Is anybody using ... ?

[worthydealer]

hi -

We use SECPay / Paypoint as our online payment processor for our Actinic store.

I just noticed that SECPay / Paypoint now offer PayPal integration as part of their service, so that PayPal appears as a payment option right alongside all the usual credit and debit card payment options, with SECPay handling the messaging back and forth.

I know you can integrate PayPal into Actinic separately, but as we already use SECPay / PayPoint as our processor, we were wondering whether there might be any advantages in handling PayPal payments through their integration rather than the direct Actinic integration.

Is anybody doing this? i.e. accepting PayPal payments through SECPay / PayPoint rather than through the direct Actinic integration? I gather from various threads that the Actinic / PayPal integration has been pretty flaky in the past, and may still be. Could this be the solution ? Would there be any real advantages in accepting PayPal this way?

Thanks for your thoughts

pete

[leehack]

If someone is going to select SECPAY and then within that solution choose Paypal, then it should be offered as a payment option in the first place IMO. Either it is of use or it isn't, if it is then add it directly yourself. Standard Paypal website payments is fine and has been forever, it's Paypal as a PSP which is a white elephant and also non PCI compliant I do believe.

Check commission rates on Paypal payments too when integrated into a PSP, they used to be more IIRC, which again negated any perceived advantage.

Paypal is a much bigger and well known payment method, SECPAY within Paypal and that may be of advantage, certainly not t'other way round for me.

[worthydealer]

Thanks leehack for the thoughts -

I think what I was getting at though was whether there was anything in the Actinic / SECPay integration that might interfere with the correct functioning of the SECPay / PayPal integration, which was why I was hoping to find somebody with actual experience of using the SECPay / PayPal integration within an Actinic context ...

[pinbrook]

most people prefer to offer paypal as a separate entity, one to give choice, two as a backup PSP if their main processor is down. thus to me there is little point integrating it

There is a discussion somewhere here about protx integrating pp, i can t remember its outcome but it could make for interesting reading

[worthydealer]

Thanks Jo, that is a good point about still having a means of taking payment if the other psp goes down, which I hadn't considered. I'll try to find the other thread you mentioned.

[leehack]

Thanks leehack for the thoughts -

I think what I was getting at though was whether there was anything in the Actinic / SECPay integration that might interfere with the correct functioning of the SECPay / PayPal integration, which was why I was hoping to find somebody with actual experience of using the SECPay / PayPal integration within an Actinic context ...

Once an actinic site visitor is taken off to secpay, there is no further interaction with the actinic site until the txn is completed/abandoned. Therefore payment settings within secpay should have no difference in theory. I don't think you will get much if any confirmation of that though because it makes no apparent sense to add it when you can add Paypal easily yourself anyway.

I can only assume that these PSPs are doing it for sites who cannot integrate with Paypal easily, of which actinic is not one, so it presents no issues. It's a single point of failure for both payment methods too. I can't see anything positive about it in fact, would be interested to see if there is one. Imagine if someone wanted to use Paypal only, they'd never know on your site.

[worthydealer]

Thanks for your thoughts leehack, very helpful.

Would you say the PayPal Express Checkout integration built into Actinic v9 now actually works? Only I tried it when it first appeared a few years ago, and it was very flaky, with names and addresses not being passed through, and various other problems, and I havn't touched it since. Should I re-evaluate?

[leehack]

I would only use or recommend basic paypal website payments, the rest are either flakey, don't work, not PCI compliant or a confusing mess IMO. PSP + Paypal is my preferred and recommended best solution for an actinic store.

[worthydealer]

hi leehack, by the 'basic' PayPal do you mean the one that comes up in the Settings | Business Settings | Payment and Security | Payment Methods labelled as 'PayPal Express Checkout' ?

[TraceyHand]

I believe it's listed as "Paypal website payments"? (not got Actinic to hand)

[pinbrook]

hi leehack, by the 'basic' PayPal do you mean the one that comes up in the Settings | Business Settings | Payment and Security | Payment Methods labelled as 'PayPal Express Checkout' ?

its the option where the purchaser can only use his/her paypal acct to pay. ie they cant simply type in a cc no and progress without a pp acct

This option is good as you (shop owner) do not get passed the cc detail thus pci compliant.

the other pp option is where you secure your site and cc detail is input into the site - this i understand is not pci compliant as it stands, you have a few hoops to jump through