creditcard handling

[JFlashK]

Who's got any experience with online payment? I'm looking for a way to pay with visa/mastercard... Anybody some experience to share? or sites with information

thanks

[rafiki55]

Paypal is the way to go.

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...rchant-outside

[JFlashK]

not everyone has paypall... no other sugestions?

[jennyj]

worldpay http://www.worldpay.com
but costs to set up

JennyJ

[monstermash]

setting up a paypal account takes barely more work than filling out your credit card information...

[jAQUAN]

plus a couple of days for each customer who wishes to buy your services. Check with your bank, they might have a service that's probably not as customizable as you'd wish but should work.

[Flea-x]

My dad uses eBay.ca a bit...

Yeah credit cards are really the thing (or only thing!) to use over internet. Much better than checks and stuff. Paypal is just about the most secure thing too. It's safe, just know who you are trading with. Careful for scammers and stuff.

[monstermash]

what do you mean "plus a couple of days for each customer who wishes to buy your services"?

[jAQUAN]

I mean every person who wishes to purchase something off your site and does not yet have a pay-pal account will have to set one up which takes a couple days to verify, decreasing the chance that that customer will actually wait around and then return to your site to make the purchase.

[monstermash]

that might be only if you don't have a credit card. i set up a paypal account last year with my credit card and it took about 2 minutes.

[jAQUAN]

Don't have a paypal account yet. I coulda sworn I read something that said I have to have a verifible checking account in which they need to be able to make a deposit.

[monstermash]

i think thats if you are a seller setting up an account. i did a site for a client (http://www.scrapmenagerie.com) and i believe thats what he had to do. for me to set up an account and test my asp scripts took about 2 minutes...

[jAQUAN]

Man I hope thats true, that would save me a lot of headache with this current client. They are advertising a DVD and hiring a call center and the call center is saying they wont use paypal.

[monstermash]

why not? you should send them to the paypal site to find out about it for themselves...

[CNL83]

Go through quickbooks. You will need acounting software any how.

[10squared]

Your bank where you have your business banking account is probably your best resource. You'll need to set up a merchant account. Shop banks for monthly minimums, fees, service charges, cost of software and/or machines, policies re typical and non-typical charge amounts, etc.

If you want to avoid getting a merchant account but want something less like paypal and more like traditional online commerce, there are some companies that act as your agent and take a percentage off the top, usually at a higher fee than typical merchant accounts, but may let you avoid the monthly fee if your volume is going to be low. CCNow comes to mind, their fee was 9% last time I checked. Another possible option is CafePress, depending on your product.

If you get a merchant account then you either need some online processing software to submit charges at the end of the day (usually different than the shopping cart software on the web server) or a credit card machine to enter charges by hand (eBay). Also, on your website you need to ensure the credit card transaction details are submitted via https and that the customers financial data is protected. There are lots of rules regarding when you can charge the card, how you can verify the validity of the card, etc. that your bank can help you with.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Jim