Merchant Account for Online Orders

[sclnet]

There are only 2 ways to take online credit card orders:
either get a merchant account or use Pay Pal.

What are 2 good quality Merchant Account Services?

Is that correct or are there any other viable options?

How is Pay Pal different from having a merchant account?

Can you basically tell me the advantage/disadvantage (the pro's and cons of having a Merchant Account or using Pay Pal for online orders.

Is Pay Pal Secure? Someone told me the Pay Pal Service has been running a scam and will be shutdown. Is that true?

Thanks

Visit The Economy Review - See all the Breaking World Economic News in 5 Minutes.
http://www.pcisys.net/~scl/

[Taylor1929]

Hmmm...

I'm not sure I have the answer.

Pay Pal from my understanding doesn't necessarily go through a "gateway". Don't ask me exactly what a gateway is...I think it's a bank that holds the money and then forwards on the payments.

I do know that...or at least I think that with PAyPal you have an account that you can look at anytime...and they make payments to you monthly.

Merchant accounts can be expensive to set up...I think you have to qualify (not sure if you have to with PayPal) and I think Pay Pal doesn't take as much out as a mechant account (no minimums).

However...your customers have to go to Pay Pal and set up their account in order to use it and pay you. So that's an extra step before making their payment. Whcih means you place the Pay Pal link on your site so they can do that.

Sometime they don't want that hassle. They want to pay and go.

I have a merchant account through Authorize Net. My webmaster set it up so I'm not real familiar with it...and have yet to really use it.

Sorry I don't have the best answers. Oh yes...Ebay (or is it Amazon) just switched over to Pay Pal...or bought it...so I think Pay Pal will be around for a long time.

Taylor

[mikeyp]

ebay just bought paypal.

[Jason]

There is actually a third option that you are missing. You can use a third party gateway that does not require you to set up a merchant account, or to deal with a 4th party bank. Two examples of these services are http://www.clickbank.com and http://www.2checkout.com

[eaglepi]

http://www.clickbank.com and http://www.2checkout.com look like a inexpensive way to accept credit cards on a website, can someone tell me what the bad points are??

One thing I am afriad of is sending my customer off to their site where they will be bothered with other offers and then lose interest in my site. Or make it so difficult that they give up.. I would like some pros and cons

[ecomguru]

how about payment terminal solution - icverify.com - process details offsite manually

[The Dreamer]

You don't say what is being sold, so this may or may not be helpful buuuut.... you might also look at http://www.ccnow.com

Cost: I think it's nine bucks a month now... I set the account up with them way back when it was free to set up accounts.

Pros: Flexible shipping options, flexible payment options and low fee's for sales.

Cons: Biggest one that I've found over the past three years is that the items MUSY ship within ten days of the sale. There are workarounds though even to this.

It may not be what your after, but I thought I'd throw my two cents worth in. :)

[mescorp]

I use 2checkout currently...and all I can tell you is that they have been dealing with some nasty DDOS issues for the past couple of months. This of course means that no one can place orders with you...and it was just down from Thanksgiving day till early this morning. Biggest shopping weekend of the year cost many of us 2checkout customers lots of cash.

Here is my short little list of pros and cons with PayPal and 2checkout.com....


2CHECKOUT - PROS:

1.) you only pay a $50, one-time set up fee (compare that to most other merchant processors who charge fees from $299 and up JUST for the start-up)

2.) You do not pay any monthly fees. You are charged a flat percentage rate per individual sale you make. If you don't sell anything, you don't pay them anything.

3.) You do not have to process the credit cards yourself...and this is pro and a con at the same time. The pro part is that you don't have any of the hassles that go along with the entire credit card process....saves LOTS of headaches and limits your personal liability.

2CHECKOUT CONS:

1.) Their customer service is MORE than severely lacking. Most of their employees that I have had to deal with have been absolutely rude as all hell, with the exception of one guy! They do a very crappy job of keeping their customers informed of any major issues....prime example has been this whole DDOS thing for the past 4 days. They don't update you very often, and when they do they're very evasive and non-specific. RUDE...RUDE....RUDE people over there!

2.) You cannot accept credit card orders over the phone, by fax or mail in. They will only allow the customer who is purchasing from you to enter their credit card information using their "secure" **cough, cough** network. This is also a pro, but your options to accepting orders are limited to online only.

3.) You only get paid 2 times per month...unless you are making thousands a week...and even then they have to "approve" you for weekly transfer of your funds.


PAYPAL PROS:

[mescorp]

I use 2checkout currently...and I can tell you that they have been dealing with some nasty DDOS issues for the past couple of months. This of course means that no one can place orders with you...and it was just down from Thanksgiving day till early this morning, while some of their customers are still down. Biggest shopping weekend of the year cost many of us 2checkout customers lots of cash and potential customers.

Here is my short little list of pros and cons with PayPal and 2checkout.com....


2CHECKOUT - PROS:

1.) you only pay a $50, one-time set up fee (compare that to most other merchant processors who charge fees from $299 and up JUST for the start-up)...though your per transaction percentage is a bit higher than most other merchants.

2.) You do not pay any monthly fees. You are charged a flat percentage rate per individual sale you make. If you don't sell anything, you don't pay them anything.

3.) You do not have to process the credit cards yourself...and this is pro and a con at the same time. The pro part is that you don't have any of the hassles that go along with the entire credit card process....saves LOTS of headaches and limits your personal liability.

2CHECKOUT CONS:

1.) Their customer service is MORE than severely lacking. Most of their employees that I have had to deal with have been absolutely rude as all hell, with the exception of one guy! They do a very crappy job of keeping their customers informed of any major issues....prime example has been this whole DDOS thing for the past 4 days. They don't update you very often, and when they do they're very evasive and non-specific. RUDE...RUDE....RUDE people over there!

2.) You cannot accept credit card orders over the phone, by fax or mail in. They will only allow the customer who is purchasing from you to enter their credit card information using their "secure" **cough, cough** network. This is also a pro, but your options to accepting orders are limited to online only.

3.) You only get paid 2 times per month...unless you are making thousands a week...and even then they have to "approve" you for weekly transfer of your funds.

PAYPAL PROS:

1.) It's easy...LOTS of people who shop online already have a PayPal account and are familiar and comfortable with it.


PAYPAL CONS:

1.) People who don't already have a PayPal account don't always bother to get one because the sign up process is a pain in the REAR!!

2.) I personally just don't like PayPal for website sales, though for auctions it's a breeze.


Did I wear your ears out yet?

:D

[chenzhu]

I recommend you to try ikobo (http://www.ikobo.com). Its services are good. I am using it and am extremely satisfied with it.