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Need to process payments?

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Re: Need to process payments?

#41

Post by fredoliveira »

run4yourlives wrote: post #37
subbu wrote: post #7

I am not US based but still need a decent payment processing system. All existing payment processing companies are US-centric. Any luck for us?

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.

You are right on the money (pun intended). Europe and Asia are two huge markets with no fast and easy solution to payment processing. There's about a handful of providers who are 'so-so'.

We ended up going with Paylane (merchant account setup took about a month - which is insane). Worldpay was another option but they required people who wanted to pay for our service to have an account on theirs (seriously).

Re: Need to process payments?

#42

Post by dan_manges »

SwellJoe wrote: post #34
bdickason wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps it's just a question of scale, and maybe I'm trying to solve problems that don't really exist. I'm hesitent to use paypal because when I _DO_ move to something more legit (ala Braintree or Authorize.net), I have to re-bill all of my customers and they have to put in their CC info again. This doesn't seem ideal to me.

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 of surprising afterwards. We proactively help them lower fees. We assist with PCI Compliance and credit card data security. We don't hold stored credit card data hostage. We don't hide fees and then deny that we hid them in the first place. We answer our phones and respond to email very quickly. Our goal always been for our customers to conclude that we're the best payments provider they've ever worked with and many of our customers maintain that opinion which we're always very pleased to hear.

Re: Need to process payments?

#43

Post by seanharper »

vyrotek wrote: post #6
jarin wrote: post #3

Couple of questions: Does it handle subscriptions? Do you need a merchant bank account?

I have the same questions. The most frustrating part of shopping around for these types of services is trying to figure out whats included and what isn't. Perhaps its just the nature of this market, but the fact that I have to purchase and manage additional services just to someone's special 'payment subscription service' is a pain.

This is a shameless plug, but at http://transfs.com (transparent financial services) we have a free webservice that helps you compare various payments options.

It's strictly private and requires no commitment of any kind. Basically it's like Kayak for payments.

However, we don't do international yet, so probably can't help the original poster. International payments are really hard, there are many fewer options in most foreign countries.

Even in Canada and UK the number of merchant account providers is many fewer than in the US, giving the customer less choice and enabling the providers to maintain more of their archaic practices.

Re: Need to process payments?

#44

Post by SwellJoe »

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…

Your fees look much lower than last I looked (I also seem to recall I had to contact someone at Braintree to get rates last time I was shopping...I don't think it was prominent on the website as it is now). Anyway, I take it back, Braintree does appear to be competitive with PayPal Payments Pro and others.

Re: Need to process payments?

#47

Post by steveklabnik »

staunch wrote: post #22
bdickason wrote: post #9

I just sent them an e-mail. I'm hoping this is a payment gateway :D Have a call with Braintree, but they require monthly minimums and a setup fee. If there was a scalable solution as follows, I'd jump onboard immediately: -Create an account (Free) -Start accepting payments at a slightly higher percent (3.5%?) -Percentage goes down as volume increases End the negotiation, setup fees, etc that are stuck in this archaic…

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…

I had some small amount of issues getting started with Braintree as well, because of my business model. We had to provide a ton of documentation... but the end result is worth it. It's been great after that initial hump.

Re: Need to process payments?

#48

Post by tansey »

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.

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.

Re: Need to process payments?

#49

Post by Artifex »

Awesome! Thank you! Will there be plug-in capabilities for people who use CMS-type systems, such as wordpress? I see an increasing number of smaller e-commerce sites running on that platform lately...

Re: Need to process payments?

#50

Post by seanharper »

SwellJoe wrote: post #32
nissimk wrote: post #18

I don't understand why I need anything more than Paypal? Everybody else seems to just charge more and I don't see what you get for that. Isn't credit card processing online a commodity and using the least expensive solution the way to go?

At low volume, PayPal Payments Pro is as good as anything I've found, and it is cheaper than almost every other merchant services provider (especially by the time you factor in the gateway fees). But, it's definitely not cheap. I ache every time I see how much of our revenue is going to PayPal, even if it's better than the prior provider we were using. Our prior merchant services provider had cranked up rates gradual…

The issue that you describe where your prior merchant account provider billed you a downgrade rate for 90% of your transactions isn't really because they were "high-risk" (they weren't, you have no downgrades). It's an example of "marking up the downgrades" which is a strategy that unscrupulous merchant account providers use to increase their profit. http://transfs.com/blog/marking-up-downgrades/

What they really mean is that the interchange rate that your transaction qualified for is worse than the rate that they set to be your default or "qualified" rate. http://transfs.com/blog/what-is-interchange-again/

These billing tiers are a problem because there is no standard on what is "qualified" and what is "unqualified", it varies between processors and between customers within the same processor. http://transfs.com/blog/tiered-pricing-for-merchant-accounts...

There is a way to solve those billing tier ambiguities (which never are in the favor of the businessowner) - its called interchange plus pricing. Insist upon it, every processor can do it, for any size business.

Basically interchange is the wholesale rate that visa/mc charge the processor. In an interchange-plus pricing scheme the processor pass those charges on to you and explicitly disclose the markup you are paying above that wholesale rate. It's the best way to ensure no funny business is going on with your rates - http://transfs.com/blog/why-you-should-want-interchange-plus...

Only accept interchange plus or a no-downgrade flat percentage (like Paypal offers) - it will save you money and aggravation.

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