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Ask HN: How do you process payments?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you process payments?

#51

Post by analog31 »

I have a small side business that makes a physical product. I've used PayPal for years with no issues, touch wood. There are two things that I like:

1. I don't have to write code or maintain a server to process payments. I realize that I'm an outlier for not wanting an API, but my business web page is completely static, and it's convenient for me to keep it that way.

2. They are unified with USPS for shipping, which has the best rates and service for packages that weigh just a few ounces. I can click on a button in PayPal and it spits out a USPS shipping label for me.

I greatly prefer not having to handle any of my customers data. The only info I ever see is their shipping address and whatever e-mail address they signed up to PayPal with.

Re: Ask HN: How do you process payments?

#52

Post by seibelj »

kf wrote: post #50

The FDA/DEA have waged war on the kratom industry in extralegal fashion; I've had my personal bank accounts and credit cards shut down without explanation via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point . With Operation Chokepoint over, the DEA/FDA still have colluded to prevent the kratom industry from processing credit cards. For my website www.getkratom.com, we take checks, echecks, and cryptocurrency. Sal…

You are a brave person, thanks for sharing.

Re: Ask HN: How do you process payments?

#53

Post by kf »

seibelj wrote: post #52
kf wrote: post #50

The FDA/DEA have waged war on the kratom industry in extralegal fashion; I've had my personal bank accounts and credit cards shut down without explanation via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point . With Operation Chokepoint over, the DEA/FDA still have colluded to prevent the kratom industry from processing credit cards. For my website www.getkratom.com, we take checks, echecks, and cryptocurrency. Sal…

You are a brave person, thanks for sharing.

I've been meaning to try and fix the wikipedia article again. I last did that and got into an obnoxious fight with jytdog. I heard a couple months ago that he dox'd and called to harass a wikipedian and then deleted his account ahead of anticipated punitive action. Without that person spending 80 hours a week to advocate his particularly narrow anti-plant medicine interpretation of what is correct with regards to medicine, biochemistry, and pharmacology on wikipedia, editing it again might actually accomplish something. I think I and many other editors that went up against jytdog are still carrying trauma that makes me reluctant to reengage but it's about time to try.

Re: Ask HN: How do you process payments?

#55

Post by winter_blue »

Has anyone used Payfort (now an Amazon subsidiary), which is a payment processor for GCC (and MENA?) countries? I've never used them, but their terms of service seem to explicitly prohibit being used for software sales. I was wondering what else is available in the GCC countries that permits software subscriptions. For example, Chargebee seems to support transactions in AED, but it is not clear whether they can be used, for example, by an UAE-based LLC.

Re: Ask HN: How do you process payments?

#57

Post by droopyEyelids »

mlacks wrote: post #29

Exclusively Paypal. I've had nothing but extremely positive experiences, but form what I hear, when it goes bad, it goes really really bad. I'm looking into other options

It's actually easy to understand when PayPal 'Goes Bad'

1) When you collect money long before a user might file a chargeback - like if you're selling tickets for an event that will happen in 5 months, or if you're selling a product that you'll be shipping much later.

2) When your 'pattern' changes dramatically. eg, you've made 5k/month worth of sales for the past 2 years and this month you've suddenly sold 20k.

Re: Ask HN: How do you process payments?

#58

Post by aianus »

lopmotr wrote: post #39
ezconnect wrote: post #33

Paypal. Never had issues with them. Only problem is there are a few customers that are dishonest but they are just a couple of them Every year. Average transaction is 15usd

I dare you to try doing a withdrawl while overseas. You may have to prove you're not where you are before they'll reinstate your account.

This happened to me too. They thought it was suspicious that I was in Vietnam, so they brilliantly called my Canadian landline to verify that it was really me that was connecting from Vietnam (???). Of course, I was unable to answer...

PayPal is utter trash.

Re: Ask HN: How do you process payments?

#60

Post by scottmotte »

hex1848 wrote: post #11

Authorize.Net is what we've used for online payments and our internal subscription processing for over a decade. API is easy to use. Never really had any downtime. Rates are competitive. No one has come along and given us much of a reason to change.

That brings me back. I remember Authorize.net before there was the ActiveMerchant gem (ruby).

Have you used Stripe as well? Authorize.net always got the job done. Then Stripe came along. I was honestly surprised of its success at the time. It was mainly just more of a joy to use - not cheaper or much easier. Just 'fun' as I remember it.

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