If you take credit cards in your billing program

General Discussion
21

I assume that with processors like iTransact, Authorize.net, and LinkPoint we could avoid much of the problems by not rolling our own cart, or at least, processing the payments on THEIR ssl site.

Of course, that’s not gonna change the lack of card swipe that’s typical of Electronic Commerce.

If there’s a way they can make another .002 per transaction, they’re gonna. I like PayPal and Google, they’re definitely good for business, but, don’t people have to create accounts and etc? That can be a deal killer if that’s the only type of processing available if you sell the kind of low priced trinkets like I do. The more payment types available = the more payments received.

To me, it’s worth it… but I could DEFINITELY see dumping it all together if I could. I’m surprised you need merchant processing at all with virtualmin sales though… why not just take checks and paypal?

22

Tried checks – those bounce and its a $25 fee each time for that I pay each time so not worth it and paypal is a rip off with there fees.

23
I'm surprised you need merchant processing at all with virtualmin sales though... why not just take checks and paypal?

I’m not as worried as Scott about bounces…but the cost of processing checks in my time is way too high. There’s a reason many big software shops will only do PO+check orders for some minimum amount (for Red Hat is $3000, for example). If there’s anything I hate more than having to make a phone call to deal with something it is having go to the bank to have to do something. I hate our bank now that it’s been acquired by Chase.

But, we could probably get away with only taking PayPal and Google Checkout and Amazon FPS. Out of those three, I’d guess that 90% of our potential customers already have an account, and at least some of the remaining 10% won’t mind signing up for one.

We’ll keep card processing going for another few weeks, most likely, but something really has to give. The price we pay for our card processing is higher than all but PayPal, and the fraud protection is non-existent. And, of course, any communication we have with them has to be via telephone or fax. And they mail out chargeback notifications. Who does that? Who still sends out paper mail about digital events? It doesn’t even make sense.

I’d actually be curious to know what folks prefer for paying for Virtualmin. I’ll never make PayPal the default or only payment method (it’s just too expensive), but if nobody had any objections I could see moving to offering Amazon FPS, Google Checkout, and PayPal, and no direct card processing.

24

Joe why don’t you contact AMG, I gave the link a few posts back ? They got a really good deal for card processing.

I don’t use paypal because the fees are stupid high and most of my clients are in the EU and the cross border fees suck. Google isn’t much better either when it comes to rates. I get more money back using my processor.

AMG offers fraud checking and so does Authorise.net which is who I go through and AMG resells authorize.net and I got a great deal on that as well.

Got any questions related to AMG and my processing Joe and I’ll answer them.

25
Joe why don't you contact AMG, I gave the link a few posts back ? They got a really good deal for card processing.

Because the rates are not my biggest complaint about our current processor. I also dislike Authorize.net (we currently use Authorize.net with our current processor). I’m talking about the whole experience if merchant services, and I don’t get the feeling from AMG’s website that they are any different.

When I have a problem with our merchant services company I have to pick up the phone. I hate picking up the phone. In fact, every day that I have to pick up the phone to call someone is a bad day for me.

When I need to make a change, I have to fill out and fax a form to them. I don’t even own a fax machine, and haven’t physically laid hands on one in over ten years. I have a scanner, and a fax service (specifically for interacting with the merchant services people, and no other reason), but I don’t want to. If I never send or receive another fax in my lifetime, that’d be fine with me.

I’ve had a look at AMG’s website, and they’re not giving me any confidence that I’m going to be able to handle my business with them entirely online. If I can’t, then it’s not worth the hassle of changing. I’d just be angry at someone else (like you for recommending them!). :wink:

Yes, I’m paying too much, and yes, PayPal is even more. But, if it takes me an hour every week to go over our transactions and make sure things are sane, and to deal with chargebacks and deal with refunds and such, it’s already costing me more to use the merchant services provider than even PayPal; and Google and Amazon FPS are pretty close to parity. A 1% or 2% difference isn’t going to change that. I want a fundamentally different experience than any merchant services provider I’m aware of is willing to offer…I’m willing to pay more for that fundamentally different experience.

A friend of ours has just started a company (and raised some money) to build out a payments service, and I’m keeping tabs on what he’s up to. And, there are some other modern payment gateway providers (that require no fax machines). I just need to spend some time researching them.

Going from one Authorize.net+merchant services provider to another does not seem like a useful way for me to spend my time. :wink:

Anyway, on the fraud front, the new shopping cart is a wee bit better than the previous one, but we still can’t take advantage of the best fraud prevention features because it would prevent us from taking overseas orders, and it is an on/off thing at Authorize.net.

26

The only time I had to fax AMG anything was the application, after that any issues I had I just emailed Errick and he took care of it.

With everyone else I had issues with I was forced to call them about it.

27
The only time I had to fax AMG anything was the application

Already failed, in my book.

What if I need to change bank accounts? If they can’t securely accept the application online, I think it’s safe to assume they won’t have a secure form for updating payment information.

Chargebacks: Do they mail them to you? Fax? Or can you get and respond to them online? (Note that only the last one is an acceptable option for me.)

I’m not trying to be an ass…I’m sure AMG is great at what they do. But what they do is not the kind of service I need. My current crop of “big problems” includes dealing with all the crap that comes from doing a bunch of small transactions every month, and that number is climbing, so it’s not getting any easier. I could pay an assistant to come in a couple times a month and help out, or I can pay a little more for each transaction and have the task go dramatically faster. I suspect hiring an assistant would cost a lot more than an extra point or two on my transaction fees.

28

i simply use paypal and banktransfers for buying and selling.
Whenever I buy online I use paypal. If the company is in the Netherlands/Belgium I use Ideal if they offer it.

It may be a bit more expensive but it reduces a lot of hassle, saving time and money in the end. If I can’t buy with paypal, I wont buy (unless you have Ideal)

So Ideal is I think a typical Dutch system. It’s telebanking within a layer of the website you’re buying, muchlike paying with paypal. It’s tremendously safe. The website you buy from never gets your credentials even if they wanted to. Most webshops in NL use it as it is trusted by consumers (also the first thing I look for).

I never have nor will use CC to pay online.