Credit Card Transactions

Enzie Shahmiri · 07-04-2006, 01:00 AM

In a continues effort to look for tools to increase sales, I have decided to check into accepting credit cards. I have looked at Paypal Payment Pro, which comes at a monthly fee of $20 plus 2.2% to 2.9%+.30 USD transaction fee.

Paypal Pro offers a credit card set up (Visa, Mastercard, AX, etc. ) through the sellers own web site. When a customer decides to buy something they fill out an on-line form on your site, paypal handles the transaction in the background and the seller receives a credit to his/her account. The nice bonus to this is that you can accept credit cards in person at shows, or via the phone and can input them yourself via your web site. Of course that also means there has to be Internet access...

I don't know how this compares to what is out there. Apparently there are many schemes that offer low start up rates, but with tons of hidden charges.

If you accept credit cards, would you please share your experiences and offer some insight as to how you did your set up and what you pay in monthly/transaction fees.

Cynthia Daniel · 07-04-2006, 01:29 AM

I've used Paypal to accept credit card payment before, but never even knew there was a Pro version. I don't know what that gives you, but I've not missed it and I don't pay $20/month. I've also put Paypal checkout on sites and it wasn't $20/month - unless they've changed.

Enzie Shahmiri · 07-04-2006, 01:38 AM

Hi Cynthia,
Can you tell me which Paypal service you have used and what the fees were?

Molly Sherrick Phifer · 07-04-2006, 10:00 AM

Hi Enzie!

You can open a personal Paypal account and upgrade to "merchant" status for free. I have had such an account for free for years. That type of account does allow you to accept credit cards, and even has easy to integrate software so that you can send bills by e-mail (which have buttons taking the receiver to a payment page) and even pop a payment button onto your webpage.

On the Paypal website, look at the Merchant Tools tab. If you click on Website Payments Standard, you'll see what all the tools are as well as the fees, etc. It's really quite reasonable.

Payments go into your Paypal account, but it is easy to move money back and forth between that account and a bank account of your designation.

Great topic!

Enzie Shahmiri · 07-04-2006, 12:02 PM

Dear Molly,

Thank you for that tip! I read through the differences between the Merchant Web Site Standard account vs the Payment Pro. No monthly fee is definitely more appealing! Here is the side by side comparison for those of you, who might be interested:

[URL] https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-standard-pro-compare-popuphttp://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...-compare-popup

Have you been able to log in to your Paypal account, while you were at Art Fairs? I have Internet access through my phone in most locations, but how do you handle sales when the Internet is inaccessible?

Enzie Shahmiri · 07-04-2006, 10:23 PM

While searching in the archives, I read somewhere that someone uses the merchant set up provided by Costco. Who ever you are, could you please elaborate on the pros and cons of getting a credit card set up through them? Thanks!