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Need to process payments?

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Re: Need to process payments?

#61

Post by sunir »

mgrouchy wrote: post #25
sunir wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 payme…

Thanks! What kind of weird things are you doing that don't fit with the recurring model?

Re: Need to process payments?

#62

Post by percept »

jhancock wrote: post #56
dan_manges wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our (Braintree) fees are competitive. We have a higher monthly minimum than some, if that's what you're referencing, but otherwise if a merchant is processing a few thousand dollars a month our fees are right in line. We are different than others in the industry. We engage in a meaningful way with our customers. We educate them on the risks, nuances and best practices. We try to properly assess risk upfront instead o…

Braintree does even out on fees once the merchant hits a few thousand dollars a month in transactions. After grueling research, I wanted to use Braintree for a number of reasons, many of which you've pointed out. But the thing I am bootstrapping may take 6-24 months to get to the point where the Braintree minimums aren't putting me in the red. My calculations showed I might have had $3,000 to $5,000 in fees stacked u…

I'm not there yet but came to the same conclusion. There's a need startups have that only PayPal seems to fill (unfortunately).

I see FastSpring responded in this thread that recurring billing is coming, so maybe that will become a viable option:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1413905

Re: Need to process payments?

#63

Post by pedoh »

From a startup SaaS perspective, is it really that detrimental to have your customers sent to another site (Google Checkout or Amazon FPS, for example) and then brought back after the conclusion of the sale? Do enough customers walk away if the payment system is 3rd party visible as opposed to 3rd party behind the scenes? For any small startup trying to minimize costs, it seems like eliminating those monthly minimums and setup costs might outweigh the benefits of a more seamless customer experience. Can those with firsthand experience chime in?

Re: Need to process payments?

#64

Post by staunch »

leftnode wrote: post #35
staunch wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 easi…

People are impulsive, but businesses aren't. If you're some guy wanting to start transaction, you might need a smaller solution. For businesses, I think they want a big set up process because it makes the managers feel safer.

Businesses are run by people.

Re: Need to process payments?

#65

Post by jmm »

dan_manges wrote: post #42
SwellJoe wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We moved from Authorize.net to PayPal Web Payments Pro. Much happier now. Braintree was outrageously expensive when I looked at it, so I didn't even consider it.

Our (Braintree) fees are competitive. We have a higher monthly minimum than some, if that's what you're referencing, but otherwise if a merchant is processing a few thousand dollars a month our fees are right in line. We are different than others in the industry. We engage in a meaningful way with our customers. We educate them on the risks, nuances and best practices. We try to properly assess risk upfront instead o…

I can see why Braintree would have no interest in businesses that are destined to maintain smallness, but they're missing out on getting into bed with some young companies whose payment volume will eventually pop. And leaving the door open for a more nurturing payment portal to grab young companies (and presumably keep them).

So it might be wise to for Braintree to loosen up the fees a bit for promising young companies - an incubator program for payments of sorts. At least for the YC/HN community :)

Though, honestly, looking at their pricing, Braintree ins't crazy expensive even for a company that gets $0 sales out of the gate... $99 initial setup, $35 monthly, $10 for cc storage, $75 as a zero sales "penalty". Setup delay seems to be an issue here as well, but that just seems like Braintree doing its diligence.

http://www.braintreepaymentsolutions.com/pricing

Re: Need to process payments?

#66

Post by SwellJoe »

boucher wrote: post #39
tansey wrote: post #30

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?

Have you actually gotten a lot of chargebacks? I've heard that the industry significantly exaggerates the amount of chargebacks that actually occur.

Chargebacks are such a pain in the ass that any number of chargebacks is a lot, in my book. One of the reasons I chose PayPal when we were switching providers a while back was to get better, and finer-grained, anti-fraud capabilities. It's still an issue, but it's manageable now.

Interestingly, adding a really expensive product (about $1000) to our store provided a nice mechanism for catching fraud. Nearly 100% of our fraudulent orders purchase the really expensive product right off the bat, while most of our legitimate purchasers of that product buy a less expensive one first, and then upgrade to the more expensive version later. So, I automatically flag orders for the most expensive product, and interact with the customer personally before letting the order go through. This is also a pain in the ass, but it does reduce the number of chargebacks.

Re: Need to process payments?

#67

Post by SwellJoe »

pedoh wrote: post #63

From a startup SaaS perspective, is it really that detrimental to have your customers sent to another site (Google Checkout or Amazon FPS, for example) and then brought back after the conclusion of the sale? Do enough customers walk away if the payment system is 3rd party visible as opposed to 3rd party behind the scenes ? For any small startup trying to minimize costs, it seems like eliminating those monthly minimum…

It doesn't matter, anymore.

Our customers even occasionally asked for PayPal specifically because they trust PayPal's refund process, but maybe not our money back guarantee.

Re: Need to process payments?

#68

Post by tansey »

SwellJoe wrote: post #66
boucher wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you actually gotten a lot of chargebacks? I've heard that the industry significantly exaggerates the amount of chargebacks that actually occur.

Chargebacks are such a pain in the ass that any number of chargebacks is a lot, in my book. One of the reasons I chose PayPal when we were switching providers a while back was to get better, and finer-grained, anti-fraud capabilities. It's still an issue, but it's manageable now. Interestingly, adding a really expensive product (about $1000) to our store provided a nice mechanism for catching fraud. Nearly 100% of ou…

We were thinking of doing a similar approach, basically verifying people's ID upon first purchase. However, we thought it might significantly decrease the number of customers. I suppose there's no free lunch here... verification will sacrifice volume.

Re: Need to process payments?

#69

Post by crystalis »

rit wrote: post #55
run4yourlives wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually... since these guys are YC - I offer my .02Cents. There are a number of us in this exact situation and it is a GIANT pain point. This market is basically untapped... if you can/want to tackle non-US payment processing, you will make a killing.

I do consulting work for a friend who has a surprisingly common problem: He needs to do card processing but only certain times out of the year. He goes to conventions and sells merchandise, etc and wants to be able to take credit cards but the monthly & inactivity fees would wipe him out. So far all I've seen that could fix this potentially is Square, but they have yet to ship out their swiping widgets to use to try…

Is it possible to be a "UHaul" of card processing? What are the limits for one company processing cards for another?

Re: Need to process payments?

#70

Post by tansey »

bprater wrote: post #57
tansey wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We haven't launched yet, but we're a digital goods marketplace and my intuition is that our niche audience may have a high chargeback rate. We're looking for any additional protection so we don't stumble out of the gate.

Use Clickbank then. Everything you mention is what they've been doing for a decade.

Thanks. I had never heard of Clickbank before now. However, a quick look at their terms is a non-starter. They want 8.5% + $1 + 50% to the affiliate. On top of what we would charge, our sellers would be getting something like 30% of their sales.

It's also not exactly the type of product we're selling. There are some subtle (but important) differences between Clickbank's target product and our product.

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