Merchant Account

[nikanore]

Please advise which companies offer international merchant accounts. I need a complete solution for e-business. Thank you for your replies.
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[incka]

Um, 2CheckOut.com might be good...

Also do an affiliate program. Chris has a site that could promote you and I will soon.

[Chris]

worldpay, not really a merchant account, but I don't know of any true merchant account providers that cater to non-US businesses.

You might want to go to authorize.net and browse through their resellers.

[chromate]

Yeah. Worldpay's pretty good. I've done some work with worldpay in the past.

If you want a complete merchant account, then you can get one from Barclays bank if you're in the UK.

[nikanore]

What about using http://www.ez-charge.com? These guys offer a full offshore merchant account with payment gateway facilities and sophisticated fraud-detection system.
--
nikanore,
http://www.customessay.org

[Best.Flash]

Worldpay and Barclays offer internet merchant accounts for non-US customers.

Both systems are very similar but of the two I'd say Barclays ePDQ is better as it offers a more sophisticated order tracking system you can manage from your own site.

[ice]

I recommend you to use ikobo.com . It offers merchant accounts, shopping cart facility and credit card processing facility. Its merchant account has no setup fee, and its transaction fees are lower than other companies. Its coverage is in more than 170 contries and 220 regions. When you will use it you will enjoy the pleasure of it for the speedex of your online business.

[incka]

Just a quick question: How are you affiliated with ikobo.com?

[Chris]

I would advise everyone against using ikobo.

[ozgression]

I second that. Ikobo is a company to avoid.
________
vapir oxygen vaporizer (http://oxygenvaporizer.com)

[ice]

Originally posted by incka
Just a quick question: How are you affiliated with ikobo.com?

incka:
My affiliation with ikobo is of a satisfied customer. Their services have satisfied my online money transfer needs and also my online business needs. Earlier than that i used paypol and wanted a better solution, which i got later on.

[incka]

Well I'm unsure if to believe you with both Chris and Foster's guy advising against it...

[chromate]

I'm not after a merchant account, if I were, I'd use WorldPay or Barclays (if I had a business account). But just out of interest, what are the problems people have had with ikobo.com?

[Chris]

The only people I've ever seen giving a good review of Ikobo were obviously paid by Ikobo to do it, like Ice. I have personally removed dozens of posts here and at Sitepoint that are obviously by paid employees of Ikobo. I would never trust my money to a company that has to resort to that kind of marketing.

You can notice the spam posts because all the posters are from countries like China or Pakistan. They all speak in broken English. They all have low post counts, and only post about how great Ikobo is. They often carry on conversations with each other.

[incka]

LOL!

Gudday Saligfqwgfsgd! How is your IKOBO.com (use my referral: 4534533) going today!

Vel Hello Steinfiellideg! It is fine (no! use my referall: 3344533)!

[ozgression]

Originally posted by chromate
But just out of interest, what are the problems people have had with ikobo.com?

There are threads about it at WebmasterWorld and WHT (and a few other places which I can't remember at the moment).
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[Banoo]

you can explore paypol and ikobo . Both provide merchant accounts. Ikobo's fees are lowest than paypol. Ikobo is economical. You can make a comparison by visiting their web sites to determine which one is more economical.

[incka]

Not another one!

[michael_gersitz]

That is crazy, them finding this thread so quickly.

ice and Banoo are proboally the same guy anyways....

[ozgression]

Well, well, well...
________
Suzuki LJ specifications (http://www.suzuki-tech.com/wiki/Suzuki_LJ)

[Mike]

...look who we have here :p

[kamagraman]

Stay well clear of this fraudulent site ez-charge.com. I have been defrauded of the sum of $2500 set up fee. They send you all the details, then ask you to wire the set up fee to a latvian bank, then you hear no mkore from them. Their email ISP is based in Ukraine and the website was thrown off their last provider for being a suspected fraudulant site. The address in Hong Kong is just a front. Website owners should do a thourough check on this if you dont believe me.

[thebillionaire]

I have heard worldpay is a good merchant account, but am not sure what the setup fee is. However world pay provides world wide access and the best thing is that you dont always need credit cards to buy stuff you can also bill from your phone line which is really good.

[thebillionaire]

2checkout which incka posted looks pretty good.

[chromate]

I've developed with worldpay before and it is really good. Can't remember what the setup fee is though.

[thebillionaire]

hey chromate, Im kinda new to the whole merchant thing I was wondering that when they buy something what information of there's do they leave behind.

[chromate]

Depends how you have it set up. Most merchant handlers provide an different ways of interfacing with their payment systems. So it really depends what information you want to collect and what the merchant handler requires.

Check out the developer's section on the WorldPay website under the integration options. You'll get an idea of the information that can be collected.

[crash_D.]

Um, 2CheckOut.com might be good...

Also do an affiliate program. Chris has a site that could promote you and I will soon.

yeah!! 2CO rules.... i use their services and im very pleased

[thebillionaire]

What makes 2c0 better than paypal?

[dSub]

I have heard worldpay is a good merchant account, but am not sure what the setup fee is. However world pay provides world wide access and the best thing is that you dont always need credit cards to buy stuff you can also bill from your phone line which is really good.
Worldpay may be good, but their fees are pretty much out of this world. With a £100 setup fee and another £160 per year Worldpay is, I think, out of reach for many many people. I know it was like this for me at least.

[chromate]

Depends what kind of level of business you're going into. If you're spending a few thousand pounds to acquire stock and then another thousand or so on advertising, then worldpay's fees are pretty small in comparison. Also remember that their charges "per transaction" are quite a bit lower than other merchant handlers, so if you have a reasonable turnover, you're likely to make the subscription fees back a few times over. It would quite likely work out cheaper compared with other merchant handlers.

Just depends what your needs are. And no, I don't work for WorldPay ;)

[Milionar]

What makes 2c0 better than paypal?

2CO will never be an option for me. It gave me only sorrow. Look what other users say about them.: for some strange reason THEY RESIST TO DELIVER my money to my account, the money has been lost for almost two months and nobody WANTS to help on their help Desk, they only give me excuses and all sort of lies but I don't have my money, I opened a complaint on the BBB and I still don't have a response, I FAXed them, opened too many tickets at their helpdesk, and I even CALLed them and they hung up on me on the phone, AS FAR AS I KNOW THIS IS CALLED FRAUD. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HAVE PROBLEMS AND OPEN A SUCCESFULL BUSINESS ON THE INTERNET DON'T WORK WITH 2CHECKOUT they are a pain in the backside!

Recommended:
No

I don't want to be in the same situation. I use ikobo now. They are secure and reliable.

[dSub]

Depends what kind of level of business you're going into. If you're spending a few thousand pounds to acquire stock and then another thousand or so on advertising, then worldpay's fees are pretty small in comparison. Also remember that their charges "per transaction" are quite a bit lower than other merchant handlers, so if you have a reasonable turnover, you're likely to make the subscription fees back a few times over. It would quite likely work out cheaper compared with other merchant handlers.

Just depends what your needs are. And no, I don't work for WorldPay ;)
I guess you're right. I for one don't plan on spending thousands of pounds. Not by a long shot. I'm only in this to make a decent living, in my country a thousand pounds is for most people their income for 2 years, so I think you get my point. This one of the reasons I've chosen ikobo, don't regret it so far, but as I said before I also agree with you, Worldpay may be good for some.
Don't worry, I for one, am not going to accuse you or anyone else of working for Worldpay or whichever other company. :)

[chromate]

The other nice thing about WorldPay is that you can take orders over the phone, fax or post using a simple web interface. Handy if you plan to run offline ads, as I will be - eventually! :)

[dSub]

Worldpay is indeed very good, but also VERY VERY expensive. Right now i can't find the exact fees on their website, and believe me I've tried (guess they're not too proud of them :D ), but from what I remember it was something like 200 pounds to set up and another 190 per year or per month or something. I think I've heard someone saying they've raised them even higher, although I don't know for sure since their website is so cryptic when it comes to informing the customer about their fees.

[chromate]

You have to get a quote from them these days. I think it's £100 to setup and £160 subscription per year. 4.5% commission on credit cards and £0.50 per transaction on debit cards.

They're not cheap, but considering the service, they're not too pricey either.

[aj8]

Full details http://www.xela.co.uk/services/e-payment

Yes if you sign up I get a commission, but since it seems nobody else publishes accurate pricing online in an 'immediately visible' format I hope nobody will mind..

I checked these very recently, so the prices are right. FWIW although obviously I admit the commission makes me biased (it cost us > £1000 to become a Worldpay Accredited Partner) I have been recommending their services since before we actually became accredited. Their customer services are excellent and their pages extremely customisable. They are also quick and (with one hashup in memory by way of exception) extremely reliable.

A.

[dSub]

You have to get a quote from them these days. I think it's £100 to setup and £160 subscription per year. 4.5% commission on credit cards and £0.50 per transaction on debit cards.

They're not cheap, but considering the service, they're not too pricey either.
Well...it sure seems like that to me, I mean I know they may not be as good as Worldpay, but services such as 2checkout, ikobo and others (Paypal too, but I can't use it) are infinitely cheaper and I think offer decent services. Wouldn't you agree?

[chromate]

Not sure about 2checkout. I think someone said that they're only really worth it for single item purchases for some reason. Their per transaction charge of 5.5% is pretty high really, especially if you're doing a lot of business. However, if you're selling only a few low valued products a month, then 2checkout is probably worth it.

But if you're turning over 6 figures worth, then the setup and subscription charges at worldpay are pretty insignificant really. Even a 1% more transaction charge (as with 2 checkout) is gonna eat up 1000 or more of your profits.

If I was doing a lot of business, I would probably get the merchant account bit from Barclays. They only charge 2.18% per transaction and £125 setup. However, monthly subscription is £25! But as I say, if you're doing a lot of business then it would work out cheaper to have the lower transaction charge.

I'm not an expert on these things, but if I was gonna start an ecommerce store (as I hope to) then I've heard enough good reports about worldpay to use them at least for secure payment processesing.

I've heard a few people say to avoid ikobo altogether.

[Will]

And to my mind only the merchant who runs a very profitable business can use worldpay. And if you’re new, I think it’s worth looking for something cheaper.

[dSub]

Yeah, pretty much so about worldpay... and what would you suggest as a cheap, yet not all that bad (asking for too much maybe?), alternative?

[chromate]

I don't really see why people think Worldpay's so expensive. £260 for a year and that's including setup. If you're not earning enough to dwarf that figure, over the course of a year, is the ecommerce venture even worth it? :)

[aj8]

Quite. I think also people do not realise the value attached to some of the niceties of Worldpay - like the ability to customise their payment pages fully, the ability to dump images on their secure server for a more integated feel, the ability to do advanced things like callbacks, and the additional options you can pay a bit extra for like FuturePay (for taking subscriptions) and WorldAccess (online virtual PDQ machine, for taking phone orders)...

All of these things are not noticed in a straight comparison with other providers, and individually these things all are quite small BUT put them all together and you realise they actually can make a difference; in consumer confidence if nothing else. In short you could well make more sales as a result of the better 'feel' your site has..

I've seen this before where a customer has gone from Paypal to Worldpay.....

As I say thought, I must declare my bias :)

[chromate]

I've worked with clients using Paypal and I reckon they must have lost SO many potential sales just because of that. If they'd used something like Worldpay I'm sure the traffic would have made conversions much more smoothly.

Pretty much anything's an improvement on paypal though :)

[moonshield]

yea, personally I never use paypal. I don't trust it one bit.

The only time I used it was to buy a copy of vBulletin.

[chromate]

lol. As chance would have it, I've just received a fraudulent email telling me that my PayPal account is going to be suspended unless I re-enter my credit card details. It's scary to think how many people must fall for it.

[ozgression]

Yes, but I don't think it is a Paypal problem, more of a computer/internet literacy problem.

I, personally, trust and use Paypal often.

[dSub]

You people all speak so highly of Worldpay but for now I can't afford it. I can't even afford the signup fee. Maybe once I manage to get of the ground I'll give it some further consideration, but as of now my only choices are services such as paypal - ikobo to be specific since I can't use paypal.

[Will]

And to my mind it’s a personal decision what company to choose. As if you're doing a lot of business then it would work out cheaper to have the lower transaction charge and pay monthly fees. But if you just start your business, I guess it’s worth thinking about the company that doesn’t charge monthly fees (2checkout, ikobo, moneybookers, paypal can be the alternative).

[dSub]

It's true, although I don't debate the reliability and service worldpay probably provides. Anyway, will, which of the services you mentioned are you using now? Or you haven't decided yet? I'm interested in the choices someone whose also starting up in this business; I hope I don't have the wrong person. :rolleyes:

[Will]

I haven’t decided yet. I guess all the companies have their cons and pros so you have to decide which one of them suits your needs the best. You can check the companies I listed above, e-gold is also rather popular (but as for me it’s too complicated).
But whatever you choose I suggest you to find out everything about the company before signing up. And don’t forget to read the fine print ;)

[dSub]

Out of that list 2checkout seems quite good, but ikobo seems to provide similar services, maybe better since I find the visa card thing quite useful, at almost half of 2checkout's fees. Am I missing something here? I mean, this would seem like a good choice, right?

[chromate]

step carefully with Ikoboo, I've heard some bad reports. They may even be further back in this thread actually.

Personally out of the two, I would go with 2checkout.

[moonshield]

how much does it cost to handle it all by yourself? Credit Card processing and such? There is probably some heavy liability.

[Chris]

In addition to my actual merchant account/gateway (authorize.net) I do some small transactions through 2CO and have had no problems.

[chromate]

how much does it cost to handle it all by yourself?

See the quote from Barclays I gave above to get an idea.

[dSub]

Thanks for the heads-up regarding ikobo, I'll give this some thought. I think I'll try it first with personal transactions, i.e. sending/receiving money then I'll see what I do next. Perhaps using both ikobo and 2co would be good move, but not so easily achievable.

[Will]

step carefully with Ikoboo, I've heard some bad reports. They may even be further back in this thread actually.

Personally out of the two, I would go with 2checkout.
I read bad reviews about all companies. You can easily find a long list of horror stories about all of them.
And as to 2checkout – I also think it’s worth checking.

[aj8]

Warning. I've just been told (as a worldpay partner) that they've massively ramped up their pricing. Before, their pricing was £100+vat setup and £160+vat per annum (before transaction charges).

Now, their charges are : £200+vat setup and £360+vat per annum, WITH THE SAME TRANSACTION CHARGES.

We paid a lot of money to become a Worldpay Accredited Partner and I've just sent an absolutely steaming email to their partner team asking them why they are stabbing us in the back like this.

FYI I thought their charges before were reasonable for what they provided, whereas I no longer do.

ALso; don't worry if you're an existing customer of WP, it seems (as far as I can make out) this only applies to new signups.

Very silly management decision indeed IMO.

A.

[chromate]

AWCH! Thanks for letting us know. That really is a massive hike in charges. I'm not surprised you're p*ssed off with them. I would be too! That would also go some way to explain why they removed their pricing structure from their site. It'd scare too many people off.

Hmm it's a shame. If I were to start an ecommerce store, I'm not sure who I would use now. :(

[Will]

I always thought that worldpay fees had been scaring away new and small merchants, but now they will also lose their current customers.

So what do we have now? - 2checkout, e-gold, ikobo, paypal. I think they are worth checking, however you can always find unsatisfied customers.

[chromate]

Never heard of e-gold. Wouldn't use paypal because I reckon too many users would drop out of paying just because they have to register before they can pay. I'm scared of ikobo :) So perhaps 2checkout. But their transaction charges are way too steep.

Perhaps I would start with 2checkout, but then I think I would just go to barclays or something and set up a propper merchant account, get an SSL cert, pay someone to secure a server and process payments myself. You could also take payment over the phone that way too.

Edit: Just an update on my ecommerce findings... Seems a lot of brand name companies I'm trying are not allowing their distributors to supply ecommerce only stores. Reason being, with the lower overheads, it would be too easy for e-tailers to undercut their brick and mortar shops. So to preserve existing relationships with shop owners, they wont supply ecommerce stores. SUCKS! :(

[dSub]

AWCH! Thanks for letting us know. That really is a massive hike in charges. I'm not surprised you're p*ssed off with them. I would be too! That would also go some way to explain why they removed their pricing structure from their site. It'd scare too many people off.

Hmm it's a shame. If I were to start an ecommerce store, I'm not sure who I would use now. :(
AHA! So it's wasn't just me not being able to find anything about their fees. They had just removed it altogether. I find that not very professional and also misleading. Isn't there some kind of law to force them to display their fees and so on? I mean what if someone wants to sign up and then they discover their sky-high fees? That just ain't right! :mad:

[ozgression]

Wouldn't use paypal because I reckon too many users would drop out of paying just because they have to register before they can pay.

Paypal now have an option to not require sign-up to send payments. Eg. You can now accept credit cards, in the same style as 2co does.

[chromate]

Really? Ah right. Thanks for letting me know. Maybe they are an option then.

[ozgression]

I think that option is selected by default.

[Will]

And I never saw any site offering me to pay thru paypal, without having an account – there’s always login/register account procedure, which must be completed in order to make the purchase.

[lz83ny]

Probably only few know about this option. I didn't know either.

[dSub]

Probably so. All I ever hear regarding this, are people complaining about the fact that paypal requires buyers to register before then can actually perform the transactions. You may be right, not many people may know you can change that. I for one didn't know about that.

[Will]

I’m not sure I understand; actually merchants decide if the buyers must sign up the account with paypal? In my opinion it’s illogical. Why doesn’t paypal cancel the registration at all?

[dSub]

Because paypal just won't let it go. I mean it's great opportunity to have people create new accounts without too much marketing and promotion. They let the merchants handle that, and once a buyer is interested in something from a specific store he or she will have the account automatically created. This way paypal gains more and more accounts, who may be actually used again, not just for that transaction.
Perhaps it's not fair, but I don't think paypal got where it is today by being fair I suppose...

[Will]

And I just found out that this option is available only for the US merchant with proper accounts.

[chromate]

Agh! No good for me then :(

[dSub]

Of course they will do their best to restrict these facilities since they aren't bringing any real advantage to paypal. All they really want is more and more accounts and that's about it. Doesn't matter if it's actually helping its users or not. Hopefully their competition will get better and better so there will be alternative choices apart from paypal.

[Will]

So chromate, what did you decide? Will you stay with 2checkout?

[ramprage]

For the Canadians out there, Canadian merchant accounts.

PSIGate (been using for around a year, reliable)
InternetSecure

[chromate]

Will, I haven't decided yet. But I'm not actively researching it either.

I would probably get a merchant account from Barclays bank and then just use WorldPay to handle the processing. Wouldn't be so expensive that way. But 2checkout is an option, yeah. I would have to research it more.

[Will]

Chromate, please keep us posted about your decision what company to use – it may help other users too.
And I wonder how is dSub doing ;) As far as I remember he/she was going to sign up with ikobo, and as there were several bad views as to this company I think it would be interesting to find out about his/her personal experience.

[dSub]

As I said, for starters I've signed up with ikobo and use them only for personal transactions. I'll do this for a while in order to learn more about their system and the way things work.
So far I've managed to create my account, actually it wasn't that hard, and then I asked someone who owned me some money to send it to me. Right now I'm waiting for the ikard to arrive so I can actually withdraw the money from my account.
I'll be able to tell you more once the ikard arrives, it should happen in a couple of days if I were to believe what ikobo says.

[Todd W]

I use 2Checkout, and PayPal however I don't do much selling and if I did a LOT I would go with Authorize.net and one of their "affiliates". People seem to be posting decent deals on WHT regarding merchant accounts with a bundle of software and support.

[Will]

Authorize.net? Hmm… I would rather go with 2co (however they are also rather expensive).
Apparently there are no payment processors with low fees and wide coverage :D

[dSub]

authirize.net is quite a service, but it's nothing I could afford. For me it's still alternatives such as 2co and MB. Currently I only use ikobo for money transfers and since I don't have such a great deal of transactions I'm thinking about some sort of manual processing.

[Alan25r]

If you don't deal with automated processing you might actually use your ikobo personal account to accept payment from your clients. It's simple and I don't consider the 3% fee to be an inconvenient, especially when ikobo has a fixed withdrawal fee of $1.9. You do the math. :)

[Will]

Yes, good idea – but only if you don't sell much.
And what about merchants who get much money from their customers/buyers, do you know any other payment processor with reasonable fees?

[dSub]

That's a good point you're making. I suppose ikobo's personal account could also be used for receiving payments from customers... Do you know whether their policy allows such operations?
Yes, you're right about the fees, nothing to complain there. Thanks for the info, I may just give this a try. ;)

[Alan25r]

Yes, good idea – but only if you don't sell much.
And what about merchants who get much money from their customers/buyers, do you know any other payment processor with reasonable fees?

On second thought, I don't think that one could sell his or her products only by using his or her ikobo personal account unless he or she already have a list of trusted clients. I came to the conclusion that our clients will have to be convinced that after they sent us the payment, they will receive the product of their desire and that we won't just take their money. So, if your sales are not slow or you have a big products inventory, I say to use this solution only as a temporary solution. Remember that you won't benefit from chargeback protection at all. If you go to www.ikobo.com and read their terms and conditions, you will see that they won't protect you or your personal account if you are making sales and not just transfer money.

[Alan25r]

Yes, good idea – but only if you don't sell much.
And what about merchants who get much money from their customers/buyers, do you know any other payment processor with reasonable fees?

On second thought, I don't think that one could sell his or her products only by using his or her ikobo personal account unless he or she already have a list of trusted clients. I came to the conclusion that our clients will have to be convinced that after they sent us the payment, they will receive the product of their desire and that we won't just take their money. So, if your sales are not slow or you have a big products inventory, I say to use this solution only as a temporary solution. Remember that you won't benefit from chargeback protection at all. If you go to www.ikobo.com and read their terms and conditions, you will see that they won't protect you or your personal account if you are making sales and not just transfer money.

[dSub]

You're right, ikobo's personal account is by no means a replacement for their former merchant account. Their merchant account used to have all of the required features, while the personal account is only good at what it was designed for- that is sending/receiving money.
Of course, you can use it for making sales, but you expose yourself to some risks since you don't benefit from ikobo's fraud protection that was available to any of their merchants.
The ikard and the personal account have their limitations when used for something else other than what their purpose is, but it will still work.

[Alan25r]

You're right, ikobo's personal account is by no means a replacement for their former merchant account. Their merchant account used to have all of the required features, while the personal account is only good at what it was designed for- that is sending/receiving money.
Of course, you can use it for making sales, but you expose yourself to some risks since you don't benefit from ikobo's fraud protection that was available to any of their merchants.
The ikard and the personal account have their limitations when used for something else other than what their purpose is, but it will still work.

You are perfectly right but at least they approach the new VISA/MC regulations with an honest solution by closing their merchant account and keep focusing onto their p2p service. I heard that many people don't like 2co's merchant services anymore because of the way they solved the VISA/MC regulation problem. It seems they actually sell your products for you and you cannot say anymore that you only process transactions through them.

[dSub]

You're right about 2co, they've made some pretty weird changes and it's a real pain dealing with them (so I've heard/read). Wasn't a big 2co fan before, but from now on I'll surely stay away from them.
At least ikobo close their merchant service altogether instead of providing something nobody will be to fond of using. Eh well, at least they're still processing transfers.

[dSub]

Have you guys noticed the changes on www.ikobo.com (http://www.ikobo.com)? :D
Guess this means they're not going to let us down and that they'll keep providing money transfer services worldwide (after all that's what made them popular). This is very reassuring since I was a bit worried about their future.

[Alan25r]

Yeah, I really like ikobo's new website design. I guess you are right ... this is very reassuring for us and also something tells me they are going to continue to provide p2p money transfer services and even improve them. Who knows, they could even lower their transfer fees :D (3% is too much for me :)).

[dSub]

Oh come on... how much lower would you like ikobo's fee to be? I mean next you'll be wishing ikobo actually gives YOU money to use their services! :D
Seriously now, seeing as though they kept their promise and made some important improvements, I wouldn't be surprised if we will see even more good things happening to their money transfer service.

[Alan25r]

Oh come on... how much lower would you like ikobo's fee to be? I mean next you'll be wishing ikobo actually gives YOU money to use their services! :D
Actually, it would be a very good thing to pay us just to use ikobo's services! :D Seriously now, has anyone heard of other money transfer companies with a lower transfer fee?


Seriously now, seeing as though they kept their promise and made some important improvements, I wouldn't be surprised if we will see even more good things happening to their money transfer service.
That's what I was trying to say. I was joking with the fees part. I consider 3% to be a acceptable fee but I am looking for seeing more improvements in ikobo's future though. They seem to be on the right track.

[dSub]

Can't say that I know of some other company with fees similar to ikobo, but I could be wrong and there may be some.
About improvements at ikobo... well, I was getting worried they abandoned that idea, but seeing as they are changing their website and making things easier to use I'd say that sometime soon other features will come. Hopefully....

[Alan25r]

I know that paypal has a somewhat similar fees structure as ikobo but unfortunately they have a pretty low coverage. Moreover, I don't think paypal has a similar debit card as ikobo's ikard. I'm not sure about the latter. Can anyone shed some light here please? :) Thanks.

[Will]

But if I'm not mistaken ikobo doesn't provide merchant accounts any more – so actually if the vendor is in need of the wide coverage he can use ikobo personal services only if he doesn't plan to process many transactions per month.
Otherwise he'll face some problems as there are not so many companies that run well outside USA/Canada.

[kittykat]

I would recommend you to look at companies in the same industry and see what merchant accounts they use. You will be surprised that the same merchant account provider is happy to cooperate with you, too.

[stymiee]

I would recommend you to look at companies in the same industry and see what merchant accounts they use. You will be surprised that the same merchant account provider is happy to cooperate with you, too.
--
How do you tell which merchant account they use? They certainly don't advertise that on their website and you can't see it just by using their website.

[number7]

A good way to search for a merchant account is to surf through a number of shopping carts. These typically lists a number of payment processors they are compatible with.

[stymiee]

A good way to search for a merchant account is to surf through a number of shopping carts. These typically lists a number of payment processors they are compatible with.
This technique will not work. Shopping carts are only compatible with gateways and third party processors. They cannot be, and are not, compatible with any true merchant accounts as they must go through a gateway to use one. So this method will only work for third party processors and it is no big secret who the most popular ones of those are. Same goes for gateways.

[number7]

This technique will not work. Shopping carts are only compatible with gateways and third party processors. They cannot be, and are not, compatible with any true merchant accounts as they must go through a gateway to use one. So this method will only work for third party processors and it is no big secret who the most popular ones of those are. Same goes for gateways.


Could you explain what the difference between "merchant account", "gateway" and "third party processor". As I understand:

- Gateway - is a link between your payment application and your bank account.

- Merchant Account - a service which provides solutions (software) for online payments, MOTO, Checking, etc. Merchant Account providers connects you with your bank through gateway and connects your customer with your business

- Third Party processors - a service which manages your funds and connects your business with customers. You do not need bank account, gateway.

Am I right or not ? It would be greate if you correct me with your explanation. Thanks.

[stymiee]

Your definitions seem to be just fine. :)