Payment methods

How many do you offer?

[lschmidt]

I currently am offering payment via major credit cards (Visa, American Express, Mastercard, Discover). I have not yet gone live though.

What percentage of your users pay with a credit card, and if they don't what are the other most popular methods?

[LifeinAsia]

Paypal- my guess is about 2-3% of sales.
Check- it's not a checkout option, but have accepted it for a very few who didn't have credit cards. (Also demanded checks from screwy people who disputed their credit card charges.)
Bank transfer- it's not a checkout option, but have accepted several from several people to avoid double charging for exchange rate conversions (don't ask- it's complicated)
Would like to do Google checkout, but we're on the prohibited type list.

[Tonearm]

PayPal is maybe 5-10% for me. Working on Google Checkout. Anyone using Google Checkout? How often is it used?

[lschmidt]

...and what about credit cards?

[Tonearm]

90%-95%

[piatkow]

I use a third party to process cards and don't see which ones get used. For the rest (paying for printed magazine advertising)I invoice and usually get settlement by cheque.

I love the people who think it unsafe to enter card details but entrust a cheque with all their bank details and a copy of their signature to the post.

[dmorison]

> Anyone using Google Checkout? How often is it used?

I'm seeing a pretty even split between PayPal and Google Checkout.

[limoshawn]

We have a site which offers a straight credit card checkout (through our regular merchant account), PayPal, and Google Checkout in that order 1,2,3.
merchant account: 70% of transactions
PayPal: 25%
Google: 05%

I believe that those numbers have more to do with placement of the payment option more than anything. I think if we were to move Google to the second payment option and PayPal in the third spot that Google would have more transactions than PayPal.

[Tonearm]

Any drawbacks or annoyances to using Google Checkout?

[dmorison]

My major beef with Google Checkout is that it asks for your credit card number BEFORE confirming the total price of the order. It says, "Shipping and tax calculated on next page" whilst merrily asking for your credit card details. When people part with their credit card details, they really want to know EXACTLY how much they are going to be charged.

In fact, entering credit card details at this point does not commit you to the order at all - it is simply required to create your Google account, but the customer does not know this and Google does not make it clear at all.

It does say "You can still make changes to your order on the next page.", but it's right down at the bottom in light gray text, and very few users will ever see it.

Other than that, I've found it great to work with!

[LifeinAsia]

...and what about credit cards?

All the rest.

[jwolthuis]

We offer four payment methods to shoppers in the US, but only 'credit cards' and 'PayPal' to shoppers located elsewhere. We accept credit card payments in six popular world currencies, and PayPal payments in 16 currencies.

Credit Cards: 65%
PayPal: 25%
Google Checkout: 5-10%
Amazon Payments: < 1%

Google Checkout can now be used worldwide, but the transaction must be completed in your currency (US Dollars for example), not the customers currency. For this reason, we haven't been in a big hurry to offer it internationally.

[topguy29]

We have a merchant account via First Data with the Linkpoint gateway.

My brother-in-law had a merchant account with Bank of America. He had some problems with his merchant account and BofA actually closed his checking account as well.

I would recommend using a company that specializes in credit card processing and not use Bank of America for credit card processing