I am a UK webhost and therefore was thinking of using a UK credit card merchant account.

I recently came across this company Paystamp (http://www.paystamp.com) does anybody in these forums have any experience of them ?

Any help would be most welcomed!!

See
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=52939

Very good company so far, I await my first cheque this week. I have just under £300 in my PayStamp account. I highly recommend them. Fast support also. Bob is very helpful.

I know you say you are awaiting your first cheque of £300 is this of your choosing or is it set by the company?

The reason I ask is because I read this on their site.

7) How do I get paid?
You choose. Normally, we will make payments monthly whenever your site credit exceeds £15.00. We usually pay by cheque but we can also pay by postal order or direct transfer – the choice is yours

Hi
My first cheque will be for just £50 of the £300 in my account, this is due to them having to wait for the money to clear in there account which initially takes 45 days. But after the first 45 days it only takes 30 days for funds to clear and be paid our to my account.

I have setup a bank transfer (which is available on request) so my funds will go into my account automatic every 30 days.

Amazing that. I mean banks clear cheques quicker than that. You would of thought that with todays fast paced technology at least the UK would have a faster clearing system for Credit cards.

Or is this a case of Paystamp putting the money in their account for a while and getting some interest on it Hmmm one wonders !!

I used to be a retailer and I had a merchant account and we got paid every two weeks so why do online company's seem to make us all wait 21 ,30 ,or in this case even 45 days to get paid.

I think the reason for the delay in receiving your funds is due to a lot of fradulant orders been made with stolen cards online. PayStamp are not storing the funds for interest, but they have an internet merchant account which I beleive is a little different to a standard bank merchant account.

Chargebacks are the main problem, if someone uses someone elses credit card which is stolen to make a payment, and the owner does not realise it is stolen, then the card owner will notice the payment on his bill and request a charge back to his card. As far as I know chargebacks cost bank merchant a fee to process, plus the funds paid so over all it works out better for both parts to give this 30 day clearance time.

I have forwarded a link to this thread to Bob from PayStamp.com who should post a reply soon to clear the 'chargeback' status up.

That Paystamp have charge Backs well and truely covered. If you look in their Faqs you'll see this bit of information.

Therefore Paystamp do not incur any extra costs you do !

If charge-back is agreed, we will reimburse your customer immediately and then deduct the total sum plus an administration fee of £10.00 from your site credit

Good Evening Gentlemen.

paystamp.com is still very new. We read the comments in an earlier thread and I believe we have now addressed most of the issues raised. You can clearly read our 'charge-back' policy and I hope other aspects of the site are now in clear and unambiguous English. We listen and we learn!

Why does it take so long to get paid? Simply because we charge no up-front or annual charges. Our bank delays release of the funds so there is always a credit balance against any cashbacks. In fact, for UK web-masters our costs and payment terms compare very favourably with anyone else in this market.

If a site has the volumn to justify a full Merchant Trader account it would certainly be less expensive for them. Most of the sites who have signed up with us are either start-ups or too new to qualify for such an account so we feel we are serving a specific market.

And Bojangles, as for holding onto the cash so we can earn interest on it - nice idea but have you seen the interest rates on short term deposit?

I believe in six months time we will just be seen as another part of a web-site's armoury. Just one more tool in the business of making a site pay.

Best regards,

Bob

Obviously with no setup fee's and only a very small percentage of each payment they need to break even somehow.

Also, as it is your customer who entered the illegal card number it is only fair you pay the fee that PayStamp will be charged.

If you expect a lot of illegal transactions then it probably wouldnt be for you. So far I have had none, although I have had a few rejected payments due to the card holders address not matching the address entered by the customer.

They have quite a few fraud provention systems in place to keep fraud low.

Quick comeback on that point Bojangles. There is always a cost for chargebacks. Worst case for webmasters is if you have a few bad customers - say more than 3% - you are liable to lose your account altogether. Our conciliation service trys to avoid such problems by discussing with the customer and webmaster an agreed settlement. That takes time and we all know that costs.

The fact is - like it or not - the customer is protected. Without customer confidence, ecommerce will not succeed.

Thanks for reading this far.

Bob

I am not getting at Paystamp as I found the site and thought at last a provider dealing in sterling.

But did you read the bit quoted here

Our bank delays release of the funds so there is always a credit balance against any cashbacks.

therefore adding a little bit to what I have said earlier. If Paystamps bank delays the release then what I said earlier is correct.

Paystamp get the money into their account quicker than you think. Please note it says "Our Bank delays"

Onto something you addressd as well "barrywien"

although I have had a few rejected payments due to the card holders address not matching the address entered by the customer. so if the customer has just moved gave their new address and the credit card company has not had time to update their details then you could end up paying out more than you make. Hmmmm not very good.

And then if this happens more than 3% of the time or more you may end up losing your account even if it is a real mistake. Not very fair on the account holder with Paystamp only for the Credit Card holder.

No i put that wrong, if a payment is rejected there are no chargeback fee's or anything it just doesnt get added to my account balance. Chargebacks only occure if the customer fills the form in and the payment is authorised but then a few weeks down the line the real owner of the card receives his bill and see's the payment to PayStamp.com and knows he did not make any payment to such a firm, then he will request a chargeback and then the £10 fee will be due.

Hope that clears that up, with regards to changing address, one of the first things you should do when moving house is get your details moved over, you wouldn't want the people who move in receiving your credit card bill and seeing the debt you own now would you :cartman:

And with regard to the 3%, i think Bob meant this applys to the merchant (which in this case would be PayStamp) so if all of there customers keep getting chargebacks it gives them a sort of bad credit rating with there bank and they loose there internet merchant account meaning all there affiliates loose out in the long run.
But I beleive there customer database is getting large now so 3% will be a few hundred chargebacks or so.

Thanks guys for clearing all that up for me as I said I am thinking of using the company and am trying to see where all the pitfalls are etc etc.

As I said I am not being disrespectful, I am just making sure that I know the indepth details so there is no confusion at a later date.

Thanks for all your help !!

I'll be signing up soon.

Good Luck!

Hi
As promised, i am posting to let you all know i received my first payment today and I am very pleased with the service PayStamp offer.

I am now pointing all my orders to PayStamp as its such a great deal. FREE!!

Its also a good savings scheme. I am not the best saver in the world, infact I spend most of the profits I make within a week of receiving them.
But with PayStamp the 30day hold back has helped me save some extra spending money for my holiday this year.

Im off to the travel agents to get it exchanges now...:D


PayStamp.com come Highly recommended by Barrywien