Need To Accept Credit Cards

Hey everyone,

I have a storefront and I'm currently accepting payment through PayPal, but I've been getting enough business lately ($1000-$1500/month) that the fees are killing me.

Can someone point me to a tutorial that outlines what I need to do to accept payments directly on my site? I'm a newb at this so I have no idea how much it should cost or what I need to do.

Thanks.

 

You should check out 2checkout.net -- they are very good in my opinion.

 

At that volume a traditional merchant account would be justifiable.

You can check out my blog in my signature. I have a ton of info on there about just about everything related to processing credit cards.

 

Well, I'm assuming you mean 2checkout.com (2checkout.net is just a parked page with ads on it...yours?). I looked at 2checkout.com, but their fees are higher than paypal AND they have a setup fee. No thanks.

Thanks. This looks like it has alot of good info, but at first glance it seems like it has more details than I need. Do you have an "Introduction To Accepting Credit Card Payments Online" post? I'm going to dig around more at your blog and online to see if I can find a good tutorial and some objective advice.

 

Expect to pay a setup fee for any kind of merchant account (or anything similiar to a merchant account). Plus you have to consider terminal fees (if applicable) plus transaction fees.

I'd recommend www.Propay.com . It's not a "traditional" merchant account but it works well for small businesses. There IS a yearly fee which varies depending on your monthly limits. Plus transaction fees. You can read more on the site if you are interested.

Accepting credit cards is a cost of doing business.

 

I agree with jetstep inasmuch that you should consider a merchant account. But that is about it.

I signed up last week with Loud Commerce. One of business partner's cousing uses their merchant account provider for the past three years as well. We have been extremely happy in the customer support and price.

I noticed that he also has a cheaper price posted as well so that might be better for you in the long run. Plus with a merchant account your money is put into your bank account automatically.

They even helped me with the LinkPoint integration, which was more than I asked for. If you call them or email them they will explain everything to you in terms that you can understand

 

I don't think I have a post like that. Thinking about it I have no idea why, but I will put one up there for sure.

As far as online processing go, there are three parts that you need to worry about. The merchant account, the payment gateway and the shopping cart.

For a payment gateway I would recommend authorize.net using the AIM method. You will be able to keep your visitors on your website for the entire transaction process, and it is pretty much the lowest cost gateway available. Authorize.net is compatible with most merchant account providers and compatible with most shopping cart providers. If you would rather direct your visitors to a secure site, authorize.net offers that ability as well. The method you use will depend on your shopping cart and tracking requirements.

As far as prices go, expect to pay about $40 for the authorize.net setup and $10 - $15 / month for the gateway fee. Verisign is another very high quality gateway, but is much more expensive to setup and more expensive each month.

 

Actually with Verisign - if you drill dwn into it, most gateways (except LinkPoint) charge for transactions. With Verisign Pro being about $50.00 a month, they give you 1,000 free transactions so that could could save you anywhere from $75 - $100 a month. If you subtract th differences from Authorizenet.com of course, that is anywhere from about $65 - $90 a month in savings.

 

I collect some on-line payment information in the web site .

Personally I would recommend 2Checkout.

 

2checkout is the best online payment service provider I dealt with.

 

if volume is large paypal offers 1.9%, hard to beat imho

 

I registered to moneybookers. It has a feature: Send Money to any one who has an email address even if not a moneybookers member! Does anyone know what happens after I send the money? Does the recipient have to register himself as well or what?

 

You can try StormPay or E-Gold for credit card processing. Really I just use PayPal, but I'd secondly recommend 2CO (2 Checkout). Their services are very inexpensive and reliable.