Setting up online business. Question about payment processing

Mike_Eile

Hi there,

Apologies if this is in the incorrect forum. I'm currently in the process of setting up a new online business. Without giving too much away about the concept my website will act as an intermediary between buyers and suppliers. The buyer will be able to go on and buy products/services from suppliers.

One of the features on our website will be the group buying aspect. We are hoping to take payment from several buyers at once and then once that has been collected by us we will transfer it to the supplier. The reason we (the intermediary) are collecting the payment on behalf of the buyers is that the supplier doesn't want payment coming through in phases. They want one transaction.

However, we have spoken to a number of banks in the last few days (AIB, BOI and Ulster Bank) and they regard the transfer of money between A (the buyer) to B (us, the intermediary) to C (the supplier) as 'third party payment processing'. The banks have told us that they don't do 3rd party processing like this.

Has anyone come across this situation or something similar before? Would anyone have any solutions on how to overcome this issue as it is a critical part of our business? Or if you have any contacts that would be able to help us out with this that would be great. Feel free to PM me if you want.

Thank you.

unklerosco

I use a website, www.mykidstime.ie that handle our payments for our summer camps.
Our customers register for a camp via there site. They then send us a one off payment when we request it. It was great for us as we found it hard to setup a merchant account and the service iteself is great..

Regardless, it's a similar setup to you.. They take in all the payments, take there commision and then send us a bulk payment as and when we ask for it..

maxer68

Its a difficult one. The current model such as boards deals & citydeals sell a voucher and by doing this they have the responsibilty to the customer.

You basically want to act as an electronic agent, but don't want to give a guarantee on the product sold (such as a voucher).

If you are issuing vouchers (or voucher codes) then you need to approach the banks in a different manner.

Tell them you are a voucher company, selling voucher for redemtion with reputable companies. - You take in the money and then you pay the company via cheque or transfer.

As a start-up, you could simply set it up as a paypal payment system until you see if it works.

Mike_Eile

Thank you for both replies unklerosco and maxer68.

I have contacted mykidstime.ie to see if they can point me in the right direction. I will let you know if I hear back from them.

Setting up PayPal is an option. However, they don't accept laser and that will be a problem. However, we will contact Moneybookers who do accept laser. We have also come across Escrow (http://realestate.yahoo.com/info/guides/how-does-escrow-work). Has anyone ever used Escrow before to manage transactions?

Thanks again for your help.

shoutman

http://webpayments.ie/ this site might be of some help to you.

AstonMartin

What happens if you quote a price based on 1,000 units and only 100 people pay for 1 unit each and the supplier wont match the price for 100 units? You take a loss or lose credibility when you cant fill the order?