Which payment service provider??

[Kerrib4]

Hi everyone

We have been looking through merchant account and payment providers. We had been looking at this a few weeks ago but decided to just stick with paypal and googlecheckout. Now though we think it would be better to go ahead with a payment provider, as well as paypal and google checkout.

We are stuck between RBS Worldpay, Sagepay, and PayPal Pro. We are a new company, so a competitive rate is very important right now.

I am a bit confused with Sagepay, do you NEED to have a merchant account to integrate Sagepay? Also on their page it says they have teamed up with Bank of Scotland for competitive rates. Are the prices under 'Exceptional Value' including Bank of Scotland? Or would their prices be seperately added on? Please click here to see the page I am referring to. Also they say '3D Secure' and 'Non 3D Secure', what does this mean?

Also, I was told by another member that if I join Fed of Small Businesses, I would get discounts off RBS Worldpay. I was told this would be £120 per annum, no set up fee, credit card 1.93% - 1.95%, and debit card from 30p per transaction. Merchant with those prices would be another 1% for credit card and 13p for debit card. Are those prices right? Is around 43p per transaction (from 43p) for debit cards not a bit steeper than some other companies, especially considering this is WITH discount?

I'm not sure which too choose. Any advice would be great.

Thanks,
Kerri

[Phil]

Hi,

We personally use NoChex Merchant account as a payment provider. They offer very competitive rates and a very quick setup. It's also very easy to integrate via its IPN, and payment pages are easy to customise (it helps that they look good to start with - something which I can say Worldpay certainly isn't).

Regards
Phil


Edit: There's no need for any other 3rd party merchant accounts or hidden fees - I think just a small one-off setup fee, then a percentage of each transaction. For a merchant account, you need to always have a retainer of about £500 in your account, but they allow you to build this up from sales so no initial deposit is required.

[Kerrib4]

So NoChex is a merchant account and PSP in one? I will definately have a look into this if they are offering competitive rates.

We have been looking at the details for PayPal Pro. The transaction fees are 3.4% + 20p. This is for sales under £1500 per month. There is also a £20 monthly fee. What do you think of those rates?

Thanks

[HuggyBear]

I find PayPal expensive in comparison to using a payment provider such as sage whereby you only get charged a percentage of credit card transaction, and a fixed pence charge per debit card transaction. And adding the £20 a month on top of that; setup an account with ProtX(SagePay) you pay a set fee a month and you get so many transactions included in it free, then its your merchant account provider that charges you....

[claire stokoe]

I would also look into how the system works for the user, some payment systems can be really sticky and want more details for the user. I understand that you want to keep your costs down, but make sure that the user has ALL the options available to them. SO many of our clients have fallen into that trap of choosing a payment system that was good for them, but then their fall out rate at the cart was over 70% .. just my 2ps worth

[Kerrib4]

Hi thanks for all of your advice. If I used sagepay then which merchant account is good to use if you know of any?

We have also been having a look at other providers that are compatible with our shopping cart. Here are the details:

Amazon Simple Pay - 2.9% plus $0.30, free set up and no monthly fee
Go Real Time - 2.29% plus $0.30, set up $99, monthly fee $19.95
Merchant Anywhere - 2.2% plus $0.30, free set up, monthly fee $24.95
Moneybookers - 1.9% plus 19p, free set up and no monthly fee
Net Billing - 2.25% plus $0.25

Most of them are in dollars and we are in the UK, so not sure if this would be a problem for some of them? We are also unsure of whether some of them are payment providers or merchant accounts, or both combined.

If anyone has any advice or experience with those companies, it would be great if you could let me know.

Phil mentioned NoChex which I had a look into and I was impressed with the rates etc they could offer. Only problem is our shopping cart is not compatible with NoChex, and they want $320 to integrate it.

Phil said that Worldpay doesn't look good for the customers point of view, does anyone else have experience with Worldpay?

Does anyone know if Federation of Small Businesses gives discounts with any other companies other than RBS Worldpay?

Thanks again for your advice ,

Kerri

[Kerrib4]

Anyone....?

[HuggyBear]

With regards to FSB Benefits: Full explanation here: http://www.fsb.org.uk/default.aspx?id=0&loc=FSBbenefits

I would recomend getting the RBS Merchant account and using SagePay...Cheaper...

[LOS Design UK]

Hi Kerri

To give you the best advice, can you tell me (or PM) which cart you are trying to integrate with.

Regards
Daren

[Kerrib4]

Thanks huggy we will look in to that.

Daren, I have sent you a PM.