Credit Cards

[Brett_Tabke]

Dealing with Credit cards is a never ending source of frustration. On one hand you can go the route of a service that nabs up to 15% for a simple processing fee, and on the other, you can go whole hog and process your own. Both are very costly propositions, that have me wondering if the old 'cash discount' type of setup is in order for those paying by check or wire xfer.

How is everyone dealing with Ccards?

[littleman]

I do my own processing but use www.mals-e.com to handle my shopping cart programming. He has a very nice free service I've been using for about two years now. I download the orders and process the card the old way over the telephone.
This setup has worked well for me, but I never get over ten orders a day.

[scott]

I use ccslide. They charge %5.99. Not bad when faced with the alternatives. Shipping is really the only drawback (One flat rate). I'll have to switch to processing my own as soon because of that.

[NFFC]

Just signed a UK client up with World Pay, £125 set up 4.5%.

[GWJ]

Hey Brett,

I am real time (IMHO some days:)) on charging. I use, shudder, authorize.net as gateway to process, that kicks funds to my online merchant account, which finaly hits my merchant account. This sometimes takes up to 72 hours, allthough that is me just griping normaly it takes 24 hours.

Authorize net is a good service allthough sometimes hold times are EXTREME, but I hardly ever need to call so.

I use StoreFront for the GUI/cart interface to my DB. Did a extra little tweaking to try and make the DB more secure. I also dump the CC information online every 7 days. I keep it longer localy.

I pay the standard Visa/MC/AMX %s, shopped hard on this one it does make a difference. Gateway fee is $20.00 per month. The kicker is I had to setup a online merchant account and a real (?) merchant account for this. Need for integration is heavy on that.

I have expierenced, on the downside, 4 chargebacks this year. I HIGHLY suggest NO dropshipments. My mistake there was I allowed this, thinking legaly a signature makes the reciever liable, nope. I now only ship to the billing address and also reserve the right to refund if AVS (address verification) does not match.

Sorry for the long type, finaly got to contribute back a little on something I know...:)

Brian

[Brett_Tabke]

Very cool Brian. I certainly appreciate the insights in this thread.

I've always let other people handle cc's for me through delegation.

What about some of these places that I see are generating mass promo campaigns? Like paypals comes to mind. There are many like that - but sheeze do they want some cash for it.

[cyberbear]

Hi Brett

What about some of these places that I see are generating mass promo campaigns? Like paypals comes to mind. There are many like that - but sheeze do they want some cash for it.

You have that right and a lot of these companies arent selling merchant accounts. They are just selling the "vehicle" to accept credit cards.This vehicle does not authorize,process or deposit the money in your account. The merchant then has to outsource for a merchant account number which is sometimes very difficult to get on its own. Even if they do get a number there is no guarantee that all the software will be compatible.I have helped many merchants, most of them foreign, whose english is not perfect. They get scammed by these companies and then get frustrated and usually end up buying a proper merchant account from a real provider.They just write off these companies as a bad investment.If they do stay with these so called "providers" they will end up paying extra fees for authorizing purchases when they dont even do it, that is if anyone will sell them a merchant account number and all the software is compatible.These people give the merchant account industry a bad name.

[rcjordan]

I have expierenced, on the downside, 4 chargebacks this year. I HIGHLY suggest NO dropshipments. My mistake there was I allowed this, thinking legaly a signature makes the reciever liable, nope. I now only ship to the billing address and also reserve the right to refund if AVS (address verification) does not match.

Brian, I'm not all that familiar with cc transactions, but I think the term the companies use is "card not present" --in which case the merchant assumes the liability for chargebacks. Since all internet transactions fall under that heading, merchants should check it out carefully.

[scott]

I have such a good idea about how to really make a killing at the whole e-commerce and credit card game. Unfortunately, I lack a programmer and startup financing. Any ideas where I could go with this?

[GWJ]

Hey RCJ,

Yes you are correct. Basicly it comes down to....

If the card is not imprinted then you have no rights. My last encounter I had several e mails from the customer, so I had his header information but a non static IP there. I also had a signed FedEx slip. All AVS triggers matched. I even called 411 up got the drop ship persons phone number.

Brian

[pshea]

I am smack in the middle of examining how best to let visitors use credit cards on the site. It's is a game full of sharks. But I'm sure they're all lovely people.

Has anyone got a site which posts what the current fees for processing are for a given region? How much % is low or high for their fee under/over $50/$100 etc. Some group somewhere must be tracking this.

Thanks.

[rcjordan]

In the 06/29/00 edition of The Wall Street Journal, there was an article about financial penalties being levied if online transactions are not logged as internet. As I said, I'm not that familiar with cc transactions, so I had some difficulty determining exactly who was going to be stuck with this fine. I've looked for a similar article on the web today, but cannot find it. Anyone know more about this?

[Brett_Tabke]

Thank you CyberBear. I am just looking at options for christmas processing for clients. I'm going to take the plunge into ecomm this fall on some of my own sites. With ad revenue at an all time low, something has to be done now.

[BK]

Scott, I think Empire Business Solutions try to find companies the full setup help they need from proper business plans to investors and venture capitalists - I haven't used them myself but I heard some good about them elsewhere a while back.

However - handling some parts of CC processing is harder than other parts. The actual processing companies have to invest a fortune in installing full security measures as per a bank. Including (I am assured by someone who tried it) being forced to instal rocket-prrof glass because the windows were in line of site from a car-park some 500 yards away!

Investigate hard before commiting to it.

BK

[ulstrup]

When choosing Payment Gateway you have to consider monthly fee (fixed) vs. transaction fee (percent). Try to figure out how many transactions you expect and so on.
I'm currently doing e-business sites and the gateway I use is kind of partner -no names ;) they charge about $125/month including the first 500 transactions, + 500 extra $0,2/each but most important they have special agreements with the banks guaranteeing very low credit card handling fees (2-3%). So small companies with few transactions should not choose this gateway, but large shops with many transactions certainly should.

[rcjordan]

>Basicly it comes down to....
>If the card is not imprinted then you have no rights. (for collection remedies)

Credit card fraud is 12 times higher for online merchants [techweb.com] than their offline, brick-and-mortar counterparts

[GWJ]

Hi,

Just thought I would share. On my earlier post I stated I had 4 chargebacks this year. Two chargebacks the "customer" screwed up and provided invalid shipping address. So we had to payback the real customers bank but we had all funds and product.

On the other two chargebacks I just got a call from my wife. We were awarded both disputes. One was inside USA, AVS matched, FedEx had a daughters signature. The other was to Romania and it turns out the CC number is still active as of 3 days ago so the banks defaulted that dispute in our favor also.

Whoohoo....:)

Brian

[rcjordan]

ProPay [propay.com] I just picked this name up in another forum. I know nothing about it other than what their site says. Anyone??

[Brett_Tabke]

rc:
That looks like another type of PayPal [secure.paypal.x.com] setup.

[scott]

CCNOW looks promising. Just starting to check into it myself.

[TheMayor]

I do Agree their are to many in the merchant business today that
are less than honest. You should deal only with direct agents or the banks for the simple fact we are liable for the accounts personally and regulated to disclose all cost involed. I do know this because I am in the e-comm. business and do it everyday and have heard horror stories of people getting locked into a large lease and paying for years. Try to stay away from long leases,Minimums,buying over priced machines are just a few danger areas to look out for.
The going rate is setup from 45.00- 399.00
Finace charge or percent is 1.3% -2.9 % Based on type or credit
Account transactions should allow up to 1000 per month for a gateway fee of 10.00-20.00 per month. Over 1000 per month should cost 49.00 - 79.00 per month. This is for the Secured Gateway service. Transaction cost should be between .10- .30
These are the rates most good merchant providers should offer.
If you need a machine or swipe terminal to process a transaction
They can range from a standard of 250.00- 1250.00 for a celluar
with a printer. If you would like more info e-mail me. Hope it helps

[Billythekid]

I am one of those horror stories. Got stuck in a large lease and the company changed the terms. Be ever so careful. I figure I am ten years away from a heart attack beacause of these ^#%& crooks. By the way, you can fight back. The Alabama Attourney General for consumer affairs took these jerks on after I complained. So far, I might be able to get all pf my money back but there is a lot of paperwork.

[bluesriff]

Billythekid....I am in the midst of trying to find the best credit card deal right now. Do you mind telling me which one to avoid? You can e-mail me if you don't want to put it up here. At the very least most of these companies want to sell you or lease you their software. You are then responsible for the total of the lease or sale even if you find it doesn't work for you. $1300 to $1700 is a pretty stiff bite. I would advise a LOT of caution in choosing. It seems that their sales people will tell you whatever you want to hear while slamming all the competitors. Potty mouthing the competition always makes me not want to deal with those who indulge in that sort of thing.

[pshea]

Thanks to TheMayor for those numbers and the offer.