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| Jul 20, 2004 4:12 pm |
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re: Accepting Credit Card payments online |
Mark Lowe
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Hi Janet, my advice to anyone who is setting up a business to take online payments is that it is a question of volume. We have built many custom e-commerce solutions for our customers and provide them with extremely competitive merchant account rates. We did our homework and yes, it is a minefield.
- If you are doing less than $1000 per month and want to stay like that then go for PayPal only. Although higher rates than with CC this is offset by the no monthly fees. Beware though of chargebacks - if you ship your product to the customer and then they dispute the transaction with their credit card company, PayPal will charge you a fee, take your money away and you have no rights to getting your product back. You have no protection.
- We had PayPal only merchants and then they started accepting credit card via a merchant account. Time and again sales increased dramatically. I can only assume that there are still a lot of people out there who either don't like, or can't be bothered with PayPal.
- If you are doing more than $1000 per month then there are fees associated with your account. Typically a monthly internet gateway fee and a statement fee. Then there are per transaction fees, typically around 30 cents per transaction + the discount fee. We have negotiated an across the board of 2.29% for visa and mastercard, but AMEX and Discover are dependent on each merchant (credit status etc.) Also beware of 'setup' fees - these can range anywhere from $150 up to $500. We have arranged for these to be waived - you should select a processor that does the same.
- There are many card processors out there. Do your homework and beware. Basically if something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is !!
- Having an online merchant account is only half the story - you then need to have a (preferably fully integrated) cart solution to take orders and manage your online inventory. We can't do commercials on here, so i can't tell you about out solution for this :)
Hope this helps
Best regards
Mark Lowe.
> Janet Totino wrote:
> Hi everyone!
>As we all know, starting up a home-based business involves a LOT of learning. God knows, I've been surrounding myself with book after book and network after network on the topic.
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>I'll soon be ready to officially start my own business, but I'd like to reach a broader range of consumers with my website and to add the convenience of being able to accept Credit Card payments on my site.
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>Does anyone know how to even go about this and what the incurred charges are? Of all the information I've gathered, there's very little info on this topic.
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>Help!
>
>Janet Private Reply to Mark Lowe (new win) |
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