Paypal Alternative? Need to receive money from clients. Fees too high with PP.

Airwolf NSX

Airwolf NSX

Experienced Member
Joined
16 April 2008
Messages
279
Location
Irvine, CA
I'm fed up with PayPal and their fees. I googled "paypal alternatives" and got a few lists of accounts ppl recommend but I'm still a bit skeptical.

I wanted to know what PRIMERS who run business had in mind when it comes to merchant accounts, etc..

I don't swype CC for my business, but rather, clients that are out of town, enter payment information online to pay an invoice off.
 
I have actually tried quite a few alternatives out there and PayPal tends to be the most competitive/cheapest/trusted. I pay 1.9% per transaction. But it does depend on your volume of course. I assume all of your payments are from within the USA?

Moneybookers (becoming Skrill) has SLIGHTLY cheaper fees (compared at equal volumes to PayPal) but I have heard of plenty complaints about them from others.
 
I stopped using PP after my account got hacked for almost $4000 and PP was about as useful as a pet rock when it came to answers... thankfully my bank came thru and helped me out, because PP could have cared less.
 
if you leave money in your paypal over 1000 some how it gets hacked or atleast they try to hack it and you password will not work till they get the money out, happened to me a few times, so now as soon as the money is they i move it out into a bank account.

I think that there is an inside guy anything over a certain ammount he calls his buddies and they try and hack it

anything under 100 bucks who cares but when your pushin 4K in a paypal account your a easy target for the inside guy.

and getting help from Paypal is a joke why do they care about 1 person
when millions of people use it everyday they dont just give a shit.

if we all stood together then they would do something but one guy not a chance


so move any ammount out of paypal as soon as you get it. trust me
 
shawn110975 said:
if you leave money in your paypal over 1000 some how it gets hacked or atleast they try to hack it and you password will not work till they get the money out, happened to me a few times, so now as soon as the money is they i move it out into a bank account.

I think that there is an inside guy anything over a certain ammount he calls his buddies and they try and hack it

anything under 100 bucks who cares but when your pushin 4K in a paypal account your a easy target for the inside guy.

and getting help from Paypal is a joke why do they care about 1 person
when millions of people use it everyday they dont just give a shit.

if we all stood together then they would do something but one guy not a chance


so move any ammount out of paypal as soon as you get it. trust me
Click to expand...

I have used PayPal for many many years and have never had it hacked *knocks on wood* I've carried a very high balance in there for months on end before as well (was traveling and not paying attention to work and payments) with no issues. The security is like anything else and common sense. Setup a strong password and be careful with which emails ("from paypal") you answer, etc.

But again, on the fee's... Really don't think you can find much better than PayPal. I certainly am not the biggest fan of them though and use other options as well. But as far as best known and "trusted" by the majority of buyers, sadly PP can't be beat.
 
if they paypal you as a gift theres no fees
 
SFDreamer said:
I have actually tried quite a few alternatives out there and PayPal tends to be the most competitive/cheapest/trusted. I pay 1.9% per transaction. But it does depend on your volume of course. I assume all of your payments are from within the USA?

Moneybookers (becoming Skrill) has SLIGHTLY cheaper fees (compared at equal volumes to PayPal) but I have heard of plenty complaints about them from others.
Click to expand...


Yeah, all my volume is within the US. I guess I'll bite the bullet and continue to use them. Was hoping for another alterative you guys would use!

I know of Intuit but haven't used them. Fees are similar.
 
There are a lot of financial institutions who can process credit cards for businesses. Their charges are all over the map, and sometimes they depend on how much volume you run. Also some places are better if you have a lot of small charges (where the per-transaction part of the fee becomes important) while others are better if your charges are large (where the percentage part of the fee becomes important).

Some years ago, when I was treasurer for the NSX Club of America, I did a search for the best credit card processing fees we could get. At that time, I found the best available was through a Costco business membership, where the savings more than offset the $100 (soon to be $110) annual membership fee. They currently charge 20 cents plus 1.48 percent on credit card swiped transactions, 27 cents plus 1.99 percent on mail/phone/internet transactions, and 12 cents plus 1.37 percent for small ticket merchants. You'll find more information here. Since then, Sam's Club has also introduced merchant credit card processing with low rates; click here.

I realize not all of your clients are paying with credit cards, but maybe this information will be helpful to you as well as to others.
 
Last edited:
It depends on volume, and what level of integration you require; I have used PayPal, Moneybookers, and Google Checkout for business, and prefer Paypal out of the three - in terms of fee schedule, it's not excessive, and there are volume tiers to average expenses out, they also have an extensive, if poorly documented, API for both XML and PHP. Google checkout is cleaner, but fewer people have accounts, and there's a greater level of loss in terms of conversion for retail sales.

If you want to just take credit cards, a merchant account is what you need, but this will require a banking account, and a payment gateway. A simple turn-key solution would be a service like:
http://www.asecurecart.net

This should be pretty self-explanatory, in terms of setup, and they offer a free trial if you want to play around with their service. If you need a hosted shopping cart, there are other services (with higher rate schedules) that provide that for you.

For a 'real' business, a merchant account, security certificate, and proper self-hosted shopping cart are what you need - if you can't do this yourself, you need a programmer to set this up for you.

Good luck.
 
eyecandy said:
I stopped using PP after my account got hacked for almost $4000 and PP was about as useful as a pet rock when it came to answers... thankfully my bank came thru and helped me out, because PP could have cared less.
Click to expand...

x2.
 

Similar threads

Bram
Anyone in Calgary know "CalgarianNSX
Replies
21
Views
4K
Oyagi
Oyagi
Back
Top