Cheapest way to accept credit/debit cards?

[antrixx]

I've been looking at accepting credit/debit cards directly instead of just through Paypal, Nochex and Fastpay. What is the cheapest longterm provider? It seems as though Protx are the cheapest by looking at the info, but I'm not sure if there's any charges I'm overlooking. Anybody know the cheapest?

I'm just looking to take card details and process the payment manually *online*

Regards,
David.

[chris ashdown]

As you have Actinic why re-invent the wheel, if you go to either WorldPay or Protx or any simular provider then Actinic will take care of all the payments for you and give you confirmation when payment has been made.

WorldPay is good Cheap and Quick to set up but does take 3-4 weeks to get the money, Ideal for startups, Protx pays in 2-3 days and has low charges but you do have to get a merchant account which depending who you are may take a while for a new start-up.

I started with Worldpay for a year and then changed to Protx

I would hazard a guess that these two are probably the most popular on this forum.

[antrixx]

Thanks for your reply. I may give Protx a go, but I still want to do it manually. I work as self employed anyway so all the work is done by myself, so it's just as easy to check payment while I'm getting orders ready rather than risk taking payment if I do an incorrect price, as some people will keep pushing with the 'a contract is formed' argument.

Regards,
David.

[Jan]

If you want to process payments manually then you don't need a PSP, just a swipe machine that is designated for use with web payments, you can then use the Actinic credit card option to collect the details (on a secure server if you can afford it) and you are sorted.

If you do decide to use a PSP then you can use the preauthorise option to process payments (I don't know whether protx has this option) which allow you to reject payments that you think are fraudulent without incurring any charges.

Regards,

[antrixx]

Thanks Jan, I'll look into this. I'm after the cheapest option possible to keeps costs down, and I think banks are a bit wary of internet selling and tend to increase the % charge.