Is there a reasonable merchant account that is secure too?

[jwswholesale]

I have authorize.net and eonlinedata.com as my gateway and merchant account, respectively. I pay something like $55 per month, even if I don't have an order. NO cards charged, authorized or anything. Is this common? I went with one that didn't charge as much, but didn't do very well in the security dept. Why can't I just have the gateway through auth.net? What's the deal with having to pay two people to get the card charged, then funds to my account? Maybe I am missing something, but that is too much to put aside for that.

I have tried just Paypal.com, but that doesn't give me enough flexability. About a year ago I was taken orders almost hourly. The same time this year and it has gone done quite a bit. I stopped my merchant account at one point cause I wanted to change to, what I thought, was a cheaper one. "Free transactions through auth.net....etc" and I thought that I lost my customers when I went to paypal.com only for the duration of the switch. I have since gone back to auth.net but I don't see any changes.

I am basically looking to get away from the large cost of that if I can. I need security and I have done the searching for one, but everyone is a reseller now. I can't find a reputable or one that is priced right.

Any thoughts?? Sorry for the ramble.

[SteveIrw]

You can try 2checkout.com (no monthly charges) or chronopay.com. Both are safe and use secure protocols to charge cards.

__________________
Steve Irwin
Avactis Shopping Cart- Easy to Customize, Simple to Integrate
http://www.avactis.com

[Easywebdev]

I'll second 2checkout.com $49 to set up and thats it, no monthly charges just a % of the overall product price (around 4-5% last time I checked and 30c per transaction so selling something at $20 would cost you $1.30.

If you are dealing in low cost - high volume then 2checkout is great but if you have high cost - low volume the the 4-5% may not be worth it and the monthly cost for authorize.net may well outweigh the charges from 2checkout.

Depends on what you charge and the volume you shift as to what is most viable to you.

[StevenAllen]

Excuse the shameless plug. We negotiated rates for our 600+ EMG members with Authorizenet and our merchant processor that are much less then what you are paying. The combined monthly fees even for VERY low volume are $17.50/mo and if you process over $1MM/YR it is only $10.00.

You can learn more about our rates and programs by clicking on the links below:

http://www.emerchantsgroup.com/viandmapr.html

http://www.emerchantsgroup.com/authorizenet.html

OUR 30 SECOND APPLICATION:

http://www.emerchantsgroup.com/meacap.html

[jwswholesale]

I am dealing with mostly low price high volume so I think that I will take a look at some of these other options. Thanks for the input, as usual, I knew I could count on you guys for help.

[StevenAllen]

I thought this old post may be helpful to you and other new members:

Merchant Account Basics, Information on how to choose the best merchant account.

The processors play a revenue game of hide the ball. Sometimes the revenue for them is hidden in chargebacks, statement fees, monthly fees, float time (delay of funding), per transaction fee, batch fees, AVS fees etc.

Below is a list of fees that may apply to a merchant processing account:

1) AVS Fees.
2) Batch fees.
3) Non - qualified AKA up charges.(this can comprise 30% of a merchants monthly costs). Please be advised that mid-qualified (corporate and government cards) are NOT non-qualified.
4) Initiation fee.
5) Term of contract fee.
6) Chargeback fees .
7) Funding time.
8) Annual fee.
9) Amex or Discover convenience fee.
10) Set up fee.
11) Application fee.

Discount rates and cost per transaction are important, but do your homework and be sure to check ALL the fees OR you will not make your BEST decision. Of course, good service should also be part of any relationship. Nothing in life is a good value, if you do not receive good service as well.

[jwswholesale]

Originally Posted by SteveIrw

You can try 2checkout.com (no monthly charges) or chronopay.com. Both are safe and use secure protocols to charge cards.

__________________
Steve Irwin
Avactis Shopping Cart- Easy to Customize, Simple to Integrate
http://www.avactis.com

Can I use the Authorize.net gateway? I have a shopping cart setup and I can easily integrate with authorize.net. I read the knowledge base and the Auth.net perameters are a lot to understand. Is there an easier way?

[A. Smith]

I recently switched to Paypal, with Virtual Terminal. I am very happy with it. $20/month for VT and a reasonable % for transactions. I know you said you tried them before, and so had I, but they have improved.

[jwswholesale]

So, I can just use the virtual terminal? I don't need to have any other service?

[A. Smith]

Virtual Terminal replaces your credit card machine. You just log into Paypal and use VT to input the CC info.

[jwswholesale]

Originally Posted by A. Smith

Virtual Terminal replaces your credit card machine. You just log into Paypal and use VT to input the CC info.

Oh ok, you meant for Paypal.com. I thought you meant Authorize.net.

[A. Smith]

Right, VT is part of Paypal. I'm sorry, I know nothing about Authorize.net

[jestep]

Originally Posted by jwswholesale

Can I use the Authorize.net gateway? I have a shopping cart setup and I can easily integrate with authorize.net. I read the knowledge base and the Auth.net perameters are a lot to understand. Is there an easier way?

No.

2checkout.com is not a merchant account. They are a 3rd party processor. While they don't have any monthly fees, their processing rate is about 6%, which is much higher than what you are paying now. Also, if you use authnet AIM, your visitors will have to leave your site completely to pay with 2checkout. 3rd party processors are notorious for screwing over sellers and buyers because they remove the normal Visa and Mastercard protection policies. If you are in the US, I would recommend paypal long before 2checkout despite all of the problems people have with paypal.

I think that you should look for a company with no monthly minimum and a very low say, $6 statement fee. What you are paying now is fairly high, and you should be able to get the monthly cost down to about $20 - $25 for no processing.

The problem is that you have to pay a statement fee, probably as monthly minimum, and a gateway fee. Eliminating the monthly minimum will greatly lower your monthly cost for months you don't process a lot. There may be a company with no gateway fee, but most start at about $10.

[the27thaveman]

Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 4:16 am Post subject:

Excuse the shameless plug. We negotiated rates for our 600+ EMG members with Authorizenet and our merchant processor that are much less then what you are paying. The combined monthly fees even for VERY low volume are $17.50/mo and if you process over $1MM/YR it is only $10.00.

You can learn more about our rates and programs by clicking on the links below:
-------------------------------------
I guess I need to call Authorize.Net tomorrow and work something out. For some reason my sales have fallen like a lead balloon but Discover charges me $44.00 if I have a sale on their card or not and American Express just charged me $30. for nothing but Misc. fees.
Also I know I not the only one in the US that was stupid enough to buy X-Cart. Does any one know anybody who knows how to work on X-cart who is HONEST and DEPENDABLE. So far every person I have hired to work on my site is a rip off or if I have trouble like now with 2 links that don't work and my so called SEO will not answer my emails and his server is junk.
The strange thing is my rating is 5 of 10 but just not buyers.
Any feed back is very much appreciated.

Ted M
WWW.27thAvenut.com
ted@27thavenue.com

[StevenAllen]

Ted,

If you need help with Authorizenet, please feel free to drop me a line. EMG has established some preferred rates for our members.