Merchant Account?

SkyHog

SkyHog

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Anyone have any advice, suggestions, or reviews of Merchant Accounts? We are looking at PayPal (as much as I hate 'em), but would be interested in other options as appropriate.
 
FlyNE said:
Braintree
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So far, that's one of the best I've seen, but am I reading this right?

For a $30 transaction, I would be charged:

$30.00 * 2.89% + $0.30 = $0.99

Is that really standard? Almost a dollar for a $30 charge? There's gotta be something better than that. It doesn't make sense that credit card companies don't want to have people using their cards more easily....

I must be missing something.
 
SkyHog said:
So far, that's one of the best I've seen, but am I reading this right?

For a $30 transaction, I would be charged:

$30.00 * 2.89% + $0.30 = $0.99

Is that really standard? Almost a dollar for a $30 charge? There's gotta be something better than that. It doesn't make sense that credit card companies don't want to have people using their cards more easily....

I must be missing something.
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The way your equation is written, it's $1.17.

Credit card companies want people to use the cards (look at all of their marketing efforts), but they want you as the merchant to pick up the tab. It's been like that for many years.
 
We use PayPal, primarily because it's easy and everyone has it. Plus the setup is pretty straightforward. What's nice is that it then allows us to take a large variety of payments. Giving your customers flexibility is good.

We haven't found better fees looking elsewhere (at least not substantially). $1 on a $30 transaction is about what to expect. Annoying, but oh well.
 
SkyHog said:
So far, that's one of the best I've seen, but am I reading this right?

For a $30 transaction, I would be charged:

$30.00 * 2.89% + $0.30 = $0.99

Is that really standard? Almost a dollar for a $30 charge? There's gotta be something better than that. It doesn't make sense that credit card companies don't want to have people using their cards more easily....

I must be missing something.
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That's in the right ballpark. 2-3% of the transaction (very large merchants can negotiate a fee on the lower end, small business & merchants that do internet/telesales on the higher end) plus a per-transaction charge. This is why many merchants have a minimum charge for credit cards.

You might pay attention to the debate going on in DC over credit & debit card swipe fees. Card issuers will end up taking fees: the question is whether they do it the current way (swipe fees) or by charging card users more money. My bet is that if swipe fees are lowered, the consumer will not see any lower prices at merchants.
 
It is the real world... You want to do business involving unsecured debt... Unsecured debt is always expensive for the lender... Zillions of internet gigabytes that have to be paid for somehow... Mailing out cards - cost of card plus the processing plus the stamp... People on the phone to handle zillions of questions and complaints... Bad debt losses... Paying collection agencies to chase the money... Somebody has to pay the bills plus a profit... I was in business for 50 years, tell me about credit card fees - arrghhhh...

Case in point there was a $186 dollar charge on my credit card this month that showed as credited to a local fitness and martial arts business and that they had swiped my card through their reader (not a telephone charge) - never heard of them before this and I have my card in my pocket... We went there and talked to the owners (nice people)... So now two of us are yelling at the banks involved...
He is going to have $186 deducted from his account and credited to mine... He NEVER had the $186 deposited to his account in the first place, it just vanished into thin air...
Some scammer has found a chink in the system where he can get money transferred to his account and the computer transfer trail is broken... Last phone conversaton with the two banks (his and mine) gave me the impression that they are in a panic over this one... The next transfer to disappear could be millions...

denny-o
 
Dr. O said:
Case in point there was a $186 dollar charge on my credit card this month that showed as credited to a local fitness and martial arts business and that they had swiped my card through their reader (not a telephone charge) - never heard of them before this and I have my card in my pocket... We went there and talked to the owners (nice people)... So now two of us are yelling at the banks involved...
He is going to have $186 deducted from his account and credited to mine... He NEVER had the $186 deposited to his account in the first place, it just vanished into thin air...
Some scammer has found a chink in the system where he can get money transferred to his account and the computer transfer trail is broken... Last phone conversaton with the two banks (his and mine) gave me the impression that they are in a panic over this one... The next transfer to disappear could be millions...
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Be happy, its just a small charge. If this was about a larger charge, the credit card processor would sue you AND the fitness studio for the amount + interest + 'processing cost'. They usually file about 500 of these at a time and the local courts dont care because it creates a nice windfall of filing fees and pads their caseload.
 
SkyHog said:
Anyone have any advice, suggestions, or reviews of Merchant Accounts? We are looking at PayPal (as much as I hate 'em), but would be interested in other options as appropriate.
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Just curious, is there something else about paypal you hate other than the fees?
 
Maxmosbey said:
Just curious, is there something else about paypal you hate other than the fees?
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Paypal has a chequered reputation. Search "paypal shut down my account" or just go to the site paypalsucks.com .

I had a friend that had an issue with PP and was totally unable to reach anyone by phone to resolve it, and the company didn't respond to email. He ended up retaining a lawyer....
 
Maxmosbey said:
Just curious, is there something else about paypal you hate other than the fees?
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There's a few reasons, most of which stem from their policies regarding taking money at any time...

But in my case, I am dancing a very fine legal line in the operation of my business, and while it is 100% legal, and falls within PayPal's terms of service, I suspect that PayPal could freeze my account very easily if they suspected something was fishy.

That scares me a little. I don't like the idea of a merchant being able to take money that I've legally been paid, and refuse to give it to me.
 
SkyHog said:
There's a few reasons, most of which stem from their policies regarding taking money at any time...

But in my case, I am dancing a very fine legal line in the operation of my business, and while it is 100% legal, and falls within PayPal's terms of service, I suspect that PayPal could freeze my account very easily if they suspected something was fishy.

That scares me a little. I don't like the idea of a merchant being able to take money that I've legally been paid, and refuse to give it to me.
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That makes sense.
 
I'm not sure about this, but I believe that if you take more than a certain amount of money out of paypal a month, you have to provide them with your social security number. I think that it is $500. Something to check out anyway. I don't know if I would send them my SS number or not.
 
Maxmosbey said:
I'm not sure about this, but I believe that if you take more than a certain amount of money out of paypal a month, you have to provide them with your social security number. I think that it is $500. Something to check out anyway. I don't know if I would send them my SS number or not.
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Most merchant accounts will require either a tax ID or SSN for a variety of reasons, ranging from tax to anti-money-laundering to anti-terrorism. "Know your customer" rules apply for many banking-related services.
 
wsuffa said:
Most merchant accounts will require either a tax ID or SSN for a variety of reasons, ranging from tax to anti-money-laundering to anti-terrorism. "Know your customer" rules apply for many banking-related services.
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I'm sure they do, and I have no experience in the area. I guess that I have not accepted paypal yet as someone I trust with that information. Probably they are not worse than anyone else.
 
I deal with paypal alot, I have an account that I use only for paypal. As soon as I transfer money to it from paypal I move it to an account that is not linked to paypal. That way they can't just take money out when they want to.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
If you have a Costco account, get your merchant account through them. We did, great service and rates. Quick deposits. Retail transactions are 1.48% plus 20¢

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Productgroup.aspx?Prodid=11105019
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SkyHog said:
I have a Sam's Account...and its the same rate...that might work just perfectly for me. Includes internet sales too.

Thanks Troy!
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FYI...

http://www.braintreepaymentsolutions.com/blog/Costco-your-marketing-department-has-gone-rogue
 
Nick,

If you're going to be doing internet sales, I highly recommend you think about PCI compliance. There are only a handful of solutions that take your infrastructure out of scope of PCI. I can give you a list, but Braintree is one of them.
 
SkyHog said:
I have a Sam's Account...and its the same rate...that might work just perfectly for me. Includes internet sales too.

Thanks Troy!
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Just remember who owns Sam's. If you're doing as you say, something on the edge of legal, they won't hesitate to cut you off if they decide they don't like what you're up to.
 
We used to use VeriSign's PayFlo Pro for our transactions. Then they were bought by PayPal. I'm not aware of any deterioration in the service, but then I'm not involved in that aspect of the business.
 
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