Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Running a Web Hosting Business : Average Transaction Amount?

[Brad]

Hello,

I notice many of these CC processing companies like Revecom and Instabill have a $1.00 fee per transaction and an additional percent fee. This can be quite a high percentage rate depending on your average transaction cost when they are added together.

What would your average transaction amount be for a month and what percent were you charged per transaction adding in the dollar charge?

Im sure you must have it figured out how much your paying percent wise, right?

I currently have a merchant account with Wells Fargo and Verisign. The only charges are a 19.00 a month charge at Verisign for online Internet processing and then a small % cost per transaction from Wells Fargo.
This account is NOT for Web Hosting.

The added benefits of recurring billing are nice to have and may be worth looking into with these services but I'd really like to know if many of you find yourself getting a regular merchant account eventually or want one because of high transaction costs?

If this is so, I'll just get another Merchant account and go that way.

Thanks for your input.

[akashik]

If you're used to a merchant account I'd say just grab another one. There are restrictions on 3rd party billing (parital refunds, manual billing etc aren't available)

We're a good example. Beem using Revecom for a long time now, but have just set up with a merchant facility...

Greg Moore

[ksstudio]

Revecom still has the best rate among 3rd party CC processing if you are selling products average cost $20 or above.

Instabill's rate is 10% for every transaction.

Revecom is 3.95% + $1.00.

[Brad]

Originally posted by ksstudio
Revecom still has the best rate among 3rd party CC processing if you are selling products average cost $20 or above.

Instabill's rate is 10% for every transaction.

Revecom is 3.95% + $1.00.

This is what I get, average transactions vary of course ..


================================
10 X $20.00 transactions $200.00
================================

------------------------
Clickbank 1.00 + 7.5%
------------------------
200 - 10 x 1 = $10.00
7.5% of 200.00 = $15.00
------------------------
- $25.00
========================
Original 200.00 = $175.00
========================

------------------------
InstaBill Flat 10%
------------------------
200.00 - 10% = $180.00
========================
Original 200.00 = 180.00
========================


------------------------
Revecom Discount: 3.95% Auth Fee: $1.00
------------------------
10 x 1 = $10.00
200 x 3.95% = $ 7.90
------------------------
- $17.90
========================
Original 200.00 = $182.10
========================


================================
10 X $15.00 transactions $150.00
================================

------------------------
Clickbank 1.00 + 7.5%
------------------------
10 x 1 = $10.00
7.5% of 150.00 = $11.25
------------------------
- $21.25
========================
Original 200.00 = $128.75
========================

------------------------
InstaBill Flat 10%
------------------------
10% = $15.00
========================
Original 150.00 = $135.00
========================

------------------------
Revecom Discount: 3.95% Auth Fee: $1.00
------------------------
10 x 1 = $10.00
150 x 3.95% = $5.93
------------------------
- $15.93
========================
Original 150.00 = $134.07
========================

[akashik]

The merchant account will come into it's own if you're selling bigger ticket items (or a lot of smaller ones). The 3rd party systems are great when you're starting out as smaller amounts per month don't wear the monthly fee. As the size of transactions increases (webdesign, dedictaed servers etc) and charges are more frequent then merchant facilities start to prove more cost effective.

If you add in the factor is what your time is worth when it comes to partial refunds etc then it becomes an even better option. Recurring billing is another thing though which may take away from that but there is software available now (with more coming I think), that does a lot of that for you. You just need to upload the batch file once a month

Greg Moore