Best payment gateway?

What are the pros and cons of various payment gateways?

[leftofcentered]

What are the pros and cons of various payment gateways? 2checkout, worldpay, paysat...if you have had direct experience with a payment gateway, please provide your experiences to help others choose one. Thanks much.

[dlefree]

I would recommend shopping around - here are some sites which I have personal experience in supporting (although I admittedly was not the one shopping around for transaction fees, etc)

http://www.paypal.com

Paypal - Check out the Payment Pro services - if you're willing to invest some development time, this would be a great solution for a site which is just starting out and has a relatively low sales volume (it's free, after all).

http://www.authorize.net

Authorize.net - Solid payment provider (though somewhat expensive). Many open source solutions (notably, OSCommerce) have excellent contributions to support this portal.

I have also worked with some ... smaller ... merchant account providers. My experience has been that (while I respect their goals) the little guys can't compete in service, technical competency, and - with these factors taken into consideration - value.

[edited by: lorax at 12:57 pm (utc) on Aug. 17, 2005]
[edit reason] delinked [/edit]

[Corey Bryant]

Well 2CO is more like a third party processor. You use their merchant account to accept credit cards.

LinkPoint is probably one of the larger ones out there. Chase, Wells, Cardservice, First Data - all use LinkPoint for the most part. And these processors are all in the top 20 ISOs. LinkPoitn does not charge a transaction fee or charge for 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. Recurring billing about $25 a month and transaction costs are about $.10

Verisign also has a payment gateway called Payflow. 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). Costs for this is about $39.95 a month for the Pro service and they give you about 1,000 free transactions a month. And recurring billing is about $26.00 a month

-Corey

[leftofcentered]

I apologize, I should have specified that I am looking for payment gateways that accept INTERNATIONAL merchants (located outside of the US). I know for a fact that PayPal and Authorize do not, and I know that 2CO and paysat do. Are there any other companies that people have good things to say about?

[pp_rb]

PayPal supports merchants outside of the US, but you would need to check on the website to see if your country is supported. If it is in the list of countries on the "PayPal Worldwide" page, and is not listed as a send-only country, then you should be able to register for a Business account and accept credit card payments. You would also have access to PayPal's Account Optional checkout for users without PayPal accounts, as long as you are not in Germany.

PayPal's Website Payments Pro is currently only available for US merchants, but the Standard payment features are available for PayPal merchants worldwide.

[webdevfv]

I've recently had a poor experience with WorldPay - they must rank as one of the most beaurucratic organisations I've ever come across.

They want all your fees upfront and all the niceties have to be paid for on top of standard charges.

Compare this to Protx / Barclaycard Merchant Services who are cheaper, more efficient, more flexible in website design, speak and communicate in plain English, and throw in for free deferred payment, 3rd man security checks, and voiding of transactions.

I know which one I would recommend.

[Corey Bryant]

Actually Authorize.net does accept international clients. The problem is finding a MAP in the United States to accept merchants not based in the United States. It take a little extra work but it can be done

You might look also at protx.com as well as Barclay's to see if they can support you

-Corey

[leftofcentered]

Corey, you say : "The problem is finding a MAP in the United States to accept merchants not based in the United States"

Would you please elaborate on that?
Thanks much for your time.

[Corey Bryant]

Corey, you say : "The problem is finding a MAP in the United States to accept merchants not based in the United States"
Would you please elaborate on that?
Thanks much for your time.

Most MAPs will not support foreign merchants because of risks. Some will if you have a United States Bank account, address, and phone number. Chances are that you will be limited to a certain amount per month as well as a higher discount rate (like about 4%)

-Corey