Hi

I have newly constructed website and would like to start selling goods over the internet. All by mail-order.

I would like to be able to accept PayPal, Credit cards and Debit cards like Switch.

I know about setting up a company but have no idea on how start accepting card payments - especially on the net.

Does anyone do such a thing here and could you give me some kind of direction?

Many thanks for any advice.

It's appreiciated.

Swerve1000,

Paypal is pretty straight forward to setup. Go to paypal.com and setup an account and follow their merchants tutorials to setup your shop.

As far as it goes for an merchant account I would get an account with Authorize.net with "Real-time" processing. This will allow users to use their credit card to order online, process the payment and send you the results. Then all the money will be deposited to your business account each day.

You can purchase a shopping cart script (there are also some free ones) that can be setup on your web site. These scripts typically integrate with the larger merchants and allow smooth checkout processes and billing. So look into some of those.

Redcoat thats fantastic. Many thanks.

I am correct in saying that Authorize.net operates as PayPal does as a third party company and so all you need is a bank account to recieve payments in cash. They are 'approved' to accept the credit cards etc?

Authorize.net will setup a payment gateway for your web site. In which they typically charge $0.25-$0.50 per transaction and anywhere between 1.9-3.9% of the total being charged. Its basically like a credit card machine you use at shopping stores but virtual. They take the credit process request, verify the account, charge it and post it to your bank account. It is better than paypal in my opinion.... more people have credit cards than they do paypal accounts.

Authorize.net also provides a web admin panel where you can login and view your transaction, issue refunds, charge-backs etc.

As far as I know, Authorize.net don't deal with UK companys which I assume (from your thread title) you are. Give www.worldpay.co.uk a look.

Thanks Redcoat. That's the kind of thing I'm looking for.

Worldpay you reckon JIM_UK? Does this place operate in a matching fashion? Thanks for any help.

Originally posted by Swerve1000
Worldpay you reckon JIM_UK? Does this place operate in a matching fashion? Thanks for any help.

Authorize.net are more like a merchant account and allow more intergration within your systems. Worldpay are a third party payment processor whereby you pass your buyers from your shopping cart script, to Worldpay who then process the payment (which can intergrate via callbacks with your system to send things like receipts). Worldpay will then deposit all payments in your bank account once a week (minus their fee). The advantage of this is that all payments are handled by an expert in this field (run by Royal Bank of Scotland) so you don't need to concern yourself with all the security concerns. The down point is that it's slightly less flexible than your own merchant account.

Paypal is another option but in my opinion Worldpay is a lot more professional and a minimum for anyone taking payments via the internet. I'm always wary of sites that only accept Paypal/Nochex.

Another option would be to speak to your bank about a merchant account. This will require a very large amount of application forums, credit checks though but it's best to speak to your bank directly on this.

Jim_UK thats excellent. Tres bien.

I'm gonna give that a go. The mailorder side of the business takes 1 hour a day and can provide a substantial income. If the markets right.

If you understand website design I need a 100 pound site and logo doing. Send me a PM!

Just fror your information... Paypal no more requires users to signup before they purchase.. so it now works exactly like others..

purchase...checkout...enter credit card/debit card number... and you are done..

so your customer has a paypal account or not doesnt matter anymore.. also you won't have to pay any monthly fees with paypal...

^^^^ Many thanks. That is a big advantage.

Thread moved.

Originally posted by domainwala
Just fror your information... Paypal no more requires users to signup before they purchase.. so it now works exactly like others..

purchase...checkout...enter credit card/debit card number... and you are done..

so your customer has a paypal account or not doesnt matter anymore.. also you won't have to pay any monthly fees with paypal... Question: does this work with people who live in paypal non-eligible countries?

I emailed paypal and have never received a response. They simply told me to phone them.

WorldPay is a good option but also very expensive.

Why not get your own merchant account ? You can speak with your bank about it.

Merchant account may be better for big and serious business. Authorize net is only for US residents, but as I know it only offers gateways and not merchant accs.

Im sure authorize does do merchants...

As for the paypal side, its only for supported countries.

And it proves pretty hard to use for novice users..trying to ignore login fields etc is pretty hard and confused buyers.

Originally posted by ldcdc
Thread moved.

Question: does this work with people who live in paypal non-eligible countries?

I emailed paypal and have never received a response. They simply told me to phone them.

No. At checkout, the customer must enter a billing address that is within one of the supported countries. (You can set up a Buy Now button, click on it & click the option for customers without accounts, and you will see the list of supported countries for the purchase.)


Swerve1000, PayPal does support credit and debit cards, including Switch/Maestro and Solo, through our Account Optional checkout. Take a look at the checkout process to see whether it will meet your needs for credit card payments from customers without PayPal accounts.