Ask HN: How do you process payments? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do you process payments?

#91

Post by mooibos » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 7:21 AM UTC

cknight wrote: post #9

I use https://pinpayments.com/ to accept credit/debit cards. My target market is 100% Australian so it was an easy option for me, but it won't be suitable for most people here.

I use them too, and have been extremely happy with the service I've received so far. I'm based in Australia but sell mostly to overseas customers and bill in USD. They take a 4% cut this way, but don't hit you with a currency conversion fee like PayPal do.

I used to use Stripe, but had an issue where my account was flagged as fraudulent by their ML model for God knows what reason. They sent me a link to click on to provide more information and escalate the issue, but the link went to a 404 page. I forwarded the email to their support but never heard back from them. Tried to call them, no dice. That's when I realised my business was relying on a service which could go down at any moment and didn't provide adequate phone support. Cancelled the account and signed up with PIN Payments on the spot. The few times I've spoken to them, I've received a response from a real person that actually knew what they were talking about. Couldn't recommend them more.

Re: Ask HN: How do you process payments?

#92

Post by ivanovb » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 7:22 AM UTC

fyfy18 wrote: post #80

I've been selling a SaaS product for the last four years. Originally I used Stripe but recently switched to Paddle. The main reason is that it makes my life a lot easier, they act as a reseller so I effectively sell my product to them, and they sell it on to customers. At the end of each month I just need to enter a single payment into my accounting platform, and they handle all currency conversions (I sell in USD, m…

Sorry if it's offtopic, but can you give me an estimate of how much is Paddle charging? Their pricing page is not really helpful. Also, how easy it was to implement into your systems?

Re: Ask HN: How do you process payments?

#93

Post by actuator » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 7:27 AM UTC

damauls wrote: post #89

We use Razorpay. APIs are well documented and extremely easy to use. Never experienced any downtime either. (Our transaction count is pretty low, though :P)

You should have at least changed the comment or picked a different sounding username. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22178218

Re: Ask HN: How do you process payments?

#94

Post by yani » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 7:36 AM UTC

ivanovb wrote: post #92

fyfy18 wrote: post #80

I've been selling a SaaS product for the last four years. Originally I used Stripe but recently switched to Paddle. The main reason is that it makes my life a lot easier, they act as a reseller so I effectively sell my product to them, and they sell it on to customers. At the end of each month I just need to enter a single payment into my accounting platform, and they handle all currency conversions (I sell in USD, m…

Sorry if it's offtopic, but can you give me an estimate of how much is Paddle charging? Their pricing page is not really helpful. Also, how easy it was to implement into your systems?

This service is still alpha/beta at best. I tried them and I got customers with double charges, missing emails, and their interface is difficult to understand and make use of. Give them one more year before trying.

Re: Ask HN: How do you process payments?

#95

Post by powerslacker » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 7:37 AM UTC

celticmusic wrote: post #81

koolba wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What value do you get from a middle man between you and the raw Stripe API? Why recommend them? From what you describe it just seems like a hassle with them acting as gatekeeper to your own historical transaction records.

Stripe only allows access to the last 30 days of events, it sounds like this 3rd party is offering a service of collecting that for longer (probably among other things).

What do you mean last 30 days of events? I use Stripe's API's daily and you can go back much further than that.

Re: Ask HN: How do you process payments?

#96

Post by fastbeef » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 7:39 AM UTC

I’m in the process of starting up a side business for my wife, making and selling physical goods. I’m in Sweden, and the go-to here is Klarna. They have their issues, but integration with WooCommerce was a breeze and people have come to expect Klarna as the default way to pay online.

Re: Ask HN: How do you process payments?

#97

Post by fredsted » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 7:44 AM UTC

I operate a "electronically supplied services" hobby company, https://webhook.site, and I just didn't want to deal with VAT payments to individual EU member countries. So I switched from Stripe to Paddle, who handle all the VAT payments for me, take a fee and give me a lump sum. EU just has way too much bureaucracy for small-medium sized companies. I'm also using Patreon which is similar (they also handle VAT and subscriptions), but it seems most people prefer Paddle to Patreon.

Tangentially, I'd recommend everyone to stay away from Paypal. You will lose your money or your account sooner or later. Let someone else (like Paddle) handle Paypal payments and that risk.

Re: Ask HN: How do you process payments?

#98

Post by redninja83 » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 7:45 AM UTC

therealx wrote: post #73

Chargify. JUST DON'T DO IT! It's very limiting, the api sucks, and it's expensive. We got locked in by a dev before I was a part of things and I think before Stripe (maybe not.) Either way; just don't.

1000% this. We started using chargify before Stripe when there were very few options and they were cheap.

They increased pricing and added a bunch of features we dont use, plus our payment processor (DPS now Windcave) refuse to export our customer card data.

So for the past few years we are slowly migrating people away as they update their card details, but its been a frustrating experience.

Don't use Chargify or DPS/Windcave

Re: Ask HN: How do you process payments?

#99

Post by Hackbraten » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 7:51 AM UTC

disillusioned wrote: post #78

For my consulting business (average invoice size of anywhere from $15k-$125k), we exclusively accept paper checks, ACH (either as a direct credit for larger companies set up to do that,) or QuickBooks Online, which makes ACH relatively trivial, and they charge basically $1 to process it. Can't beat that with a stick. For our clients, our preference is still Stripe, though we had a client deplatformed by them because…

> we had a client deplatformed by them because their bank had problems with the product. (In our case, specifically, adult toys.)

What kind of bank would do that, and why?

I don’t comprehend the logic that would drive such a decision.

Re: Ask HN: How do you process payments?

#100

Post by sdan » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 8:02 AM UTC

Hackbraten wrote: post #99

disillusioned wrote: post #78

For my consulting business (average invoice size of anywhere from $15k-$125k), we exclusively accept paper checks, ACH (either as a direct credit for larger companies set up to do that,) or QuickBooks Online, which makes ACH relatively trivial, and they charge basically $1 to process it. Can't beat that with a stick. For our clients, our preference is still Stripe, though we had a client deplatformed by them because…

> we had a client deplatformed by them because their bank had problems with the product. (In our case, specifically, adult toys.) What kind of bank would do that, and why? I don’t comprehend the logic that would drive such a decision.

Wait until you hear about what PayPal stops.