Hi, I'm wondering if someone can give me a few minutes of their time to guide me in the right direction? I will soon be starting an e-commerce site selling clothing to UK and EU residents. I want to accept CC payments and from previous posts have seen that Paypal is not a recommended option.
I am not in a position to apply for a merchant account and have spent the past few days researching which 3rd party processor to go through (2Checkout, Paysystems, Ikobo, Propay etc). I need a company that has low fees and setup charges (so that rules out Worldpay!). I have got to the point where I am tearing my hair out! :mad:
Can anyone advise me what path to take and if I go through a US based processor such as Paysystems/2CO do a) customers have to sign up with them before purchasing and b) do I need a US bank account/address?
Thanks in advance!

We are from the UK and use Paysystems. They let you charge customers in £ and have fairly average rates. Customers do not have to sign up with them like Paypal or similar services. You do not need a US account either and can have the money sent to you either electronically or by cheque.

We have not had any problems with them and have been very happy with the service.

Thanks Vortex-Steve
Do they hold onto your funds for long and roughly how much do they charge to send the money to a UK bank account or via cheque?

If you have money in your account it is sent out each Thursday. They keep a certain % for 6 months just to cover things like charge backs and any other fees you may incur.

It used to be free to have a cheque sent over but recently this has been changed to £2.50. It is £12.50 to have the money sent by wire transfer.

Many thanks. You da man! That's one less problem I've got to deal with. Now to check out which company is best for hosting....:erm:

No problem :)

As for hosting if you are looking for UK Hosts you might have more luck looking at http://www.findyourhost.co.uk since it is more aimed at UK hosts.

Does anyone know if 1&1 are any good for hosting?

Do a search on these forums for more details, you might also like to open another thread in the Web Hosting forum so more people will read it.

One of my staff used to have accounts with 1&1 and while the service seemed fairly reliable, support was pretty much non existant. So if you know what you are doing and don't need any help with setting things up then they are a good value option.

As always, good solid advice. Cheers!