Power Sellers Unite

gr8deals99 · Joined: 28 Jan 2009 Posts: 1

I'm looking to stop using Paypal. After a little bit of research, it looks like everybody and their brother sells merchant card services, so I am looking for a website that compares various providers so I can make an educated choice. Please no veiled sales pitches, please. Thank you!

Juliartz · Joined: 29 Jan 2007 Posts: 570

I can recommend using Google Checkout. I find it a wonderful payment system, and your money is not held ransom like Fraudpay does. I am also slowly taking paypal out of the payment options in my sites. The only downfall, so far, that I can see in GC is that if you have multiple websites, then you need to open multiple accounts with google, each with their own email address so there will be unique API for each site. Here's the link to sign up.

http://checkout.google.com/sell/

knappschiles · Joined: 25 May 2005 Posts: 4035 Location: Wi

I'm also a Google Checkout person. I still have PP as an option on some of the alt sites, but slowly more are using GC than PP.

The main reason for GC rather than my own merchant account is the fact that I only have 3-5 months / year that I would be doing enough business that I would meet a minimum sales that most if not all MAs have. The rest of the year the fees would eat me alive.

Yup, you have to be VERY careful of the "fine print" for most of those Merchant accounts. A whole lot of them have their processing per transaction fee + % AND there is a monthly fee AND a monthly minimum you need to be processin. Unless you also have a "brick & mortar" store where you need to do live card processing, for many of us a MA just isn't worth it.

Carol

Nick77 · Joined: 20 Jul 2010 Posts: 6

gr8deals99 wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")I'm looking to stop using Paypal. After a little bit of research, it looks like everybody and their brother sells merchant card services, so I am looking for a website that compares various providers so I can make an educated choice.

Hey, no sales pitchery here. There's a lot of competition (and sales hype) in the merchant business. The most important things are if your average ticket is low, to concentrate on low transaction fees (8 cents is about as low as they get) and if it's higher ticket, negotiate for a low swipe or non swipe rate. Also confirm that it's not a rate that starts low but adjusts higher after six months.
Everything about these is negotiable, if they won't budge on their rates or fees, keep looking. If you do high volume, that's a good bargaining chip as well. Having six months of payment history is something banks really look for, as well as business license and a matching business bank account. They see those all as lower risk.
I wish I could recommend a site with objective comparisons of a number of different processors, but the ones I've seen are all affiliate links so it's very skewed of the ones that they rank at the top (those pay more commissions). Until Consumer Reports does something, you won't find a completely unbiased source unfortunately.
Any rate you see advertised isn't going to be entirely accurate for your business, volume, product and all. The way it works is when an application is filled out, it usually goes to risk assessment and then to an underwriting bank, then they set the rates based on that. There's a few white labels with a master merchant account that can set the rate independently, but they're usually higher than shopping around different banks.
Hope this helps, but it's the reason why all the places have a quote form, because there's no one size fits all rate. The ones quoted are usually for mainstream, with some history, good product, and all the rest.

Nick

sciencefare

@ Nick77...

Hey there Nick77...

You seem to be digging up very old posts to respond to. :o

What's your intent in doing so with all your posts?

things4u · Joined: 21 Jan 2007 Posts: 1329

have you tried google and searching ???

thegolfingdolphin · Joined: 13 Jan 2009 Posts: 694

I have had dozens of merchant accounts over a very long time. I do not know of one place to go to. Here is what I would do,

Start at your Bank that you do the most business with. Your contract has a lot to do with your history as a business. If you start at your bank you will get a very good mid point. Next ask around your community and find out who businesses that you frequent use, and do not forget friends and family.

You should have enough information after doing this to figure out all the hidden fees. I currently use a local company that was just purchased by a very large corp. I have a 15.00 a month fee, and then 1.85% fee on electronic transactions, and a bit higher on Phone order, which is what I process mostly.

I strongly encourage you to use a local company as there will be many occasions that you will want to ask questions, and find solutions quickly. This can be done much easier if you know the local sales rep. or even better the bank personal. I was with my bank for at least 20 years before they sold the division.

salehoo · Joined: 01 Dec 2009 Posts: 56

Hi, here's a link that compares different merchant account/payment processors -

http://www.infomerchant.net/merchantaccounts/comparison.html

Hope this helps! :)