online card processing - cheapest & simplest deals

popalock

I'm currently using paypal only for my site, and while I like PayPal, a lot of prospective customers have been moaning about it. So I looked into using Sagepay + merchant account. But that option is pricey and takes about 6 weeks to get approved etc.. + you need credit checks, and fees are still quite high I feel.

i found some sites over in the US which charge only 2% or less, but they cater only to businesses out over there.

2checkout.com ticks lots of boxes (especially multi-lingual functionality) but is pricey at 5.5% per transaction

any suggestions?

Lighthouse_in_the_dark

why dont you set up an llc over in the states it will stop a lot of hassle

terra_ferma

Worldpay has a good reputation, but I guess the process is similar to Sage (which I believe is cheaper, but I've heard bad feedback about reliability etc).
The FSB has some special deals, if you are a member.
Personally I only trust major reputable companies, there is so much that could go wrong, from integration with your website, to actually getting your money.

You are right to find an alternative to paypal, they have a tendency of putting holds and even closing accounts at no notice, so an alternative way of receiving payments is a good idea.

terra_ferma

Lighthouse_in_the_dark wrote: »

why dont you set up an llc over in the states it will stop a lot of hassle

care to expand on that? what makes you think it will stop a lot of hassle?

popalock

yeah would be interested in this "llc" idea, although it sounds like even more hassle!

I found another payment gateway & merchant account combined (adyen). A Dutch company. And they look real cheap

apparently vodafone, klm use them.

any thoughts?

terra_ferma

popalock wrote: »

yeah would be interested in this "llc" idea, although it sounds like even more hassle!

I found another payment gateway & merchant account combined (adyen). A Dutch company. And they look real cheap

apparently vodafone, klm use them.

any thoughts?

Can I ask what shopping cart you use that allows multi-currency payments? Unless you have a very expensive one, the only one I can think of that can do that is Prestashop.
All shopping carts can show multiple currencies on the front end, but only accept payments in base currency, e.g. Magento, but don't allow payments in multiple currencies.

I hadn't though of the language problem, so can't comment on that until I've done some research, as that could be a problem for me as well when I introduce a payment gateway.

popalock

sorry, all my payments are in £s at the moment. But I might look into taking EUR payments and USD payments in the future (I have all those currency accounts with my bank). But "from another country" implies what by paypal? surely not in the country you are registered in? That's a massive problem for me - most of my orders are from the EU, USA and Australia right now..

I don't know much about the multi language gateway thing, except 2checkout make it explicit on their site. my magento developer tells me Adyen can do "no problem" also.

So with their super low fees and ability to handle different languages for the gateway, I'm sold I think. Will call them up tomorrow - hopefully they don't have some minimum order threshold..

terra_ferma

popalock wrote: »

sorry, all my payments are in £s at the moment. But I might look into taking EUR payments and USD payments in the future (I have all those currency accounts with my bank). But "from another country" implies what by paypal? surely not in the country you are registered in? That's a massive problem for me - most of my orders are from the EU, USA and Australia right now..

I don't know much about the multi language gateway thing, except 2checkout make it explicit on their site. my magento developer tells me Adyen can do "no problem" also.

So with their super low fees and ability to handle different languages for the gateway, I'm sold I think. Will call them up tomorrow - hopefully they don't have some minimum order threshold..

Magento sends all payments in the base currency, it DOES NOT process multiple currencies (unless you found a module that does, I've been searching for a long time and never found one, if you have it would be fantastic if you could share it with me).

The problem is not the payment gateway, but it's how Magento itself works, unless you have a set up with multiple websites (not views, that's not enough). But this only works if they use different languages, not if you need multiple currencies for English-speaking countries, e.g. £ and $ (it would work, but it would be SEO suicide because Google would treat them as duplicate websites).

I hope I'm wrong, I'm right now trying to find a solution myself, so if anyone tells me I got it wrong and there's a way I'd be a very happy bunny

popalock

We haven't got that far - thanks for the heads up. I'll ping a message to my developer (he's VERY good) and let you know the answer. Will be important for me too!

popalock

haven't got around to sending him the query, but just had a look at a multi lingual & currency site

looks like it CAN be done! How I don't know

terra_ferma

popalock wrote: »

haven't got around to sending him the query, but just had a look at a multi lingual & currency site

looks like it CAN be done! How I don't know

That's a great example, a very good site. It would be good to know what shopping cart they use, looks like it could be Magento Enterprise, which I haven't looked at because it's very expensive (I should have specified that when I said Magento I meant Community and Go versions).
Unless they have gone down the route of having different websites and possibly finding a way for Google not to treat them as duplicates.

Can't wait to hear what your guy tells you, if he manages to get you a multi-currency/language website for a good price I'll be asking for his details