Credit Card Processors

What market are you trying to serve? What features do you need?

When we started Authorize.net was the way to go, and then we swapped over to CDGCommerce as they had a "Vault" type system for better credit card security. That was all "new" technology back them :)

These days, we recommend CDG, Stripe and PayPal to the majority of our clients. We use Square on our project tracking system which is mainly one-off invoices. I don't know if they offer recurring.

Depending on where you are in the world though, you may be better with WorldPay, or contacting your bank directly to see if they have a gateway configuration, and then verify that this will work with whatever billing system software you're using.
 
I am in the US. I use Authorize.net as the gateway and Evo as the processor. I don't need anything special. WHMCS takes care of recurring charges. Just looking for perhaps something cheaper.
 
LittleCreek said:
I am in the US. I use Authorize.net as the gateway and Evo as the processor. I don't need anything special. WHMCS takes care of recurring charges. Just looking for perhaps something cheaper.
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Stripe is cheaper than Paypal (well it is in the UK 1.4% +20p) paypal is 2.9%+$0.30
 
Please realize that none of those are actual merchant accounts and all that so you will always pay more. If you are in the US you could use CDG commerce and pay about 2.2% but there are bigger and more complicated steps involved and you need to have an LLC or some sort if I remember. If your monthly revenue is $1k or less look at Stripe etc. If it's in the thousands, definitely get a merchant account...

Stripe fees are 2.9% and zero fraud protection. You have to pay extra for that. NOTE, I remember CDG commerce had a middle guy who was taking a cut. It was borderline fraud but they could do it. They were adding another few percent and we could see the separate charges. If anyone else has had this same "issue" happen to them I would be interested to hear about it...

Your bank could also help you. Also with chargebacks or disputes you basically have not much of a chance, but merchant accounts you most certainly do and can even communicate directly with banks initiating the chargeback. yep. wow.

Call me crazy but PayPal is great and have had zero fraud with those guys but they take a lot each transaction. But if they are minimizing fraud to practically zero I'm fine with it.
 
No I'm sorry but that is not correct. You are oversimplifying things and you are mixing up simple "credit card processors" and true merchant accounts.
 
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LarsJ said:
No I'm sorry but that is not correct. You are oversimplifying things and you are mixing up simple "credit card processors" and true merchant accounts.
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They are all classed as merchant accounts. All payments are processed by Visa, Mastercard or American Express. Your bank ( where you pay a small fortune for a merchant account) or a payment processor (paypal, CDG commerce, stripe etc.) are only agents for Visa, Mastercard or American Express. The FCA in then UK will tell you all this. far cheaper going with a payment processor than your bank and you get the same service and protection.
 
Yes, they are classified as merchant accounts, but you or your business will NOT have one. That is the difference and the issue here. Doesn't matter what they are, you will NOT have a merchant account.

I've had a merchant account with a bank and it doesn't cost anything. PayPal and Stripe etc. will not give you more protection (yes, you can pay for some protection for $$$). They are going to cover their own butts. If a dispute or chargeback comes through, the chargeback fee is more, you are not communicating directly with the bank issuing the chargeback, and the PayPal, Strip etc. are representing you. I can tell you from experience they are not going to put in as much effort to resolve a dispute in your favor as you doing it directly yourself with a financial institution. I've talked directly with banks. With Stripe for example you will NOT be able to do this.

The credit card processing rates/fees are NOT the same. PayPal charges 4% and more. CDG commerce for example is hovering around 2% The level of service and protection is totally different.
 
LarsJ said:
I've had a merchant account with a bank and it doesn't cost anything
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This will vary from bank to bank, and vendor to vendor. Some do charge a monthly fee , plus per transaction and AVS fees.

LarsJ said:
PayPal and Stripe etc. will not give you more protection
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Correct. Neither PayPal, nor Stripe offer you more (or less) protection from chargebacks, etc.

CDG is good, but I find them to be costly, which is why I dumped them. In fact, when running through them (admittedly, a few years back), they were charging a monthly fee.
 
whmcsguru said:
This will vary from bank to bank, and vendor to vendor. Some do charge a monthly fee , plus per transaction and AVS fees.


Correct. Neither PayPal, nor Stripe offer you more (or less) protection from chargebacks, etc.

CDG is good, but I find them to be costly, which is why I dumped them. In fact, when running through them (admittedly, a few years back), they were charging a monthly fee.
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You're right, I'm sure there must be a fee in there somewhere from the banks. I honestly can't remember the details in our case anymore. They won't let us do things for free right? :-)

CDG commerce was great until somehow their fees went WAY up. I was using them a few years ago too.
 
LarsJ said:
Yes, they are classified as merchant accounts, but you or your business will NOT have one. That is the difference and the issue here. Doesn't matter what they are, you will NOT have a merchant account.

I've had a merchant account with a bank and it doesn't cost anything. PayPal and Stripe etc. will not give you more protection (yes, you can pay for some protection for $$$). They are going to cover their own butts. If a dispute or chargeback comes through, the chargeback fee is more, you are not communicating directly with the bank issuing the chargeback, and the PayPal, Strip etc. are representing you. I can tell you from experience they are not going to put in as much effort to resolve a dispute in your favor as you doing it directly yourself with a financial institution. I've talked directly with banks. With Stripe for example you will NOT be able to do this.

The credit card processing rates/fees are NOT the same. PayPal charges 4% and more. CDG commerce for example is hovering around 2% The level of service and protection is totally different.
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A merchant account from a bank in the UK will cost a Min. £200 + a monthly fee as you have to pay for a card terminal and then you have transaction fees.
 
Strange nobody mentioned 2checkout. I have been using it since 2015 and their system has gotten better over the time. Maybe four or five fraudlent attempts otherwise only genuine transaction gets through their system. Moreover they have wire transfer option to most of the countries worldwilde which is a huge plus for us.
 
Billa said:
Strange nobody mentioned 2checkout. I have been using it since 2015 and their system has gotten better over the time. Maybe four or five fraudlent attempts otherwise only genuine transaction gets through their system. Moreover they have wire transfer option to most of the countries worldwilde which is a huge plus for us.
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i fould the trouble with 2checkout is that your account is split in 2 ( seller and buyer account) and if you are not using them on a regular basis (i.e. your client are not using them) and this goes on for 4 months then you are reverted to a buyer account only, so you cannot seel anything through them.
 
Billa said:
Strange nobody mentioned 2checkout. I have been using it since 2015 and their system has gotten better over the time.
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Oh my, that's one service I haven't heard in a while! I used to use 2checkout in the very early 2000s, but since it was an overkill for what I needed, it was a short period of time. But it's nice to see it is still around and doing well.
 
Artashes said:
Oh my, that's one service I haven't heard in a while! I used to use 2checkout in the very early 2000s, but since it was an overkill for what I needed, it was a short period of time. But it's nice to see it is still around and doing well.
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I think the only real benefit of 2checkout is that you can use it to pay by credit/debit card and paypal without having separate processor accounts. i just did not like the fact that if clients did not use them after 4 months they would revert you to a buyer account only, but it was their denial that made me leave them as i informed them that in other words they wanted me to force clients to use them otherwise i lose selling privilages and they denied this even after i told them that is what they wanted me to do otherwise after 4 months i wont be able to sell through them.
 
Stripe + PayPal combination always works like a charm. In our country, we have lots of payment gateways that too accept Credit Card payments and the fees are lower than Stripe or PayPal. So, in your country, you may find payment gateways which fees is lower than PayPal or Stripe.
 
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