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

Post by quicksilver03 » Tue, May 04, 2010, 9:29 AM UTC

henrikschroder wrote: post #41

quicksilver03 wrote: post #40

I'd like to know if someone has pointers to a similar writeup but focussed on Europe rather than US. AFAIK neither Google Checkout nor Amazon Payments are available in Europe, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

You can't do a EU-wide guide easily, because you will need a merchant account at a bank in your country (and you typically can't use one from another country), and you will need a processor that can work with that bank (which will typically be a processor from the same country) and finally a provider that can work with that processor, again, mostly country-bound. If you're in Denmark I can recommend http://epay.dk as…

Post by bryanjohnson » Tue, May 04, 2010, 11:49 AM UTC

ahoyhere wrote: post #36

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://le…

Post by ctd » Tue, May 04, 2010, 12:57 PM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #34

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…

Post by itgoon » Tue, May 04, 2010, 1:54 PM UTC

ctd wrote: post #46

patio11 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

My only concern about this would be selling lifetime subscriptions for an embryonic service. What if it fails? This may be built into the terms, but it could also sour customers on your future offerings (or hurt your personal brand). Otherwise, this seems like a good strategy for testing the waters with a new product.

Post by seanharper » Tue, May 04, 2010, 3:22 PM UTC