Thrashing out online payment options

LookingFor

I'm planning out the necessary ducks I need to get into a row in order to sell software I develop online, as a service. That is, I'll offer a hosted web service and charge $x per month to users of the service.

This post is probably gonna be one half thinking out loud, one half questions you might be able to help me with I've been trying to find the best/most-cost-effective payment solution.

Looking around I see three options. Assuming I charge $19 per month, I've calculated the 'take-home' amount after charges, and after converting to euros (based on today's exchange rate)

1) PayPal

€13.1361 (at 3.4% commission and €0.35 transaction fee - commission can get cheaper as volume grows. At the lowest commission take-home would be €13.3433)

Notes: no Merchant Service Agreement required. Lag between payment and withdrawal (?)

2) WorldPay

€13.3095 (3.95% commission and 10c fraud protection charge per transaction)

Notes: Acts as payment processor and acquiring bank for MSA all in one (apparently accept far more signups than local banks do for MSAs). Can only deposit directly to Ulster Bank accounts. Pays up to one month in arrears.

3) Realex

€13.31 (assume 2.75% commission at bank + €0.19c transaction fee from Realex)

Notes: Payment processor only. Requires MSA from local bank. Deposits directly to any local bank. Money immediately deposited to your account once transaction's settled.

So it gets cheaper as you go down the list. But you need a MSA with Realex. Can anyone tell me just how difficult or otherwise it is to get a MSA from your local bank? Is it harder now than it used to be?

Second thing I'm wondering about is this distinction that seems to be made between depositing money directly to your account (as in Realex's case) vs 'withdrawing' or transferring money as you do with WorldPay or PayPal. Are there extra fees here involved in this? Bank charges?

Thirdly...if I am charging in dollars but the money ends up as euros in my bank account, is there a currency exchange charge somewhere along the line? Will this be the same with all these services...does it just depend on the bank with whom I have my account where deposits are made?

Anyone know of any other alternatives I should consider? Can anyone advise also perhaps on how good/easy these services are when it comes to accounting? Do all of them have 'good enough' reporting etc?

I presume also that only the Realex option lets you customise what goes down on the user's bill?

Also, if there's anyone who happens to sell software as a service like this...are any of these particularly well suited or not to selling subscriptions like this? I know paypal lets you set up subscriptions...but the others could do this too? I had a look around and saw Amazon's DevPay, which seems to be a wonderful system for software developers, but it's US only at the moment

Thanks for any advice

baz_ctr

i think it depends on how much will be running through the account if it is just a couple of 100 euro then paypal will be ok , if your looking at 2k+ i would start looking at the realex set up, also paypal charge a €1 if you take out under €100 a any one withdrawal

Wats_in_a_name

also paypal charge a €1 if you take out under €100 a any one withdrawal

Not anymore. All withdraws are free (minimum withdrawal amount is still €10!) Not sure when it changed, only noticed recently when I was making a withdrawal. Nice to see fees decreasing instead of increasing!

shoutman

People over at www.webpayments.ie know what they are talking about, posting in their forum might be helpful also.

I too am looking into getting an online payment option in place, paypal seems easiest in that merchant bank account is not a necessity. But ideally would love a realex style payment processor. Not sure if I can justify the added cost though as there probably wont be that much money going through the account.

TheWaterboy

Read the www.webpayments.ie site for some good advice.

From a personal thing you should think of the following:

Paypal dont offer payment by Laser but if your dealing on a worldwide basis its a very well respected and trusted form of payment. I would offer it a long with either Realex or Worldpay.

Realex do need an MSA from the bank. Can be tricky to get and plenty of loopholes and paperwork. Worldpay dont need such an agreement but they only release your money 4 weeks after the transaction date. This can play havoc on your cash flow.

Personally Id go with Realex and the Paypal option. Im with Worldpay but as soon as the contract has expired I will transfer. The 4 week cash transfer delay is a huge thing

aidan.connolly

Hi

I currently use Paypal. Works well, fees are a bit on the high side, but I have low volume.

Biggest disadvantage is that they dont process Paypal. Over the last couple of weeks I have lost a good few sales. So I am now looking at Realex, which will involve a change to my Website by my Web design company.

As with every online business, to get a customer on to your site is difficult, to get them to purchase something is also difficult, but then to loose them because they want to pay with Laser is a killer.

I have noticed that people are moving more in the direction of Laser, rather than using a Credit Card.

Aidan

Realex: Jonathan

Hi Lookingfor

I'm the official boards rep for Realex. You defo seem to have done your research on this area but maybe I can be of some help here too.

The Realex's fees right now for our basic RealPay package are €29 a month. that €29 includes 350 transactions and then the 351st transaction and on are charged at €0.19 each. So the fee you pay to us for the first 350 transactions actually works out at just over €0.08 per transaction.

The MSA is not necessarily tricky to get but can take some time to go through all the forms and risk assessment that the banks must carry out. If you've any questions about where to start with that stuff please send me a PM and we can chat about it in more detail.

StupidLikeAFox

Hey OP,

I think you should check out moneybookers.com. They mostly deal with online casinos and poker sites *I think* but they operate payment processing in a similar way to paypal but their fees are a bit lower. A major bonus is also that they accept Laser cards which most people dont. They charge extra if you want protection from chargebacks though, might be the only issue!

Merrion

Maybe add Lucey.ie to your research list?

MOH

ColHol wrote: »

Hey OP,

I think you should check out moneybookers.com. They mostly deal with online casinos and poker sites *I think* but they operate payment processing in a similar way to paypal but their fees are a bit lower. A major bonus is also that they accept Laser cards which most people dont. They charge extra if you want protection from chargebacks though, might be the only issue!

Thanks for that, been looking for a payment service that accepts laser but doesn't required a MSA. Don't know how I missed them

Sound Computers

+1 great find. I think i knew that they were affiliated with pkr . co m but i didn't know their service was independent. I want to accept laser on my site, and now I have a decent option. thank you.

Realex: Jonathan

Just a quick one, Realex Payments can support Laser cards. It's a flat fee for them from ourselves and a flat fee from the bank usually between €0.19 and €0.25 per transaction so it's a good way of managing your costs.

If anyone would like to chat about it please PM me

antoinolachtnai

Jonathan: can you do an arrangement where a customer registers once, and then can order extra products/services without having to type in all their details again?

It looks like this feature - http://www.realex.ie/ie/recurring-payments - will allow this, but I'm not sure.

best,

antoin.

Realex: Jonathan

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

Jonathan: can you do an arrangement where a customer registers once, and then can order extra products/services without having to type in all their details again?

It looks like this feature - http://www.realex.ie/ie/recurring-payments - will allow this, but I'm not sure.

best,

antoin.

Hi antoin,

we do offer a card storage facility for repeat transactions although the pricing for that would be additional to our RealPay package and would be based on the volume of transactions you were anticipating as well as the number of cards you planned to store. If you'd like to chat about it send me a pm and we can talk about it a bit more there

JohnDennehy

Hi,

I've used Worldpay in the past for online payments and it worked fine but was a little expensive and impersonal. I've just signed up with Realex and I'm getting a MSA with AIB. I have to say Realex were great to deal with and having local support is very handy. They also care about their reputation in the local market as is evidence from the fact they scan this board.

John
hrlocker.com

Realex: Jonathan

JohnDennehy wrote: »

Hi,

I've used Worldpay in the past for online payments and it worked fine but was a little expensive and impersonal. I've just signed up with Realex and I'm getting a MSA with AIB. I have to say Realex were great to deal with and having local support is very handy. They also care about their reputation in the local market as is evidence from the fact they scan this board.

John
hrlocker.com

Thanks for that John. Don't be afraid to get in touch if you need to chat about anything

timbrennan

I am a small business owner who recently signed up to Lucey and found they had the best rate of 1.24% far better than anything else on the market and I can process laser payments also.

They will also help you secure your mechant id which will take a about three weeks so maybe bear that in mind before you plan to start trading online.

their site is http://www.luceytechnology.com/Payments/Index.aspx

I found unless you are a big player you wont obtain a compettive rate from the other providers in the Irish market

I think their no is 449 8780, Best of luck with it

ljohnson

Is that Lucey Technology? must check them out as that rate is much better than Realex or Paypal.

delllat

googlecheckout is being used more often now ,also so is alertpay ,ive noticed them on a lot of sites ,not sure on their rates but might be worth checkin out