Protx paying system

[Darfield]

Hi All,

Who has got experience with a company called protx (www.protx.com)?
Do you only have to pay 20pound a month and then you can accept credit cards? Or are there any more costs?
Do you have to be a UK customer?
Are there any more companies like this?

I hope you can help me.
Many thanks in advance

[Darfield]

Please help me, because i'm trying to find a cheap en good creditcard solution
many thanks

[Mike Hughes]

Protx are used by quite a few of the people on this forum as you'll find if you do a serach for 'protx'.

The thing to remember though is that they are a Payment Service Provider (PSP) and do not offer you a credit card merchant account. All they do is process the transactions for you. You'll need to get a merchant account from one of the banks or use an alternative like worldpay.

Mike

[Darfield]

thanks for your reply

Hi mike,

could you tell me what the costs of a merchant account are?

[aloebridge123]

Hi there,

I use Protx and I can see that I've found them very good.

For my merchant account I use HSBC however there is lots of others out there.

You'll pay £20.00 for Protx then often you pay a monthly fee for the merchant account and everytime a customer puts through an order, your merchant account will charge you a percentage of their total as a fee.

This is often deducted from their (merchant)monthly fee.

[Mike Hughes]

Starting out with a merchant account you'll probably pay a monthly minimum of £20 or so and a fee of around 4% of the transaction value.

You can negotiate the fee down once you've established some decent sales figures and a trading history.

the best thing to do is shop around and contact a few providers. Then pick the best deal from the one's who are prepared to open an account for you (it isn't automatic).

The best place to start is the bank your company has an account with.

Mike

[Darfield]

Hi All,

thanks for all your reply's i'm going to do some research!
thanks again

[David N]

I have used protx for 18 months. they are great £20 per month.

I have a 2 merchant accounts (1 for web - direct and 1 for phone orders - via Protx virtual terminal) I use Lloyds TSB cardnet 08709 017 915. They charge me 1.59% on credit cards and 20p on debit cards

Also if you have a LLoyds TSB business account then you dont pay any 'payning in' bank charges i.e 58p per pay in

[pinbrook]

if you are a new trader and don't have a record with a bank you may well find that your choice boils down to Worldpay.

Some people manage to run sites with Paypal, they are probably the cheapest option but they aren't quite so credible as other payment options.

[Darfield]

Is it hard to set up a merchant account if you are a new company?

[David N]

virtually impossible

Chicken and egg - you need to have a couple of years trading before they will give you an account. How can you trade for a couple of years if you can't take cards

I was lucky I am very persuasive and already had an 16 year existing business that I said I was launching on the net

I had a guy round from the bank for 2 hours interviewing me after 12 weeks of application

[Darfield]

so what you are saying is that it is not possible to accept credit cards? Only with software like paypal? is that right?

[David N]

Thats what I experienced

Not much fun being faced with 4% fees and several weeks for your money.

With a merchant account you get paid in 3 days

[Darfield]

do you have any other suggestions to deal with credit cards?

[David N]

Only go with Worldpay for 12 months then try a bank for a merchant account