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Pin is Australia’s first all-in-one payment API

pin.net.au

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Re: Pin is Australia’s first all-in-one payment API

#81
Does anyone have any idea on the background on who's behind this?

The fact that there are no names doesn't exactly instill trust or confidence.

Closest I could get to info would be that the Southern Payment Systems Pty Ltd resolves on a google search to: http://www.southernpaymentsystems.com/ which seems to share the street address of a Designer(http://speakinteractive.com/), a real estate agency(http://www.eftosestates.com.au/) and a ruby on rails developer(http://brownbeagle.com.au)

[update: never mind, found one of the co founders, http://dompym.com/ pretty impressive, he's ex SAP and ex Clear Interactive, acquired by the NZ exchange]

Re: Pin is Australia’s first all-in-one payment API

#82
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$50/month 3.0% + 50c per transaction https://pin.net.au/pricing

OMFG the fees are the same as the big banks, wrapped in a nicer API. Suddenly PayPal looks attractive again @ 2.4% + 30c with no monthly fee. https://www.paypal-australia.com.au/business/manage-my-payme...

Presumably, the service will be better. Banks in Australia usually need a deposit of one years of sales if you take yearly subscriptions. Then you need to go to a payment processor, who charge their own fees structure on top. But the banks do give you decent service, in that you have someone to call when something goes wrong.

The worst part of PayPal is undoubtedly the service, I've had experience where they locked the account and demanded social security no.s and registration information (via fax) for which there are no Australian equivalents. After months of them asking for things that don't exist, it took a complaint to the Financial industry ombudsman for them to de-restrict the account to allow us to withdraw the funds.

Re: Pin is Australia’s first all-in-one payment API

#84
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OMFG the fees are the same as the big banks, wrapped in a nicer API. Suddenly PayPal looks attractive again @ 2.4% + 30c with no monthly fee. https://www.paypal-australia.com.au/business/manage-my-payme...

Presumably, the service will be better. Banks in Australia usually need a deposit of one years of sales if you take yearly subscriptions. Then you need to go to a payment processor, who charge their own fees structure on top. But the banks do give you decent service, in that you have someone to call when something goes wrong. The worst part of PayPal is undoubtedly the service, I've had experience where they locked t…

Yeah PayPal has its own problems of course such as the horrible service like you mention. I had a payment dispute once where neither the customer or the seller (me) had an issue, but PayPal had automatically flagged it as suspicious for reasons they wouldn't specify. Mind you that was 1 problem in several hundred transactions, so it wasn't too bad for me overall. I just think $50/month would be hard to bear when you've got PayPal in the same market at no monthly fee and a lower rate.

Re: Pin is Australia’s first all-in-one payment API

#85
post #81

Does anyone have any idea on the background on who's behind this? The fact that there are no names doesn't exactly instill trust or confidence. Closest I could get to info would be that the Southern Payment Systems Pty Ltd resolves on a google search to: http://www.southernpaymentsystems.com/ which seems to share the street address of a Designer( http://speakinteractive.com/ ), a real estate agency( http://www.eftose…

and by the looks of things, Grant Thomas (fmr coach of St Kilda, 2001-2006). http://www.ferocia.com.au/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Thomas_%28footballer%29

Re: Pin is Australia’s first all-in-one payment API

#86
post #19

contact me at tobi@shopify.com to get this into Shopify from the beginning. We really need a better partner in Australia

Please elaborate? Would be good to hear your perspective given your experience in the market.

Going to take a wild guess and say that dishing on an extant partner in an internet forum isn't the best way to conduct business.

Re: Pin is Australia’s first all-in-one payment API

#87
post #61
post #47

Can someone explain why a separate payment system is needed for Australian developers? My nieve understanding is that credit cards are global from a consumer perspective (i.e. a credit card will work in any country in the world). Are things different from a developer perpective? If so, why?

> My nieve understanding is that credit cards are global from a consumer perspective (i.e. a credit card will work in any country in the world). As someone who has credit cards from 3 different countries, I can tell you that's very wrong. I'd like to think my CC works anywhere, but oftentimes when they ask for a ZIP and I don't have one, that's a deal breaker. Sometimes when the person sees the card is from another c…

Also it would have been nice if VISA had a global "credit rating" instead of a separate one for each country. Unfortunately, I now have zero credit in my new country, which is painful when I have amazing credit in my previous country. (all VISA cards)

Pro-tip: if you deal with a bank that has branches in both countries, and you're sufficiently good of a customer that they can justify an hour of work for you, you can get around not having a credit history in your newest country of residence. CitiBank, for example, has an employee in Tokyo whose only job is being attached to an Experian terminal to make credit decisions for American expatriates. (It is highly likely that branch level employees at most CitiBanks are unaware of his existence, so the high-percentage plays are either speaking to their wealth management group, speaking to their "executive relocation" group, or sending the bank a letter.)

Re: Pin is Australia’s first all-in-one payment API

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are you attempting to reencrypt the parameters with another key? If so then why run that through https? I think they are talking about generating a hash from all of the parameters in the request + a secret, pre-shared key. Doing so prevents MITM attacks from changing the parameters. IIRC, Amazon does this (among many others).

Exactly. Have a look here for some information on how to do this: http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/designing-a-secure-rest-api-with...

This article also inspired me to lockdown my own API I designed, its really good advice. The question is only, they wanted to provide a very simple interface, what is the right trade-off security vs. developer UI?

Re: Pin is Australia’s first all-in-one payment API

#90
post #66

Awesome news. Like many Australian devs I have been feeling a distinct lack of love from other payment solutions. And now I see in a comment above that braintree is on its was as well. Who knows, maybe VCs will start investing in Aussie based startup as well?

We have a few VCs in Australia, but only a few. Look up OneVentures, Southern Cross Venture Partners and Yuuwa.
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