It’s terrific when a great many visitors come to your site; however, if you have an e-commerce site the goal is for them to buy something. I have found that when marketing anything either on the net or in person, the easier one makes it for the person to buy, the more likely they are to purchase. Since a payment of some sort is an essential ingredient of any sale it seems to me that making a method of payment as easy and painless as possible is extremely important. Credit cards have contributed more to the direct marketing of products in the last 20 years than perhaps any other single issue. My question is therefore directed at merchant accounts and the ability to accept credit cards on the net. It seems that there are many companies offering merchant services like Pay Pal and others; however there have been many stories about these companies holding back payments for days and months sometimes. That is certainly not an efficient way to run a business—any business. If one has the ability to obtain there own merchant account the money is usually deposited in ones own bank account in 24 hours. I think this would be an interesting topic to explore because there is a great deal of confusion and miss-information surrounding this issue.

In any event anyone could shed some light on this issue it would be welcome.

Best regards
R_L

I've used PayPal for years and I personally have never had a problem. One thing I really like about PayPal is their debit card. Works just like a standard MasterCard but with a couple of cool exceptions:

1. When you make a purchase, the transaction immediately appears in your PayPal account.

2. You receive 1.5% cash back immediately when you use the PayPal debit card.

PayPal does take a few days to transfer money to your bank account. But, you can always use your PayPal debit card and withdraw the money at an ATM and deposit the money into your bank account if you are in a rush.

Any merchant account provider (including PayPal) will have problems at some point. Having had both a standard merchant account and PayPal, I much prefer PayPal.

Oh, almost forgot to mention that it's a breeze to download PayPal account information directly into my accounting software. Very handy!

Welcome to the forum R_L! :standingw

I've been using PayPal, ClickBank and my own merchant account (for a variety or purposes and reasons) for 5 years. I've never had PayPal or ClickBank hold back payments. They are always transferred to my accounts within 3 business days (which, I believe is the legal limit).

My merchant account deposits my funds within the same amount of time... usually 2-3 business days.

The only thing I don’t like with paypal is their poor coverage. I guess they work good only in USA and Canada.
Correct me if I am wrong.

Uhh... a few more than that. PayPal is available in 45 countries.

I receive Paypal payments from all over the world and have had no issues with it at all. I actually prefer to receive payment that way for international orders.

~ Lisa

I've used paypal on my website for 5 years with zero problems.

If you are looking for a merchant account, though, you might try Costco. For their business customers they offer a very competitve merchant account option. (They also have health insurance and many other business benefits)

Michele

I suppose every company that provides money transfers online has its cons and pros. Just look at paypalsucks. However there are many people who like using this company.
I just can’t say anything about it since I don’t use it due to my geographical location.

I've used Authorize.net for my merchant account, and I've been very pleased with them. However, I also loves me some PayPal.

Yes, I think that paypal is the most popular payment processor, and if someone is searching for the merchant account, most of people suggest to try paypal :D

I have been using paypal for many years now, and many of my clients and friends also use them. We don't have any problems.

my 2 two cents...

You will hear complaints and praise about every system.

Praise is unsolicited. Complaints - you have to know the root cause. The people complaining may have caused the issues themselves. Bad mouthing anonymously has also become popular, especially for people trying to divert from popular, larger systems.
I have looked in to PayPal, but since I am not a total goods seller and deal mostly in B2B, services and licensing, I haven't signed up yet due to lack of need. My clients all have an established maximum (low for first time) for services, and all software is licensed and paid prior to licensing, so even with the goods they will only have it for 15 days unless they run a good hack. :abovehead

Good luck in your merchant account search, whichever way you go.

Hello,

A lot of business owners that I have come across with, always ask me the same question over and over. That question is, "if I switch to you, what rates will I get."

Here is the deal folks... I will break it down to you in writing.

Your rates are based on the following:

1. Avarage Ticket price
2. Monthly Valume
3. Type of business
4. Type of transaction (in pearson, phone, internet, etc)
5. Risk category

These are just the basics...

Now here are the (basic) type of rates:

1. Qualified Rates - Regular Credit Cards
2. Mid and Non Qualified rates - Usually rewards, corporate, and other rates which are always higher.

You also have per transaction/item charge ontop of your rates.
---------***< Example >***--------------------------------
Qualified
V: 1.79% $0.10 Transaction
MC: 1.79% $0.10 Transaction

Mid/Non Qual
V/MC: as much as 1.00% + $0.10 per transaction
These are the corporate/rewards/etc cards
----------------------------------------------------------------------

[Moderator Edit: See signature file for contact info.]

I've considered getting a merchant account a couple of times, but have never gotten one. First time, the (what I thought was a reputable) vendor charged a "non refundable set-up fee" in order to fill out the application...turned out there were some previous nondisclosed fees in the 45 page agreement they presented only after paying the initial fee. Eventually got my money back for that one.

I've heard from several sources the Costco merchant account is a good one. That's next on my list to explore as soon as I get to it.

Reason I haven't been terribly motivated to find a merchant account is I'm happy with using Paypal and 2checkout.com. Paypal seems to add useful, new features every few months. Haven't looked into it yet, but they recently announced a way to take credit cards offline, so I might end up going that route instead of separate merchant account.

I used to sell merchant accounts. I also spent about 10 years selling, installing and training in the use of Point-of-Sale systems, and other "vertical market" software and hardware. Many of the systems included card processing, so it is a market I am familiar with.

For several years I have been recommending either Costco or Sam's Club packages, since they are right good. However, I recently found another that I feel is an even better deal for those selling mainly on-line. It has the advantages of having your own merchant account at a reasonable cost.

<Affiliate link edited out by moderator.>

While there are many who use PayPal and other "Third Party Processors" (TPP's), there are some drawbacks. The biggest problem concerns their attitudes towards chargebacks, should they occur. Since PayPal and the others are just "merchant accounts" to the actual processors, they have to be on their toes to manage the number of chargebacks that get reported to the processors. So, at the first claim of a problem, they refund the money and let the merchant dangling in the breeze. Even the processors themselves have a much more even-handed chargeback process. But the TPP's don't want things to escalate to a genuine chargeback through the processors.


They can be equally as hard on the customer. Often they will drag things out until the day or so before the deadline for the customer to file a real chargeback with their bank or provider. And they require an "I won't go past or around you and file with my card provider" clause when you sign with them, so they can close your account if you do file a regular chargeback.

They make it hard for both sides to function as they would had the seller had their own merchant account.

And while it's true you often don't hear the entire story, there a quite a few of them at PayPal Sucks.com (http://paypalsucks.com)

Personally, I prefer to be the master of my own destiny. Even if it were to cost me a bit more each month (it doesn't, with the volume I do), I would still direct my on-line sales to my merchant account. I do maintain a PayPal account for people who just want to send me some money without the transfer of a product, but I do not offer it as an option on my WebStores.

BobetteKyle,

The new PayPal feature you referenced is called Virtual Terminal, and it works great. Since it launched we have been using it to process one or two over-the-phone credit orders per day (the vast majority of our customers pay through the website), and it's a breeze.

We use PayPal exclusively as our merchant account, and it's never been a problem. As long as the customer uses a "confirmed address," which means an address associated either with the credit card used for the purchase (if they pay by credit card) or with a credit card on their PayPal account (if they pay via PayPal), then all you have to do is supply the USPS or UPS tracking information for the transaction and PayPal offers 100% protection on chargebacks (even if they end up having to fork over the dough themselves). In the thousands of transactions we have completed over the past year-and-a-half, only two chargebacks have been attempted against us. One was for a $60 set of DVDs, the customer had used a Confirmed Address, and we didn't lose a cent. The other was for a $7.99 baby bottle, the customer had used an Unconfirmed Address, and we lost the $7.99 plus shipping, but c'est la vie.

The trick is to not ship very large orders to Unconfirmed Addresses.

- Paul

The new PayPal feature you referenced is called Virtual Terminal...
Hey Paul, I haven't had a chance to look at that. Is it difficult to set up?

Robert,

Actually, there's no setup at all. You just have to sign up for it for $20/month (or signup for PayPal Website Payments Pro, which includes Virtual Terminal), and then whenever you want to process a credit card payment over the phone (or fax, or in person) you just go to www.paypal.com/vt and login. It gives you a one-page form to fill out (product name, price, address, cc info, etc) and then you can process the card in less than 30 seconds.

This was always a pretty serious gap in the PayPal service, and I'm glad they finally filled it in.

- Paul

If you currently use QuickBooks Pro or Premier you can get a merchant account through them with very competitive rates. The plus side of this is that you can have the invoice emailed to the customer and they can click on a button to PAY NOW, enter their info and walla it is processed through QuickBooks and the payment is posted in your books.

I just signed up for a great merchant account that allows me to accept CC's over the phone. I am very pleased, and I do use Paypal, but it does scare some customers away for some reason. I also needed something to process craft show payments, as well as have the ability to possibly open a small at home biz too. I would be happy to share this info with anyone!

I recently opened a merchant account at my bank and found it to be a great tool to increase my sales. I can take credit card info by phone, by mail (order form) or in person at my shows and I call it in to be processed. They transfer the money to my checking account within a few days.

I also love paypal - I just find it very easy to use and widely accepted. For those it does scare off, they can call me to do it by phone the other way.