Accepting Online Payments
For your web store to be successful you will need to be able to accept Credit Cards and Debit Cards online.
Our E-Commerce Plan will work with offline payments (Cash, Cheque, Money Order) but you'll probably need an online facility for most of
your customers so that they can pay by Credit or Debit Card.
To accept payments online you will deal with either a Payment Gateway or a Payment Processor.
1. Payment Gateway
With a Payment Gateway you will need the following
- A Merchant Account with a bank of your choice
- An account with a Payment Gateway
This is the most common type of facility available for processing credit & debit cards online.
If you want to be able to accept credit card payments you will need a Merchant Account with a bank. This usually applies whether you want
to accept payments online, through a terminal in your shop on the High Street, or via telephone.
Most High Street banks provide Merchant Accounts, and our Referral Partner
Protx has
a relationship with several banks and may be able to help you start the process.
Applying for a Merchant Account can take from 5 days to 4 weeks, depending upon the bank. If you already have a Merchant Account you should
check that the agreement you have will also cover online or internet payments.
Once your Merchant Account is in place, you will require the services of a Payment Gateway so you can process credit & debit cards in realtime
from your online store.
The Payment Gateway will authorize and validate payments from your customers in real time, and many will carry out fraud screening (this varies from
provider to provider). They also provide a secure facilities so your customers know their credit card details are safe.
Once the payment has been processed your customer is directed back to your store.
2. Payment Processor
These are companies that provide all the online facilities of a Payment Gateway but you don't need a Merchant Account to deal with them. However,
you will probably need a Bank Account of some sort so that payments can be forwarded to you. The best known Payment Processors are
WorldPay and Paypal.
Once your customer has been forwarded to the Payment Processor to complete their transaction, they are directed back to your store.
Payment Gateway or Payment Processor?
The advantages of using a Payment Gateway are:
- Their fees tend to be smaller and in many cases are fixed
- You are usually paid your money more quickly (almost immediately) as the money is transferred directly to your Merchant Account
- Since you are using your own the Merchant Account it is easier to change Payment Gateway or even use multiple Payment Gateways
The disadvantages of the Payment Gateway are:
- It can be more work setting up a Merchant Account first
- You pay fees to the processing company and your Merchant Account provider although the total fees will probably be less than those paid to a Payment Processor
- You assume more of the risk in the transaction, and your Merchant Account provider may retain a percentage of your income as a guarantee against future debt and/or chargebacks.
The advantages of using a Payment Processor are:
- You only need to apply to one company
- All the facilities are in one place, and if there is a problem you only have to deal with one company
- Initial set-up can be quicker.
The disadvantages of using a Payment Processor are:
- It can be a lot more expensive with annual fees for the account, a percentage fee & fixed fee per transaction. This varies between companies
- You can wait a lot longer for any remaining money (after fees and costs) to be paid to you - up to 60 days in many cases
- You have less control since all your online facilities are with one company
Ultimately, the choice is yours. Your online shop will work with both type of payment method and is completely integrated with a number of
different companies.
Supported Payment Processors & Gateways
Our shopping cart supports a wide range of different Payment Gateways and Payment Processors. You are free to choose any of the supported
payment companies that you wish, but we have partnered with
Protx
and would recommend that you give them a try.
They can assist you with introductions to banks providing Merchant accounts, they don't charge a percentage of each transaction,
and in some cases they don't charge any per-transaction fee at all. They have a number of options available to you depending on your levels of
business, and since they are one of the best known Payment Providers you have the advantage of dealing with one of the most reputable companies
providing these services.
Another advantage of using our Referral Partner is that we have direct access to their support team and management, and may be able to assist you
if you have any problems. This could be a big advantage if you ever need some help.
Here's a list of payment processors and gateways that are supported by our online store and Ecommerce Hosting Plan:
2CO V2 System
Authorize.NET SIM
Authorize.NET AIM
DIBS
Barclaycard ePDQ
Google Checkout
Paypal Instant Payment Notification
Paypal PayFlow Pro
Paypal PayFlow Link
Protx VSP
Netbanx
Realex Pay and Shop
SecPay Premium
Secure Trading ST Payment Pages
VelocityPay Hosted Pages
VelocityPay Direct Connection
WorldPay WorldDirect: Select Junior
Most companies make it very easy to open an account with them, but it is worth comparing their fees and how quickly they
pay you. Some pay funds within hours or days while others take considerably longer.