I got an email from payitquick.com today. (I'm signed up to a mailing list at one their partner sites) Apparently they are a new site like paypal.com. Now there are so many clones are there and most of them fail because they are fly by, but these guys have a weird business model.

It caught my attention, so I signed up, it was like $5.00 but they don't charge you right away, you just start out with a negative balance, and as they advertised in the email "Accept payments without fee's" I checked the products section. It's all really basic, just buy it buttons, no IPN or anything like paypal has, but when I tested it, basically what happens is they charge the user the fee as opposed to the seller. After some curiosity I played around and found out that they don't make the user signup either (if they don't have an account they can just use a credit card like a normal trnasaction).

Anyway, the fact that they don't have an IPN is a turn off, and the charging the user's thing is weird, I'm not sure if that's the route to go, however this is quite tempting. I contacted them earlier and they told me that they won't implement an IPN, but they are working on an API to allow tranasactions like a real payment gateway, so that's actually really nice, but again the fee structure is weird, anyone have any input on this? Is it a good idea to charge user's the fee's?

thanks
jake

Well, the first question to ask yourself is this - are your customers going to be willing to pay an increased price for your services on each and every sale? Or will this dissuade them from using your service and/or have them go elsewhere?

Because that is what this is doing. If you are charging $10 today, you would be charging $12 (or whatever the surcharge + cost is) using that kind of a service.

So... you need to then figure out - how many will you lose vs. the money you would save on the transaction level.

For instance: say that 10 people want to sign up with you and its a $10 item. With the surcharge from this service, it is $12... and only 8 people sign up. You've lost 2 sales x $10 = ($20). And you've saved perhaps $1 or less x 8 people = $8.
That's a net loss of ($12).

On a general level, I've seen so many of these 3rd party processing companies go out of business over the years that I certainly wouldn't recommend them. You can see some of the situations that have happened with less established 3PP's right here in the forums.

My suggestion is always to either setup your own merchant account or to use an established third party processor that isn't in any immediate risk of going out of business.

I hate paypal, i mean i've had such bad experiences with them that I just won't go back. These guys offer the same prices as 2checkout, but they charge the user. Now I thought about it and I guess it's not as big a deal, people are used to companies tacking little fee's on (Just as the phone company does) and it would be nice to get away from 2checkout since these guys allow you to withdraw money from your account via a direct bank deposit (like paypal does) which is really nice to have. I'm going to contact them and see if they offer the option to charge the seller instead of the buyer, that would be very cool :)

UPDATE: I have been in contact with one of the upper ups in the company (Artie) and I was told that within the next week to two weeks they will be offering a full API so that I can conduct transactions without having the user leave my site as well as the option to have the seller accept the fee's instead of the buyer. So far the support has been great and if they do as promised I'll try them out and see how they work, I guess I'll post my experience here for others see. Has anyone else got an account?

Look at this: http://www.scriptlance.com/projects/1080845244.shtml

Hmmm, looks like they found their programmers off of scriptlance? Is this bad or something? I don't understand.:confused:

Well, I mean just how serious would you take someone who plans $500 for the development of such a system, uses a merchant account at GeoTrust and says "And, of course, it needs to be very secure!"

I think soon we will have a similiar overgrowded market of PayPal clones like we have for webhosts. But this time it is going to be a bit more problematic, because the money involved from their clients will be ALOT more.

I'm not sure if you've ever used ScriptLance before, but most of the time those bids are completely wrong. Did you go look at the site? It's amazing, and i'm not in the design/programming market but I know that that goes for big money, at least thats what i've seen around. Never the less, the site seems well done and I doubt there's something to worry about, but I have no problem being a guinea pig so I guess it might just be me.....anyway, I'll get back with my experience daily for the next week or two and we'll see how it goes.

personally, I think www.empcorp.com is much better, and charge less fees, they allow you to print your own checks - a very easy way to withdraw money outside the US.

That site doesn't even work. :eek: Have you tried Payitquick?

UPDATE: I received an email today saying that they have created an IPN feature for the time being until they can get the API up and running and they will have an option to charge the seller instead of the user by the upcoming monday. I know that the big guys are probably more stable, but I don't think I'll get this kind of support from 2checkout or revecom, but maybe i'm wrong. I've never used 2checkout, but I hear bad things about it and Revecom was a pain in the *** if you had a chargeback, but other then that they were great. We'll see I guess....

They don't use SSL

It seems to be working fine, I'm running Mozilla though, maybe it's an IE problem? (Ironic isn't it? lol)

Oh I am using Mozilla too
regardes

Yep, we turned SSL off during an Apache rebuild, it's all working now.

[UN]Jake,

why does It seems you're the owner of PayitQuick promoting it here....hmm..!

I don't know, is that what it looks like? Im just providing a review on a new service, and looking for other people's opinions. Honestly? It'll take a few months of testing and monitoring to even consider using them as a fullime processor but I'm willing to keep an eye on them.

Hello every one I have just read this thread and chated with one of their agents , and here is a copy of the chat
I'm in no way affiliated with them , and I never heard about them before now .
( I'm still searching for paypal ikobo and 2CO alternative )


Agent :- Hi, how can I help you?
HonestMan :- Hello :- ) Im from ...( non-US country ) can I open an account ?
Agent :- You will need a valid credit card and checking account to verify your account. But, yes, other than that you can open an account.
HonestMan :- Debit card works ?
Agent :- If it's a debit card with either the Visa or MasterCard logo than yes it will work.
HonestMan :- Visa electron
HonestMan :- works ?
Agent :- It should work. I just checked with my supervisor and he said it should. We haven't had any accounts from your country .
Agent :- Give it a try and if for some reason you can't get your account to verify just email me at ……@payitquick.com and I will look into it for you.
HonestMan :- I use it with paypal but I can't use it with other sites like eBay for example
HonestMan :- Ok another point Saving account works with you ?
Agent :- No, it must be a checking account in order for the verification to process.
Agent :- And for you to be able to do the withdrawals.
HonestMan :- ok how I receive funds and in which currency ?
Agent :- If your bank is connected to the ACH network you can withdrawel the funds automatically to your bank, and it will convert to your currency. If not we can initiate a wire transfer.
HonestMan :- yes my bank has ACH but I want to receive my funds in USD
Agent :- Then the best in your case will be for us to either mail you a check in USD funds or if your savings account is in USD we can wire transfer the funds to it.
Agent :- The ACH will automatically convert to the native currency of the bank
HonestMan :- how if my bank account is in USD ?
Agent :- If you bank account is in USD than you are ok. Using our automatic withdrawal will transfer to that account and it should stay in USD funds.
HonestMan :- how much is your fees for that ?
Agent :- There is a small one time setup fee of $5 to cover the costs of verifying your account. There is no charge for receiving funds from your customers and there is no charge to withdrawal using the ACH program.
HonestMan :- :- )
Agent :- Our system is set up to charge the buyer a small processing fee.
HonestMan :- Do my clients need to open an account at you ?
Agent :- No
Agent :- When you create your payment buttons or integrate your website to do direct payments they can pay directly with a valid credit card. They will not have to create a PIQ account.
HonestMan :- What countries can I receive money from ?
Agent :- There are two different ways to receive money. One is that they pay with a valid Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover. So any country or customer with any of those cards can pay you. Or, they can pre-fund their PIQ account by transfering the funds from their checking account to their PIQ account, and then pay you.
Agent :- Allot of our clients like to pre-fund their account to save money on the credit card processing fees. And then just pay for purchases with the available funds in their PayItQuick account.
HonestMan :- Do you hold any amount of my funds ?
Agent :- No
Agent :- Since each client is verified we can prevent fraud and do not need to hold any of your funds. You can withdraw the funds as soon as they clear the clients card or bank.
HonestMan :- what about chargeback then ?
Agent :- We cover the expenses for chargebacks up to $100. If for some reason their is a major chargeback associated with your account we will investigate it on a case by case basis. But there is still a chance you will be charged. It is recommended that you leave the funds you earn in your PayItQuick account for at least 30 days to help cover a chargeback if it does occur.
HonestMan :- This is why I ask you if you hold some funds
Agent :- Our verification process is set up to help prevent fraud and in most cases this is enough to prevent chargebacks. We are constantly adding more security and verification features to help ensure you will not need to worry about chargebacks.
HonestMan :- When my clients pay me , Do they see my name or my company name ?
Agent :- Yes, you are in control of your profile and can have the account show your company name if you desire.
HonestMan :- How much exactly you charge my clients to pay me ?
Agent :- If they pay you directly with a credit card they are charged 5.5% plus .55 per transaction. Or they can pre-fund their account at just 4.5% and .45 per transaction.
HonestMan :- May I know for how long you have been in Biz ?
Agent :- 5 months
Agent :- We have been in business a total of 4 years, but PayItQuick is still fairly new. It took over a year of development and programming before we launched the site.
HonestMan :- I C , in fact I'm searching for alternative of Paypal , 2CO , ikobo
HonestMan :- Do you allow me to publish this chat at WHT after some modifications
Agent :- Sure. Just email me the link so that we can see it.
HonestMan :- it will be here http:- //www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=305776
Agent :- I was reading over some of it. We do have an IPN and a direct API feed, but our programmers will need to assist you with the setup. We have found that these methods of connection open doorways for hackers and invite fraud.
HonestMan :- My name there is Honestman , Do you agree to publish it ?
Agent :- yes
HonestMan :- ok Thanks ( I'll remove your email ,, and your name and my nickname too )
Agent :- ok
Agent :- Thanks for taking a look at us. I hope I helped answer your questions.
HonestMan :- Yes you are amazing but I will need to try to give an accurate opinion
Agent :- I understand. If you have any other questions I will be happy to assist you.
HonestMan :- In that case I'll email you at …….@payitquick.com
Agent :- ok
HonestMan :- Ok have a nice day thanks
Agent :- you to
Agent :- thanks again
HonestMan :- bye

Just to update you all
After reading their terms of service
I found ". Account Closure Requests - Any account owner that requests their account be closed, will be assessed a $25.00 administrative fee. "

Very strange $5.00 to open an account and $25.00 To close it ??? :confused: :confused:

Hello HonestMan this is Artie, the agent you talked to using the PayItQuick live support chat. I wanted to clear up the matter of the account closure fee for everyone.
Our account creation and verification process allows us to accurately determine the ownership of the users credit card and checking account, but in some rare cases with other payment processors (we haven't had anyone attempt it with us yet), it is possible for a user to verify their own personal checking account and still post a stolen credit card in their account.

Let me explain.

One of the methods used to make fraudulent transactions online is to create an account with a payment processor, like ours, buy a ton of things with a stolen credit card, and then turn around and close the account with the payment processor.
If the credit card has already been reported as missing or stolen than the transactions are denied on the spot and we report the users contact information to the authorities. If, for some reason, the credit card has not been reported as missing or stolen, than the transaction will still go through as normal, including the verification of the card when the account is first created. The checking account information that is entered in their PayItQuick account has to be accessed by the user in order to fully verify it. Meaning that the user will need to have access to the checking account in order to see what the two small deposit amounts are that we make into that account and then verify it within their PayItQuick account.

By making the user mail us a check or money order in the amount of $25 to close the account it allows time for the credit card to be reported as stolen from the original owner. We would then still have that users contact information and checking account information on hand to use to report the fraudulant activity to the authorities.
Even if the credit card was not reported as stolen by the time the check is received and the account closed, we still retain all user contact information, including their verified checking account information, for a period of 90 days.

In most cases this will allow us to go after the buyer, or the person that used the stolen credit card, for the transaction amounts and fees instead of "kicking back" those transactions and fees to the seller.

We will look into account closures on a case by case basis. If your account has been established and you have been doing transactions for a longer period of time than we will not charge you to close your account (unless you have a negative balance in your account). Like I mentioned above, this method is to discourage "fly-by-night" accounts. If an account has just been established, has made allot of transactions, and then requests a closure (all within a day or two), than that user will be notifed of the closure agreement and information on mailing us the closure fee, as well as flag their account information for monitoring against the national database for stolen credit cards.

Just one more way we are protecting the seller against chargebacks due to fraudulant transactions.

I hope this helped clear up your questions on our account closure fee. We are taking another look at that section of our terms of agreement and will be making some changes to it soon to make it easier to understand.


Thanks!

it certainly is not a good business model. I believe merchants like more sales rather than more protection, since most buyers would be honest

lyoung,

With the many cases of fraud and identity theft issues of today, merchant account protection is the number one concern online.
Our top priority is maintaining the security of our site and our users account information.
I encourage you to view the many forums available with the 1,000's of issues that even the larger payment processors deal with.
For example:
www.PayPalSucks.com

Artie

In today's market and world, if you were to rely on honest buyers, your business would have gone under already. Security is what is important, as a team, we feel that security is what sellers look for.

yes, but if that jeopardise sales, no merchant would tolerate it. The best way is to offer phone check, IP check, CVV2 and VBV etc, not to charge buyers instead of sellers.