Low Cost Credit Card Processing

I am a very small new business needing CC processing

[mveler]

Hello,

I was very fortunate to fall upon this board after on 8 hours of reading about merchant accounts:)

Anyhow I was hoping someone could help with my delima.

I am a very very small craft business online. Sometimes I make no sales and sometimes I manage a few.

I am needing an alternative for my credit card processing.

I was using Paypal but I am just not happy with their services.

I do however wish to find someone who can process credit cards without the $30-50 a month fee's because I rarely make that.

Perhaps a per transaction only type site.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Melissa

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

I was using Paypal but I am just not happy with their services.

What is it about their services that you don't like? I would think that Paypal or something like Nochex would be ideal in your situation.

[mveler]

As for what I do not like about paypal.... Well needless to say, after 5+ years doing business with them, they have once again frozen my account. I have no complaints, have completed all requests and still nothing. This is not the first time. This has happened several times over the five years.

At no fault of mine. They simply give reasons like, just a normal security measure. I'm sorry etc. Each and everytime I manage to get it back but this is just not a good way for a company to do business.

As for nochex... I was reading their site and it seems like a viable option. But one question. Do they service US merchants?

Thanks

[seanpecor]

mvler, if there is absolutely anything you can think of that would have triggered a freeze on your account, it's best you identify it. Paypal behaves not unlike a typical credit card merchant processor. If Paypal has frozen your account then a processor might do the same. It's important you identify the reasons even if they're not valid such that in the future you can avoid those signalling issues.

I've used Paypal since 2002 and do close to $50,000 a month. I've never had my account frozen. I've had refund issues - I get one every six months or so - but I simply refund the money and the unresolved issue goes away. Back in 2002, I did begin by taking payments with a credit card processor rather than through Paypal. Back then during setup they wanted to know what my average transaction amount was, etc. I told them it varied, from $25 to $3,000. They demanded an average and I specified $300. Well, not long after getting set up, someone paid me $2,500 through their credit card and my account was frozen. It took me over a month to resolve the issue and I was given no assurances that it would not arbitrarily happen again. I'm sure in four years that internet merchant accounts are treated with a bit more respect by processing companies, but that experience made me very wary at the time and spurred my transition to Paypal.

Sean

[phantombookman]

You'll bring the PP fan club out now!
Get ready for a post that tells you that PP do not freeze accounts and nobody has problems!

I personally know someone who had a nightmare a while ago

I actually think PP is a fantastic service, for those who need it. The main problem for me is that, when I occassionally have to take it on ebay it costs me just over twice as much as my merchant account

[my74]

Lots of crafters use Propay.com. I used Propay a couple years ago and never had a problem. I think they have a sign up fee and then your charged per transaction.

[LifeinAsia]

We used ProPay for a while several years back. Their per-transaction fees are (or were) a lot higher than most, but it works out better overall for merchants with very few transactions. Our main problem with them was the low processing limit, although it doesn't sound like it will be an issue for the original poster.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Are they available to everyone or just the USA?

[LifeinAsia]

Are they available to everyone or just the USA?

Not sure- you should probably visit the site to find out.

[grobe]

"Because of the security requirements that ProPay has, all applicants must have a valid Social Security number, a physical address within the United States, and a checking account established within the United States.

Therefore, ProPay is currently unavailable outside the United States. "

Basically people who do too small a volume to have a merchant account (say under $1,000/month) use a third-party processor. Paypal is the biggest. 2Checkout and Worldpay are popular. Unfortunately lots of them have gone out of business, resulting in merchants losing their money, so one should only use the well-established ones.

I personally use a combination of Paypal and Propay.

[Corey Bryant]

Are you doing more than $1,000 a month? If so - a merchant account is usually better in the long run with an electronic payment gateway.

The larger ones in the United States are LinkPoint, Verisign's Payflow, and Authoriznet.com. LinkPoint is usually around $15-$30 a month with no transaction fees. Verisign is around $45-$60 with 1,000 free transactions, And Authorizenet.com is about $10-$30 a month with $.10 per tranaction. Authorizenet.com and Payflow charges for their recurring billing while LinkPoint does not.

-Corey

[mveler]

Hey Ya'll, I was not ignoring your replies, i took everyone and looked at them individually~

I checked out everyone and spoke with a very nice woman at cardservices international this evening. It appears they are running a special (my favorite word) today.

Anyway
I got my merchant account for 9.95 a month plus the per transaction fees. GREAT DEAL

Thank you again. I am sure I will be back to this board many times in the future!

Melissa

[john82]

ChronoPay is providing lowest fees and accepting most of the credit card and they have a reliable support system in place and respond to inquiries within 24 hours.