Need recommendation for CC Processing Account.

Could anyone give me an idea of whats a good CC processing company to use? Do all of them charge start up fees and monthly fees and minimums? I'm currently using authorize.net from their retailer Merchant Warehouse. But i have about 3 websites that i want to implement it. Can i use my 1 account with them on 3 different websites? Thanks! Appreciate it!

 

As far as how rates go you will find that rates and fees vary widely from provider to provider. Many do not charge any set up fees or minimum fees. You just have to shop around.

As far as sharing accounts go no serious merchant account provider is going to establish one merchant account for multiple websites. The chargeback potential is too enormous to do so. The fact that only one website will have the proper name shown on the other statement means that the one that won’t have their name on the customer’s statement will experience a high rate of chargebacks just from customers not recognizing the DBA on their statement. This doesn’t even take into consideration the high rate of chargebacks internet-based businesses experience anyway.

And, if you want to try to avoid that by putting the corporate name on the statement you make the problem even worse. Now on both websites your customers will not recognize the business name on the statement. You might think you can put the corporate name prominently on each website or saying on the checkout page, “Your statement will say ABC Corporation” will mitigate that problem. Not true. Customers associate the business name with their purchase and having the wrong name on the statement is a proven way to get lots of chargebacks.

The bank, and the merchant, will want to have separate accounts as if one experiences a high rate of chargebacks (greater then one percent) that account will be closed but the other one will be unaffected. If both accounts are rolled up into one, if the chargebacks from one get too high and bring the collective total over one percent they both will be shut down. Obviously bad business for the merchant.

Additionally, each website is judged on its own merits. One website might be readily accepted by a merchant account provider but the other might due to its elevated level of risk.

 

Thanks, great input! But i cant seem to find a good one that does not charge mininum fee. which the one i use is $14 gate fee + $25 mininum(if i dont sell enough products to make 25 * % they require) So roughly about $1400 of sell a month which i dont think i will reach for couple of months.

 

If you really want to be anonymous CC processed, Use PayPal Pro. No one will know PayPal charged the card.

If you dont want to go with PayPal, go for 2CO, the second option I see after PayPal.

 

2CO is very expensive especially for US merchants. It always costs more then a regular merchant account.

 

2 checkout and authorize dosen't have the same fees?

 

No because they are two different things.

2CO is a third party processor. They are a merchant account and payment gateway wrapped into one. They share their merchant account with you and you must play by their rules.

Authorize.Net is a payment gateway. They don't work unless you have a merchant account associated with it. The main fees here are charged by the merchant account although Authnet does have their own fees as well.

 

Have used them for 4 years with much success. $15 monthly gateway fee, no minimums.

http://www.innovativegateway.com

Tell them Charles Bishop / Utah Fence sent you or, green rep if useful in your research!

 

Thanks guys, i have to research it a little more.

 

moneybookers.com

 

2Co.com is defently the way to go for a low budget solution with low volume and only a few transactions.

If you have a full grown business with high volume and a lot of transactions then I would go with a bank and a payment gateway and pay whatever they ask for, in the long run you will get money out of it.

If you are located in the EU then I would try Pago or Wirecard if you are in the US then I know there are a bunch of providers.

 

2Checout is rarely the best option. Their high fees make sure only the lowest volume merchants benefit from using them. Paypal and a true merchant account blow them away almost every time.

 

why is that? Whats the fee for 2Co?

 

Setup fee: $49
Discount rate: 5.50% (That's very high)
Transaction fee: 55¢ (That's high)

 

Your fee structure is incorrect. The fee structure for 2co is $49.00 life time account fee 5.5% per transaction and .45cent per sale. If you have your own merchant account then you must be prepared to handle Customer care, Fraud, PCI compliance, and all bank fees that come with a merchant license. 2Checkout is also accepted in more countries than PayPal and they deal in 26 different currency's. I have been a 2CO vendor for almost three years and have had no problems with them.

 

Forgive me for being off by 10¢ on the transaction fee. I'll never typo again.

Most of what you had to say is either incorrect or misleading.

When you say customer care who do you mean? 2Checkout doesn't do your customer care for you. And merchant account providers offer account support for their merchants. So what do you mean? Does 2checkout have some special customer that we don't know about?

Fraud can happen to everyone. 2checkout is no safer then any other processor because fraud has nothing to do with the processor. Fraud control falls squarely on the merchant's shoulders and their policies and procedures are the greatest form of fraud control. To claim you have to worry about fraud with a true merchant account but not with 2checkout is rather irresponsible. Seriously.

A merchant does not have PCI issues with a true merchant account. The payment gateway handles all of that. The only time a merchant has to worry about PCI compliance is if they are storing credit card information on their server. But that applies to everyone whether they have a true merchant account or 2checkout. Just because someone uses 2checkout doesn't mean they can store credit card information insecurely. It just doesn't work that way.

And even if you pay the highest fees for a merchant in the US you still save money over 2checkout. That's how big the price difference is. A merchant never saves money with 2checkout in the US unless they do a couple of very small transactions per month (which virtually no one ever does) and in those cases Paypal is still better then 2checkout. You have to remember this member is in the US. They have a lot of options available to them. Of all of those options, 2checkout is towards the bottom of the list. At best they should be a back up processor in case the primary processor goes down (which virtually never happens) or the payment gateway goes down (still very unlikely).

 

First lets make sure we understand that 2Checkout is not a payment processor. 2Checkout is a reseller. They take ownership of the product and resell it to the customer.

If you use 2 Checkout, you do not have pci compliance issues because you cannot store any card information since you never see it. (again, they are the merchant and you are the supplier.)

Yes fraud can happen to everyon. However it is nice to know that 2Checkout has a fraud department that uses software that creates profiles of individual devices based on more than 40 unique traits that can be observed whenever a device is used to access the internet such as a PC or PDA. This in fact allows them to help reduce fraud and save vendors sales.

I also am in the U.S. (Ohio to be exact) GO BUCKS!

However you raise a very good point. 2Checout does not just cater to the U.S., it is set up so that merchants around the world have a chance to sell online. 2Checkout is a merchant account alternative.

The customer care is set up so that all customers can call in or submit a ticket. Most questions are able to be handled by a customer care agent. If the problem can only be fixed by the vendor, then the agent contacts the vendor and puts that vendor in contact with the customer. This saves the vendor from having to deal with calls such as "I have not received my product" or "what did I order"...

I still say 2Checkout does allot for me as a vendor..

 

Just found this.. I thought it was interesting and pertinent.

FYI....



"The state's House of Representatives last week voted 139-0 in favor of a bill that would formally codify PCI requirements into a state law that merchants would be obliged to comply with if passed. Under HB 3222 a breached entity will have to reimburse banks and credit unions the cost associated with blocking and reissuing cards if the merchant was not PCI compliant at the time of the compromise. It also provides a safe harbor against such liability for companies who are PCI compliant and get breached. The proposal needs to win approval in the state Senate before it becomes law."

"According to the language of the bill, "A business that, in the regular course of business, collects, maintains, or stores sensitive personal information in connection with an access device must comply with payment card industry data security standards." The bill would allow a financial institution in the state to request a breached entity to provide certification of its compliance with PCI specified controls. HB 3222 would require the certification to be issued by a PCI-approved auditor no earlier than 90-days before the breach."

Willing to take that chance?

 

They're a payment processor. If they offer services like you describe then we shouldn't be comparing them to a merchant account because they are two totally different things.

No merchant has PCI compliance issues unless they store credit card information. You don't have to worry about PCI compliance if you accept credit card information through your website and then send it to a payment gateway for payment. So the only people who have to worry about PCI compliance are merchants who store credit card information. And that can be anyone. Even 2Checkout users.

Payment gateways offer this as well.

Alternative is the key word. For US merchants, it should almost never be the primary processor. Oiyside of the US and probably Canada it probably is a better choice then their other options although Worldpay usually has them beat (although their setup fee is rather high).

Regardless of who your processor is, too many chargebacks means you lose your account. I rather focus on reducing chargebacks then be okay with them because someone else handles them for me. Plus of you have that many chargeback that having someone handle them for you is seen as a great benefit your business model really needs to be evaluated as no normal business should experience that many chargebacks.

If you knew what PCI compliance is you wouldn't think twice about this. This will change nothing for merchants except besides losing their merchant account and getting sued to death by their customers a merchant who isn't PCI compliant and experiences a breach may also face government fines. In other words it is just an extra kick when they're down. A merchant who violates PCI compliance rules is so screwed government fines are really just window dressing. The loss of the ability to accept credit cards and/or the customer lawsuits will decimate that company long before they see any government fines.

Remember, PCI compliance only affects merchants who STORE credit card information. Not those who JUST ACCEPT them on their website. In other words the vast majority of merchants won't be affected by it just like they aren't affected by PCI compliance now.

 

Now you are getting it, you are correct. 2Checkout is not a payment processor, and they are not a Merchant license. They are a reseller for 65,000 online vendors. Once again, they are a merchant account alternative.

By definition, if it is a merchant, they are subject to PCI DSS (Payment Card Industries Data Security Standard). This is quoted from visa's website (http://usa.visa.com/merchants/risk_management/cisp_merchants.html?it=l2|/merchants/risk_management/cisp.html|Merchants), note the beginning of the first sentence:

Merchant levels defined
All merchants will fall into one of the four merchant levels based on Visa transaction volume over a 12-month period. Transaction volume is based on the aggregate number of Visa transactions (inclusive of credit, debit and prepaid) from a merchant Doing Business As ("DBA"). In cases where a merchant corporation has more than one DBA, members must consider the aggregate volume of transactions stored, processed or transmitted by the corporate entity to determine the validation level. If data is not aggregated, such that the corporate entity does not store, process or transmit cardholder data on behalf of multiple DBAs, members will continue to consider the DBA’s individual transaction volume to determine the validation level. Merchant levels are defined as:

Merchant Level* Description
1 Any merchant-regardless of acceptance channel-processing over 6,000,000 Visa transactions per year.
Any merchant that has suffered a hack or an attack that resulted in an account data compromise.
Any merchant that Visa, at its sole discretion, determines should meet the Level 1 merchant requirements to minimize risk to the Visa system.
Any merchant identified by any other payment card brand as Level 1.
2 Any merchant-regardless of acceptance channel-processing 1,000,000 to 6,000,000 Visa transactions per year.
3 Any merchant processing 20,000 to 1,000,000 Visa e-commerce transactions per year.
4 Any merchant processing fewer than 20,000 Visa e-commerce transactions per year, and all other merchants-regardless of acceptance channel-processing up to 1,000,000 Visa transactions per year.

* New merchant level definitions effective of July 18, 2006.

2Checkout users cannot store CC information. Once a customer orders from their site, they are transfered to a secure 2Checkout payment page. The vendor will lose there account if it is found that they are accepting customer CC information.

Who said anything about being ok with chargebacks. If you are a vendor with 2Checkout and you have a high percentage of chargebacks, you also risk losing your account. 2Checkout helps reduce chargebacks by managing fraud. As far as my business model, I have yet to have 1 chargeback.

"Why then, if PCI data breaches weren't such a cost-issue or potentially affected a significant percentage of the merchant population, are the associations lobbying for legislation like this in order to transfer financial liability? New legislation doesn't come cheap."

In my opinion, anyone who thinks there isn't a significant number of small to mid-sized merchant account holders out there who routinely collect and store credit card and other personal information in an unsecured environment is kidding themselves.



I think I have covered this in the above PCI statement. PCI compliance effects all merchants. I would like to thank you for this joust, it has been fun..