As the title suggests, I want to process and accept payments directly on my site without the buyer having to leave it and input their credit card data on a third party site such as Paypal, Moneybookers, 2CO etc. Does anyone know how to go about this, and if its possibles to do so when I run a small business (I've only seen large companies do this). I currently use WHMCS and I'm aware it has no built in option to do this, but I wouldn't mind paying someone to built a custom module for me :)

As the title suggests, I want to process and accept payments directly on my site without the buyer having to leave it and input their credit card data on a third party site such as Paypal, Moneybookers, 2CO etc. Does anyone know how to go about this, and if its possibles to do so when I run a small business (I've only seen large companies do this). I currently use WHMCS and I'm aware it has no built in option to do this, but I wouldn't mind paying someone to built a custom module for me :)

You need what is called a merchant account. The process for this really depends where you live (I don't know of any in Poland, sorry!), but, you get a merchant account and then a gateway which allows you to take CC's online. Generally though, it does involve a fair bit of setup costs simply for the accounts.

Ignoring the accounts and their setup costs, there are also setup costs for other things - SSL certificates (you might have one already), PCI compliance etc... Accepting credit cards on your site means you will be storing them, and there's a whole lot of issues that come with that. Unless you know what you are doing, you shouldn't be going anywhere near this.

I'm 99.999% sure WHMCS has support for a number of gateways.

PayPal actually does offer this service if you qualify and are willing to pay for it, but having your own direct merchant account is usually cheaper, depending on your sales volume.

PayPal pro cost £240 a year and allows you to do this - you dont need a merchant account either and you get free fraud protection and PCI compliance scans :)

paypal is a the worst for a merchant, the best for a client and a paradise for scams, you better go with a payment method were you can feel supported and secure. Believe, your money will not be safe with paypal

Really, its best to have both if at all possible. Its not like you can't have one if you have the other.

moneybookers is a good start, it admits transfer from most european banks plus it protects the merchant a bit more.

PayPal really isn't good and I'm surprised that a lot of companies use them as filing a disupte/claim will most likely get you your money back (unless you can provide a tracking number that you sent something to your client). In any case, both Moneybookers and PayPal make me input the credit/debit card data on their site, which isn't what I'm looking for. I guess I'll just have to use Moneybookers, shame that sites such as authorize.net aren't too friendly towards anyone out of the US :<

Why are you against using Payment Gateways(PG)? As a customer, I would not enter my CC details in a unknown site. However If that site uses a Reputable PG like Paypal, i would enter it. Risk is lower than using payment gateways

As with PGs customers only stand to loose the amount they have paid to merchant. however with details entered on the site itself, they is a risk that the credit card would be charged or worst sold in market. even if you don't do it yourself, there are chances some hacker might hack into your DB. we have live example of that in case of WHT.


So Are you willing to take so much responsibility ?

man, you need to get robbed by Paypal, you just do not understand it until it is too late. Paypal is NOT a bank, I do not know if people are aware of that. Do all yourselves a favor and visit www.paypalsucks.com, obviously the people complaining like me have suffered paypal's monkey-run department treatment with our money, would you like to be next?
In such case, do not forget I warned you.

see the cartoon attached, it explains a lot

man, you need to get robbed by Paypal, you just do not understand it until it is too late. Paypal is NOT a bank, I do not know if people are aware of that. Do all yourselves a favor and visit www.paypalsucks.com, obviously the people complaining like me have suffered paypal's monkey-run department treatment with our money, would you like to be next?
In such case, do not forget I warned you.

Most of us are well aware about Paypal and peoples complaints against it. Maybe one day, we'll all be affected too.

As long as you KNOW the risks, you can MANAGE the risks (e.g. keeping very little cash there etc...).

I must correct you mirni, PayPal is running under its own banking license for its European customers...

Like Akasdair said, as long as you know and manage the risks you should be ok :)

see the cartoon attached, it explains a lot

Hehe I must agree, I meet a lot of clients that order expensive dedicated servers with loads of addons (Windows licenses, extra hard drives, extra bandwith etc.), use their servers for 30 days, and then file a dispute with paypal saying they never got their product :( Now my paypal account has a $1938.23 negative balance and has, as many would guess, limited access. It doesn't matter whether you keep a low amount of cash in the account or not, you can and will get a negative balance, and at that point you'll realize the beauty of sites such as Moneybookers, 2Checkout, Authorize.net etc.

yes, i agree, you must need a merchant account and maybe the cost is little bit expensive!

You could always get a merchant account and use that banks appointed gateway. Their gateways are always fully compliant and offer API integration.

Good luck and hope this helps