Hi everyone, Let me first outline our current situation. We're selling very popular IM software products, most of them come with a yearly subscription. We made over $100,000 in sales last month alone. On average, we make approx. $50,000 in sales per month and the numbers are growing steadily. So far we've been using PayPal to process these payments, however a "PayPal horror story" happened to us 5 weeks ago. Even though our refund rate has been 1.5% ever since we opened our PayPal account 14 months ago, PayPal has imposed a $50,000 fixed reserve and a 30% rolling reserve on our account. Currently they are holding $70,250 of our money (68% of our current balance) and they WON'T release it even though our refund rate is 1.5%. They know we cannot close our account and claim these reserved funds because we have thousands of active subscriptions tied to our account, and these are very valuable for future business. They are basically abusing their power and holding our money without any explanation and without even paying any interest on it. Bottom line, we need a new payment processor. If this payment processor comes with an integrated affiliate program that takes care of everything for us and brings in an active network of affiliates, that's even better. What option would you recommend? ClickBank? JVZoo? Click2Sell? PayDotCom? Commission Junction? ShareASale? Anything else? How do these compare in terms of: - transaction fees - affiliate program handling - rolling reserves - fixed reserves - signup fees and other costs - payout (withdrawal) methods for our EU-based company - other upsides and downsides - potential horror stories For instance, I've heard ClickBank usually means higher-than-average refund rates because of their 1-click refund system. People are also supposedly buying products through their own affiliate links on ClickBank, etc. It might still be the best option, though - that's why I need your opinion and your experience with these payment processors. I would sincerely appreciate all your help and suggestions. Thank you very much in advance, Aaron
Sorry to hear about your Paypal Story. They make it very tough to run business efficiently when they are not up front with you. I may have a solution for a new payment processing. Look into the company called GRAYPAY. They work well with companies that have large volume, if you keep growing the way you have been. Check them out and see if they can help you www.graypay.com. You could also call them at 818-387-6735. Hope this helps!!
Thank you for the suggestion. Do you happen to know their policy when it comes to rolling reserves and fixed reserves, and do they do business with EU-based companies? We run a perfectly legitimate business with very low refund and chargeback rates (1.5%) and thousands of satisfied clients. Does anyone have any experience with the payment processors I mentioned, e.g. ClickBank, JVZoo, Click2Sell, etc.? Some of these come with their own network of affiliates, which might be a big plus for our business right off the bat. Any thoughts on this?
I believe it truly depends on the the type and the financial status of the business. I know they have done companies based in the EU, with also a US articles of incorporation and US signer. If you have any other questions let me know.
I think Paypal is really the only serious processor. Even with the horror stories. It just has most of the members so we all need it.
2Checkout worked well for my company. It allowed us to accept PayPal (and recurring subscriptions) after one of our business accounts was limited. We were processing about $40,000 a month. Weekly payouts were always processed on time. I believe the rates are lower now, 3.99% + $0.45 per transaction. We were paying 5.5% + $0.45. Because of the fees, I wouldn't recommend just using 2Checkout. Call your bank and speak to the merchant services team to check their credit card processing rates.
You both make great & valid points. I agree that PayPal is -- unfortunately! -- absolutely essential when it comes to doing business online. This means that whichever payment processor we choose, it will have to support PayPal in addition to their own payment methods (credit cards, etc.). This is why I'm particularly interested in ClickBank, 2Checkout and similar solutions. While ClickBank offers a hands-off approach when it comes to affiliates and it brings its own network of active affiliates to the table, 2Checkout obviously offers very competitive fees (at least compared to ClickBank). Can anyone tell me more about how these two compare to each other once you put them to the test - does ClickBank make up for their substantially higher fees with the network of affiliates they offer, or is it better to go with 2Clickbank and handle everything affiliate-related on our own? We'll certainly look into setting up our own merchant account, but as you two pointed out - it's still essential to "take" PayPal as well, as unfortunate as that may be.
We've been using Braintree to process our payments. It has great documentations. So far so good, no horror stories. If you are looking for no merchant account requirement, you might want to look at Stripe. Rita
Theres a website I've seen today. Didn't really apply to it, but it might help you man. The website name is payoneer (link www(.)payoneer(.)com) I don't know if you heard about it before but it has pretty nice demo, and it looks pretty good. I hope I helped you, Good luck buddy!
I suggest that you use 2CheckOut, it is a complete payment processing solution. Although their fees are a bit higher than other payment processors, you will never face a problem with them. Additionally, the have an excellent customer support!
Avoid 2checkout.. Their fee is high, support is very poor. Touching base with them is like a dream come true.
Many payment processors wont allow you to sell IM products.. Most of them have it in their prohibited list.. good luck. Do share which one you finalized