Online Credit Card Processing

I am very frustrated with 2checkout.com

[rjames]

Hi all,

I am very frustrated with 2checkout.com and would like to switch to something that is more reliable and INTEGRATED into my website.

I'd appreciate any tips you guys can offer. We have a website that concentrates on ONE product, which is subscription based. What I need is:

- A reliable payment processing solution
- Integrated into my website (visitors does not have to leave the site)
- Customizable recurring options (ie: 10-day trial becomes monthly recurring etc. if not cancelled)
- Low transaction fees and low monthly or setup fees.
- No BS about reserves being held in case client disputes the order.

Looking forward to any recommendations. Thanks

[Mr Bo Jangles]

I thought most of them needed to invoke some sort of 'reserve' - how else can they protect themselves?

[rjames]

reserve isnt a big issue, but its really annoying for 2checkout.com to hold the money for 90 Days!

[Miklo]

Usually, third party processors have to hold the reserve 180 days, as this is the risk period for credits and chargebacks. This is not even their fault, they have to do this from the acquiring bank as they normally require a deposit when opening a merchant account.

If you get credits and chargebacks, they will take more risk measures, it's up to you to have a good return policy and customer service. How come that you have these returns and chargebacks? That is the answer to your question, not changing processors.

[rjames]

I dont have a single return or chargeback. The nature of our business is to provide a software subscription and once is it activated, there are no cancellations ( it is explicitely stated throughout the checkout process)

That is the reason I dont want 2checkout.com to automatically refund people's money simply because they requested to do so.

Ok, so I understand the requirement on 2co's part to hold the reserve. I still need to switch my processor for other reasons listed above. Please help

[Miklo]

Are you looking for a direct merchant account or a third party processing company?

Can you give more information about the location of your business, sales volume etc.?

If your sales volume is exceeding 1,000/month and you are in the U.S. you can probably apply for a direct merchant account.

There are probably tens of third party processing companies, maybe even hundreds, but the most well known are WorldPay, MultiCards, CCNow, CCbill etc.

There is a nice overview listed at http://www.merchantseek.com/buyersguide/chap3/sec9.htm.

If you want to compare the costs for third party processing companies, do a google search for the Maculator. This is a really handy tool!

[edited by: lorax at 6:50 pm (utc) on July 6, 2005]
[edit reason] delinked [/edit]

[rjames]

Thanks for your reply Miklo,

Our business mainly involves selling software subscriptions on monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual subscriptions. Our monthly sales volume is around $30k and is expected to grow.

What solutions do you think fit my needs best? Please remember that I need an integrated solution without a mention of the company providing the cc processing service, Thanks.

[Miklo]

Well, if you process 30k each month I would definitely look for a direct merchant account.

Are you based in the U.S.?

If you have a direct merchant account, you are also allowed to have the order page on your own server, without being redirected to a processors website.

For the U.S. market, I think there are very many options available. I am not well known with all the diffewrent options available, but I have heard and seen stories about Linkpoint and Verisign, but these are just the payment gateways. You can apply for a merchant account with, I guess, every well known bank in the U.S.

If you are from Europe, WorldPay and MultiCards come to mind, as they can both set you up directly with an acquiring bank in Europe. I believe WorldPay works with the Royal Bank of Scotland and MultiCards with Deutsche Bank.

If you are from another business location, you will probably have to look for a third party processing company. I think WorldPay is one of the more cheap and reliable alternatives with the most payment options available and I would also suggest to install Paypal as an alternative.

I am sure that there are many people out here who can make other, or maybe even better suggestions :).

[Miklo]

By the way: The link I told you earlier about no longer exists. It has been changed to http://www.merchantseek.com/3rdparty.htm

[edited by: lorax at 6:51 pm (utc) on July 6, 2005]
[edit reason] delinked [/edit]

[rjames]

Thanks very much for your suggestions. Sorry I forgot to mention that we are based in New York.

Our bank account is with Commerce Bank, I wonder how I would go about setting up a merchant account with them :-/

[Miklo]

Well, I am not very familiar with the direct merchant account providers in the U.S.

I only know that Wells Fargo and Bank of America do offer merchant accounts. Just contact your bank and ask for an internet merchant account.

Anyone else who can help this fellow member out?
(Should be plenty of replies in a couple of hours as there are many employees of these businesses searching the forums...) :)

[paypaldn3]

If you haven't heard, we - PayPal - began offering Direct Payment API a couple weeks ago. Direct Payment API lets you process Credit Card transactions directly from your own website without sending customers who don't have a PayPal account to PayPal's website. For customers who do have a PayPal account, PayPal offers Express Checkout. The transaction fees are the same as before + $20/month. But no additional hidden fees and you don't need to sign up for a gateway. You also get a Virtual Terminal so you can process phone orders.

For more about it, visit [paypal.com...] You can find a PayPal consultant to help you integrate Pro into your website.

PayPal Dave

[edited by: lorax at 12:44 pm (utc) on July 7, 2005]
[edit reason] removed URLs [/edit]

[rjames]

I called up my bank (commerce bank), they dont offer a direct merchant account for online payment processing :(

We cant use paypal because paypal doesnt accept payments from some of the countries that we do business with, ie Saudi Arabia.

I wonder what other options I have :(

[wingslevel]

I have a direct merchant account but batch download all of my orders once a day. After hand reviewing them for fraud obvious errors etc. I batch process all of my credit card transactions using pccharge.

I have found that I get much lower fees this way and I prefer the control of being able to check orders before I process the charges.

Tip: A portion of our sales are non-internet and we didn't mention the online component when we applied for the direct merchant account - this made the biggest difference in our fee structure as online sales are apparently still considered very risky by the processing companies.

[sharbel]

I totally understand what you mean about 2checkout just reversing transactions with a simple call from your customer... i hate when they do that crap. Their policy is total satisfaction for the customer (no, not you).

We dumped them and got a merchant account.. it was the best thing we ever did.

[rjames]

hey sharbel,

thanks for the input. Would you mind telling me which company you use for your merchant account? and payment gateway?

Does anyone use Authorize.net? If so, which merchant account providor do you recommend?

thanks

[Miklo]

I think very many people use Authorize.net, this is one of the most well known along with VeriSign and LinkPoint.

Maybe CITIBank can help you out? There are many, just google for merchant account providers and you will find plenty of companies offering this type of service.

Good luck!

[markbaa]

I'm using worldpay for a site. For technical/integration they are good, but their customer service and charge back policies are poor. I suspect it's not better than it sounds like you are getting now.

[scubasteve]

I've used paypal for my site for the past three years. I have never had a problem other than the occassional customer that wanted to pay offline. Most of those were scams anyway from the Orient. Paypal finally got better they now offer a virtual terminal so now I can accept phone, fax & email orders. The fees are reasonable and I use my paypal debit/credit card for all purchases which pays me back 1.5% making my net charge less than 1% based on my volume.