Paypoint vs Protx -- head to head

[starsgazing]

Heard good things about both & would love some opinions on them for a small business doing <100 transactions pcm.

 

[starsgazing]

Nobody?...

Oh dear God.. this parachute is a knapsack!...

*tumble weed*

 

[mke]

It's a non-argument. You assess your business. Then you assess the services you need to support that business. If you need a merchant account, you choose ProtX as your gateway. If Paypal will suffice, it has a gateway within.

 

[Page]

Paypoint is a different thing

http://www.paypoint.com/

 

[starsgazing]

Paypoint is a different thing

http://www.paypoint.com/

Thanks for the replies - I'd never heard of Paypoint as a payment gateway until last week myself ; but they are.

http://www.paypoint.net/solutions/payment-gateway/#gw_btn

I've heard OK reviews of Protx, but never heard from anyone that uses Paypoint (aka Sec pay).

 

[starsgazing]

It's a non-argument. You assess your business. Then you assess the services you need to support that business. If you need a merchant account, you choose ProtX as your gateway. If Paypal will suffice, it has a gateway within.

Thanks for the reply - but it's Paypoint not Paypal. Protx & Paypoint are both gateways.

 

[driansmith]

My experience with Protx was less than positive. They are cheaper ( I believe) and as a consequence are more inclined to blame everyone else when something goes wrong.

 

Protx seem very good, equitable to Worldpay but cheaper monthly costs.

Paypoint (was Secpay) has pretty awful customer communication and having been witness to the problems just trying to get some basic info to help a customer integrate this into their software I wouldn't now ever consider using it, it took weeks to get some pretty fundamental answers to questions and even then not all of the information requested was provided, answers just came back in a typically formulaic fashion. Personally I like to be able to pick up a phone and speak to someone, for all the occasional foibles of Worldpay I've never been able to fault the service I get when I pick up the phone and speak to them.

 

[starsgazing]

My experience with Protx was less than positive.

Paypoint (was Secpay) has pretty awful customer communication

Thanks guys... but yikes! :S

Drian on Protx- any chance of a little elaboration on why they weren't positive?
Also, am I right in thinking that they do not have a 12 month min. contract? (Whereas Paypoint do).

Boho on Paypoint - OK so they're not too good on the dev side? That's OK their integration guide is pretty straight forward. Did the customer get beyond integration? If so, any idea how did they found the service?

 

Boho on Paypoint - OK so they're not too good on the dev side? That's OK their integration guide is pretty straight forward. Did the customer get beyond integration? If so, any idea how did they found the service?

At the time... this is going back to summer last year.. there was no end of complications with the integration, theoretically it was supposedly straight forward, in practice there was a whole heap of callback issues as a result of the way Secpay/Paypoint expects to be given the info, as whereas Worldpay etc carries this out and callsback the information based on their setup and the integration, Secpay expects your site to callback the info instead - which is not the set up most people have or are used to.

It was resolved, eventually, but it shouldn't have taken weeks for them to answer questions, particularly when they were expecting the ecommerce provider integrating the solution to advertise Secpays services and sign up to the whole merchant preferred provider malarkey.

The customer is still using secpay, but then I believe they're contracted to at the moment, so thats not necessarily a reflection of their happiness, they still primarily receive payment via their Paypal account though - possibly for customers they recognise and trust Paypal, but do not recognise or trust Secpay?

Out of the two I would go Protx, they have a pretty good reputation and if you do a search on ukbf you will find the majority of people sing their praises. The next best is probably Worldpay, I've got mine with Worldpay, but my new shops I intend to use Protx and split the risk and costs.

The combination of either Protx or Worldpay and Streamline seems to be the best and the deal with FSB also seems to be well worth the £100 membership.

 

[starsgazing]

Cheers for the info

The combination of either Protx or Worldpay and Streamline seems to be the best and the deal with FSB also seems to be well worth the £100 membership.

With regards to the above - I've been searching, but cannot find the information about Protx & the FSB. We're with the FSB & Streamline - is there an additional benefit of being with Protx?

 

[TotallySport]

Protx has no deal with the FSB or vise versa.

Oh, and protx IMO is excellent

 

[starsgazing]

Protx has no deal with the FSB or vise versa.

I've been trying to find that out all day

I don't know why people are saying: FSB + Streamline + Protx
Is the best combination.

What's wrong with: FSB + Streamline + Paypoint/Secpay ?

If Protx don't have any deals with the FSB (but as Streamline do), then surely they're the same in terms of discounts...

 

[TotallySport]

When we setup protx is was by far the cheapest, which is why I would say streamline, protx fsb, but yes there is no reason why you couldn't choose someone else.

Good Luck

 

[neilly_smiff]

Heard good things about both & would love some opinions on them for a small business doing <100 transactions pcm.

Hi there,

If your business is doing <100 transactions pcm PayPoint.net's entry level gateway, Lite 10, comes with 100 transactions bundled in. If you find yourself going over 100 transactions on a regular basis the Lite 20 package has 200 transactions bundled in and you can upgrade from the Lite 10 to the Lite 20 package for free. You can find out more about the packages at PayPoint's website:
(3 w's)paypoint.net/solutions/payment-gateway/lite/

Whoever you decide to use, you need to make sure that they're PCI DSS compliant as new regulations come in from 1st October 2009 for anyone processing Visa transactions.

Do you have an internet merchant account yet? It's worth shopping with online PSPs as well as brick-and-mortar banks as, depending on your business model and any trading history, you may be able to get better rates. PayPoint have Fast Track packages which bundle an Internet Merchant Account with a payment gateway.

Anyway, whatever you do, best of luck to your business!

 

[TotallySport]

If your site is going to do more than 100 transactions a month quickly, and by quickly I would say within 3-6 months, I would say Protx will be cheaper, due to the developers costs in intergrating the payment system.

Paypoint (PP) is £10 for under a 100 transactions and £20 for under 200 transactions.

where as protx is £20 for under 1000 transactions.

for me if your going anywhere near 100 transactions per month then the 39p per additional transaction if your on the £10 PP package is enough for me to pay for protx from day 1, unless you are also using paypal and googlecheckout which will lower the amount of direct payments made.

If you think that you will do 20 ish payments a week protx is cheaper IMO.

Good Luck

PS don't forget the fact in time and developement costs if you plan to go from one service to another, there are also other things you need to think about depending on what services you choose, which may change the look of your site, which might change the customers trust in your site.

 

[starsgazing]

Do you have an internet merchant account yet? It's worth shopping with online PSPs as well as brick-and-mortar banks as, depending on your business model and any trading history, you may be able to get better rates. PayPoint have Fast Track packages which bundle an Internet Merchant Account with a payment gateway.

Anyway, whatever you do, best of luck to your business!

Thank you
Yes, we have a Streamline merchant account (we bank with Natwest) and have been with the FSB for almost a year with no Streamline rebate - we're charged a minimum of £15 which apparently FSB members should get free?

or me if your going anywhere near 100 transactions per month then the 39p per additional transaction if your on the £10 PP package is enough for me to pay for protx from day 1, unless you are also using paypal and googlecheckout which will lower the amount of direct payments made.

I think we may have to go with Protx - Paypoint's 12 month contract is very off putting and as you say, the charges will pile up. Haha Protx "No minimum terms — just three months cancellation notice".... Um... surely that's a 3 month minimum term
But 3 months is better than 12! Well, it looks like it's going to be FSB + Streamline + Protx for us too. Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[MGSteve]

Bear in mind that Protx is 1000 'free' transactions per quarter, not per month! Slight difference.

I've integrated probably 6 or 7 of my client's shops into Protx and on the whole they have been brilliant. They've done a few stupid changes recently, but nothing that anyone other than web developers who put their clients into them would notice.

Even with the annoyances, I still wholeheartedly recommend them.