Online payment methods
Online payment methods
Author
Discussion

the fury

Original Poster:

593 posts

272 months

Tuesday 12th February 2008
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Trying to choose a payment method for my new business. There are so many options! Anyone got any recommendations/horror stories?



jamesuk28

2,176 posts

283 months

Wednesday 13th February 2008
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Google checkout is cheap

While I hate the whole ebay / Paypal thing, the general public seem to love it / trust it. The percentage fee is higher than Google though.

All depends on volume of sales, something like Worldpay may be worth looking at but they charge a setup / monthly fee as well as a percentage.


timskipper

1,306 posts

296 months

Wednesday 13th February 2008
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www.nochex.com is worth a look too.

ginettag27

7,145 posts

299 months

Wednesday 13th February 2008
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Personally I am starting to get annoyed with Paypal (mostly the charges!), there will be a backlash at some point... Google will come towards the fore, then hopefully the rates will go lower.. If I was setting up a site, I would avoid Paypal, they'll reduce your revenue by quite a bit and by the time you work out how much they've taken you'll struggle to get it back again, by changing etc...

damci

963 posts

248 months

Wednesday 13th February 2008
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Another vote for Google checkout especially if your using AdWords. For every £1 you spend on AdWords, you can process £10 in sales for free through Google checkout.

craggers

2,496 posts

314 months

Wednesday 13th February 2008
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I use Protx for my website payment processing.

timskipper

1,306 posts

296 months

Wednesday 13th February 2008
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craggers said:
I use Protx for my website payment processing.
Protx requires a seperate merchant account though, doesn't it? Unlike PayPal and NOCHEX and others which is a one-stop-shop.

groomi

9,331 posts

273 months

Wednesday 13th February 2008
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As a consumer I try to stay clear of Paypal. I've had my card details nicked from there as has a friend of mine and I know we're not alone.

the fury

Original Poster:

593 posts

272 months

Wednesday 13th February 2008
quotequote all
Yeah, I currently use Paypal merchant account, but a quick browse reveals they aren't exactly the cheapest! Plus there does seem to be a level of mistrust. Google cart and nochex are sounding good though...

timskipper

1,306 posts

296 months

Wednesday 13th February 2008
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The massive benefit of PayPal Website Payments Pro is you can take the credit card details directly off your web site, and then talk to PayPal behind the scenes to charge the card - so the buyer never sees PayPal at all, just your site. And you have a virtual terminal to take credit card orders over the phone.

All for £20/month - it's a lot cheaper than going Protx + merchant account route.

You can't do either of those things with the NOCHEX or Google service.

BUT, PayPal are a law unto themselves and incredibly prudish (we no longer process payments through PayPal for our adult site for this reason). Swings and roundabouts.

For a while (about £6,000 worth of business, avg £40/trans) I offered my customers on one of my sites both PayPal (i.e. going off to PayPal's site to pay) and direct credit/card entry. Just over half went the PayPal route. So don't underestimate the draw of PayPal based on a few people's rambligns (often caused by not having understood/read what they're doing in the first place).

mb450

429 posts

229 months

Thursday 14th February 2008
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My big gripe with paypal as a merchant is the customer service - it's fine until something goes wrong - I spent 5 hours last week trying to get through to a customer service person that could help. Then they closed out account without warning because they'd mixed up our site with an 'adult' site. If everything is fine - then paypal worked for me - when the problems came they weren't helpful.

timskipper

1,306 posts

296 months

Thursday 14th February 2008
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mb450 said:
My big gripe with paypal as a merchant is the customer service - it's fine until something goes wrong - I spent 5 hours last week trying to get through to a customer service person that could help. Then they closed out account without warning because they'd mixed up our site with an 'adult' site. If everything is fine - then paypal worked for me - when the problems came they weren't helpful.
I agree! However I've finally discovered that sending an e-mail to business-support@paypal.co.uk gets a - usually helpful - response quite quickly. I gave up trying to use thier phone system ages ago.

jacobyte

4,768 posts

272 months

Thursday 14th February 2008
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Protx (and Worldpay) is far more professional than the likes of Paypal etc. Yes, it requires more time, effort and cost to set up, but it's worth it for a serious business.

Steer clear of the Barclays system, it's pants.

taffyracer

2,093 posts

273 months

Friday 15th February 2008
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Wouldn't touch Paypal wiht a barge pole, god awful company, I use Worldpay and they're extremely good, if you are an FSB member they also do some very good deals making them cheaper than the others as well

LDNrevs

9,314 posts

233 months

Sunday 17th February 2008
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Also CCNOW: www.ccnow.com