Forum Moderators: buckworks
I am starting a new ecommerce business and I have been shopping around for a good merchant account company that has outstanding low rates/fees as well as very good customer service.
There are so many to choose from, however they all seem to have the same rates/fees and no one really seems to stand out!
Can anyone recommend a merchant account with these qualities?
Thanks in advance for your response.
You also need to take a look at a few different gateways as well.
The LinkPoint payment gateway is probably one of the strongest out there. It is owned by the First Data Corporation. First Data has been doing electronic money transfers since 1871 and they were the first processor of both VISAŽ and MasterCardŽ bank-issued credit cards in 1976. First Data processed 12.2 billion transactions in North America alone in 2003. LinkPoint charges are about $15-$30 a month with no extra transaction costs and no extra charges to use their recurring billing.
Authorize.net is probably the most advertised electronic gateway. A lot of people think they can sign up with them and immediately start to accept credit cards. They do not release you need a merchant account as well. Authorize.net even uses the First Data platform to help facilitate transaction processing. Authorizenet.com is usually about $20-$30 a month with a $,10 transaction fee (on top of what the Merchant Account Provider (MAP) will charge. Auth also charges $20-$25 a month to use their recurring billing features. Some companies give you 250 free transactions and charge you $.05 after that.
Verisign also has a payment gateway. Verisign is probably the most recognized name because they also offer other services and products for the internet (i.e. SSL certificates, domain registration, hosting, etc). You do not need to purchase everything from Verisign to have a successful e-commerce business. Verisign is about $20-$80 a month. They give you 1,000 transactions a month and then charge about $.10 per transaction. Recurring billing is about $30 a month.
-Corey
paypal - old stand by but you if you capture a sale because of it - it was worth the few minutes it took to set up
duocash - perfect if you are doing downloadables, or delivered products - this allows people who don't have or want credit cards to buy your products using a phone card they can buy at any 7-11 or convinence store. Their rates are kinda high but again found money.
Checks - Always an option but keep in mind that you can't ship right away - it takes 5-7 days for the check to clear or not. Not sure I would use for downloadables but they do add an additional 10% in sales.
Make sure you get all the options - AMEX, MC, Discover, JCB etc every % counts.
Any other suggestions?
Joe - I have worked with all three gateways (Authorizenet.com, LinkPoint, and Verisign) to one extent or another. In addition to the above:
The only thing with Verisign that I have done - was actually install something on my server so that clients could run their API. It was a little disappointing to me that they only offer this SDK download thru their member's area. So I had to call my client and ask him to get me the program. Once I got it, I called them back because of one issue but they helped me out. The customer service via the phone is very good. Plus if you buy the gateway thru them, and you are new merchant, they usually sell you the gateway for one year - which might be difficult for some new merchants.
For authorizenet.com - testing is a bit interesting. They do not provide you a testing account. You can put your store into test mode & do test transactions, but you are charged for those transactions. And the only other thing - they have one datacenter. And during the power outage in Utah last week, they were down. That was about eight times in over a year with some type of a problem (DDOS, etc).
With LinkPoint - they will give you a test store to do testing. The customer support is sometimes a little trying, but Level 2 support is great & they will try to help you out. They have two data centers to help maintain redundancy just in case something happens.
As far as deals - it is all the time possible. Talk to a few of the agents & see what you can get. Personally, I like the LinkPoint gateway because there are no extra charges for transactions and te use of the recurring billing module.
-Corey
[edited by: lorax at 1:35 am (utc) on Jan. 23, 2005]
[edit reason] delinked [/edit]
For authorizenet.com - testing is a bit interesting. They do not provide you a testing account. You can put your store into test mode & do test transactions, but you are charged for those transactions.
Corey, I have not run into this (the charges actually being processed) and I've used Authorize.net for a handful of clients. When the gateway is in test mode it will not record anything but it will respond like it should to any API calls.
Knowing this, the way I've tested the stores I've set up to work with Authorize.net is to first set the cart into test mode and test it well. Then we'll set the cart into production mode and the gateway into test mode and test that. If everything responds as it should then we're ready to go live.
Gateway fees are all over the place. My general rule of thumb is to use a name I know and trust. They typically aren't the lowest price but I'd rather open up a shop with tools I know I can count on.
Corey, I have not run into this (the charges actually being processed) and I've used Authorize.net for a handful of clients. When the gateway is in test mode it will not record anything but it will respond like it should to any API calls.
-Corey
