Urgent - Need a paypal alternative - Not sure which to go for?
- Thread starter DigiWebUk
- Start date
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.
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.
Paranoid Android
Elite Member
- Jun 20, 2010
- 2,864
- 4,209
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.
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!
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.
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!
super11
Elite Member
- Mar 30, 2009
- 1,739
- 662
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.
Correct and correct.
super11 said:
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).
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.super11 said:
super11 said:
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.
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'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.
There's loads of options though and pretty much every firm that's certified by the companies house will be ok.
wowhaxor
Elite Member
- Apr 28, 2007
- 1,924
- 3,371
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.
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.
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!
wowhaxor
Elite Member
- Apr 28, 2007
- 1,924
- 3,371
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.
EmailMaster
Elite Member
- May 28, 2011
- 4,140
- 1,210
Have u checked Alertpay?
howard83
Junior Member
- Oct 21, 2007
- 119
- 22
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..
KeepRunning
Newbie
- Nov 19, 2010
- 19
- 4
You can accept paypal payments without paypal using CCNOW. Try them, Good Luck!