I called sfcommerce / surefire / firepay and heres what I found out.
* sfcommerce serves businesses worldwide.
* They deposit money into your bank each week/month. They will also let you choose when you want your payments (e.g. every 72 days) or when you reach a specified amount of money. (e.g. When I have $600 in sales, send it through).
* If you live within North America your money is deposited into your bank account for free using Electronic Funds Transfer(EFT). For all other countries they wire transfer the money to your bank for a cost of $40USD. So if you want to receive payments every 2 weeks, that would be $80USD per month.
* It cost $300 USD to setup.
* Their fee is 2.75% + .25c (USD) for every transaction. They also have a type of (AVS) system which reduces chargebacks/fraud transactions. Usually this service costs an additional 5c on other services.
* $25 minimum service fee per month. If you transact over $1,000USD per month this fee is waived for that month.
* The web-based facility they give you allows you to REFUND, MANUALLY enter CC# numbers and credit cc# numbers.
* They do not have any recurring billing solution.
* They do not have any batch processing/batch uploads. However they have an extensive API set which lets you code your own solution in ASP, VB or C++.
* Stated on their website they will process $1billion dollars this year. They have been around for quite awhile. A few years back they had a name change.
* From asking some people here who have sfcommerce I have learned that they have some perl/cgi scripts which you simply modify and use for your order form. Basically allowing you to perform real-time credit card processing from your website.
* They have excellent support, you can call their 1800 number and get a sales guy who knows what he's talking about.
* This is an entire solution. You get full merchant status. When customers receive their credit card statement they see YOURCOMPANYNAME, INC. On it!
* They charge you $15 per chargeback.
* It takes a week to setup and process your application.
* To see the Demo Gateway: I believe someone in here had a demo gateway and included a link to it. Search sfcommerce in the forums and you'll find it.
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Therez a lot of info for you.. I've been PAINLESS looking everywhere for a decent merchant that supports international customers.. Therez not many around. Therez only a few like WorldPay, PlanetPayment. I am getting a merchant next month and will be either choosing these guys or a US-merchant if they allow me to open one up under my uncle's account/details. (he lives in the USA btw)
If planetpayment was cheaper I would definately go with them since their AuthorizeNet facility is WAY more supported over sfcommerce's own facility. btw Planetpayment rates are:
From email:
"Planet Payment's standard rates for a Credit Card Acceptance Account and Payment Gateway Services are as follows:"
Set-Up Fee: $595 USD
Monthly Fee: USD$25.00
Transaction Fees: 3.95%+ $0.50 USD
Wire-Transfer Fee: $25 USD
These rates are for an Internet Credit Card Acceptance Account, Payment Gateway Services, Web Link, Virtual terminal and Multi Currency capabilities.
Hope that helps in your search for a decent merchant provider. You guys who live in America get it so easy!!
low-down
I'm also still in need of a merchant account myself.
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