Payment onsite versus third party

Any stats to prove one way or another?

[mangotude]

I was wondering if anyone knows of any studies or has definitive results themselves from comparing a decent third party (e.g. Worldpay/Protx/US equivalents) where the customer would go to their payment pages, versus keeping the customer on your own site to complete payment.

Instinct suggests that the latter might be better (doesn't interrupt the flow etc), but I'm wondering if that is the case, especially with a site where the customer has never used it, has no real knowledge of the sector, and so perhaps less likely to trust.

e.g. Amazon compared with myexpensivewidget.com

any opinions, or (preferably) facts?

[brucet]

I haven't seen any research into this, but TBH it's becoming irrelevant. Once the new PCI DSS security standard starts to be enforced by the banks, most businesses won't have any choice but to use a third party payment processor. The levels of security required for holding and processing credit card data are going to be draconian, and beyond the capacity of the majority of businesses.

[dukelips]

third party gateways are the best option available in the present market with more standards being implemented the world over.

Also you need not worry about security issues all the time