Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch

blog.meatinthesky.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 62 posts

Re: Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch

#31

Post by theBobMcCormick »

paulhart wrote: post #5
theBobMcCormick wrote: post #3

I'm not sure why so many of these guides seem to operate under the assumption that having the transaction happen on someone else's server (ie, traditional Paypal, Google Checkout, Amazon Payments, etc.) is a bad thing. I would think it'd be a good thing. Google and Amazon in particular are well known and trusted brand names that most customers likely already do some amount of business with. I know that for my own onl…

That's true from a rational perspective, but people aren't rational. They have expectations of a nice, consistent experience that doesn't bounce them from one service to another. I'm working on a business-oriented startup that requires credit card transactions, and part of my desire to have payments on my own site is because of the signal it sends out that you have your stuff together.

Honestly to me it sends the opposite signal. Like I said, I see your site and think "what the f* is this joker gonna do with my CC info?". I see Google Checkout or Amazon and thing "big established company who already has my CC info anyway!".

Re: Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch

#32

Post by bergkampf »

pbz wrote: post #26
patio11 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I agree with noticing the URL change, but what's a lot more noticeable is when the look of your site changes. They're used to your site's look and feel. When you direct them to a different site, even if it sort of looks like the original site, it's a big speed bump in the flow. Makes you stop and think (hey, what's going on?!) and question if you're in the right place (did I click the wrong button?!). You may even ge…

Very William S. Burroughs.

Re: Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch

#33

Post by mattmaroon »

We use PayPal Payments Pro. We do pretty solid volume with them, and have never had any holdbacks, or any problems at all. Our fraud is very low (if you steal a credit card, you aren't going to waste it on virtual coins in a Facebook game, you're going to buy things you can sell on eBay) which may be why.

The rate is a little high at our scale, but it's not quite to where it would be worth the developer man hours of switching yet, and I hear they'll give you a lower than published rate if you have enough volume and ask nicely.

Re: Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch

#34

Post by patio11 »

zefhous wrote: post #10

What frustrates me is that it's just so expensive to get started... I know that it's "just the cost of doing business" but it really bothers me that you have to give away ≈%3 of your revenue to get paid. Braintree claims that their pricing is very competitive. I don't doubt that it is, but being in business with them for a single year costs a minimum of $1659* (supposing you need recurring billing). That's a lot for…

Use Paypal & E-junkie for your first few months and sell folks lifetime subscriptions to your service. $5 a month for e-junkie (not strictly necessary but it will save you a few hours of integration work), ~3% for Paypal.

After you've got a better handle on your market, have traction, and have passionate paying customers singing your praises, switch to a subscription billing provider and grandfather in the old users at free for life.

This assumes that you have nearly zero marginal cost per account, or a growth curve which can absorb the early adopters as a cost of doing business.

Re: Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch

#35

Post by terpua »

there wrote: post #2

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…

For a moment there, I thought your company was funded by Google Ventures: http://gigaom.com/2010/05/03/what-entrepreneurs-should-know-...

Re: Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch

#36

Post by ahoyhere »

there wrote: post #2

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…

Last I checked, Braintree doesn't want most startups - their site says they didn't want anyone under a threshhold of $LARGENUM per month. I recall it being quite high for a non-existing service - like $20k to $50k.

Braintree seems to simplify the work by a lot. On the other hand, use another provider, and PREPARE TO SUFFER!

I wrote about our pains w/ Auth.net in specific (and cc processing in general) here: http://letsfreckle.com/blog/2008/12/ecommerce-stuff/

Re: Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch

#37

Post by ahoyhere »

theBobMcCormick wrote: post #3

I'm not sure why so many of these guides seem to operate under the assumption that having the transaction happen on someone else's server (ie, traditional Paypal, Google Checkout, Amazon Payments, etc.) is a bad thing. I would think it'd be a good thing. Google and Amazon in particular are well known and trusted brand names that most customers likely already do some amount of business with. I know that for my own onl…

If your customers pay with PayPal, and it's a subscription, they cannot cancel their subscription from within your app. They will have to log into PayPal and do it directly there.

That's one reason.

Second, anyone who's ever been screwed by PayPal or Google Checkouts (they stole my money without warning) is going to be wary of it.

Re: Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch

#38

Post by ahoyhere »

If you want to get into online payments with a lot less text, and a checklist of what you need, try my cheat sheet:

http://jumpstartcc.com

It even explains the different types of accounts, and how the whole shebang works - incl. Ruby and JavaScript code samples.

Re: Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch

#39

Post by trevelyan »

zefhous wrote: post #10

What frustrates me is that it's just so expensive to get started... I know that it's "just the cost of doing business" but it really bothers me that you have to give away ≈%3 of your revenue to get paid. Braintree claims that their pricing is very competitive. I don't doubt that it is, but being in business with them for a single year costs a minimum of $1659* (supposing you need recurring billing). That's a lot for…

Try being a non-US business. The only people who would talk to us at the start wanted 5% plus. Totally ridiculous. Paypal isn't bad sometimes.
Post reply on HN