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Help: best way to accept credit cards


Wez

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Hey Guys,

 

I have had my own business for a while now and receive payment via either cheque or direct bank transfer, problem being a couple of customers have highlighted that it would be easier for them to pay via credit card.

 

I know I need some sort of merchant account, ideally I would just have an online form that customers could enter the CC info into with the invoice and customer account numbers.

 

Any info you guys could offer would be great as I am currently looking at Barclaycard and Protx.

 

Thanks

 

Wez

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i did this last year, you just need to go to your bank and get a card machine. with HSBC it cost us £299 for machine, chip and pin thing etc etc, then a certain amount a year, and they send it all to you in about 2 weeks, and bingo! you loose money tho. they take like 2-5% on differnt types of cards! and you need a phone line.

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HSBC and Natwest do an online ePDQ I think, so you can enter it manually onto a secure page. I have some code that ties shopping carts into it somewhere.

 

Let me know if you can't get any info and I'll try to dig some out.

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I've just asked my Mrs for you, she's in that business.

Apparently you want to contact Streamline Merchant Services, Barclays Merchant Services or Lloyds Cardnet.

 

She recommends Streamline (no, she doesn't work for them, she's with an American Express company)

 

It'll cost you about £250 setup, £15 per month per terminal (online terminal=card swiping machine) plus approx 2½% of each transaction. That'll cover you for Visa/Mastercard/Debitcards. Not AmEx or Diners Club though

 

She can give you contact phone numbers tomorrow if you want.

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seems expensive, I don't think we paid that much??

 

Surely it depends on turnover, I know we pay less due to the number of transactions so it might just be a case of finding the right provider for you base don your business model?

 

I am by no means an expert so DO follow jakes advice and give those companies a call to see what they say. His better half is in that line of work.

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You're right though Lewis. Being an accountant with AmEx my Mrs tends to think in larger ££££ than most of us do. :D

 

 

edit to add:

(I don't mean pay-wise, just that AmEx deal with lots of (other people's) money on a daily/hourly/minute basis)

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When I set it up for my company Streamline was deffo the best deal. Once a year I check the competition and it is still the best. Depending on turnover you can negotiate better rates. At the moment we have 1.5% for credit cards and 30p per debit card on a turnover of about 10k per month

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I have used Worldpay as well for my business.... Get ready for the joy of charge back issues. I would get quite a few dodgy people buying services from me then reporting the charge as unauthorised and I have to fight it or eat the costs. I do not know what type a business that you have but if it is virtual services of any kind be prepared for possible charge backs. ;)

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a racket or a packet? lol

 

Worldpay are good if you run an online system as most integrate with it (and they also allow manual input), if you do or are thinking of allowing online shopping its a good bet.

 

Yeah. One of the chaps I'm thinking of ran a Wedding car business using his Bentley, and he would go to the Worldpay portal 'terminal' and put the peoples payments through himself manually.

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Thanks for the info guys, looks like worldpay might be a good option then.

 

From looking into this yesterday to use protx I read that I still need a merchant account from my bank, so that was still working out pricey, I will look into worldpay and let you all know.

 

:)

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I have just filled in the online quotation form for worldpay so see what they come back with :)

 

I have used paypal for personal transactions with ebay etc for a long time now but not sure about the business side, I think i would need to setup another dedicated business account.

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