never switched it on for cards generally but for Maestro quite some time after they introduced 3D Secure, I would say that at least half timed out during the 3D verification process.

I had a look again just now to see if the situation has improved and actually, very few people are using Maestro now at all. At a rough guess they are about 70% Delta, 20% Mastercard, 5% Visa and 5% Maestro. Of those 5% Maestro transactions, 75% were authenticated and the others went through somehow without being authenticated. Is there a way to get out of it now if you get stuck?

 

[LMDServicesUK]

We aren't charged extra for not using 3D Secure by our merchant account although I know that others banks do. I fully appreciate the liability issue. This is something that we review annually.

What do you mean by "So longer term you will lose far more sales than by not having 3D Secure enabled than if you had 3D Secure turned on." ?

Surely if we as retailers choose not to use the extra layer of security on a card it won't make the transaction fail?

I agree that if liability shifts to the Bank with 3D secure then no extra checks will be necessary.

I wish they would make it compulsory for all banks and all cards. Then all customers would be forced to get to grips with it and it would not affect sales. But I suspect that current retailer liability for fraud suits the banks quite well.

Ok I should clarify my earlier comments, where a transaction is processed and it fails a security check (for example 3D Secure) but you choose to accept it and process it, it would be treated as an NQ transaction, so if you do not have 3D Secure switched on, you cannot be charged for an NQ transaction, my error sorry !

Re my other comment, our understanding is that all NEW or REPLACEMENT cards as being issued by MasterCard and Visa through their Scheme Members are now being required to be registered with one of the 3D Secure programmes by the card issuers if the card holder wants to use those cards online.

We also believe that where a customer chooses not to register for these schemes, they will be prevented from using their card online as they have not registered for 3D secure.

Also the majority of sites that now support 3D Secure will redirect the customer to register for the service if they try and use a card that is not registered, and in some cases will block the transaction on security grounds.

Hence my comments re your losing more sales over time, as customers who either do not want to sign up will not be able to make purchases online, or they may not use your site due to security concerns.

From a personal perspective I would always choose a 3D Secure protected site over one that is not, but that is just my personal choice.

Hope that clarifies my comments for you, but I am going to do some more research and will post a definitive statement once I have got further clarification as to what the Schemes are doing and what they are telling their members to implement / enforce..

Rgds

Mark

 

[deniser]

But one doesn't know until you pass checkout whether the 3D secure thing is going to kick in. It pops up annoyingly just when you think you have finalised your transaction. And Amazon don't seem to use it - I'm never prompted for my 3D secure password when shopping on that site. So I really don't think not having it puts customers off in any way. They just want to get through checkout as fast as possible.

I will be interested in your further research though.

 

[LMDServicesUK]

But one doesn't know until you pass checkout whether the 3D secure thing is going to kick in. It pops up annoyingly just when you think you have finalised your transaction. And Amazon don't seem to use it - I'm never prompted for my 3D secure password when shopping on that site. So I really don't think not having it puts customers off in any way. They just want to get through checkout as fast as possible.

I will be interested in your further research though.

Thanks for your feedback and of course as soon as I have more info I will of course re post.

In the case of Amazon I suspect they just take a view that they do not suffer from card fraud enough to warrant the lic costs of updating their servers to offer the facility..

Rgds

Mark

 

[noo81]

I use Paypal but a lot of our clients use Authorize.net. The only problem that seems to come up a lot, is the settings in the merchant accounts not being set properly by the client.

 

[Nochexman]

I would say that at least half timed out during the 3D verification process

Thanks for that. From memory, I think it is possible to retrace your steps. However, I think most people who start the 3D Secure process complete it these days. I'm not sure of the precise proportion (its probably commercially confidential), but it is pretty high (compared to half timing out that is). That is for Nochex, but I can't imagine that it varies much with other payment services.

I am guessing that conversion rates have increased greatly simply because more people now understand the process better. I know I used to hate going through 3DS because I could never remember my password, but that is not really an issue anymore.

 

[kulture]

Back to the original question. I use Iridium. I moved from Sagepay due to the downtime issues. I have never had any problem with Iridium. I cannot comment on their support as I have never had to use it. They have a nice authorise and capture feature which lasts longer than Sage and is more flexible.

 

[deniser]

Back to the original question. I use Iridium. I moved from Sagepay due to the downtime issues. I have never had any problem with Iridium. I cannot comment on their support as I have never had to use it. They have a nice authorise and capture feature which lasts longer than Sage and is more flexible.

I looked at this but there was no Third Man type thing. Do you use it with 3D Secure? Maybe it's time to switch to 3D Secure anyway.

 

[sysops]

I looked at this but there was no Third Man type thing. Do you use it with 3D Secure? Maybe it's time to switch to 3D Secure anyway.

I'm going to have to put in another vote for Iridium. Anyone familiar with my old posts will know that I was a SagePay customer for many, many years, all the way back to Protx years. After several prolonged outages, we switched to Iridium. The difference in reliability is huge - these guys have a properly engineered platform, with triple redundancy.

They didn't have a T3M style feature when we were using them, but really that made little difference. Platform reliability made the biggest difference for us.

As for 3DS - consider switching it on for orders over £x, where £x is your fraud threshold.

 

[rBrody]

All of these comments show how complicated the payment process can be for eCommerce stores. Zooz takes care of optimizing the entire payment process - from setting up the payment gateway and merchant account, to providing a fast and simple checkout interface focused on the consumer experience. Zooz obtains competitive fees from the payment gateways listed in your post, through the volume of merchants, while enabling your business to continue to grow and adapt according to your payment needs. Even more importantly, the Zooz PCI certified payment solution optimizes the smart checkout by remembering consumer payment details through device tokenization. Any consumer who has purchased from a Zooz enabled merchant can checkout in a few clicks, thereby boosting conversion rates, and reducing shopping cart abandonment.

Zooz just released a new Web Checkout 3.0 and is releasing a Magento extension to simplify the checkout process for Magento eCommerce stores.

Check out zooz.com.

 

[Nochexman]

Sounds brilliant Rocky! How much does it cost?

 

[LMDServicesUK]

All of these comments show how complicated the payment process can be for eCommerce stores. Zooz takes care of optimizing the entire payment process - from setting up the payment gateway and merchant account, to providing a fast and simple checkout interface focused on the consumer experience. Zooz obtains competitive fees from the payment gateways listed in your post, through the volume of merchants, while enabling your business to continue to grow and adapt according to your payment needs. Even more importantly, the Zooz PCI certified payment solution optimizes the smart checkout by remembering consumer payment details through device tokenization. Any consumer who has purchased from a Zooz enabled merchant can checkout in a few clicks, thereby boosting conversion rates, and reducing shopping cart abandonment.

Zooz just released a new Web Checkout 3.0 and is releasing a Magento extension to simplify the checkout process for Magento eCommerce stores.

Check out zooz.com.

Funny how there is no pricing information available on the zooz.com website ? Not even indicative, this would help.

 

[rBrody]

The reason that Zooz does not provide fees on the website is because we customize the fees according to the merchant's needs and location around the world. Here are a few example of our global fees, just to give you a general sense.

USA - ~2.4% + $0.20 USD per transaction and lower

France - 2.95% + 0.28 EUR per transaction and lower

Be2Bill fees:
Fees in France 1.6% + €0.15 and lower
Fees outside France 1.8% + €0.15 and lower

For more specific estimates, feel free to contact Zooz directly by filling out the fee estimate form on our website zooz.com/pricing.

 

[Nochexman]

hhhmmm - you do appreciate this is ukbusinessforums?

 

[LMDServicesUK]

The reason that Zooz does not provide fees on the website is because we customize the fees according to the merchant's needs and location around the world. Here are a few example of our global fees, just to give you a general sense.

USA - ~2.4% + $0.20 USD per transaction and lower

France - 2.95% + 0.28 EUR per transaction and lower

Be2Bill fees:
Fees in France 1.6% + €0.15 and lower
Fees outside France 1.8% + €0.15 and lower

For more specific estimates, feel free to contact Zooz directly by filling out the fee estimate form on our website zooz.com/pricing.

So you are in the PayPal / Stripe pricing range and therefore good for low monthly t/o Merchants who are just starting out on ecommerce

Tx for the indication though most helpful.

Rgds

Mark

 

[japancool]

All of these comments show how complicated the payment process can be for eCommerce stores. Zooz takes care of optimizing the entire payment process - from setting up the payment gateway and merchant account, to providing a fast and simple checkout interface focused on the consumer experience. Zooz obtains competitive fees from the payment gateways listed in your post, through the volume of merchants, while enabling your business to continue to grow and adapt according to your payment needs. Even more importantly, the Zooz PCI certified payment solution optimizes the smart checkout by remembering consumer payment details through device tokenization. Any consumer who has purchased from a Zooz enabled merchant can checkout in a few clicks, thereby boosting conversion rates, and reducing shopping cart abandonment.

Zooz just released a new Web Checkout 3.0 and is releasing a Magento extension to simplify the checkout process for Magento eCommerce stores.

Check out zooz.com.

I don't mean to be rude, but I read this and it just looks like generic marketing blurb. A good example is a non-statement like "while enabling your business to continue to grow and adapt according to your payment needs" - well, that could apply to pretty any online payment solution.

"optimizes the smart checkout by remembering consumer payment details through device tokenization" - while I have an idea what you're talking about, is there really any need for this kind of Americanised marketing gibberish? Why not just say "makes it easier by remembering credit card details"?

You want to convince me to use your solution, tell me what you do that Paypal, or HSBC, or Worldpay or anyone else doesn't do, preferably in nice, simple and plain English.