I need a paypal alternative to take in sales from websites i own, this is very urgent, but i'm not sure which alternative to go for :

2checkout
Fastspring
Worldpay

These are the ones thats caught my eye at the minute..

Any advice on where to go?

the best alternative it's money bookers and 2checkout

Sound! Decisions made then.

2checkout - Have used them in the past. Not sure what the poster above means by "one-off" fee though - their fee structure is absolutely ridiculous. 5.5% + $0.50 per transaction is I remember correctly. Their customer support are also a complete pain in the neck and their fraud is a joke (large percentage of your orders sit in the fraud queue for a day and then get refunded automatically with no apparent reason - which can be quite a hassle if you're dealing with digital products by any chance). All this aside, they do pay out weekly (wire, cheque or payoneer), have a relatively low acceptance threshold and their back-end is pretty good. If you're a small-time entrepreneur then it's probably your best choice despite the negatives.

Fastspring - no experience with them, sorry.

RBS WorldPay - professional merchant account solution, completely different from 2checkout, plimus and the other "almost-merchant-accounts" out there. If you get accepted then you can expect a complete and working solution, but their minimums are pretty high and they won't ever accept you unless you can prove that you can drive volume.

Just so you know - neither 2CO nor WorldPay accept individuals so you must do the setup from under a company. If you're a sole proprietor then 2CO might accept you after some blagging but WorldPay definitely won't. Luckily registering a LTD takes 2 days and can even be done online in the UK - and it's your best bet tax wise anyway.

If people have had to ask for years together repeatedly for a pp alternative, its quite evident that there is no real alternative to pp. pp is a monopoly and thats why we call it names when it doesn't work for us, if there was an alternative we wouldn't be calling it names like gaypal and stuff if we didn't have to rely on it so much. nothing is as big as paypal, nothing is as good too. play by their rules and you will love working with them.

Originally Posted by bryanon

2checkout - Have used them in the past. Not sure what the poster above means by "one-off" fee though - their fee structure is absolutely ridiculous. 5.5% + $0.50 per transaction is I remember correctly. Their customer support are also a complete pain in the neck and their fraud is a joke (large percentage of your orders sit in the fraud queue for a day and then get refunded automatically with no apparent reason - which can be quite a hassle if you're dealing with digital products by any chance). All this aside, they do pay out weekly (wire, cheque or payoneer), have a relatively low acceptance threshold and their back-end is pretty good. If you're a small-time entrepreneur then it's probably your best choice despite the negatives.

Fastspring - no experience with them, sorry.

RBS WorldPay - professional merchant account solution, completely different from 2checkout, plimus and the other "almost-merchant-accounts" out there. If you get accepted then you can expect a complete and working solution, but their minimums are pretty high and they won't ever accept you unless you can prove that you can drive volume.

Just so you know - neither 2CO nor WorldPay accept individuals so you must do the setup from under a company. If you're a sole proprietor then 2CO might accept you after some blagging but WorldPay definitely won't. Luckily registering a LTD takes 2 days and can even be done online in the UK - and it's your best bet tax wise anyway.

No need to create a LTD already own 11

The thing thats worrying me is the fraud bit you explain...

I can't accept paypal for this kind of transaction... (websites...) and can't accept escrow due to the sheer low priced volume of the sites... but the turnover of this kind of business is just over $5k a week but just can't risk losing it to paypal!

Originally Posted by Innow

No need to create a LTD already own 11

The thing thats worrying me is the fraud bit you explain...

I can't accept paypal for this kind of transaction... (websites...) and can't accept escrow due to the sheer low priced volume of the sites... but the turnover of this kind of business is just over $5k a week but just can't risk losing it to paypal!

Yep, in these cases the fraud bit can be quite a pain. One thing you can do of course is have your clients wait 24-48 hours for deliver, as that's how long it usually takes them to complete the fraud check. Once an order is marked as "passed fraud check" you can be sure that it won't get refunded (unless there's a chargeback, of course).

But another issue that you may run into is that 2CO require you to sell your stuff through a public website (which they will review prior to approving your account). If you're auctioning your sites then this can be a major problem, but if your prices aren't changing (much) then you can just stick up a dummy website, have it reviewed and still send orders directly. And of course if you're already promoting your sites on a website and not directly then this won't be an issue.

Re Worldpay $5k a week is a decent volume so you should definitely ring them up and see what they can offer you. They're a pretty nice lot in general.

Originally Posted by bryanon

Yep, in these cases the fraud bit can be quite a pain. One thing you can do of course is have your clients wait 24-48 hours for deliver, as that's how long it usually takes them to complete the fraud check. Once an order is marked as "passed fraud check" you can be sure that it won't get refunded (unless there's a chargeback, of course).

But another issue that you may run into is that 2CO require you to sell your stuff through a public website (which they will review prior to approving your account). If you're auctioning your sites then this can be a major problem, but if your prices aren't changing (much) then you can just stick up a dummy website, have it reviewed and still send orders directly. And of course if you're already promoting your sites on a website and not directly then this won't be an issue.

Re Worldpay $5k a week is a decent volume so you should definitely ring them up and see what they can offer you. They're a pretty nice lot in general.

Yes i read through 2CO's terms and saw that they required a website to sell through, wouldn't really take long to set up to be honest.

Might give worldpay a ring later, i know there backed by RBS Bank i think.. so i'd assume less problems would occur.

By the looks of it, 2CO is just a reseller type processor, but not certain on it.

Will get there eventually!

I use 2checkout. I sell low priced hats.So, the fraud check is always done within few hours. Sometimes, it's done within half an hour. Using them for one month now and no fraud payment rejection so far. The only thing is that they call your customers to check if the item is delivered or not. They need certain amount of call verification from your customers before releasing the first payment. Sometimes, they do release payment without the standard required amount of call verification as well but not guaranteed. Also, they hold certain amount for reserve. So, check with them how much they will hold as reserve. BTW, I am a sole proprietor and not a company but they accepted me so no hassle on the acceptance part. There is some $59 or something initial set up fee. Search google for discount code, you will surely find one. Use the code and the set up would be zero.

Originally Posted by Innow

Might give worldpay a ring later, i know there backed by RBS Bank i think.. so i'd assume less problems would occur.

By the looks of it, 2CO is just a reseller type processor, but not certain on it.

Correct and correct.

Originally Posted by super11

I use 2checkout. I sell low priced hats.So, the fraud check is always done within few hours. Sometimes, it's done within half an hour. Using them for one month now and no fraud payment rejection so far.

I'd imagine that this is because most of your clients are from 1st world countries. If you have clients from certain Asian and African countries then fraud checks are bound to take longer and you'll also notice more rejections. I noticed this over and over again - US/UK/Canada payments get verified within hours max and almost never rejected, whereas payments from Eastern Europe, Asia, etc. take considerably longer and get rejected even if there's anything that may seem remotely questionable - or for instance if the person doesn't pick up their phone (within US business hours of course).

Originally Posted by super11

The only thing is that they call your customers to check if the item is delivered or not. They need certain amount of call verification from your customers before releasing the first payment.

Yep, forgot to mention this. That's indeed quite a hassle, especially as many people tend to not pick up their phones etc. But luckily that's only a one-off thing and once they've verified a certain number of orders they stop the phone verification nonsense for good.

Originally Posted by super11

Also, they hold certain amount for reserve. So, check with them how much they will hold as reserve.

Generally speaking, all merchant account providers hold a reserve. As for 2CO, we were lucky to always be on a 5%/90 days rolling reserve which is pretty good. I've heard, though, that if they either consider your business "high risk" or you have a high refund/chargeback percentage then they can up the reserve to even 20%/180 days without notifying you first.

Asking them about the reserve is pointless as they'll only tell you that you'll start at 5%/90 days which is the standard for all new accounts. They will then evaluate your account and adjust the reserve as they see fit.

Originally Posted by bryanon

Correct and correct.



I'd imagine that this is because most of your clients are from 1st world countries. If you have clients from certain Asian and African countries then fraud checks are bound to take longer and you'll also notice more rejections. I noticed this over and over again - US/UK/Canada payments get verified within hours max and almost never rejected, whereas payments from Eastern Europe, Asia, etc. take considerably longer and get rejected even if there's anything that may seem remotely questionable - or for instance if the person doesn't pick up their phone (within US business hours of course).

This might cause a huge problem, a lot of the customers who purchase are literally asia customers mostly.

Might just give 2C0 and worldpay both a go and see what happens.

I would like to know witch is the best company to setup an ltd in uk?.

I've personally used http://www.registeracompany.co.uk/ before and everything was nice and smooth.

There's loads of options though and pretty much every firm that's certified by the companies house will be ok.

Originally Posted by djbetaboy

I would like to know witch is the best company to setup an ltd in uk?.

I use http://www.companiesmadesimple.com cheap fast and legit... never had any problems at all.

I use plimus, also takes moneybookers in addition to paypal and standard forms of payment like cc/debit card. Quite similar to 2CO actually, slightly higher fees for low priced stuff, levels off of bigger ticket stuff, but it is BUILT for digital delivery sales and has every feature/customizable everything I could ever want so its worth it for me.

ONE THING

PayPal is getting weird now so Plimus, 2CO and others may be getting rid of the ability to accept subscriptions/recurring billing via PP but they will still take a 1 off payment from PP balance; this isn't from their end but from paypal itself.

Originally Posted by wowhaxor

PayPal is getting weird now so Plimus, 2CO and others may be getting rid of the ability to accept subscriptions/recurring billing via PP but they will still take a 1 off payment from PP balance; this isn't from their end but from paypal itself.

Can you shed a bit more light on what you mean getting weird, as i have alot of subscriptions coming into my paypal account already.

I need a good alternative just incase they decide to pull the plug.

The term never keep your eggs in one basket!

Originally Posted by Innow

Can you shed a bit more light on what you mean getting weird, as i have alot of subscriptions coming into my paypal account already.

I need a good alternative just incase they decide to pull the plug.

The term never keep your eggs in one basket!

Wont affect you at all in your normal paypal account only with one of these third partys; the way it works with companies like Plimus and 2CO is they accept PayPal to one master account, their account, then they payout to you minus their %age which is why you can take PP balance payments without having a paypal account using Plimus or 2CO. PayPal has indicated in the very near future they will not allow subscriptions to these type of master accounts, just regular payments, so it expected to be happening in the coming months.

Have u checked Alertpay?

Originally Posted by EmailMaster

Have u checked Alertpay?

i have alertpay, but for 3 days i have no sales from it, which is pretty weird, i normally have 6-7 sales a day with plimus before... i think my clients preferred to pay through paypal using plimus..

You can accept paypal payments without paypal using CCNOW. Try them, Good Luck!

I appreciate the 'straitforwardness' of

Code:

http://www.serve.com/

very much indeed ... works good enough for me.

Have you ever thought of giving Google Checkout a chance as well?

2chekcout is best alternative to accept paypal after paypal itself. Their fee is bit high from original paypal but you have to know they are an eCommerce site and charging less then plimus. Again plimus will ask you less question!!! that is one aspect makes plimus lucrative even with their high price.

Originally Posted by athleted123

2checkout is good one off fee.

49$ is the fee to get your account approved. They charge 5.5%+ 0.5$ per transaction.

The good about them is:-

1- They pay weekly.
2- They accept paypal on your behalf to their account.
3- They check purchases for fraud to kill/minimize charge backs as much.


The bad?

1- There are 1001 types of goods they won't allow you to sell. Their approval is a tough process.

2- Their minimum weekly payout is 300$ which is not good for sellers of low priced items.

3- They hold 5% of your weekly income for 90 days in reserve to protect against charge backs and refunds.

Plimus is also the good choice .

Originally Posted by KeepRunning

You can accept paypal payments without paypal using CCNOW. Try them, Good Luck!

ill try it. thanks

Originally Posted by Scripteen

49$ is the fee to get your account approved. They charge 5.5%+ 0.5$ per transaction.

The good about them is:-

1- They pay weekly.
2- They accept paypal on your behalf to their account.
3- They check purchases for fraud to kill/minimize charge backs as much.


The bad?

1- There are 1001 types of goods they won't allow you to sell. Their approval is a tough process.

2- Their minimum weekly payout is 300$ which is not good for sellers of low priced items.

3- They hold 5% of your weekly income for 90 days in reserve to protect against charge backs and refunds.

i AGREE...

Originally Posted by Seo Lover

Plimus is also the good choice .

they are moving to a stricter policies now, and i also heard about 2CO too..

Originally Posted by KeepRunning

You can accept paypal payments without paypal using CCNOW. Try them, Good Luck!

hmmmm this is a digital river company, just like SWREG... i already have an acct there and its not so good.. well still been there a month, i still dont know more about them...

Plimus is the best alternative as i think. The main advantage, they don't poke you again and again for your account.

Does Plimus allow SB lists for sale?