Forum Moderators: buckworks
So I've been hunting around on the internet instead and as I'm based in the UK Worldpay seem to be a good option because the customer services line is going to be a local number, and the pricing on their site seems very straightfoward.
However, I'm confused by the "World Access" service they offer. They claim it's for mail, phone and fax orders. But couldn't it be used for e-mail or secure server orders too?
I don't need instant verification, as my order volume isn't that high and I've heard that it would work out cheaper to process orders manually, but I would like a shopping cart facility on the site. Could the world access service be used alone, or can it only be used with full merchant facilities?
For anyone who cares to know, the entire set up fee for Worldpay seems to be the following:
Set up Fee £85 + VAT (17.5%) = $160
Annual Fee £160 + VAT (17.5%) = $300 pa
World Access set up fee £50 = $80
Click and build annual fee £100 = $160 pa
Worldpay guarantee £20 per month= $32 pm
Transaction Service Charge 4.5%
Weekly payment fee £0.35 = .56 cents
Is htis is a fair rate and do I need all of this? All other sites I've looked at seem to aim at the USA customer only.
Thanks in advance
Rob
Barclays offer a facility for new customers with NO trading history called [barclaycardmerchantservices.co.uk...]
NetBanx offer a bureau service.
sorry but have no real experience of Worldpay for quite some time
Shak
The charges are 4.5% for credit cards and 50p for debit card transactions.
If you do get a merchant account with your bank, the cheapest facility (by millions of miles) is protx, who charge a mere flatrate of 5p for any transaction.
I would advise you to use another bank! In my experience, Barclays merchant services actually cost more than using a Bureau service!
I believe the Lloyds and RBS offer very reasonable merchant rates, which can go as low as 1.5%
I couldn't find the "SELECT JUNIOR" worldpay facility on their site. Do you have any links for it - or an idea of what it costs. Do you have to process orders manually?
WorldPay is in two modes, standard (as default) and pre-auth. With pre-auth you have to manually check the transactions and complete them within seven days. With the standard option, they are completed automatically by WorldPay. The first option may sound the best, but if you have to refund an item, you have already lost the 4.5% and if you get fraud, you lose the 4.5% plus an admin charge (and the money sent to your account).
SelectJunior pays you 4 weeks behind. Any credit/refund you give to a customer usually comes off the next payment. So if a customer orders an item, then you give him/her a refund ten minutes later, you will be without the money for 4 weeks.
The charges are fine (4.5% always seems a little high to me), I would certainly push for the WorldAccess to be included for free. You cannot use the WorldAccess for processing email orders (secure or not). This is against their TOS and you may find that they will shut your account down for this (and they will keep 4 weeks of your money).
It is suggested that Mastercard and Visa are pushing for a UK law that disallows UK merchants to be able to have access to the card numbers. This would make your order processing via email illegal should this be passed as a law - and they don't really need it as a law, just as one of their terms and conditions.
The click and build fee could be better spent using an ecommerce shop building software or even a custom built shopping cart - but this may cost between 3 months and 24 months worth of that charge. But you have more control. It depends on your cashflow situation right now, of course!
The WorldPay guarantee is probably not worht the money if you are preparing to go to the pre-auth set up since you can ignore fraud attempts.
I took your advice and went for pre-auth, disregarded their WorldPay guarantee and avoided the shopping cart for now as I'm dealing with so few products.
No doubt I'll be facing a lot of issues in the coming months as I learn how to use this service, but I really appreciate the help everyone has given.
Many thanks particularly to gsx for such a detailed reply. It helps newbies immensly when you get advice like this from more experienced users.
...then, search this site for shopping carts.
It may sound like the wrong way around, but credit card fraudsters do target new websites for fraud transactions, and often get the goods.
Also pre-auth only gives you 5 days (most cards normally give you seven days) guaranteed to complete the order. After this period the transaction times out and you have lost the money.
I am now in the process of changing to a shopping basket system as I have more products. I had to scout around to find one which is compatible with WorldPay.
As for the WorldPay guarantee, I didn't bother. Mainly because for £20 a month it wasn't worth it for the small volume of sales I have. Plus the products I made myself for around £2 and sold for £10 so it isn't worth it. Now I sell products which cost £50+ so I am thinking whether to get it.
The 4.5% is a fair amount. When my prdocuts were £10 then I didn't mind. Now some of my products are for £90 and anyone using a cc costs me £4, which is pretty high. For this reason I may look into getting a merchant account with a bank.
I am now in the process of changing to a shopping basket system as I have more products. I had to scout around to find one which is compatible with WorldPay.
Did you find one?
Well I have them on my order page. I didn't know it wasn't allowed, and no one at WorldPay has told them to be removed. I don't see why it is not allowed.
TimmyMagic, it sounds that how you started is exactly where I am with Worldpay right now. My product range is fairly low and I don't want to use a shopping cart. So how do I go about setting up the payment buttons on my site now.
Here is the last message Worldpay sent me about how to initiate my account:
1. Complete the integration of your website to WorldPay using the integration guidelines. (Your website should be setup in test mode; we will confirm by e-mail when to switch it to Live mode).
2. Make sure our website is compliant with our Website Rules at the link below; please pay particular attention to the requirement for a refund policy to be displayed on your website.
3. When your website is compliant with our rules, and you are ready to go live, please submit your completed Activation Request Form (ARF) at the link below:
Your website will be set live within 2 working days. Websites cannot be activated at the weekend.
Not sure what all this means at the moment, but I'm going to have to get my site up and running correctly for payments, so what's the first steps I should take?
WorldPay have made an agreement with the card companies and you can now use the logos, you can even pull them from their site to save your bandwidth if you wish...
>WorldPay have made an agreement with the card companies >and you can now use the logos, you can even pull them from >their site to save your bandwidth if you wish...
Cheers GSX, that's a relief! :)
I hope you can help me with one more thing:
With Worldpay Select Junior - when a customer is on Worldpay's payment page, is it possible to have a pulldown list for a selection of currencies to pay in (with the base-rate being UK Sterling)?
Thanks.
With Select Junior you are entitled to 'three free currencies' - ie. just as you describe, you can have a dropdown with three different currencies. If you want more currencies, you have to pay.
However, you have to ask them to activate the three free currencies - its not switched on by default. Just contact Customer Service and tell them which three currencies you want.
With Select Junior you are entitled to 'three free currencies' - ie. just as you describe, you can have a dropdown with three different currencies. If you want more currencies, you have to pay.However, you have to ask them to activate the three free currencies - its not switched on by default. Just contact Customer Service and tell them which three currencies you want.
Cool, I thought you'd have to do some extra stuff for the currency conversion! More currencies are around £50 each, right?
My default is GBP but it's nice to give the people a choice of £, $, or Euros.
That's how I'm going to have it. TimmyMagic, what do you sell, by the way?
