Paypal

How good is it?

[le_gber]

Hi,

I'm in the UK and will be doing business with companies around the world. I was wonderering if Paypal is a good way to do so and how it works?

Is any of you using it?

Whan does it become profitable?

Cheers

Leo

[iThink]

>>>I was wonderering if Paypal is a good way to do so and how it works?

I am wondering how you are accepting payments from "around the world"? Paper checks (or cheques in UK) or wire transfer? If the answer is yes the Paypal is the way to go for receiving small payments at least because of relatively low cost of receivig payment, instant payment receipt to your paypal a/c and no upfront cost to open a Paypal a/c. I said small payments because their support is not good. It is very difficult to get hold of their support on phone. IMO Any one who deals on Ebay will agree with me.

Just read all the FAQs and support Q&As on the paypal's site and you will be ready to start.

-iThink

[le_gber]

will be doing business with companies around the world

Not yet just a question for when/if I start doing it.

I said small payments because their support is not good

Up to how much is that?

Thanks

Leo

[bathheaven]

I accept both credit card and pay pal. I usually have 20 credit card purchases for every paypal.

I highly recommend finding a good credit card processor

[neophene]

I think its more how you integrate paypal with your site that makes the difference.

I make a shopping cart on my server side.. at the payment section the total gets submitted to paypal and looking at the results from carts made and carts finalised by a sale etc.. there doesn't seem to be a cause for concern.

I don't use the paypal cart because its slow as all hell and just plain sucks.

As to when it becomes profitable to do so.. straight away.. your not paying merchant fees etc. When you have enough sales and the need for the merchant account switch then.

Spend the money you save on some good marketing and you'll be ready for merchant account before you know it.

Cheers

Brendon

[axisoftime]

Paypal is great for eBay and small-scale sellers/stores because their is no startup cost, easy to setup, etc. But if you are mid to large-scale, you'll definitely want to get a merchant account. Merchant fees are typcially less than Paypal fees. If you are thinking long-term, go with a merchant account.

[le_gber]

Thanks everyone for your help. Will have a good think about Merchant Account and Paypal.

Leo

[Filipe]

More info:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[anallawalla]

For small payments, I find PayPal the best way to deal with foreign customers initially. This is for services, not goods. There is a big hit in charges as I am not in the US but this is better than asking the customer to send a bank draft in my currency.

[ScottM]

I agree with the 20:1 ratio for paypal to credit cards. Mine is quite a bit higher, though. More like 50:1.

[fruitynewt]

Hi,

I read some of the horror stories relating to PayPay and decided that I could not recommend them to my clients - just in case. I shopped around for an alternative. In particular one of my clients had no credit history but needed to take CC payments. I found paysystems.com.

These guys do repeating transactions plus regular payments. you have the option of getting your own merchant account (with all the associated costs) or using their account (which means the payments show up on the statements in the name of PaySystems.com). All you need to join is a credit card of your own.

This is a low cost start-up option since Paysystems only charge $60 US to join with no monthly fee. They do however charge $1 per transaction plus 3.95 %. These transaction charges mean that if you have a high number of low value transactions you are better off with PayPal or a merchant account.

I hope this helps!

R.

[lindajames]

PayPal has lot of serious problems, have a look at the following site for more info, you can also read the forum of users that have bad experiences with paypal http://www.paypalsucks.com

[furman]

Hi,
I am also looking for good and cheap ways to take payment for my uk store. My current cart (Candypress) has paypal support included. Paypal seems to be very good. I also found a few sites using Yahoo Paydirect - is this another good option? I will also integrate NoChex.

Worldpay is a bit expensive for me - I can't get a proper merchant account because I have not been in business for 2 years.