Need help choosing a merch acct/gateway

[blakekr]

I am trying to find personal experiences with various companies, not just rates. I know hidden charges and surprises run rampant.

I've heard good things about a few companies only to have them not return my calls. If they don't respond now I doubt they will down the line ...

I don't think we can post links here, but UnitedBankService seems to have good rates, and people seem to like them. But I know the best merch acct/gateway depends on your personal situation.

Right now I do about 4-5K in sales through paypal monthly. I expect this to go up when I offer a non-cheesy sales mechanism. Using Paypal means I haven't had to learn much of anything about the nuts & bolts of ecommerce.

I have 'really good' personal credit ratings.

I could ask at my local bank but I wonder if this whole thing might not be too complicated for them (I live in a rural area).

I am guessing on my experience so far that it might be better to work with a company that isn't too huge, so they can find time to communicate with me occaisionally. But pricing is of course pretty important. I don't want to get locked into poor rates out of ignorance.

Greatly appreciate any feedback.

[oziman]

In terms of a Gateway I think Authorize.net is the granddaddy. You might check out their site and find a merchant account provider through them. Card Service International and their affiliates are the big guys - I don't know who else is really good these days. There are some guys who post also on Site Point and DP who work for Merchant Account providers, send me a sticky and I'll see if I can't find their info if you want it.

The setup is a wee bit more complicated then PayPal, but any major e-commerce platform should easily support any of the major gateways. If you're using a custom coded solution, it shouldn't cost more then a few hundred bucks for an offshore programmer to do this.

Rate wise for MOTO/Internet sales you're looking at ~2% - 2.5% with about a percentage point lower for swiped transactions. There is typically a $10 -$20 monthly gateway fee as well, it varies by the different providers. This is for Visa/MC. AMEX/Discover are usually more and come under a separate application.

HTH.

[Corey Bryant]

Actually the gateway that is mentioned above is not really the grandaddy, but just a company who advertises its product and then most people think they can have that company to accept credit cards - but you still need a merchant account.

2.19% is a good discount rate for that volume. And the fees will be listed on the contract. They will be there, you just need to read it.

And tell the processor the amount you need in 12 months. So if you are doing $5,000 now, tell them maybe $20,000. Unlike adult processing, you do not need to meet this volume. It is the exact opposite. And anything under $30,000 a month is pretty much automatically approved without any problems - as long as the items you are selling are not considered high risk by the processor

-Corey

[rocknbil]

We recently went with CardService International/Linkpoint, not because they were the cheapest but because a) their plan is a merchant account AND a gateway all in one package, b) they answer tech support calls and emails immediately, and in "our language", c) their integration methods are heavily documented and involve installing a digitally signed certificate to verify the transaction, and d) the initial contract is only for 6 months, whereas some of the others required 12, 18, or 24 months and varied their rates based on the commitment length. I am not as impressed with the merchant login interface as other solutions I've worked with, but it is sufficient.

[blakekr]

Thank you so much, I got some extremely useful advice in this thread and I think I'll be up and running with a merch acct/gateway by today or tomorrow.

Thanks again for the very helpful info.