You'd think being on WHT for so long and reading up I would be able to understand this, but maybe I am a bit dense with this. Can someone explain this is normal terms.


I have mypaysystems right now and I am located in Canada. I have been told in the past that when transactions reach $x,xxx per month that I should get a merchant account. Well I have been holding off for a while but I just looked at mypaysystems account and they took over 11% of income. So here is my question.

What is the difference between just having mypaysystems and getting a merchant account? Does this save me money or what are the benefits? I'd also still like to be able to integrate with whoiscart or I have considered switching to whmap and want to be able to take as many CC as possible and not have 20+ large countries of the world not be able to pay by CC.

Hopefully someone understands where I am coming from on this and can lead me the right way to improve my company. Thanks

Originally posted by hometownhosting
What is the difference between just having mypaysystems and getting a merchant account? Does this save me money or what are the benefits? Generally with your own merchant account you'll have monthly fees (like a gateway fee and possibly a statement fee) that you don't have when using a third party provider, but you pay a much lower discount rate and usually no per-transaction fee.

So you have to find a deal for a merchant account and gateway, and do the math to see whether the increased monthly fees are outweighed by the lower transaction fees.

And generally you'll also have much more flexibility as far as integrating with any other software, as well as with taking charges from countries that your third party provider may have decided not to accept.

Originally posted by JayC
... and usually no per-transaction fee. I think the majority of merchant accounts also have a per-transaction fee. In fact, I have yet to see any combination of gateway/merchant account that doesn't have one.

Am I missing something? :confused:

Yeah, that should have said "usually lower per-transaction fee." Generally around 25 cents compared to $1 or more for the third party providers.

Well and depending on where you are located, Paysystems has their own merchant account provider now in the US & UK. They stil have their third party platform in parts of the world as well.

They all have a per transaction fee for the gateway. Normally the transaction fee is for the gateway while the discount rate is for the processor.

So I would still need paysystems as well as something like PSIGate?

Well Paysystems will offer you their gateway. I cannot remember what gateway they use right now. In Canada, they do not have th merchant account platform, but they are trying to within the next couple of months.

To be honest I don't like paysystems and they have a huge list of countries they won't accept credit cards from and such. I'd like to find a better option. I am located in Canada. Do $x,xxx in transactions monthly via paysystems presently and would like a better setup. What do you guys recommend I do? I presently use whoiscart but will likely go to whmap which I believe v3 will have PSIGate integration. What else would I need? Sorry, not a newb to hosting, but a newb to merchant account stuff.

Well there are only a couple of merchant accounts in Canada actually: InternetSecure or PSiGate that most everyone goes thru. You will also find a lot of resellers as well that will sell their services. I beleive both take about 7-10 days to get approved. The monthly fees are somewhat higher than the US as well as the discount rate unfortunately.

So do you think I am better to just stay with paysystems or try and figure out this other stuff?

Do you due diligence. Contact each company & see what they can offer you: https://www.internetsecure.com/prices.html and http://www.psigate.com/pricing.asp

And then compare that to what paysystems is offering you. Weigh that with what Paysystems is charging you. You already have a baseline of what your transactions are, volume etc - so you are a step ahead of most people. Most people are just guessing at their volume, etc

Thanks for the help corey.

Anytime - I am sure one of them will be able to help you. Remember, it might be a little more expensive for you but in the long run, it might be better. Good luck with it!!

What do you think of internetsecure? So far I like it better then PSIGate but would like to hear what someone who has used it thinks?

I figured out the cost difference and if the monthly revenue stays the same through it, it would cost $10/m more which really means nothing...

Personally, I really do not know either, but from what I have seen, PSIGate does seem a better choice usually for most people.

My vote is for PSIGate. I don't use them (yet), but after a lot of discussion between the sales people from psigate and internetsecure, I believe psigate is a better company.

You could also try asking the fellow who owns this website here:
http://digitallyjustified.com/merchant.php

I believe he is a reseller for psigate and he could answer some of your questions about them.