This will really sound so amateur with most of you guys but I am quite curious as to how I can accept payments from my "soon to be open" ecommerce store. Paypal doesn't seem to be the reliable type with this sort of stuff or is it? Either way, if anyone has experience on merchant accounts or where to aqcuire one I would really appreciate it. I am really quite new to online transactions and I do not want to end up losing money. If you've written an article on this topic, please let me know. thanks, jL Acosta
If Paypal will support your company, you might check into them. Paypal is a stable company and they have been around for a long time. The problem is they have been around for a long time and have millions of merchants. Trying to please everyone all the time while protecting their business has become very cumbersome. It is basically an impossible task. People sign up with Paypal without reading or understanding the TOS / AUP. Kids (under 18) will sign up and then when Paypal needs to verify their age, they get upset and now "Paypal sucks". But they don't really, the kids are the ones who violated the TOS.
If you are from Manila then probably Paypal may not be the best option for you since Philippines is still not one of the countries which permits receiving funds through Paypal. The trouble like what Corey said is that there are people don't read the TOS/AUP or read it and just ignore the parts that they do not agree with and that is what lead them to trouble. Like people who pretend to be from another country just to circumvent the rules. If you obey the rules, it will work for you. By the way, what does your ecommerce store script supports in terms of payment processor ? Perhaps you can use of from the list. Moneybookers.com, Worldpay.com and CCNow.com are reliable too.
I have helped setup online stores using x-cart and oscommerce in the past which are fully functional now. The only thing I am worried about is that I do not have the firsthand experience when it comes to handling payments and which merchant accounts to use. Thanks Corey and Eddy for the tips. Will try looking into the payment processors suggested.
Did a check and it appears that X-Cart http://www.x-cart.com/ supports wild range of payment processor http://www.x-cart.com/xcart_payment_gateways.html while OSCommerce http://www.oscommerce.com/solutions supports a list of popular payment processor which includes Paypal, 2Checkout, Chronopay, Authorize.net and so on. 2Checkout seems to be quite used by people here so that is not a bad idea.