UK View: 2Checkout or Paysystems?

What's your experiences and what would you choose now?

[holtyboy]

Just a question for online traders in the UK. I'm looking for a low-risk startup option for handling my online payments and so have ruled out WorldPay and getting a merchant account in the short-term.

PayPal will be very interesting when the "no account required" option kicks in for UK sellers. For now though I'm looking at 2Checkout or PaySystems. Can anybody provide me with any comparisons or share experiences of dealing with these companies (esp. from a UK perspective).

Thanks, adam.

[sun818]

As a buyer, I made purchases from both merchants utilizing 2checkout and Paysystems. I did not see any difference in terms of their checkout system. Both seemed easy to use. I did like that even though 2checkout.com is a third-party merchant processor, it provides the seller the ability to insert a "soft descriptor" into the credit card statement.

So, your credit card statement will show "2CO.COM*soft descriptor - 877-294-0273 OH" versus Paysystems, which displays, "MYPAYSYSTEMS.COM" - 888-751-0744 MAIL/PHONE". As a merchant, you may run into chargeback issues if the statement shows a third-party name instead of your own name somewhere on the statement.

[holtyboy]

Have just picked up on a thread in the osCommerce forums that seems to imply that despite the multi-currency support in 2Checkout you still have to pass it USD and your customer will see the amount in USD as they checkout.

Is this true - if so it's a show-stopper for me. Is Paysystems limited in the same way?

[sabai]

Is this true

Yes, it's certainly true for 2checkout - it is almost usless for anything except US sales. All prices on site have to displayed in USD, then on the final payment page the user can choose a different currency and it will be converted at whatever their exchange rate is at the time. There isn't even any way to know the exchage rate in advance, like with XML or something...

I think it's handled better with paysystems, but I haven't tried them, so I can't help you.

[andy_boyd]

Couple of small points ...

2CO's shopping cart is all done on a secure server. So, whenever someone adds a product to their cart it takes a long time for the page to display as it is hosted on a secure server. PaySystems works differently, only the pages where personal information is entered are hosted securely - makes things a lot faster for the consumer.

Unless you are doing big money, 2CO will pay out every 2 weeks. You need to set a release level such as $1,000 that you must have in your account, after fees, before it is released to you. PaySystems settle weekly for even the smallest amounts.

Also, it costs a lot for 2CO to wire the money into your account. You'll need your bank's SWIFT code and details on it's corresponding bank in New York when setting up your banking details. PaySystems do not need to go through a corresponding bank, instead they just go with a straight wire transfer that is both cheaper and faster. PaySystems will also be introducing a direct debit into your account that, according to their MCC (Merchant Control Center), will be free.

I use both ... they're much of a muchness as we say.

[holtyboy]

Andy thanks for your reply. Could you please also shed some light on how Paysystems handles GBP payments. Does it insist on presenting this in dollars or can you force it into a UK mode?

Thanks for the other info as well, however I'm not looking to use the shopping cart features of these services as I have my own osCommerce based system set-up - I just need them for final checkout and payment.

Incidently, I *did* go ahead and sign-up with 2CO, on the basis that they offer a 30 day money back guarantee. Actually I ended up signing up twice. Firstly on Saturday but they set me up on the old system. Then on the advice of their tech support I cancelled and rejoined on Sunday and now have an account on 2CO's new platform. I think they have only just launched this and it boasts that it supports proper foreign currency handling. However my initial tests have shown that it is buggy, ie. tell it to bill the user £35.00 and it displays £35.17. Almost as if it is internally converting it to $ and then back to £ but using different rates, or rounding up. I'm waiting for them to respond on it as I think this is pretty unworkable the way it stands.

[chenfire2004]

Holtyboy£º
I suggest that you can try www.ikobo.com I am an ikobo user! and i have a good exprience with it! Its merchant account have no setup fee and low transaction fee. Its total fee is lower than paypol and 2cheekout and its coverage (it covers more than 170 countries and about 220 regions) is wider than paypol and 2cheekout too but its my experience with then, however, you can make your own decission by making a comparative analysis.the best to do that is visit their websites.

[andy_boyd]

Holtyboy,

When you set up a PaySystems account you have to select what currency you want to use, Sterling or US Dollars etc. As far as I know they do not have the ability yet to process in multiple currencies, you choose Sterling and it'll always be sterling.

My suggestion, sticky jacker. He works there.

[holtyboy]

Guys, thanks for the tips.

iKobo is a nice idea with the ATM card, but they don't seem to have provided any support for 3rd party carts yet and osCommerce certainly doesn't talk to it yet.

I'm following up the PaySystems lead though.

Cheers.