Sagepay or Barclays?

[Jayser100]

Couldn't decide whether to post this in the accounting or ecommerce section - anyway:

I am switching my merchant services provider from Streamline / WorldPay to Barclays. They offer their own payment gateway, but my web designer wants me to use SagePay because he reckons the interface is more user-friendly and it's better all round. I just wondered if anyone has experience of one or both gateways, and I'd be interested to know your views.

 

[PipeTen-Carl]

I am biased and use Streamline/Worldpay/Sagepay, but I remember when ePDQ launching many years ago it was a complete PITA, I have not used it first-hand since but I hear and see developers still saying the same.

 

[LMDServicesUK]

I presume you are switching for Commercial reasons, who is your current gateway provider ? Are you reducing your gateway and Merchant processing costs ? Are you going to be using a hosted payment page ( simpler PCI compliance req) or an integrated page on your site ?

How does Barclays fraud protection compare to your existing or SagePay platform, the Barclays system whilst OK is hardly leading edge on any level, especially when compared to other gateways / Merchant account combinations.

I would strongly suggest you look at alternatives to make sure the savings ( I presume) you have been promised will actually materialise..

PM me if you need further advice.

 

[Jayser100]

I currently have an old and 'clunky' set up with a card processing terminal for phone / in person orders (for which we pay a £15.00 monthly hire fee), plus Streamline and World Pay. I've just switched to a Barclays bank account and they have offered me significantly better rates, plus of course by using a more modern payment gateway we can ditch the card machine altogether and do it all online. I've decided to go with Sage Pay: it seems to be more popular, is alleged to give the customer a better buying experience, and my web designer loves it / already knows how to set it up.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Take this opportunity to shop around and get what is right for your business, not your web designer or your bank!

Membership to Your Business Community gets you access to a Lloyds Cardnet offer that is far better than going direct.

Who ever you go with, make sure you understand what all of the charges are, not just the headline rates, but monthly charges, PCI-DSS compliance, etc..

 

[JJWinst]

I currently have an old and 'clunky' set up with a card processing terminal for phone / in person orders (for which we pay a £15.00 monthly hire fee), plus Streamline and World Pay. I've just switched to a Barclays bank account and they have offered me significantly better rates, plus of course by using a more modern payment gateway we can ditch the card machine altogether and do it all online. I've decided to go with Sage Pay: it seems to be more popular, is alleged to give the customer a better buying experience, and my web designer loves it / already knows how to set it up.

We use Barclays as our merchant bank and Sage as our gateway. It is brilliant! We used to have it all through Barclays but their payment page is ancient (apparently they're in the process of updating it)

Sage is brilliant and is much better at fraud screening than Barclays was. Ecommerce customers trust it and if you are implementing it in your checkout (rather than sending the customer to a sage pay pop up) the checkout process is really simple.

 

[Jayser100]

Thanks for that JJWinst, that is pretty much in line with what I have found out in the course of my own research.

 

[CardswitcherUK]

Try a price comparison website to benchmark the rates you're being offered - www.cardswitcher.co.uk

 

[deniser]

I have tried all sorts of gateways but am really happy with Sagepay. I like having Third Man scores as well as 3DS, transactions are really easy to find on screen if you have to refund them for example and they actually answer the phone and are friendly if you need to speak to someone.

Cannot fault them so far.

 

[Bill1954]

Another vote for Sagepay, easy to set up, easy to use, and good customer support.
Be aware, if you ditch your physical terminal then customers won't be able to enter a PIN number and will need access to your computer to enter their 3D Secure PIN. You may find that some folk are not happy doing that.

 

[paulyh]

I've got the barclays epdq but their fraud protection is not confidence inspiring and it is not the easiest back office to use. As others have said, it is not the best looking page. Wish I had chose Sagepay.

 

[wayzgoose]

We were with Sagepay for many years. Can't fault them. Excellent customer service, very easy to implement and use and customers seem to trust them. Excellent fraud detection too.

 

[Digital Oriented]

User-friendliness is often is a matter of personal preference. In general, SagePay receives very positive feedback from customers, so your web designer can be trusted on this.

Also, because a gateway, essentially, it is a piece of software, the real value of the web designer’s advice is on the technical side. Complexity of integration with your website system and reliability are very important aspects to take into account.

 

[Jayser100]

Thanks for all your replies, it gives me confidence in thinking this is the way to go.

 

[Vadym Gurevych]

Just want to add a vote towards SagePay. They are very good as a gateway solution, used them a LOT of times to for our clients. The thing about them is that you can try to get a really good rate, they are more inclined to negotiate with you - especially in case you have an established business with a reasonable turnover that they can see they will get or loose if you go elsewhere.

They also have a merchant solution (Elavon I think) that you could use - or, indeed, use a merchant account with Barclays or any other bank.

One more thing - again, depending on your turnover, you could even go to PayPal and ask them for a competitive quotation - I remember a case when our client got them down to something like 1.1% per transaction if I'm not mistaken, although their turnover was quite substantial.

 

[Jayser100]

Indeed Vadym. Having an interface that people like is crucial as it reduces the number of abandoned shopping carts.

Whilst it's important of course to get a good deal, it really isn't all about the money. Driving down costs to the bone can sometimes be a false economy. The same applies to phone systems and business insurance etc. You have to balance out the costs against the quality of the product or service you receive, and in some cases (like this one), your customers receive too. There are some people on here, including 'Business Consultants', who always know where you can get a cheaper price for everything but they are not the ones who then have to put up with a rubbish broadband connection, or making a payment gateway work with your website's software.

 

[Paul Norman]

If your web designer is any good at all, as mentioned above, he/she will have no difficulty interfacing with any payment gateway you through at them.

The key is to look at the features of each an decide which one is good for your business. I am something of a Sagepay fan, having said that.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Jayser100,

you are so right, but, sadly, price is a great motivator and, even more sad, it is the headline rate people look at.

Re this issue, the real cost saving is in the merchant account. The gateway, of which there are lots, is where the web developer will earn their money, however, it if it a reputable or bigger gateway, they would probably have something already written - are you using Drupal?

The main thing to remember is that you need to do what is right for the business, not what is easy for the developer.

 

[Paul Norman]

I am not sure that a web developer will earn any money out of the gateway. Building the integration is pretty standard across most available services, and would normally be included in the price of making an ecommerce site.

Personally, I would not seek to influence the choice of my customer based on my own view of how easy/hard it is to integrate.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Paul,

there are many web developers (or people who produce websites) who want to do what is easiest for them, so they might recommend on solution over another.

 

[Jayser100]

My web developer used to run a golf equipment distribution business. He understands, better than most, what is required when on my side of the fence. he told me that from feedback he gets from his other customers, SagePay is the cleanest and most user-friendly gateway. It's obvious from the various comments above that there is some agreement on this. If it was wrong I would have expected someone to stick up for the Barclays interface, which they have not.

As I understand it, Cardnet's interface isn't very good and most people with Lloyds merchant services use a third-party gateway like SagePay anyway. I do understand there are discounts to be had if I pay to join your forum first but I'm not going to do that - sorry.

 

[Paul Norman]

Paul,

there are many web developers (or people who produce websites) who want to do what is easiest for them, so they might recommend on solution over another.

There most definitely are such people. And there are web developers who will put their customers wishes first.