Any suggestions for....

[Jonathan]

A service to bill CC's ? Looking into maybe taking on a project
with a friend for his friend. It'd include a form of shopping cart
and he would want to offer probably paypal or payment on site.
Secure of course. But what kinda co. would I use to process the CC's?

[thewave]

2checkout may suit your needs. http://2checkout.com/

I believe its $50 to sign up, then they take a piece of each sale. They have an integrated cart, but a bunch of third party carts can be easily intergrated.

[-Oz-]

i think paypal takes CC's too.

[Jonathan]

PayPal is $20/mo + percentage fee's + like $0.30 each order.

[Frank Hagan]

PayPal is $20/mo + percentage fee's + like $0.30 each order.

No, Paypal doesn't have a monthly charge. They do take a percentage that ranges from a high of 2.9% and then .30 per transaction (higher transaction fees for non-US currencies). See https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/websc...g-fees-outside for the explanation of their fees.

[Buddha]

Jonathon are you looking for a merchant account? Or a third-party CC processor, which I think everyone is giving you suggestions for?

No, Paypal doesn't have a monthly charge.

I think Jonathon is referring to PayPal's Website Payments Pro, which would be a merchant account where the customer never leaves the site.

[thewave]

No, Paypal doesn't have a monthly charge. They do take a percentage that ranges from a high of 2.9% and then .30 per transaction (higher transaction fees for non-US currencies). See https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/websc...g-fees-outside for the explanation of their fees.

Actually, yes they do. Paypal offfers something called "website payments pro" that charges a $20 monthly fee. Looks like a merchant account. Link

[Frank Hagan]

Jonathan mentioned Paypal in his original message as something his friend was considering offering, so I assumed having the person transferred to the Paypal site wasn't a problem. It works the way Ebay does, and people are mostly used to it.

2Checkout.com is probably the next best thing, but there is a charge for that too. In addition, the credit card bill has the notation "2checkout.com" rather than the friend's website.

If its a "real" business and there's an expectation that a lot of business will be conducted, there's nothing better than a real merchant account. But I think you have to do a couple thousand in billings each month to make it cheaper than 2Checkout.com or Paypal.

[Jonathan]

Sorry Frank, I wasn't clear in the first post. I meant like two options of payments.
On the website OR with a paypal account. I was considering options for a merchant
account so the customer never leaves the website. I wonder if your name is on it
for PayPal's merchant account...

[Buddha]

If its a "real" business and there's an expectation that a lot of business will be conducted, there's nothing better than a real merchant account.

... which isn't exactly a business for a shared server which helped confuse me.

I wonder if your name is on it for PayPal's merchant account...

Not if you use Paypal's API to directly process the CC on your site. However, even free Paypal has option to add your name to the transaction although it's appended to "PAYPAL*".

[Frank Hagan]

... which isn't exactly a business for a shared server which helped confuse me.

Not if you use Paypal's API to directly process the CC on your site. However, even free Paypal has option to add your name to the transaction although it's appended to "PAYPAL*".

Yeah, I was thinking "small startup business on a shared server" myself.

I did the research for a customer who ended up not offering things for sale on his website due to the costs. Dedicated server + server maintenance agreeement + merchant account + part time web administrator made it pretty expensive. I think he figured he needed about $4,000 worth of extra business at his current margin to make it worthwhile.

[thewave]

In addition, the credit card bill has the notation "2checkout.com" rather than the friend's website.

Actually, 2checkout has the descriptor as well. its 2co*vendor.

I agree that a merchant account appears much more professional than 2co or paypal, but beyond the startup costs there are other factors. When you hold the merchant account, you become responsible for fraud, chargebacks etc. Have too many of either and you will lose the account, and may never be able to get another.