Payment intergration - best solution?

al_pacino

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2011
Messages
280
Reaction score
14
I want to sell web design services on my website. Which kind of payment do you suggest? 100% or 50% upfront payment, or payment at delivery, or other solution? Then, what type of payment gateway should I integrate on my website? Paypal is good enough? And if yes, what kind of Paypal account should I choose - a normal one or the merchant account? Any other things I should know? Thank you in advance! :)
 
Never do work for someone without some payment upfront. Once you've established a relationship with them you can be more lenient. 50% is a good number for small projects... you'll just have to feel it out.

If you want to use Paypal sign up for a Business account.

Go to Paypal, click the "Business" tab, hover over "Products & Services", click "Website Payments Standard" (no monthly or extra fees).

This is all you need when starting out.

Instead of wasting your time setting up some fancy payment integration system, work on selling yourself as a web designer.

When you get a client, create a link for them with the amount you want them to pay. It's that simple.
 
If I choose the 50% upfront payment solution, then what guarantees I will have that after I 'll finish the website, my client will pay me for the rest of the money? And if they require a receipt, or other proof of payment...what should I do?
 
You definitely need a merchant account for Paypal. Otherwise you won't be able to accept credit cards and I also think there's a limit as to how much you can accept and withdraw.
 
PayPal is good, Google Checkout is catching up fast but doesn't yet offer targeted redirects after payment is made. PayPal is all you should ever need for this kind of business. You may have payment threshold limits in the beginning but those will be lifted once you have been in business for a while.
 
Take 50% up front, once design is agreed on code and publish to your own server so that he can see it live, once buyer is happy invoice him the other 50% and only send the file/s to him once payment received, or send encrypted and only send him password once payment received. If there are issues PayPal has a pretty thorough mediation process.
 
You may have payment threshold limits in the beginning but those will be lifted once you have been in business for a while.

Which are the Paypal merchant account limits? And when they will be lifted more precisely? And why can't I use the normal Paypal account to do it? Maybe in that way I would avoid the fees which must be paid to the Financial organization from my country (similar to IRS)...
 
i would avoid paypal.

if you want to send them a type of bill, i'd use
Code:
http://www.freshbooks.com/
i'd use something like chargify or formstack for payment, which will integrate with a payment processor like authroize.net or beansteam. for those you will probably need to get a DBA or even LLC your company, not sure, check with them (them being the payment processor, authorize etc) hope this helps
 
I saw that many web design companies are charging their customers a monthly fee, representing the web design & hosting of the website. Is this a marketing trick, allowing companies to charge more? Is it better than charging the whole amount once? And which kind of payment gateway is used, to charge regularly (monthly) the client's credit card?
 
paypal and credit card payment method is a must because it is most favorite payment method been use all around the world.
If you choose paypal, the normal one will do unless your website design is expensive then you may need more secure with merchant paypal.
 
I'd go with paypal business account so you can accept credit card payments. you pay a higher fee, but it's worth it.
 
Keep it simple to start, paypal is quick, fast and most people know what it is. Alternatively look at escrow.com, they hold the buyers money until you deliver and then once the buyer is happy release the money to you. If you want an easy system look at Rentacoder projects...

With payment up front, it depends on who, what and the amount... If I've never worked with someone before I tend to avoid giving money upfront. If its less than $100 is it worth paying two lots of paypal fee's?

When you start looking at other systems you may put customers of if they do not recognise it.
 
I use a PayPal merchant account, and charge 50% up-front, 50% when the project is completed (but hosted on my server, this way the client gets to see functionality and everything, but they don't have the opportunity to not pay me the full sum).
 
I also prefer upfront payment but not 50%. I prefer 25% upfront payment. At the same time, I prefer paypal payment method. It is the most popular payment method.
 
You should go for 50% upfront and balance before transferring the site on client's domain.
You should go for Business Account for Paypal.
 
i am completely agree with the views of ``yousef. you can go with them.
 
Back
Top