21–30 of 62 posts
Wow, top story on HN. Thanks, folks! I wanted to call out a number of things I glossed over to see if it's worth doing a follow up or seventeen: * Personal guarantee. Most merchant account providers require a personal guarantee. I signed one for Dawdle.com, but I never would again, even if it costs me more. * Recurring billing. There are a number of startups focused here, including Recurly, Chargify, Spreedly, and Ch…
TL;DR indeed. it doesn't have to be that complicated. i needed a credit card processor for corduroy (plug: http://corduroysite.com/ ) to process monthly subscription charges. i filled out a form (i think, it was 2 years ago) on braintree's website ( http://www.braintreepaymentsolutions.com/ ), they emailed me back some info, i filled out and faxed over their forms about my business and already-established checking ac…
There are a number of reasons why it can be that complicated - doesn't always have to be, but I think you are the exception rather than the rule.
First, most people just don't have a basic understanding of how it all works. The idea that a merchant account isn't a bank account at all is non-obvious to everyone I've walked through payments hell with. Recurring billing, in particular, is a huge pain in the ass, especially with upgrades and downgrades that users do as they try to optimize their freemium subscriptions. (There wouldn't be at least four companies doing just this if it wasn't a total PITA.) If you're not built in Ruby, and you can't use ActiveMerchant, you really have to evaluate the documentation for each of the various gateways - and good luck finding out the names of all of them - before you can even begin. AmEx, in particular, is a whole 'nother circle of hell, although OnePoint solves a lot of these issues (but, of course, for a price).
Honest to God, I'm going to try to learn Ruby this summer purely because ActiveMerchant exists. My existing startup is coded in PHP with a dash of Perl and Python, but online billing is so complex and so tedious that I'm learning a language that's not useful to my existing startup because payments are so hellacious.
- Could we put together some type of invoicing system/coalition that lets users sign-up then pay by check? ie- you signup for a paid web service such as 37 signals/freshbooks/etc. Agree to pay by check. If payment isn't received within 15 days, the account is suspended. As a user, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't screw around with paying you since my data is important and continued access to the service. Businesses write checks all the time, especially for software purchases and services. This would pretty much eliminate the need for processing fees and all this crud. I don't know enough about ACH-debiting, but I believe there is no charge to do this. ie- you can do recurring payments on the bank account after one check is sent in.
Once again, this is only a suggestion for SaaS/business related apps.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Precisely it. Everyone knows anyone can throw up a Paypal link, but to have the transaction go through on your site makes it feel more official. Sure, it's not completely rational, but people sometimes like it better (alternatively, some people will only pay through Paypal, but unfortunately I can't sell my merchandise through Paypal/Google/Amazon).
to have the transaction go through on your site makes it feel more official You tech people keep forgetting that reading a URL bar requires superpowers. I guaranteed you, having suffered many customer support incidents because of this: many people cannot tell the difference between getting redirected to Google/Paypal and the site they were originally on. (For that matter, a huge portion of my customers don't understa…
If you want another perspective on this, we have to answer these kinds of questions a trillion times a week at FreshBooks. We're posting a guide to help people get through it. The most salient post is Part II, which helps people choose their gateways. http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2010/04/30/part-2-how-do-paym... Speaking as someone who frequently has to call into the payment gateways' customer support on behalf of…
How easy/painful would it be to switch from PayPal Standard to Authorize.Net or PayPal Payflow Pro, if the situation arises?
The other gateways are more complex since you cannot migrate the credit cards, and if you have recurring profiles managed on the gateway, you will have a harder time moving as you'll have to convince your customers to punch in their credit card again.
TL;DR indeed. it doesn't have to be that complicated. i needed a credit card processor for corduroy (plug: http://corduroysite.com/ ) to process monthly subscription charges. i filled out a form (i think, it was 2 years ago) on braintree's website ( http://www.braintreepaymentsolutions.com/ ), they emailed me back some info, i filled out and faxed over their forms about my business and already-established checking ac…
When I first started getting into subscription based services about 2 years ago, googling "recurring billing rails" brought me ActiveMerchant, a few Payment gateways, and some blog entries about getting a merchant account which is all you need. I was on my merry way.
Try that same query now and it's full of noise. You get rants from various people and you get companies peddling their services. While I agree that new services are helpful and are an essential part of the eco-system it's becoming really intimidating for newcomers because it's so hard to get the bare minimum truths one needs to know.
Sure, there are many payment gateways to choose from (Auth.net, TrustCommerce and Braintree are great with ActiveMerchant, btw). Sure it's a lot to thinking and worry about. We're talking about taking money out of other people's pockets here - there should be at least a little bit of effort right?
If you're intimidated by recurring billing issues - get over it, it's really as easy as there makes it out to be, especially when you're just getting started. There's time to fill in the details (like coupon codes, special offers, prorating, etc) after launch. For now, I'd suggest ActiveMerchant + Gateway + cron job and worry about getting customers instead of worrying about your middlemen.
TL;DR indeed. it doesn't have to be that complicated. i needed a credit card processor for corduroy (plug: http://corduroysite.com/ ) to process monthly subscription charges. i filled out a form (i think, it was 2 years ago) on braintree's website ( http://www.braintreepaymentsolutions.com/ ), they emailed me back some info, i filled out and faxed over their forms about my business and already-established checking ac…
Ha, looks like Bryan owes you a beer for this ringing endorsement. :) There are a number of reasons why it can be that complicated - doesn't always have to be, but I think you are the exception rather than the rule. First, most people just don't have a basic understanding of how it all works. The idea that a merchant account isn't a bank account at all is non-obvious to everyone I've walked through payments hell with…
I've done some work with various authorize.net resellers in the past with similar results. Really, understanding the magic that is interchange rates is the most difficult piece of the whole equation:)