Hi all, just curious of your opinions. We are starting a webhosting business and were wondering the benfits/disadvantages of each.

Thanks in advance

PP can't replace a merchant account. You can offer it as another payment option but definately not as a substitute.

Problem with paypal is that your users will have to sign up for a paypal account, and be redirected to paypal pages. Other than that, paypal seems to be getting closer to a merchant account (than it was before), and the rates are pretty good as far as 3rd party processors go.

thank you both for your input

Just thought this might help in case you decide on using a credit card processor. I use http://www.visa-master.com They were quite reasonable, and i found the customer support to be good. I already had a merchant account when i signed up with them, so i'm not sure how much they charge. But i use their authorize.net package and it's pretty good. I had a bad experience with e-commerce exhange, and the switch to paynet was nice.

Matt
Delphicomp.com...E-commerce hosting solutions

If you don't want to spend the money to get a full featured merchant account, I'd recommend Revecom (http://www.revecom.com), $50 one time setup fee for service based companies.

Merchant accounts are a little different than PayPal accounts, but these are the main differences (that I can see...as a biased opinion):

1. No set-up fees
2. No equipment
3. No monthly fees
4. No money held for chargebacks (some companies hold money for xx amount of days as collateral)

Just as a disclaimer...the information I posted applies to many merchant accounts, but they may have different policies/promos in effect.

-Merchant accounts may or may not have set-up fees.
-They might display the name of the company (all transactions through our system will display PayPal, not the name of the party or company).
-Some companies send payments on specific dates.
-Some companies hold a reserve for chargebacks.
-Fees will vary from processor to processor.

The differences I tried to point to are standard with many merchant accounts, but there could be variations that need to be checked with the individual processor.

Regards,
Damon

paypal is not yet compatiable with many automated billing softwares. also in my case as i am international customer i can not withdraw the funds from my paypal.com account so my funds are getting accumlated. i think i will buy a car when i will visit US from my paypal.com account balances :D

reset paypal.com is perfect solution for optional payment collection method and i love there service. specially from when paypaldamon is on this boards ;)

Thanks:)

Paypal only accepts customers from certain countries only.. So if you want to offer your services worldwide, it's best to get a merchant account or use 2checkout.com.

Ashley

...........and Paypal only works in US$

Originally posted by paypaldamon
4. No money held for chargebacks (some companies hold money for xx amount of days as collateral)

From what I read when you DO get a chargeback, they freeze your account, so I'd consider that holding money. Also, I've never noticed a merchant account that takes a % out, only 3rd party processors. I'd be weary of keeping money in the account. As others say... use it as an option of payment, but not as your main payment method.

Individual chargebacks do not result in an account restriction. There is a process for chargeback recovery that I can explain in more detail (if needed).