Cheapest way to accept online payments

Katie-Kat-Kins

Hi I'm just wondering what the cheapest most cost effective way to accept payments online is.

I want to set something up for my husband's business that will be quicker and more secure than just asking people to post us a cheque.

The business does not have a high volume of transactions, and generally it will be for mail order sales with a cost of £30-£100, although if it is efficient we may start using it for larger sums that aren't strictly online sales too.

I understand that paypal merchant accounts are expensive so what are the alternatives?

We are thinking of changing the business bank account at the moment anyway so if this makes a difference we can choose the account based on online payment services.

Thanks

faevilangel

Paypal is probably your best bet, google checkout is another.

The other option is to use a credit card merchant, but you will pay set up fees, transaction fees etc. You will then have to work out if you want to take payment on your site, or send them to the merchants site (like paypal does).

If you want to do the first, you will need to be pci compliant, have dedicated or virtual dedicated hosting, an ssl certificate and have the website fully set up to the merchants standards.

If you're doing say less than £1k a year, then i would recommend paypal, just increase your prices slightly to cover the fees. It's much safer for you and your customers.

Paypal doesn't come without rules and annoyances, but it's probably the best method, just read their rules etc first.

If you want to take credit cards, the best known merchants are worldplay (owned by rbs), hsbc payments, and sagepay. I know sagepay offer to send the customers to their site, not sure on the others. I would evaluate the options before jumping in. Sagepay and worldplay are probably the better option as you can be with any bank, i think hsbc means you need to bank with them (don't count me on it).

good luck

Moosk

Yep - Paypal is probably the best way to go first off. Free to set up so you've nothing to loose by giving it a go. And as faevilangel said, no worries about pci.

If you then find you are taking a reasonable number of payments you can look at other payment service providers; sagepay,worldpay,etc in addition. Many people like to have both on their sites, because some people just prefer to pay with their paypal account.

wuckfit

OP, do you have a proper merchant account with a card acquisition company?

eschaton

I heard E-Clear were pretty good for accepting your cash.

Then forgetting to let go of it......

ukbill69

Barclays are doing an offer on, think it was free setup on there epdq and 3% flat rate for all transactions.

wuckfit

If you're a member of the FSB, you can get preferential rates with streamline, including them waiving the installation fee (was £150 when I got my terminal)
the streamline rates were a good bit below 3% too - just over half that for credit cards and a fixed fee for debit cards. It will depend on circumstances and volume of transactions to an extent too.

ukbill69

wuckfit wrote: »

If you're a member of the FSB, you can get preferential rates with streamline, including them waiving the installation fee (was £150 when I got my terminal)
the streamline rates were a good bit below 3% too - just over half that for credit cards and a fixed fee for debit cards. It will depend on circumstances and volume of transactions to an extent too.

The person was asking about online payments not in person transactions. Streamline are so picky with what business they want to take on to.

Katie-Kat-Kins

wuckfit wrote: »

OP, do you have a proper merchant account with a card acquisition company?

No not yet, a system to do in person transactions will be on the to do list for 2010 as we will really need something by summer.

We will consider a system that allows online and in person transactions as we want to be able to do both eventually and want the best value way of doing this. It is online that is our priority at the moment though.

Thanks

faevilangel

Katie-Kat-Kins wrote: »

No not yet, a system to do in person transactions will be on the to do list for 2010 as we will really need something by summer.

We will consider a system that allows online and in person transactions as we want to be able to do both eventually and want the best value way of doing this. It is online that is our priority at the moment though.

Thanks

Read this thread on UKBF. It explains why a new business should use paypal.

The recommendation is to have paypal and credit card payments. Offer both, some people won't shop unless they can use paypal.

Look into sagepay (used to be called protx), it's probably one of the most recommended merchant provider, with reasonable prices.

I have no idea about offline services though, i only deal with online stuff

Marketest

The only thing I can tell is that being able to accept payment by credit card with your bank takes time!