81–90 of 100 posts
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We were thinking of doing a similar approach, basically verifying people's ID upon first purchase. However, we thought it might significantly decrease the number of customers. I suppose there's no free lunch here... verification will sacrifice volume.
You may run afoul of the credit card companies if you try to verify ID on purchase.
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I'm a little confused what you're asking for. Do you want them to run the web store as well, so you really don't have to think (such as yahoo does?), or do you just want somebody to process transactions for you, (such as PayPal, Amazon Payments, and Google Checkout do?) For somebody willing to drop 30% (or even 3%-5%) on a payment processing solution, there are lots of them. But, I bet we could convince Steve Jobs to…
Basically no minimums and no merchant account. My account is with whoever is providing the service and that's it. Apple does a great job of making is seamless -- so I would want the equivalent of that for the web. I feel like Google Checkout + app engine could get there, but they don't do subscriptions.
http://code.google.com/apis/checkout/developer/Google_Checko...
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chargify itself, not too long. Especially if you do everything their way(we are kind of doing some weird things with it currently). If you don't want to write your own, there are a bunch of API libraries available for a bunch of languages as well as hosted paged for registration and payments if you need them. As everyone else has said, the long parts have been the up front setup time of the merchant account and payme…
Thanks! What kind of weird things are you doing that don't fit with the recurring model?
This is not supported by Chargify yet, they only charge for items at the beginning of a period. If we were using a simple recurring subscription for this and not quantify based model this wouldn't be an issue, because they do offer prorated upgrades and downgrades for recurring subscriptions.
Nothing overly complicated here, just have to hack around some of the current limitations of the platform.
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I do consulting work for a friend who has a surprisingly common problem: He needs to do card processing but only certain times out of the year. He goes to conventions and sells merchandise, etc and wants to be able to take credit cards but the monthly & inactivity fees would wipe him out. So far all I've seen that could fix this potentially is Square, but they have yet to ship out their swiping widgets to use to try…
Have they shipped any of the swiping widgets yet? I signed up about a month ago and still haven't heard anything.
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You may run afoul of the credit card companies if you try to verify ID on purchase.
How so?
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=71792
This is all to say, credit card processing is incredibly complicated. Here's another quote, directly from the federal government [1]:
"MasterCard wants to hear about merchants who break their rules. Send the name and address and an account of what happened to MasterCard International, c/o Radio City Station, P. O. Box 1288, New York, NY 10101. The merchant's bank will get a stiff letter, ordering it to investigate and bring the offending store into line - or pay a $2,000 fine.
Visa enforces the same rules as MasterCard. "When we hear about a violation, we ask the bank that signed the merchant to get together with the merchant and see that the practice is stopped," Visa representative states. To report a merchant, send a letter to the bank that issued your Visa card.
American Express also prohibits merchants from asking for IDs. "All a merchant is supposed to do is take an imprint, make sure the signature matches and swipe the card through the terminal, to get authorization."
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?
I'm gradually leaning toward your way of thinking. For a long time, I had the perception, which, I believe, was the correct one, that PayPal == Amateur in the minds of your potential customers. I believe that this is no longer the case. Well, it is the case, but it no longer matters. I still think "small time", when I see a PayPal button, but now I also think "trusted" and "easy refund". These tend to make the "small…
For quite awhile both wordpress.com and stumblupon both were using paypal as their payment method for buying credits.
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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 mea…
Given that PayPal only charges 2.2% + $0.30 per transaction for businesses with > $10K in sales, it seems to me that it is increasingly difficult for any merchant services provider to compete with PayPal in the online space, given the high basic interchange rate.
The added benefits of not having to deal with the cost and complexity of PCI compliance and a separate credit card gateway has made us decide to switch to PayPal.
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People are impulsive, but businesses aren't. If you're some guy wanting to start transaction, you might need a smaller solution. For businesses, I think they want a big set up process because it makes the managers feel safer.
Businesses are run by people.
Large businesses are run by processes and paperwork.
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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…
I can see why Braintree would have no interest in businesses that are destined to maintain smallness, but they're missing out on getting into bed with some young companies whose payment volume will eventually pop. And leaving the door open for a more nurturing payment portal to grab young companies (and presumably keep them). So it might be wise to for Braintree to loosen up the fees a bit for promising young compani…
If we fail then we stop using Braintree, authorize or paypal (then use them again on the next startup). But if we succeed, we will continue to be a customer (and recommend them to our friends on HN) for a long, long time.
Seems like a slam-dunk to me.
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…