Protx and Lloydtsb cardnet Prices ??

[KD1]

Hi All

I am looking for a merchant account and payment gateway. Most popular seems to be Protx however i have spoken with lloyds tsb today who have said its £350 set up plus the usual credit card and debit card charges. In addition a minimum £25 per month. On top of this i need a payment gateway like Protx who charge £20 a month for small buisness.

This seems quite a lot of money £45 total per month.

Is this really the cheapest option. Im sure when i used to be with worldpay a few years back its was a lot less than this. I also didnt need a merchant account with the bank it was an all in one package with worldpay ??

Can anybody offer any advise on cheapest way of taking card payments other than nochex and paypal which i have already ??? Was thinking of Nochex merchant account ?? anybody using this new system with them ??

Thanks Keith

[pinbrook]

Both Nochex and paypal are considered the "poor mans" method of taking credit card payments.

To add credibility to a website, and thus give people the feel good factor to encourage them to buy you really need to use a proper PSP such as protx, worldpay, netbanx, secpay or hsbc.

All of the above will stack the percentages against you as you are a new business, as such they consider you to be high risk, and expect you to carry the cost until you can prove to them that you are a good customer.

I suggest you search the forum for others posts on PSPs

[Darren B]

Join the FSB for £130, then get free set up with streamline and preferential rates, negotialble after 6 months. My first charges from streamline were £1.74 as i only had a few days left in the month, no minimum

PROTX charge you by complete months so do not set you account live until the start of the month unless you are happy to pay the £20 (£23.50 inc VAT)

Best move i made as i now have a virtual terminal for manual card processing, not with Nochex or Paypal.

Cheers
Darren

[KD1]

Thaks Darren

So i take it you only end up then with the £20 per month charges with Protx and nothing more other than the usual card charges ?? This is obviously after joining FSB ???

One other thing a VT i would also need how do i get this ??

Thanks
Keith

[davie_ne1]

re: worldpay

yes they are an all in 1 package but they keep your money for 4 weeks and charge you 4.5% per transaction.

In my opionion yes they are great if you are desperate to take card payment but not getting paid for 4 weeks seriously damages your cash flow.

I went with protx and lloydtsb and I have never looked back.

you have to remember that yes there is a minimum invoice amount from cardnet but this means that if you did website sales of £715 per month, your fees would be around the £25 mark anyway (assuming you are paying 3.5% fees)

[KD1]

Thanks for the advise Davie

However i was told i would have to pay cardnet £25 per month and Protx £20 per month seems a lot ? Can you clarify this ??

Also you mention its a better option than worldpay but on your sweets website you are using worldpay bit confused ??

Thanks Keith

[davie_ne1]

both my sites us protx

I just have not had a chance to change the payment logos on sweets2yourdoor

with cardnet you have a minimum invoice amount of £25

this means that is your card processing fees are less than £25 you will still have to pay £25.

you are not charges £25 + the card processing fees

[KD1]

Hi Davie

Do you still have to pay £20 a month to protex aswell ?? This making it a minimum of £25 to cardnet and £20 a month to Protx ??

Total minimum £45 but could be more if your card charges are higher than £25 ??

Keith

[pinbrook]

you have to remember that each business who is providing you with a service has to be paid.

Thus you pay cardnet,you also pay Protx

[davie_ne1]

yep got it in 1

you will have to pay £20 + vat to protx

then a minimum of £25 to cardnet

which means a minimum of £48.50 a month

To me this is not all that expensive and you are fully set-up to take payment via your site and you have the virtual terminal for phone orders.

if you want cheaper there is always the like of worldpay but they charge you 4.5% per transaction, cardnet will charge you less !!!

but you would get the cash in your hand for 4 weeks with worldpay but it only 3 days with cardnet.

You just have to weigh up your options if you want a more serious looking payment provider you need to spend the money. If you expect low sales then just stay with paypal etc.

[KD1]

Join the FSB for £130, then get free set up with streamline and preferential rates, negotialble after 6 months. My first charges from streamline were £1.74 as i only had a few days left in the month, no minimum

PROTX charge you by complete months so do not set you account live until the start of the month unless you are happy to pay the £20 (£23.50 inc VAT)

Best move i made as i now have a virtual terminal for manual card processing, not with Nochex or Paypal.

Cheers
Darren

This maybe the best option ???

Keith

[Tickle]

Keith,

I joined the FSB 2 months ago primarily to get the cheap Streamline account and card service to start my own business. If you decide to join, a reprepesentative will visit you and explain the offerings. You'll find they offer discounts in many areas such as courier, telephone, business insurance etc -highly recommended. Infact you'll probably save more than it costs you.

Having learned more on the subject of payments I ended up not taking the streamline account in favour of Protx and Cardnet. If you research the area on collecting internet payments it seems that you are now supposed to have a proper internet merchant account (e.g. Cardnet) if you're not taking payment over the phone or face to face with some, if not all the banks. These forums have a huge amount of discussion on this subject and it certainly helped me to decide the best route for my business.

[Darren B]

I did not look at everyones, but looked at BOS, Lloyds and Streamline and they were the best option, BOS wanted £250 for the merchant account plus a monthly fee,

Streamline do not not charge me any monthly fees and i pay between 2.3 & 2.6% in charges, meastros/switch/solo 31p and visa debit/electron 41p saves me quite a bit over the year i can tell you.

Cheers
Darren

[Stereo Steve]

Just a thought, I believe paypal offer a virtual terminal now so it's possible to securely capture the card data and process yourself which doesn't involve people knowing they are going through paypal. I think it's in with paypal pro which is free at the mo but will be £20 pm soon. Not sure on this though.

We have paypal website payments as backup and HSBC esecure as the main psp. Charge us £20 a month for the full psp service plus we get our money pretty fast, stright to the account. Maybe worth asking?

[davie_ne1]

you have to remember thought

1. paypal charger are higher than proper psp
2. payment into your account takes 7 days
3. possibilty of your account being frozen if you recive lots of payments by stolen cards
4. customers credit card statement will show paypal (i think)

On a positive note though paypal is great for small businesses + now very popular due to ebay. Thats why we have it as a payment option on our retail site.

I just dont have the confidence to take large payments through it !!!!

Could your business take a loss of £1,000 if the customer says they never recieved the order even if you have proof of recipt.

Taking payments online can be risky and is something that you have to look into carefully. Cheapest is not always best



Just had a quick look at paypal payment pro

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/websc...erview-outside

For small businesses just starting out it looks great and affordable