Most of us have shopped online. But how can we choose the best way to secure a payment when we are talking about “our” business? What kind of rate do they offer? How is the transaction?
In this post we will look at a few payment options. Please read through and research what is the best for you before settling into any type of credit card processing. Each business has a different need.
In order to do business online, business owners need safe, efficient and effective ways to collect payment. While PayPal might be the most notable and familiar, is it necessarily the best? Let’s take a look at some of the more common secure online payment systems and compare.
PayPal: offers an all-in-one solution so you can accept payments online, with or without a website and accept payments online. If you already have a merchant account then you can utilize one of two options including Payflow Gateway, which offers a secure connection from your online store to your Internet merchant account or PayPal Express Checkout, which creates a 3-click customer checkout. Most options require a $30/month fee and like any merchant account, you’ll pay a percentage of each sale ranging from 1.9% to 2.9% depending on your chosen package.
The benefit PayPal offers is that it’s available in 190 markets and 19 currencies around the world.
Alert: Pay is a growing payment provider with members in more than 190 countries and supports 21 currencies.
All monies deposited with AlertPay are FDIC and CDIC insured. While Alert Pay doesn’t offer the myriad account options PayPal does, it does offer low transaction fees of 2.5% + $0.25 per transaction, enables you to manage multiple online businesses with one account, use “Buy Now” buttons for one-time and recurring payments and it easily integrates into third-party applications.
Additionally, they offer a number of business tools like sales reports and mass payment solutions.
CCNow: offers only payment systems geared toward your business size, including, Start-Up, Small Business, and Established. Their fees include a one time set up fee of $9.95 and a monthly fee of $9.95 if your sales are less than $100.01 each month. Additionally, you’ll pay a fee of 4.99% of Gross Sales plus $0.50 per transaction
CCNow makes it possible to accept payments from common methods like Visa & MasterCard but also lets you accept payment via PayPal.
2CO Checkout.com: Easily integrates with other shopping cart systems supports recurring billing and automatic payments. They don’t charge any monthly fee however there is a $49 sign up fee, a 5.5% of Sale Amount and $ 0.45 per sale.
They offer free code for your website, free shopping cart solutions and no fee to wire into a US or Canadian bank account. While they don’t support as many currencies as other vendors, they do support US, Australian, Canadian, Danish Kroner, Euro, GBP-Sterling’s, Hong Kong Dollars, Japanese Yen, New Zealand Dollars, Norwegian Kroner, Swedish Kroner and Swiss Francs.
When it comes to finding the right secure online payment system, there are many to choose from. Keep your budget, sales volume and the security of your clients and customers in mind before making your decision. Make sure they’re easy for you to use and integrate well with any system you currently have running.