Does anyone know of a site that ranks/reviews merchant accounts? How about gateways?

If not, please just let me know who you recommend.

You can check out this site: http://www.digitallyjustified.com/merchant.html - he gives you a run down of the costs associated with a number of CC processors & third party processors.

I searched thru some of the sites - but they remind me more of the sites that I recently found for SSL reviews - they seem to "push" one merchant processor more so than others, which leads me to believe that that website is owned by that processor.

What part of the world are you in? This helps to know whether to recommend possibly worldpay or another processor for accounts based in Europe, etc.

Are you expecting to process more than $1,000 a month? If not - you might consider a third party processor like Paysystems, 2CO, etc.

I'm in Massachusetts. Looking to process over $1000/month.

Definitely check out http://www.digitallyjustified.com/merchant.html

You can review other threads in this forum to help you make a decision on who to choose & what to look for. A few things - don't go to your local bank for an internet account. They usually are no as qualified & might give you higher rates.

There does appear to be some very biast information as there does appear to be a lot of promotion regarding ONE processor.

But this board is International and the regular processors on here do not accept international business.

someone should compile a true independant list.. Does anyone want to partner on doing one???? If 2 people do it surely it will be fairer.

G

That is the way it looks 74s3. I noticed that in the beginning and even said something about it because some of the forum leaders pushed one. I actually spoke & met with Corey. We have been using him for about one month now. It has been very pleasing to work with him to say the least. He always answers my e-mails, usually within minutes. I was leery about it at first because he was always there but he continues to be there when I have a question or need to speak with him.

People on WHT are vocal about their opinions - both positive and negative - on the wide variety of companies that service their industry. I don't think this is indicative of any kind of conscious "agenda" on anyone's part, just a reflection of their experiences.

Thanks topguy. You make it sound like you call me every day LOL.

74s3 - I would be more than happy to help you out. But so many processors these days do not post their information online. Worldpay does not - you have to contact them. And then depending on your business, you are quoted a different rate. I actually was going to do that once, but after one call to one company, I canned that idea. They asked me a lot of questions (what are you selling, average ticket, monthly volume (normal)) and then went on to ask others. They said at that point I qualified for their small start-up business plan & I would be charged 2.49% & $.45. And then a lot of other charges for services which I would never use but just in case, they had to charge me for them. So, with that, I decided not to do it. Plus with all the people getting sued, I can then see someone wanting to sue me because I posted their rates for all to see.

But if you have some ideas, I would be interested in them. I am always trying to refer people to other companies that I have some type of a relationship with. Customer service is number one with me; that would be the other problem I would have referring people over to the other place.

Sites that claim to rate and review processors (web hosts, whatever) are really just big collections of affiliate links, and they feature whoever is paying the biggest commission that week.

As for processors, there are hundreds, and who knows even where to start. And it's a shark pool. Its the most dishonest industry on earth. (Definitely don't use First National Bank of Omaha, though your chances of stepping in that little dogpile at random are probably small.)

Personally, I would recommend starting with the processor, and looking at the gateway the processor recommends, rather than choosing a gateway first. But that is just a hunch.

Also, consider Costco merchant services. It's really just Nova, a big processor, but because it's Costco branded, they are less likely to screw you as badly or jerk you around as much on price. And the fees are low, and you can buy paper towels by the ton! Nova is hooked in with some gateway, but I don't know which, and have not used that part.

Originally posted by 74s3
There does appear to be some very biast information as there does appear to be a lot of promotion regarding ONE processor.

But this board is International and the regular processors on here do not accept international business.

someone should compile a true independant list.. Does anyone want to partner on doing one???? If 2 people do it surely it will be fairer.

G

Just so you know, there is an online version of my spreadsheet in the works currently. It will be launched with the existing information on processors, however, it will be a great stepping stone for me to start including international processors. I try to include as many as possible, however, as you can probably guess the research is time consuming.

As always I am open to suggestions, although, I would ask that they be posted in the following thread as it is directly related to said comparison.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=175347

Originally posted by boxman

Also, consider Costco merchant services. It's really just Nova, a big processor, but because it's Costco branded, they are less likely to screw you as badly or jerk you around as much on price. And the fees are low, and you can buy paper towels by the ton! Nova is hooked in with some gateway, but I don't know which, and have not used that part. I'm going through that now. They do offer good rates, but don't appear to be 'net saavy, i.e., the rep told me I had to go to Authorize.net myself to get a gateway.

I have been very pleased with the services that Corey offered me. It is not always the cost to take into consideration but customer service. Plus Linkpoint, the gateway, is very powerful, has the ability to handle my 3500 transactions a month with no issues.

Originally posted by thetopguy
Plus Linkpoint, the gateway, is very powerful, has the ability to handle my 3500 transactions a month with no issues. Agreed. Unfortunately, Linkpoint is not nearly as popular as authorize.net when it comes to shopping carts and web hosting client billing software, such as that offered by Alabanza and WHMAP.

True... Authorize.Net is pretty much compatible with just about every e-commerce application ever built.

It tends to scale very well, too. The same could be said about a few other gateways including Verisign's (formerly Signio) PayFlow Pro system. We've run as many as 5,000+ orders within a period of a few hours for some of our direct response merchants without any problem.

Thanks topguy for the recommendations.

Problem was that LinkPoint was at one time charging extra for their code, but they no longer do that & not a lot of developers know that yet. Even osCommerce still has it & it has not been like that for over a year.

Originally posted by 74s3
someone should compile a true independant list..
I forget who but someone on here made a very nice excel spreadsheet comparing fees.

I think you are speaking about: http://www.digitallyjustified.com/merchant.html by VanHost

Originally posted by coreybryant
I think you are speaking about: http://www.digitallyjustified.com/merchant.html by VanHost
Yeah, I didn't realize he ever got it up on a website. Cool. :)

Originally posted by daveman
Yeah, I didn't realize he ever got it up on a website. Cool. :)

Actually, a completely online version should be ready to view within the next few weeks ;) stay tuned....

This is the one:

http://www.infomerchant.net/merchantaccounts/comparison.html

What do you think? :emlaugh:

Originally posted by ameliorate
This is the one:

http://www.infomerchant.net/merchantaccounts/comparison.html

What do you think? :emlaugh:
Not totally accurate. I wonder who runs that one? LOL