I have been searching for information about who a merchant account best suites. My store is a only a month old. I use paypal direct / pro to process orders. I notice rates for merchant account are very low compared to Paypal. Also it appears the base monthy fees are less than the the month charge of $20 that paypal requires. So if that is truely the case why wouldnt every store owner get a merchant account? Im assuming Paypal has to be a better option for some owners or else Paypal would go out of business. However, everything I read indicates that a Merchant account is 100x better than Paypal. Which do you suggest?

Hi,

Perhaps I can shed some light on the question. When merchants do any kind of volume at all, they tend to get their own merchant account. Some consumers are just not comfortable using PayPal and merchants have found they have lost sales because of this. We have found some of our merchants like having both, PayPal and their own merchant account. Many merchants start off, just like your doing, using PayPal exclusively, when later they come back and sign up for their own merchant account to save money on the discount rate.

Also, it seems that service can be an issue. When choosing a merchant account acquirer to work with, make sure you ask them some key questions. Here's a few that may help you make a good decision:

1. How long have you been in business?
2. Do you do all of your own tech support for the merchant account and gateway? (This is a critical question, if you have an issues, you don't want the gateway to blame the merchant account and the merchant account to blame the gateway - it should be able to be handled in one call)
3. Do they have live people answering the phones; can you always get a hold of someone?
4. Are they working out of their own basement (this is your business and your money, you should always be able to get a hold of someone quickly)?
5. What kind of chargeback support do you offer?
6. What's your turnaround on chargeback’s before the merchant get's involved?
5. How long does it take to get funded?

These questions can help you weed out the great merchant acquirers form the not so great merchant acquirers.

I hope that helps,
Julie

paypal is a consumer to consumer payment method. it is NOT a consumer to business payment system. It seemingly tries to be, but it is NOT. PayPal (Fraud Pal) is a complete joke when it comes to business transactions. If you are at all serious about running your business like a business I would steer clear of fraud pal. enough said.

Taj,

Paypal, is good for getting started, but like Julie mentions you are going to want a Payment Gateway eventually. If you can, go to Google and get a Google Checkout account, it will cost you $$0 for the year in fees and they are always giving customers incentives to use Google Checkout as a payment method ($10 off your order)

We have a Paypal account, but do not use it with due to complications which lead to extra phone calls. Paypal use to be more merchant friendly, but as has been pointed out, is more of a Consumer oriented service.

Hey BamaCat--there are no dumb questions!

I use P@yPal for fun when selling/buying on 3bay (and have for many years)...for my business I've been with C@rdservice International for years (and I use Linkpoint). I have not used g00gle checkout; but I understand (and have experienced) there are some issues associated. After about 10ish years on the ecom world, here is our take:

Instead of running with g00gle checkout for a 8 months of fee free (?) service (read the fine print)...we suggest doing your due diligence and selecting a processor you feel comfortable with and going with it--in the long run, we've found that building a longer term relationship has gotten us some benefits. Not that you (or we) couldnt jump ship to another processor; you certainly can if you are unhappy with whatever service you choose.

When I see an ecom site offering payp@l checkout (only)--I think "amateur." When I see only g00gle checkout only, I run...my experiences to date have not been positive.
Just my 2 cents.

Good luck with your choice!

PS Jitters--yes, it's normal. "Merchants Remorse"--nope; not if you have a sound plan!

Hey Martiniguy, your site looks great! I saw it last year, think it had different colors. The olive-green is very cool, makes me thirsty. Even though I don't drink.

When you say PayPal only, are you saying PayPal without the option of paying by Visa, MC, Amex, etc.? That would look unprofessional to me too. I'd obviously be taking all these options, and you can take eChecks and wire transfers as well through PayPal.

I've been surfing the web for "Google checkout vs PayPal" and there were some articles last year, but they dropped off soon after Google checkout was launched last summer. There don't seem to be too many, if any, recent articles comparing the two, or how many users each currently has

But I'm reading blogs by merchants who trash Google, and others who trash PayPal.

What made you go with Cardservices? Did you look at Network Solution's as well?

I wonder how many MC merchants use Google, PayPal, NS, and others? Think there are any stats on that? And for the PayPal users, wonder what the ratio of PayPal sales to credit cards they get?

I believe Martini was referring to using Paypal only as a Payment Gateway which would except V/M/D/A cards along with Paypal. We like martini, use Card Service Int and Linkpoint as our Gateway. We had them before we had Paypal, and have been using them for at least 7 years. In our experiences, conversion rates are better with a traditional gateway vs Paypal as a Gateway.

Google Checkout is similar, but much better than Paypal as far as conversions, marketing, fees, and guarantees. Google Checkout isn't for everyone, due to the way has implemented it, but for us, it is a great addition. At one time we had Google Checkout, Paypal Standard, and Linkpoint all running at the same time, until we decided to disable Paypal from to much trouble. We still have a paypal account, but we just don't use it with , and since we stopped using it (9 months ago), one customer has asked us why we don't accept Paypal. Meanwhile, we have received many more orders.

If you read good enough, you will see people bashing Card Services, and many other processors and gateways out there. It is easy to write and bash of the negatives about a company vs highlighting and pointing out all of the positives or a company.

IMO, Paypal and Google are fine for starting out the first few months, but if you are planning on being in this business in the long run, you are going to need a true credit card processor and gateway.

Macrick..

Was you using Paypal Pay Flow Pro? I use this on my other sites and it works they the same way as any other gateway. There is no reference to Paypal at all nor can you accept Paypal though this method. If I remember correctly this gateway was purchases from Verisign. What I like about Pay Flow Pro is I can use it on multiple sites unlike my USA Epay.

--correct, sorry for the confusion!

We originally went with CSI after tons of research--the fees (at the time) were higher, but the tradeoff for convenience and quick funding made it a good choice. We've had pretty flawless service for many years.

No I was referring to Paypal Standard. I am aware of the different Paypal offerings, and yes you can get them as an invisible gateway. But aren't the fees more? I think most of the interest in Paypal Standard or Paypal Express is the lower fees?

Do you use Payflow with a MC site?

Would you consider Network Solution to be a true credit card processor and gateway?

Is there any statistical info out there comparing the conversion rates, # of merchants using, # of customer transactions, chargebacks, fraud, or anything else between PayPal, Checkout, etc? I would think there would be at least one independent company that would compile this?

We have used Authorize.net for years and have had a great experience with them. Just remember PayPal is NOT a bank and is not restricted to the same rules and regulations. They can and do make up their own rules and they are not always going to be in your best interest. I would assume that Google also falls into the PayPal category.
We have found that accepting PayPal on your site makes you look like a beginner. If you want to look that way start an ebay store. The purpose of creating a web site in our case was to move beyond that level. We quickley stopped accepting PayPal on our site and we haven't looked back. We still accept and indeed encourage its use in our ebay store but they are well suited to each other.
Just like we did with PayPal we tried Google Checkout. Totally confused our customers and it was not long before we removed it. Pick a payment gateway and a bank and move on. You will not be sorry.
Later
Steve

Like Deerefun we have used Authorized Net for more then 5 years. Along with Authorize we also offered PayPal Standard. A little over a year ago we decided to discontinue PayPal and only had one customer ask why. Conversions have not suffered at all.

Never tried Google ... didn't like the huge button and the confusion of offering two checkout options.

No, I wish Payflow Pro was supported by MC..I would stop using the USA EPay.... It cost no more than my USA EPay account...


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No I was referring to Paypal Standard. I am aware of the different Paypal offerings, and yes you can get them as an invisible gateway. But aren't the fees more? I think most of the interest in Paypal Standard or Paypal Express is the lower fees?

Do you use Payflow with a MC site?
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