We have a Canadian based client that is having a hell of a time getting an inexpensive Canadian based merchant account. Do any of you have any suggestions or contacts you can share with us ?

Man aren't there any nice and friendly Canadians on this board ??? :D

We went the simple route and used a 3rd party credit card processor. Perhaps that might be easier, but it depends on what you are doing.

Gotta love us :D

Who'd you use as your 3rd party processor ?

I think they would rather have their own merchant account.

I've been looking for one on and off for a few months now but still haven't found anything that really interests me. Our clients are split about 50/50 Canadian and other, but we're currently charging everyone US price with our current 3rd party processor (2checkout). I'd like to find one that's not too expensive and will allow for all transactions to be made in Canadian funds. I'll be sure to follow this thread as I'm interested too :)

I've seen this one mentioned here before: http://www.merchant-accounts.ca

I have no experience with them.

revecom / paysystems.com is a canadian company, they offer 3rd party payment options though, not merchant accounts.

If your client does not want live credit card transactions, Quicken offers cheap (no setup, just 3.5% and .35 per trans - you do have to buy their Home & Business software).

The only catch is that it works with the Quicken software, so you need to send your customer an electonic invoice, where they go to surefire's site to do the actual processing. But there are no minimum's, etc.. so it may be a good way to go.

cheers, Jeff

TD has that. I am not so sure, what "cheap" is. :D

Go to the bank, and sign up for MOTO merchant accounts with them. Search for posts I've made in the past about merchant accounts, you will find a lot of information concerning Canadian Merchant Accounts and Canadian Banks...

Canadian Banks are lagging behind with the Internet. Your best bet is someone like Internet Secure, but you don't get your own Merchant Account... not completely.

I really recommend Moneris Solutions- a joint venture between Bank of Montreal and Royal Bank. It processes both Visa and Mastercard, since in Canada the law says that each bank may only have one card that they can process/issue (for monopoly reasons.) Moneris is the solution these two banks have made specifically for Canadians seeking online merchant accounts.

If you need coding help with the setup I have experience with Moneris and am available for hire on these kind of jobs.

Moneris Solutions is undergoing massive layoffs and has a notorious reputation for poor customer service, especially when the merchant accounts are less than $1,000,000 in transactions per month and/or the accounts are for companies that represent alternative viewpoints and/or lifestyles.

Personally, I like PSIGate (http://www.psigate.com) as a Canadian credit card processor. I find their discount rate a little high (you may want to negotiate with the banks) but their COM object is easy to use and integrate with an ASP script.

And I agree with refcom to a certain point: go to the bank. Don't ask for a MOTO account though; ask for an Internet account specifically (TD, among others, distinguishes between the two. The discount rate is the same but the terms of service differ and at least this way, you don't get hurt down the road because you didn't tell them what you were doing with the account.)

Whatever you do, avoid the Banque Nationale du Canada/National Bank at all costs. Their discount rate is 5.5-6% and they are absolutely brutal for service.

Hope this helps.

surefirecommerce.com its a canadian company and they offer Merchants Accounts.

Originally posted by successful
Man aren't there any nice and friendly Canadians on this board ??? :D

Nah, we're all pissed-off hosers and we hate your stereotypes so take off, eh? No back bacon or twofours for you, you knob! :D

fyi - Quicken uses surefirecommerce.com, but you do not have to pay the $299 setup fee (you do have to pay the $80 for Quicken Home & Business), BUT as I said earlier, with Quicken it is not live, they get an e-mail with a link to surefire to do the cc processing.

cheers

Originally posted by successful
Who'd you use as your 3rd party processor ?

I think they would rather have their own merchant account.

We are using Revecom/Paysystems. If you would like to be able to bill in US or Canadian funds you can but you need to setup two different accounts with them. Their services has been excellent.

You should check out Bank of Montreal.

Again, Bank of Montreal goes through a company called Moneris (see my earlier post). They...are...eeeeeeeeeevil.

Everyone else are dunce caps. I went to TD Bank, and they were like:

Me: "Do you guys have any information on an Internet Merchant Account"
TD Bank: "huh, what's that."
Me: "forget it, bye"

That doesn't surprise me. The vast majority of bank services in Canada are subcontracted out to companies that were formed from mutual bank partnerships and in some cases (including the case of the company I used to work for) formed from the divisions of the banks that were losing money. (Let's see...losing money + losing money + losing money...=yeah, making money! That's a good solid economic formula for success, isn't it?)

The reason why these companies are losing money is that they attempt to cut costs by hiring the cheapest workers available at the time. Unfortunately, cheap doesn't always mean qualified...or competent...or coherent...or trustworthy...or in any way motivated whatsoever. I used to see people taking half-hour coffee breaks and two-hour lunch breaks, and then going on sick leave on the rare occasions a supervisor called them out on it (not that it mattered all that much because 95% of the time these people never worked anyway.)

TD Bank is one of the banks that has formed such partnerships with other banks and formed these companies.

Moral of the story: use a credit union.

What's so bad about Moneris?

check out google and do a search on canadian merchant accounts

Hello,

We are a canadian based company and we use a canadian technologie for the credit card payment.

Moneris Solution provide us our merchant account(visa/master/amex-> for under 500$) and we use psigate.com like processor.

This is a good formula for us!
www.moneris.com

Emeric
NationalHost

Originally posted by hostingplex
What's so bad about Moneris?

Again, it's a company that was formed through a partnership of three banks (TD, BMo and Royal) hoping to put together three losing divisions to make a profit. Their customer support is rude and unprofessional unless you happen to be a major client (over $1,000,000 in transactions per month), and they also have a reputation for mistreating clients that provide products/services representing alternative lifestyles and viewpoints (among other things, they recently shut down a homosexual men's online magazine--not a porn one, just a relationship issues one--for these types of views).

They're also "undergoing a phase of corporate restructuring" (read: mass layoffs which will undoubtedly have an overall effect on the company.)

Other than that...no reason. :)