Taking card payments online

Lifeisbutadream

We are setting up a website where we will be able to sell online and the web designer has told me to sort out how we are going to take payments.

What do I need? we dont currently take card payments but would like to be able to take payments over the phone as well..

InsideInsurance

You have a number of options open to you. You can go for an easy all in one solution with transactions happening off site like PayPal or PayPal Pro - PayPal Pro allows you to do MOTO transactions too. At the other end you would need a merchant account (probably your business bank would provide one) and an acquirer like Streamline and you then take payment on your own site.

The former is the easiest and quickest, last low/no standing charges but the per transaction charge is higher. The later is much more expensive to set up, longer process and has standing monthly charges but the per transaction fee is lower.

Rich44_2

To go down the "proper" route you will need a Merchant Services account from a bank all the major banks can help you, it doesn't have to be who the business banks with. That will get you the ability to receive payments you then have a choice of how to take payments "locally" You can get:

A terminal where you can physically insert cards or type the numbers in or you can do it through a terminal software via a virtual terminal. Both of those are suitable for CNP transactions (Customer Not Present)

To take payments online you'll need to then setup an account with a payment gateway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_gateway

Again there are lots to choose from.

If I were you and you're taking orders over the phone I would invest in some proper recording software so that should someone change their mind and try to stitch you up with a chargeback you can provide a recording to back your side of the story up, not essential at all but I would for phone orders.

am

To take payments online you'll need to then setup an account with a payment gateway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_gateway

This gives a good overview of the topic. A good old Google search should provide you with a good overview of merchant providers.

firedrone

SagePay is always a good one or world pay for online transactions, where i work atm we use sage pay.

edenbank6

If you're a charity then be sure to emphasise this when calling to get quotes for the services - Worldpay waived lots of the standard set-up fees for us.

kernewek

Have a look at Voice Commerce (Cashflows). I don't know what they charge now, but they were way cheaper than anyone else when we tried. They also have free use of the Worldnet Gateway for integration, who are excellent, and for us the virtual terminal for telephone payments is free, but again I don't know if this is still the case

OverRover

Hi, newbie here just joined. I frequent another business forum that has just had a new Payment Gateway comparison site advertised. It could be useful for comparing prices of all the top providers out there. It is called PaymentBrain and you should find it pretty easy via a search engine.

BryanSmallBiz

For online payments, choose a widely-trusted provider which for me is PayPal or Worldpay in that order for international transactions, add SagePay if you're just selling into the UK market.
For phone payments - avoid them if you can (you do say 'like to') otherwise Rich44 above is on-the-money.