I was looking recently for a payment alternative for iKobo. I've viewed stormpay website, looks pretty much like PayPal. Sounds to me easier than iKobo, can you tell me which you prefer?

Stormpay or iKobo?

Stormpay Rulez!

ikobo is down a lot ... never used stormpay

StormPay is expensive to receive, but very reliable. Best to use StormPay as a backup to iKobo. I agree, that iKobo are down a lot. Also, iKobo have just increased their fees for sending money. They now charge $5 + 4% as from 1st November. Also, to withdraw funds from their iKard, it has increased from $1.50 to $1.99.

Declined transactions also now have a fee whereas before they were free. Checkout the new fees! They are not listed yet, but will be shown on their website from November 1st.

Merchant fees remain the same thank goodness.

I decided to close business with iKobo.

Really? Oh... so sad. What are your reasons Nilomedia? And who is your replacement?

Reasons:

I don't like to send 10 identity documents to get my merchant limits raised. I have limit $1k per month, and I exceeded it, now I can't accept payments.

For a serious business, this is a real trouble for me.
Also for privacy I won't send them all they want. What I like about stormpay (even with the high fees) that they ask for ID, utility bill only. that makes me more comfortable.

I'm going to use StormPay after iKobo. I've used it to send/receive money, it was too fast, very easy. without all the security hassle at iKobo.

Another reason, iKobo starting to add more fees, perhaps their account will be for some fee later on too. I don't like the 25% holdback on my funds for whole 3 months too. I feel like I can't close my account or they're trying to me force me to do business with them.

The withdrawal limit at ikobo, there's not one at StormPay
The shopping at stormpay looks more better, more shops accept stormpay, more popular.

So these were the reasons,
and I just know of stormpay 3 days ago.

Now, I'm just trying to get my holdback funds and close account.

*thinking it's gonna be a war in the email with them* :D

IMHO ... it doesn't matter how cheap or expensive the service is .. if it's down or unreliable then it's a no-go

I was almost lost 3 orders to use ikobo as a sole 3rd party credit card processor on my website. Hers is the story:

(1) A regular UK customer tried to purchase a $11.00 dollar value item on my website, after he clicked on ikobo buy button, he saw "the item is not available for sale" on Ikobo secure page. But I alrady double cheked on ikobo's Manage Items' page, everything was fine. Consequently, I shipped him the item, and asked him to pay me later with Stormpay.

(2) Last week, another customer also saw the same error message on ikobo secure page when tried to buy via ikobo. I am afraid he is not interested to buy from me anymore.

I sent an email to ikobo about this issue, 3 days later I received their reply:
"You will need to contact our merchant specialist directly for this issue. You may contact him at lgarcia@ikobo.net. "

I did not bother to email to lgarcia@ikobo.net as I do not think lgarcia will reply me.

(3) Just yesterday, Ikobo blocked one regular customer to order item on my website, because this customer buys $100 value item every 2 weeks via ikobo, he bought 4 times already. This time (5th time), Ikobo requested him to fax his picture ID and utilities bills to Ikobo. My customer was very frustrated on this procedure, so I have to pass this order to Stormpay.

It is too early for me to tell which is better in between iKobo and Stormpay.

I think the new Ikobo fee only apply for new users who sign-up since November 2004? I think we still can maintain the old low fee?

No doubt, Strompay!

I doubt current customers can keep the same old fees. I think the new fees will apply to all.

Yeh, I experience the same frustrations with iKobo that cavalry is mentioning.

I have a current customer who has tried 3 times to pay with iKobo, and still without success. I have since passed them onto StormPay.

iKobo is very unreliable at times.

iKobo is very unreliable at times.
That should be 'iKobo is very unreliable at most times.'

For someone who was starting to become a fan of iKobo is starting to get pissed off.

Today have had 2 customers who hate iKobo because they need to provide a lot of documentation to identify themselves prior to sending payment. I then forwarded their orders via StormPay. StormPay is so much simpler for some customers.

If customers are not from 1st world countries, iKobo seems to make their life difficult.

SO you assuming that the USA is a 1st world country then ;)

It's not nice to make such a distinction, but we all know what I mean.

Or maybe I mean the USA is always 1st in the world to create havoc?

Or maybe I mean the USA is always 1st in the world to create havoc?

That statement I have NO problem with :)

Hey, good to hear it! Am sure many others would agree with us. :)

yeah .. but most of them are on the FBI watch list ...

BTW: Any chance we could be ever-so-slightly off topic here :)

Originally posted by columbus


If customers are not from 1st world countries, iKobo seems to make their life difficult.

Not only ikobo, I would say all credit card processor will do the same thing...:o

Originally posted by WebWobbler
SO you assuming that the USA is a 1st world country then ;) :cool:

We have been talking about 1st and 3rd world world countries,
I am curious who are the 2nd world countries then..? :D

Well, I don't care if stormpay charges more fees. They answer me always in a few hours. I'll move to stormpay.

Nilomedia, yeh I'm starting to agree with you here.

I've received email from iKobo (regarding my request to terminating my account)

I'm sorry but you will have to wait 90 days before you can withdraw your funds.

and a nice thank you for your interest... I think these guys do every attempt to "restrict" your moves and put you in one way situation "you can't close your account" because you have some money within the account.

Well, business should be restriction-free, and I reserve the right to close doing business with them when I need. I don't see in their legal that you can't close your account.

Actually this down in ikobo, makes a great up for stormpay system. I'm going to give them a try, if such situation ever arise, I'll try another one :)

Sure I'll update you with my newer experience.

Nilomedia,

I believe ikobo wants to hold your money for 90 days because ikobo wants to protect themself from chargeback, in case if this happens. Please beware the buyer can dispute the transaction up to 6 months.

I did not close my account with ikobo, but ikobo holds my money for 90 days as well.

And I do not think it is necessary to close ikobo account if you do not feel like to use their service. Ikoko might improve their services and features in the future. Futhermore, we do not have more options of 3rd party processor if we are not in the US. It is no harm at all if you maintain Ikobo account even if you do not want to use it. I suggest to keep it as back-up.

Some other 3rd party processors like ccavenue hold 5% reserve for 180 days, and transactindia holds USD 100 until we close the account, worldpay might hold 2 months of our monthly sales turnover....etc...

Originally posted by columbus
iKobo have just increased their fees for sending money. They now charge $5 + 4% as from 1st November. Also, to withdraw funds from their iKard, it has increased from $1.50 to $1.99.

Declined transactions also now have a fee whereas before they were free. Checkout the new fees! They are not listed yet, but will be shown on their website from November 1st.

Merchant fees remain the same thank goodness.

Columbus,

Is this $5 + 4% for P2P?
I do not like this declined transaction fee.
Do you have any idea about ikobo's new merchant fees? :confused:

Cavalry, I understand. but, all my clients were private ones, who I already know & trust. I am sure that no chargeback can come in.

Nilomedia,

I understand you know your customers well; but the issue is Ikobo does not know your customers.

Just like my case, one of my customers already cleared his 4 times of credit card payments via Ikobo, but in the 5th time, ikobo blocked his credit card, and asked him to fax documents. My customer was very frustrated. I know this customer is a good man, but this is not for ikobo, ikobo has their different business point of view.

It is not going to benefit you at all if you talk to ikobo that you want the fund and you want to close the account. You will make ikobo more suspicious your intention.

I do not like ikobo, and I do not hate ikobo. I just realized I cannot count on them anymore. What I am going to do is I just cut down my business activities with them, and wait for the fund for 3 months.

In conclusion, Ikobo will not give us the money right away even we want to close the account, what for we want to close the account?

This is only my persoanl thought.

Don't close your account, it won't hurt -- after 90days withdraw your holdback funds and move on.

Yes, you are absolutely right!
I'd better mind my own business!

Hello Columbus,

I am selling tangible products with stormpay now, after I shipped
the goods, do I have to key in "order shipped" button on stormpay
secure page? I did not find any "order shipped" features on stormpay page, how do I inform stormpay I already shipped the goods?

I already email to stormpay, but they have not replied to me.
Thanks

Hey NiloMedia,
I know ur from egypt, and I am Egyptian as well. I use Ikobo and stormpay, and I don't think Stormpay will work for Egyptians for 2 reasons:
1) When Withdrawing by cheque, cheques never actually arrive (egyptian postal service sux)

2)Bank Wire Fees are $20 as far as I remember

m_php,

Comparing ikobo and stormpay, which do you like better?

About the cheque or money order, I think the money order will be cleared by stormpay, and you will get the money in your stormpay account? I am guessing..

Bavk wire $20 is considered not expensive if comparing to other processors.

just build up some money in the account ... then the U$20 is not such an issue .... but if you want to withdraw U$5 at a time then its not too good ;)

Yes, need to accumulate enough money then worh U$20 for wire transfer. But this will take risk if the processor runs away, just like pay-line and paysystems. This is merchants' sad song.

Buy the way, WebWobbler, what flag are you holding?

Look like a Singaporean flag, but it has no moon and star..only 2 colors

Polish ... From Warsaw ... not living there now though ...

Oh..I see, do you miss Poland?

I try and go where the money is ...

So, did you find any places that have plenty of money?

Yeah .. but I'm not sharing ...

Oh.....understood...but congratulations and good luck!

;) :evilb:

Ha..ha...where did you get the image with the flag?

Check out this Stormpay rate here, I think this is for the US users:

http://www.stormpay.us/fees.htm

Originally posted by cavalry
m_php,

Comparing ikobo and stormpay, which do you like better?

About the cheque or money order, I think the money order will be cleared by stormpay, and you will get the money in your stormpay account? I am guessing..

Bavk wire $20 is considered not expensive if comparing to other processors.

I prefer Ikobo,
and about the money orders, i didn't mean funding the account, i meant withdrawing ut earnings.

for the bank wire fees, $20 is expensive compared with the Ikobo I-Kard ATM withdrawal fee which is $1(till nov), or point of sale fees which are $0.

And honestly if ur sales exceed the $1000 per month, just fax the documents and u'll get ur limit raised or get urself a merchant account

Thanks m_php,

I would like to know how does Stormpay's money order work?
I am assuming the US customer can mail the money order to Stormpay, after Stormpay cleared the money order, then the US customer can use the fund from the cleared money order in his Stormpay account to buy things, right?

But ikobo ATM withdrawal has limit, it charges USD 1.50 per withdrawal, and only can withdraw maximum USD 263.00 per withdrawal, and up to 2 withdrawals per day.

it's in the smileys ... open a new post .. click on [more smileys] ... a window will open and you can choose from there ...

I don't like stormpay because you cannot transfer funds to international bank accounts.

Okay, ha..ha.. here you go, thanks..

:beer:

Originally posted by Alyssa26
I don't like stormpay because you cannot transfer funds to international bank accounts.

Stormpay can wire transfer fund to you, it costs $20 per wire:
http://www.stormpay.com/stormpay/user/about_us.php?v=f

Is this what you mean?:popcorn:

Yes, but 20$ is a little too much for me. As m_php
said, I prefer to withdraw my earnings. I think it's easier and cheaper. And if I think again it's faster too. Then again this is only my opinion.

In overall, Stormpay is more expensive, comparing to ikobo

Yes, this was my impression in the first place.

But reliability and security is more important anything elase...

Yeah, Ikobo seems to be cheaper, and as Alyssa said, I want to withdraw my earnings when I want/need to, not to wait for my earnings to reach a certain value baring in mind the $20 wire fees.

Ah, and another thing regarding security and reliabilty, Ikobo is secure enuf, and is relatively reliable though down sometimes. It seems to be that nothing is perfect and there must be some compromises.. I've made my choice long ago and went with Ikobo

*Note: When I chose Ikobo i was already familiar with the stormpay system and found ikobo alot better*

No, I did not say stormpay is better than ikobo, as I am a new user to strompay.

But ikobo has been down for whole day..!

I agree, Ikobo isn't that reliable..

well, here's is a nice conculsion:
Ikobo isn't that good, neither is stormpay... if only we could use paypal :)

I'm in a muddle... What other options do we have?? Myself I've thought ALOT about 2CO, specially I am going to sell tangible products in the near future, and I won't be dealing with local customers, and I will be selling antiques and house decorations, so I don't expect that much charge backs.. I don't think 2CO will be that bad.

I think selling intangible products are much less hassle than tangible produsts, because selling tangible products involve physical shipping, and you might lose the shipment, and your customers might complain they receive a damage item during the long journey, furthermore you need to cacalute the different shipping charge on your shopping cart. If I have a chance, I prefer to sell intangible products.

I prefer to use paypal, but I cannot withdraw money from paypal account in my country.

I heard 2CO has some problems lfrom this forum..check it out..

2CO is my only option as I am 17 only, there would have been other options.. I am not even sure if Egyptians can have online merchant accounts, perhaps one of the merchant account providers here can help..

About tangible products, I already sell templates, web design logos, hosting as E-goods, I am just starting a new business which i think would be very profitable.. plus I will be shipping with DHL, which is kinda expensive, but very reliable (my cost of sales are very low)

Ikobo is up again ... maybe they made some upgrades to their system ... Anyway my account is unchanged so I'll stick with them for the moment.

Same here, stickin with Ikobo Untill further notice, and withdrawing my earnings weekly :)

Yeap, yeap :))

m_php, do you have ikobo as sole payment processor ?

For web design (I do a few web design jobs per month because i don't have that much time) I use Ikobo, and sometimes customers pay me via western union.

For my hosting business(Target Market), I will be using Ikobo plus a local thing called cashu (http://www.cashu.com). Cashu will be the primary payment method, while Ikobo will be the secondary payment method for VISA card holders (unitill the volume of sales through Ikobo exceeds $1000 per month, then I will probably move to 2CO)

Last and not least, for the online store (Target market is Europe and USA), I will be using Paypal, safe and reliable, and most importantly people trust paypal.

*Note: I am still planning both the hosting and online store business, I am just stating what I am GOING TO do in the near future, so absolutely no experience with CashU and 2CO)*

OK, so basically ikobo works for you as well. It's good to see others using it with good results.

Originally posted by m_php
For web design (I do a few web design jobs per month because i don't have that much time) I use Ikobo, and sometimes customers pay me via western union.


What did you after all ? Did you opened your online stores?

Ikobo would be SOOO nice if they weren't down sooo much !!!

What do you say about paypal that was down for several days ? :( At least ikobo were upgrading their servers ...

yes but ikobo are constantly doing something, htey are down a lot more then paypal

they were down 4 days this year ... paypal was down 4 days continuously only last month ... so I don't agree with you at all

It's true ikobo has been down a little. Lately this hasn't happened in a while, so I suppose they've upgraded the servers or whatever they were doing. Luckily for me, I didn't have any problems when the servers were down.
I don't think this will happen again, they seem to have worked out the problems they've had.

I think so too ... We will just have to wait and see :)

Pretty much so. Lately things seem to have picked up with them, including their uptime. :)
No more problems for about 3-4 weeks, right?

fyi, you can get a much better discount rate if you process your cards using a 'real' merchant account. could save you substantial amounts if you do enough volume. i like authorizenet.com.

Maybe so, but with authorize.net for example you also have to have a merchant account, which means more fees, apart from the gateway fees. Right now I'm not doing that big of a volume, so it's not an option for me.
For now ikobo is enough.

Good news for ikobo merchants :)

Starting 15 Nov, the payment procedure for our clients was greatly simplified. They will not be required to go through the initial verification process. They will not be required to pay any fee to send you money, unless you indicate in your account that you wish to pass 10-100% of the fee to them.

Hey great stuff!!! ... now if only htey'd get rid of the initial sign up for the customers ...

Why would they do that? This way they get more customers and by logical deduction I will have more buyers. So, let them sign up :) It's a simple procedure.

as most people are too lazy to sign up for hosting and then for the payment .. they want it quick and simple .. otherwise they'll go elsewhere

We can't think that all people are lazy ... So what ... If they are lazy they won't shop from my store because they are too lazy to read the products description or to click on the buy button :) Let's be serious :))

Originally posted by WebWobbler
Hey great stuff!!! ... now if only htey'd get rid of the initial sign up for the customers ...
Eh well, you want it all now don't you? I say that so far they've been doing ok on improvements and stuff. I suppose that given time all of our requests (the ones with common sense of course) will be addressed one way or the other. Time will tell...

WebWobbler is somewhat right. We wouldn't want for our clients to go elsewhere but I won't get that far to say that they will not even complete a few textboxes just because they are lazy. My opinion is that the easier the signup, the easier to be hacked (paypal is a good example for this situation).

I love being right .. even if it's only 'somewhat' .. :evilb:

:D Well, good for you. I only said that in my opinion is not so good to give to anybody the power to make transactions without knowing anything about them. I hope that ikobo, using an extremely good security system, will make this possible because I wouldn't want to login one day and see that my account is empty because of some stupid hacker (believe it or not, it happened to me, but with other payment system ... I won't give names). But, until then let's concentrate on our marketing strategies ;)

If talking about hacker, then ikobo should provide us the customer phone number for verification purpose!
I do not see any reasons why we cannot have the customer phone number?

Well it may be something related to the customer's privacy or something. If someone decided to sue, then what would happen? :)
You never know, these days everybody is suing everybody for everything and anything.

I don't think it's about that. I see them as a continuously growing company and as a company which is always changing (for the better I hope :) ) they try to cover every aspect in order to beat their competition and also to respect their customers but in the end they do what they think it is best for the business because they can't cover every aspect in one shot. So, if you want something from them, send an e-mail. If others do the same, I am sure they will take it into consideration. You might even win a prize :)

Alyssa,

I did talk to their live help, but it seemed they could not do any thing on this request.
If the customer can sue for disclosing their phone number, then can they sue ikobo for disclosing their name and shipping address?

Furthermore, we are requested by ikobo to fax our personal information, are we going to sue ikobo?

The customer phone number is not a must; but it is better to have it to safeguard our transactions.

But what if your clients ask for your phone number just to make sure that you are a good merchant? What then?
I think that if ikobo removed the customer verification process, they did it with a reason. Imagine many customers making false transactions using fake ID. What would happen then? We all wouldn't use ikobo anymore because it will become a "paypal" and we do not want that, right?

Having a phone number does not mean will call the customer for verification; but just need the recipient (customer) phone number to be attached on the packing sleeve to safegurad the shipment.

I am selling tangible products.

I just want to do my best service for my customers, that's it.

I understand. If you really want this you can add a form field (on your own page) where you could ask for your customer's phone number. If the customer wants to give it to you then everything is ok and legitimate.

This is a good idea! Thank you Alyssa!

Well, I've studied IT (Just some basics)

You can't sue ikobo because you agreed to their terms of service (which you should read). After u agree to the terms of service, ur giving ikobo the right to have ur phone number, personal info etc. however they can't disclose these info to any parties except the government authorities etc.

So if you would like to avoid the "SUE ME" part, have a terms of service page and a privacy policy one and have them agree to the terms mentioned.

Should u disclose these info they provide to any person without their approval, they've got all the right to sue you.

The key here is having the agreement or consent of the client, and keeping these info confidential.

m_php,

I think we started this "sueing" topic from the customer phone number privacy issue. That is for general discussion only. I think I'd better keep my big mouth shut!

Just wanted to point out the legal point of view, thats all, its always good to know what to do before u find urself in court for a phone number lool

m_php,

Thank you!

Nobody's suing anybody here, ok? :)
We're all respectable people now, aren't we?
Good suggestion alyssa about adding a form field and also good suggestion by m_php about the privacy policy thing. Could prove quite useful.
Thing is I never ran into any problems of this type with ikobo so far, but who knows. It's better to be safe than sorry. :)

Search on google, second link. :)
It's a girl thing. ;)

OK, what happened here? There are some post missing....
Eh well, I suppose you weren't sure of what you said or something. Odd.
So, what news from ikobo have you got? :) Any updates, guess we should be expecting their monthly upgrades for December.... hopefully.

One question, can we use one ikobo account on multiple websites?

Nope, you can have one account per website. Guess it's the good old fraud prevention system again. :)

We can only have one ikobo account, but what if I want to use ikobo on two or three websites?

we use stormpay, mainly becasue it supports recurring billing and ikobo doesnt.

Originally posted by cavalry
We can only have one ikobo account, but what if I want to use ikobo on two or three websites?
Beats me... create multiple accounts, but not in your name, because if you do so you’ll probably have them blocked. I know it isn't such a good suggestion, but it's all I can think of right now. Try speaking to them over at ikobo.custhelp.com via the live chat applet. They may have a better suggestion.

Stormpay does not provide customers' street address, this is troublesome for me since I am selling tangible goods.

What shopping cart are you using with stormpay? Dactyl

Can think about it. Thanks Alex.

Originally posted by cavalry
Stormpay does not provide customers' street address, this is troublesome for me since I am selling tangible goods.

What shopping cart are you using with stormpay? Dactyl non right now, we only use the recurring billing for single items from them.

I know single buy button on Stormpay is very easy to use.

Besides ikobo's lower fees you have to take into consideration that their iKard feature is a much faster and easier way to get our money into our pockets. What is Stormpay's coverage?

Originally posted by Alyssa26
Besides ikobo's lower fees you have to take into consideration that their iKard feature is a much faster and easier way to get our money into our pockets. What is Stormpay's coverage? what do you mean? they send money via a check or a bank transfer, and they send money by check to almost all counties. But i still preffer 2CO

The most important thing is Stormpay can get the job done.

If ikobo turn down my customers, then I will recommend Stormpay, eventually my customers will become Stormpay customers. Ikobo does not want the business, but I want the business.

Furthermore, Stormpay can reply emails in less than 24 hours.
But ikobo never reply emails, except limits@ikobo.net, just because they need the documents.

I am talking about fact here.

What do you mean by almost all countries? Anyway, to transfer money by check, it will take some time until the check arrives at the recipient so the ATM withdrawal feature is much more convenient don't you agree ? 2CO could be an option, but hey have their share of problems too. I never had the chance to test their service but I read a lot about them on the internet.

Iam talking about stormpay, there are some countires that they dont do business with.

In fact, there is no perfect thing in the world. It is only depending on what we are looking for.

to Dactyl, ikobo does not send check, but we can wthdraw money with ikobo's Visa Electron debit card from ATM machines. Fast and convenience.

I heard 2CO has a lot of problems lately. They even approved for stolen card, and eventually merchant received a chargeback...I read this from this forum..

Originally posted by cavalry
In fact, there is no perfect thing in the world. It is only depending on what we are looking for.

to Dactyl, ikobo does not send check, but we can wthdraw money with ikobo's Visa Electron debit card from ATM machines. Fast and convenience. my problem is not with the Visa Electron, its that they dont support recurring billing.

Oh..!! Does Stormpay accept recurring billing?

Originally posted by cavalry
Oh..!! Does Stormpay accept recurring billing? yep, thats what i was saying :)

Ikobo = low fees, cant get money fast and convenience.
Stormpay = good quality customer service.

Dactyl,

So, how do you find Stormpay so far?
And how long have you been using Stormpay?

I feel like Stormpay customer service is the best among all 3rd party processors that I know.

I'v been using them for about 3 months now and they have been great, if they only process more Credit cards i would easily say that they are the best.
And you are right, their customer service is excellent.

I think Stormpay only accepts Visa and Master.
But I think accept chaeck is one of their strenghts.
Do you know how does their check work?
I assume the US customer can send them check, after the check is cleared, then they will inform customer to release goods.

But one thing I do not like about Stormpay is they do not provide customer street address. If I want to ship tangible goods, I need to contact customer for ther shipping address, this is not efficiency in business point of view.

Originally posted by cavalry
to Dactyl, ikobo does not send check, but we can wthdraw money with ikobo's Visa Electron debit card from ATM machines. Fast and convenience.

If you are an US merchant they can send your money directly into your account by bank transfer too. But I still prefer the iKard feature.

I ned to go to do some exercise now, nice to talk to you. Dactyl.

Yes, I love ikard too, feel secure will get the money.

Originally posted by cavalry
I ned to go to do some exercise now, nice to talk to you. Dactyl. same here :)

Originally posted by cavalry
Ikobo = low fees, cant get money fast and convenience.
Stormpay = good quality customer service.
Guess you could add very good coverage to ikobo's pros.
Yes, I love ikard too, feel secure will get the money.
I know what you mean, pretty convenient. I like it as well.

is stormpay like paypal where people need to register before they can make payment?

in other words, will they need to setup a stormpay account?

yes they would

ikard feature is very very cool.

Originally posted by kelvinklay
ikard feature is very very cool.

I agree! :emlaugh: