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Need to process payments?

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Re: Need to process payments?

#21

Post by jeffepp »

bdickason wrote: post #9

I just sent them an e-mail. I'm hoping this is a payment gateway :D Have a call with Braintree, but they require monthly minimums and a setup fee. If there was a scalable solution as follows, I'd jump onboard immediately: -Create an account (Free) -Start accepting payments at a slightly higher percent (3.5%?) -Percentage goes down as volume increases End the negotiation, setup fees, etc that are stuck in this archaic…

100% agree, I have spoken with Braintree and they seem solid. They were not interested in removing min. monthly fees for startups until we are out of beta and actively selling...

Re: Need to process payments?

#22

Post by staunch »

bdickason wrote: post #9

I just sent them an e-mail. I'm hoping this is a payment gateway :D Have a call with Braintree, but they require monthly minimums and a setup fee. If there was a scalable solution as follows, I'd jump onboard immediately: -Create an account (Free) -Start accepting payments at a slightly higher percent (3.5%?) -Percentage goes down as volume increases End the negotiation, setup fees, etc that are stuck in this archaic…

The big turn off for me with Braintree was the ridiculous application requirements. You could imigrate into the US five times and provide less documentation.

I know why they ask for that info (to cover their asses), but it was enough for me to avoid them.

A really simple (and fast!) application process could be a very big selling point. People are impulsive, and when evaluating processors I'd probably go for the easiest/fastest all other things being roughly equal.

"Start processing credit cards today (really, seriously)!"

Re: Need to process payments?

#23

Post by bdickason »

NEPatriot wrote: post #15
bdickason wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, the credit card companies seem to disagree :( Or at least that's the response my brick and mortar payment gateway has given me in the past for something like this :( To get a decent rate for our salon, we had to project ridiculous revenue and pray that we came close to it to even get a reasonable rate.

You should checkout squareup.com/features - I don't work for them. No monthly fees. 2.75% + $.15 if card is present. Though I think they are in beta and people in the forums were complaining about not getting the hardware last I looked about a week ago. It's for brick and mortar operations.

I'm definitely familiar with Square. I actually 'pitched' them to alot of people at a recent flea market that I attended.

We're paying 1.9% right now on card present w/ a $100 monthly fee and doing $45k revenue per month at our salon. So it's working for us at the moment.

I'm definitely interested in Square and as they mature, we'll go through the whole 'credit check' etc process.

Re: Need to process payments?

#24

Post by bdickason »

nissimk wrote: post #18

I don't understand why I need anything more than Paypal? Everybody else seems to just charge more and I don't see what you get for that. Isn't credit card processing online a commodity and using the least expensive solution the way to go?

Perhaps it's just a question of scale, and maybe I'm trying to solve problems that don't really exist. I'm hesitent to use paypal because when I _DO_ move to something more legit (ala Braintree or Authorize.net), I have to re-bill all of my customers and they have to put in their CC info again. This doesn't seem ideal to me.

Re: Need to process payments?

#25

Post by mgrouchy »

sunir wrote: post #14
mgrouchy wrote: post #12

I don't know what this startup is, but one option for startups to get started with payments is http://chargify.com , their api is pretty solid and they are good with support and are focused recurring payment processing. Only issue is you still need a payment gateway such as Braintree, Authorize.NET, etc.

Hey, quick question. How long did it take you to get set up with Chargify?

chargify itself, not too long. Especially if you do everything their way(we are kind of doing some weird things with it currently). If you don't want to write your own, there are a bunch of API libraries available for a bunch of languages as well as hosted paged for registration and payments if you need them. As everyone else has said, the long parts have been the up front setup time of the merchant account and payment gateway.

All in all though, I'm pretty impressed with Chargifys offering.

Re: Need to process payments?

#27

Post by pg »

subbu wrote: post #7

I am not US based but still need a decent payment processing system. All existing payment processing companies are US-centric. Any luck for us?

I'm sure they will expand internationally as quickly as they can, because the founders themselves are from Europe.

Re: Need to process payments?

#28

Post by pdx »

nissimk wrote: post #18

I don't understand why I need anything more than Paypal? Everybody else seems to just charge more and I don't see what you get for that. Isn't credit card processing online a commodity and using the least expensive solution the way to go?

I'm gradually leaning toward your way of thinking.

For a long time, I had the perception, which, I believe, was the correct one, that PayPal == Amateur in the minds of your potential customers.

I believe that this is no longer the case. Well, it is the case, but it no longer matters. I still think "small time", when I see a PayPal button, but now I also think "trusted" and "easy refund". These tend to make the "small time" thought less of an issue.

I also think that it's gradually losing it's "small time", "amateur" connotations among savvy web users. For non-savvy web users, which in reality, is the larger population, it never mattered anyway, and I agonized over all of this for nothing.

Re: Need to process payments?

#29

Post by blueben »

subbu wrote: post #7

I am not US based but still need a decent payment processing system. All existing payment processing companies are US-centric. Any luck for us?

SocialGold handles payments for a wide variety of international currencies and payment systems.

Re: Need to process payments?

#30

Post by tansey »

Can we get some more information? What are they doing better? What kind of fee structure are they selling?

Also, one big concern in my startup is chargebacks. Does this service help me with chargeback protection at all?

More generally: how will they make my life better?

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