E-Comm/ Payment Gateways and integrated payments

[lanihudg]

I have developed a shopping cart for a client and want to find a resonably priced payment gateway/merchant account. I am not to saavy on this subject but I know I need something integrated in the site - I don't want to send buyers to a payment site. I have done a little research on Verisign's Payflow Pro; it sounds good but it is pricey. Is this a good option - is it worth the $250 set up and $60/month? Is there another gateway option that will let my client accept payment through their merchant account while keeping buyers on their site for payment? Thanks for all of your help!

Lani

[StevenAllen]

You can use the First Data gateway thru Yourpay and I have worked out a group discount of only $99.00/ set up fee and a $25.00/mo access fee.

I hope you find this helpful!

[Corey Bryant]

How much are they going to be processing a month? If it is less than $1,000 a month, consider something like 2Co or Paysystems. They are a third party processor & you pay as you go.

Usually for a merchant account, you have some sort of start-up fee / application fee, etc. This can range from $99-$999 or so.

Then you have a monthly minimum, which is about $15.00-$25.00. This comes from your discount rate (usually 2.25-2.35%). Meaning that if you sell $1,000 - then the monthly charges for that is $22.50 (if your discount rate is 2.25%.

Then there are transaction fees - about $.25-.35 cents. This is on every transaction that hits the gateway. It usually includes the batch as well.

And AVS charges - usually about $.05. This verifies the street address / ZIP code. If a lot of your consumers are overseas, then the discount rate is going to be higher because AVS was not performed (could not be performed).

Now having said all that & then some, it seems you might already have a merchant account? Is it internet or brick & mortar? If it is internet, then they should put you in contact with a gateway. If it is brick & mortar, you need an internet merchant account. What gateway is your merchant account compatible with?

[lanihudg]

Thanks, Steven - I will check into that.

Corey - the client will probably make less than $1000/month. They currently have a bricks merchant account but they have no problem with setting up a new merchant account. I have found plenty but what I need is a payment gateway (the in between) that is reasonably priced. I was hoping to get ideas as to what works. Thanks for your info, though!

Lani

[Corey Bryant]

That is what I thought Lani. And that was why I brought it up. You really do not want to mix our brick & mortar account with this. Plus you will not find a gateway to do it. And if you do, run away.

The reason being, one it might be against your merchant application. Usually when you sign up, you tell them how many swiped & keyed transactions. Usually a brick & mortar is going to have 100% or mayb 90% swiped. And so your discount rate is probably like 1.55%. Now if your client has to key that transaction in, he might get charged about 2% more. Because the chances are greater that the transaction will be disputed.

I would suggest a company like Paysystems or 2CO. The discount rate is a little higher but you pay for what you use & nothing else.

The gateway itself is usually about $10 a month. But you have to have a merchant account compatible with that gateway & vice versa.

[StevenAllen]

It is possible to have all your business go thru one merchant account and by doing so obtain better over all rates for both. We have our account set up this way as we also have B&M stores and 4 e-tail sites. Our retail site becuase it is card present has a rate of 1.52% and our card NOT present biz is 2.04/.10 per transaction. All accounts have their respective business names and all have individual statments, but they are all counted toward our cumulative volume.

If you have more questions, just drop me a note.

[Corey Bryant]

Sorry Steve -part of that just does not make any sense. You state:

Our retail site becuase it is card present has a rate of 1.52% and our card NOT present biz is 2.04/.10 per transaction.
Your retail site cannot have a card present because it is a website. Unless of course you provide all your clients with a cherry keyboard.

And actually be careful with self-promotion in this forum. And as far as yourpay, it will probably be gone within 6 months. They are finally combinging both of them - LinkPoint / Yourpay, that is. It is just taking a bit longer, they want to test the 3.0 gateway with the CA DMV before putting it out to all consumers of FDMS.

[StevenAllen]

Corey,

We have a brick and mortar retail store which is what I am referring to in my previous post. I am a merchant with 4 beauty e-tail sites and that is our primary business. As to the evolution of Yourpay you may be right, but this would have no effect on what I have currently posted.

Lastly, your tagline is a self promotion or did you not notice?

[Corey Bryant]

OK - I see what you were trying to say, usually when someone says retail site, I think of internet. True, we have set up a few internet account that use a cherry keyboard therefore we were able to get them a brick & mortar rate.

The sig is fine for self-promotion. But the rules are that you cannot post self-promotion in the messages.

[StevenAllen]

Corey,

Glad we could clear up any confusion. With this in mind I should distinguish that I am not a indepent sales organization, but a emerchant. I started my first beauty website in 1999 and now have 4 in addition to my retail business. I founded Emerchantgroup.com soley a resource that allows all merchants to benefit from working together for goods and services, we all use. Yes, credit card processing is one of those benefits.