Credit Card Merchant Account

[cfo3074]

Hello All,

My website is up and running and I made my first sale today. The only problem is I don't have a merchant account yet and I really don't want to use paypal. Can anyone suggest a good provider. To start I'm just looking to use a virtual terminal and input the sales myself. Please provide pricing when writing back. thanks.

[AshokanKid]

~

Hi there.,

Just a little curious why the aversion to Paypal? Especially if you are not looking to automate and want to input all of your sales yourself.,

Paypal is basically free and a snap to set up., AND almost everyone can use it., buyers I mean., it is everywhere and easy for your purchasers.,

AK

~

[kamakiri]

Congratulations on your first sale!

Have you looked into Google check out?

[TimW]

Other than PayPal can freeze your account, holding your money for 6 months because they don't like what you sell? :)

Then nothing is wrong with PayPal. LOL

It's a very convenient system, to be sure, but not without a little risk, such as I explained. Also, there've been instances where a customer receives what they order, complaines, and PP removes the money from the seller's account. Trying to get that money back is a PITA and difficult from what I've heard. That's one reason I never kept more than $50 in the account, except I got caught with over $500 in the account when it was closed/frozen...I'd made a couple sales and hadn't transferred the money yet.

My credit authorization site is authorize.net, and the merchant bank is e-onlinedata. Less than $30 a month for ongoing fees, plus the usual discount rates.

[FrozenCanuck]

TimW,

Can you elaborate a bit on the PayPal situation? I'm so far considering using them exclusively for credit cards, as long as I'm still smalltime. I would do the same, moving money to a real bank account every couple hundred bucks.

Specifically, after all was said and done, what did PayPal give as a reason for freezing your account? If they didn't like the product, what WAS the product anyway? Seems strange for sure.

Anyone else experience this?

[kamakiri]

I had a disagreement with a guy I purchased something from through pay pal, and getting my money back was easier than I expected. I filed a complaint, and the guy then demanded I remove my complaint on the paypal dispute area. I was pretty satisfied with paypal in resolving my situation. The vendor was mad as hell, but he made the mistake of selling junk in the first place.

From my experience, I would have to say that paypal sides with the vendor more often than not.

That aside, you are going to have returns and charge backs no matter what you do. Any kind of shady business dealings will also get you in hot water. Keep your nose above water, sell a quality product, and treat your customers well, and you should have no problems with paypal, google checkout, or any service you find.

[TimW]

I sell "tactical equipment". The particular offending product was a rifle magazine. Since it was illegal in CA except in certain circumstance, and PP is a CA company, all such sales were against PP's TOS. So they shitcanned my account w/o notice, froze my $500 for 6 months. Then had the temerity to keep sending me emails saying there was a problem with my account that needed to be rectified...but I couldn't recitify it as they described. Idiots.

If none of your products fall under their prohibitions, you should be fine.

[ChiTowner]

Hi cfo3074

As others have mentioned, Paypal does have a bad reputation for locking down vendors' account without notice. I occasionally read the Alexis Dawes' (info product marketer) blog and a few weeks ago it happened to her:

http://alexisdawes.com/104/the-paypal-lockdown-yup-it-happened-to-me/

Following the story led me to other Paypal related horror stories:

http://www.justsaynotopaypal.com/
http://www.paypalsucks.com/
http://www.paypalwarning.com/

food for thought!

Alexis eventually goes onto document her early, positive experience with an alternative, Google Checkout

Debbie

[marcspag]

Hello All,

My website is up and running and I made my first sale today. The only problem is I don't have a merchant account yet and I really don't want to use paypal. Can anyone suggest a good provider. To start I'm just looking to use a virtual terminal and input the sales myself. Please provide pricing when writing back. thanks.

Hi Eveyone,
Check out www.powerpay.biz for accepting credit cards online.I have not used them,but I've heard many online marketers use them as they are very
"online friendly" to merchants and can handle large sales volumes,no problem.
Marc

[mrhead]

Just to throw in my opinion, I've been using PayPal exclusively both for merchant services and for business purchases for over 3 years now without a single problem. The only glitch I had was not being able to transfer more than $500 a month from my paypal account to my bank account, but after verifying my identity the monthly limit was removed.

I really love the way they automate things. With my current setup, when a customer starts the purchase from my page they are added to a database on my server; once they make the payment on paypal, paypal updates my database with their information, the payment amount, and whether the payment was approved, denied, or pending. The only thing I have to do is set back and get paid. (It should be noted that I'm not buying or selling anything illegal or shady.)

-mrhead

[TimW]

I never sold anything illegal or shady either. The items were very legal in most states, and were never sold in states where they were not legal. However, because the items are restricted in California meant that PayPal decided to restrict/ban sales (well payment via PP for sales) of these items ANYWHERE in the country.

[Design_Nerd]

Don't know if this post will. reach you too late, but I thought I would chime in non the less.

From my experience, Finding the right merchant account can be a lengthy process, I would recommend Pay pall for now so you can at least take in orders while you are looking into other options. Keep in mind that many merchant accounts require long contracts and monthly minimums. Often times the ones that don't are not very helpful if you have any problems. At-least this has been my experience. If any one has a merchant account that they recommend i would love to know more.

Keep in mind that the gate way your merchant account uses is what will give you the ability to have a virtual terminal, not your merchant account its-self.

Let me know If I completely confused you, it can get a confusing if you let it.