PayPal or not to PayPal

S

supernix

New member
I was in a discussion as a long time user and supporter of PayPal going back as far as 2000 as I recall.

My family runs a heating and air conditioning company and we have even used PayPal to process unit sales and invoice payments for that company as well.

Seems like the highest I recall processing for the heating and cooling company was about $4,500 for an install. It really made us sad to see PayPal getting about 3% of that probably less by a little it has been years ago so I can't recall their exact fee just knew it was a lot of money to be kissing good buy just for handling a financial transaction from one account to another.

I have never had any problems with PayPal (knock on wood).

I am always looking for better deals and other payment solutions to help users out. I have not exactly found any I like as much as PayPal though.

I have a Liberty Reserve account as well, but when I tried to get details on how to set it up to work with WHMCS they took about a week to respond. Really didn't leave me feeling comfortable having to wait a week for a response.

On that note I have not ever used them or offered them as a method of payment since they worry me.

I did have an account with Authorize.net several times and the last time was signed up through some affiliate that tried to tack on some membership fee of $99 a while after I had registered with them and given them access to my bank account. That as I noted in another thread ended with me threatening to call the FBI if they didn't return the funds.
As I stated they did and did so quickly.

Someone mentioned about PayPal holding back on payments for up to 90 days. I will say that I have heard this as well. I have yet to be able to find out how and why this could happen. I think as I recall this happened to Internet.bs once that they were having troubles with PayPal and money. Reading up on this it might be because Internet.bs was suspected of being culpible in some online Pharmacy domains selling fake drugs or something like that.

Either way I have seen others complaining about having issues with them so I can't say it doesn't happen I am just lucky enough to say it hasn't happened to me. I have a customer that said her account had been hijacked once. Not sure what the details were on that. She was not able to tell me much about it.


I can only say that PayPal to me has always been the cheapest alternative to get the job done and never had any issues.

I looked into 2Checkout which is also very popular. You have to pay a setup fee and it costs you a lot more to get the account setup with them and they have higher per transaction rates.

This has been my experiences and such, but what do you say?
 
We haven't had any issues with PayPal but the horror stories out there always weigh on my mind. I prefer to process payments through our merchant account but still offer Paypal as an option. I'm surprised quite frankly that so many internet companies rely on PayPal rather than getting their own merchant account. The process is easy and with the right account, fees aren't bad at all.
 
supernix said:
I looked into 2Checkout which is also very popular. You have to pay a setup fee and it costs you a lot more to get the account setup with them and they have higher per transaction rates.
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if you have WHMCS then you can signup to 2Co for FREE if you go through http://www.whmcs.com/partners/2checkout/.

yes their fees are slightly higher than PP, but i think are on par with a lot of general CC processors also a buyer can pay using their own PP accounts which is a bonus.
 
easyhostmedia said:
if you have WHMCS then you can signup to 2Co for FREE if you go through http://www.whmcs.com/partners/2checkout/.

yes their fees are slightly higher than PP, but i think are on par with a lot of general CC processors also a buyer can pay using their own PP accounts which is a bonus.
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2Checkout does have higher rates but they compensate for this with some awesome Fraud Prevention. This feature alone will save your business a lot of money and protect you from those nasty chargebacks we all hate.. You even get this protection when your customers use PP, which PP does NOT offer when using their gateway! :thumbup:

You really can't get much better than PayPal and 2Checkout when it comes to 3rd-Party Payment Processors (IMHO). You need to look into merchant accounts if you want lower fees per trans.. I hear http://www.quantumgateway.com/ is very good.
 
yes quantum gateway will work for the OP, but like us in the UK we cant use quantum gateway as they only deal with USA businesses
 
I just registered for 2Checkout and here is the fees and such:
Rate 3.99%
Per Transaction Fee $0.45
Monthly Service Fee $10.99

This is why I always prefer PayPal with them they only charge:
Rate: 2.7%
Per Transaction Fee: $0.30
Monthly Rate: $0

As you can see I automatically make
$131.88 more per year than someone using 2CheckOut since I don't have to pay a per month fee to take credit cards.

I am also getting 1.29% more per transaction since I have cheaper rates with PayPal
I am also making $0.15 more per transaction since I also have cheaper per transaction fees.

I try to have an open mind and monitor these services for changes that might help my business, but as you can see you make more money using PayPal for transactions than you would if you were using 2CheckOut.

Somebody mentioned Dwolla so far I don't see any WHMCS integration I however like the rates.
 
supernix said:
I just registered for 2Checkout and here is the fees and such:
Rate 3.99%
Per Transaction Fee $0.45
Monthly Service Fee $10.99

This is why I always prefer PayPal with them they only charge:
Rate: 2.7%
Per Transaction Fee: $0.30
Monthly Rate: $0
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I must of signed up before 2CO started monthly charges as i dont pay them

quantum Gateway http://www.cdgcommerce.com/internet-services.php?R=1532

Initial Setup Fee FREE
Monthly Merchant Fee $10
Monthly Gateway Fee FREE
Qualified Visa/MC/Discover Per Sale Fee -
Most Credit/Debit Cards 2.25% + $0.30
Non-Qualified Visa/MC/Discover Surcharge -
Rewards/International/Corporate Cards 1.50% + $0.10
surcharge
Amex/JCB Per Transaction Fee* $0.30
ACH Deposit $0.25
 
macanohost said:
most of the people around the world are using paypal
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this is true, but Paypal support is rubbish and they are inconsistant in regards to buyer/seller protection.

you can have 2 identical situations in all ways and Paypal will side with buyer on one and seller on the other.

I have heard of several hosts ditching Paypal direct and going with processors like 2co where buyer can still use their paypal accounts to make payments.
 
That ACH fee for Quantum does that apply when they deposit money into your bank account?

I was almost hooked on signing up with Quantum, but then I read that they from what I can tell don't actually give you a merchant account they just take your information and submit it for a merchant account with their partners.

That stumped me as it sounds like all they are is a gateway for a merchant account so it sounds like you would have to pay them whatever and then whatever the merchant provider wanted as well.

I could be wrong and like I said I like to find new and better ways to serve customers and get paid.

Like someone mentioned I am not a fan of the PayPal customer support. The times I called all they did is email me scripted statements of how to do something but didn't handle any problem personally.

That is kind of like calling for support on the phone only to get told every time to submit a ticket. Not much good having a phone support line if that is all they can do.
 
cdgcommerce provides merchant accounts using the Quantum gateway. Having dealt with many providers in the past I can tell you their fees are unbeatable. We use them and are very, very happy with the prices and service. You can review their fees for internet merchants on their Website.
 
supernix said:
That ACH fee for Quantum does that apply when they deposit money into your bank account?

I was almost hooked on signing up with Quantum, but then I read that they from what I can tell don't actually give you a merchant account they just take your information and submit it for a merchant account with their partners.
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This is something only Quantum can answer i think, as being in the UK if i try to register with them i just get direct to worldpay

supernix said:
Like someone mentioned I am not a fan of the PayPal customer support. The times I called all they did is email me scripted statements of how to do something but didn't handle any problem personally.
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yes they are good at just quoting parts of their agreement you agreed too and not really helping you and they are good at giving you chargeback fees and restricting accounts.

another drawback is that if you run several businesses then you have to run these through the same Paypal account as PP will only allow you 1 business or premium account and 1 personal account
 
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I have been reading the TOS for 2CheckOut and as best as I can tell they only send you your money once a week on Thursday.
A. Standard Pay Periods.
A standard pay period is one week in length, commencing at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday and ending immediately prior to 12:00 p.m. on the following Thursday (“Payment Cycle”). Payments due to you, consisting of the sum of the money received for all Transactions less all fees and charges due to us (“Purchase Payment”) will be paid each Thursday. The period upon which the payments due to you are calculated shall include the forty-eight (48) hour period immediately preceding the start of the Payment Cycle and exclude the forty-eight (48) hours immediately preceding the end of the Payment Cycle.
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That is another downside to using them that I can see. I have never seen any merchant account that didn't at least promise to have your money to you in 3 business days or less.

I can't recall how fast I have seen a transfer between PayPal and my bank, but with the addition of an credit card to your account they post your money to your bank quickly.

I also have Square Pay and they have a 3 day window before you get your funds. I could be wrong seems like it was 3 days. Or that might just have been for transactions on a Friday.

Another odd thing I found in the 2CheckOut TOS is they say they hold a reserve equal to a percentage of your gross sales.
We will withhold from you a reserve equal to the percentage of your gross sales (“Reserve”) for each day you participate in our programs.
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I know many people use them and I remember when they first came onto the scene for taking credit cards seems like I was analyzing them back then along with other merchant options.

I am curious if 2CheckOut redirects the users to a payment page like PayPal standard does or if all the processing goes on at your website shopping cart and gets transmitted via SSL?

Thanks again for the feed back this is really interesting getting to know how other systems work.

One thing I did notice that sounded good was that Quantum allows you to use a virtual terminal whereas 2CheckOut forbids it not that I have done manually processing more than a few times ever. It is sometimes nice to have that option though.
 
Paypal can take upto 9 days for funds to be placed into bank account once you chose to withdrawn funds to your bank.

2CO does direct users to a payment page like paypal, but its more designed like an actual invoice.

as we dont accept direct CC/DC then we have no need for a virtual terminal
 
We use CDG Commerce / Quantum Gateway and they've been great. The rates are pretty reasonable as well. The main advantage of using them is the Quantum Vault, which integrates directly with WHMCS and passes all the PCI compliance onto them, which has the additional advantage of keeping your insurance rates down and gives you peace of mind. They also process payments very quickly, usually 24 hours after a batch closes, compared to 72 hours with AMEX.

Another good one is Stripe, although they are much slower at crediting your account on a rolling 7 day interval. The advantage with them is you can process very large transactions through them without issues, whereas CDG Commerce will hold it if it's outside your risk processing limits.
 
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