What alternatives are there to PayPal?

[minibus]

Everyone trusts PayPal and I've dabbled with Worldpay but does anyone recommend anything easy to use, secure and reputable?

 

[AwayGamesTravel]

Have you looked into Sagepay yet? Their rates seem to be pretty decent.

What about Google Checkout? Google's trusted by everyone.

 

[webgeek]

Keep hoping to hear of easy peasy way to do UKash, CashU, Liberty Reserve and BitCoin....

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

There are plenty of alternatives to PayPal, many of which are Payment Gateways that allow payments to be made directly into your bank account using a merchant account.

There are a couple of useful and independent comparison guides you can look at to view many of the alternatives:

Payment Brain

Electronic Payments

 

[minibus]

Aren't most of these expensive and complicated to set up?

I have used Google Checkout before actually. I preferred PayPal.

 

[Charleston_Financial]

Sage Pay are good, long winded application process, or alternativly Evalon are very competitive.

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

Aren't most of these expensive and complicated to set up?

I have used Google Checkout before actually. I preferred PayPal.

Expensive? If you shop around then not really. You can have a Gateway processing a few hundred transactions per month from just £10 and the merchant account with rates as low as 1% depending on your criteria.

The Payment Gateway will also offer assistance where needed for setting up, as this is largely down to what ecommerce software you are using.

 

[Andy777]

There are no real alternatives to PayPal if you look @ this from a customer point of view. Many people prefer to pay via PayPal when shopping online (including me) and some may actually cancel checkout process if they can't pay via PayPal.

With that being said, you should always have PayPa + direct card payment option on your online shop, plus any additional payment methods preferred by your customers.

 

[jamesbyfield]

We use sagepay and it works fine for us.

 

[bdw]

The problem is that most of the other providers like Sagepay make it so difficult to get set up.

I use Paypal and I am happy with them but if a half decent company started up with the same model they could do really well.

.

 

[owas]

I am trying to choose which payment gateway to use for a magneto site, Paypal seems the obvious choice, but then there's the story's of them holding your funds etc. I have narrowed the choice to Paypal, Google checkout, and nochek, but I am really not confident which one I should use.

 

[bdw]

Of these three you would probably have to go for PayPal in terms of usage and popularity by consumers.

.

 

[webgeek]

Why would you only choose one payment gateway?

Many sites offer multiple choices because people prefer to use PP or CC, or even Gooogle checkout.

 

[bdw]

Why would you only choose one payment gateway?Many sites offer multiple choices because people prefer to use PP or CC, or even Gooogle checkout.

Because PayPal don't make you jump through hoops to get started with them and there are no monthly charges or contracts.

People can use any of the major credit cards on PayPal websites. You just have to make this clear to them.

.

 

[CharityClear]

Aren't most of these expensive and complicated to set up?

I have used Google Checkout before actually. I preferred PayPal.

The only difficulty may be in getting a merchant account, it shouldn't be too complicated once you have a merchant account in place.

Unless you're processing a very minimal number of transcations, then a merchant account/payment gateway should work out cheaper than using something like PayPal. Yes, PayPal don't have a monthly fee but they can charge you anything up to 3.2% on every transaction. The monthly fee payment gateways charge usually includes between 300-350 free transaction per month.

Someone else mentioned SagePay, since they put their prices up last month, you can find far more competitive options.

Marc.

 

[Malcolmthepaymentpro]

Hi guys...

I work within this industry and hope I might provide some thoughts. I'll try to remain independent.

In my mind this as in many others is a pay for what you get environment. PayPal is a great solution for those new to trading online. They are known as an ewallet. They have few barriers to entry and the process to sign up is simple due to their status. They are sort of the convenience store of the online payments world. Easy open but tend to be pricey and the service is not great. One thing I would say about PayPal is that that not all potential customers operate PayPal account and most who don't would be turned off by having to register to buy your goods.

I would look on Paypal as perfect for those trading on eBay (who own paypal) and for new small businesses trading on line.

The next step if you like would be a full merchant account, gateway and shopping cart. There are providers that will give a one stop shop solution but much like anything these days if you spend some time breaking down the elements you'll probably find a better deal for a better product. That depends on what your personal shopping habits prefer.

A full solution (and you should also look at paypal plus) will allow anybody with a credit or debit card to make a transaction with you. As mentioned by the guys at Total Web solutions many will integrate with paypal as well.

i think my real advice here is that my recommendation to any business is to put yourself in the position of your clients. How do they want to do business with you. thinking like this will take away barriers for repeat purchases. Its a similar conversation with the AMEX argument. You may pay more for those transactions but is it better than losing a deal? (especially online).

Getting a merchant account is more tricky due to some of the legislation involved. The acquirers need to ID you and your colleagues so it can feel like a burden this element can be made easier by using whoever your bankers recomend, but be sure to haggle, if you do you will find some considerable savings on the Paypal costs.

Yours truly Malcolm