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iron_chick · 02-10-2006, 06:53 PM,

I didn't sign up for Amex or Discover. Yet. Baby steps. I figured Visa and MC are a good start and I can add the others later?? (I think?)

Glad to know you went with these guys as well, since you clearly know more about this kind of thing than I do. :-)

Beth

bargainbloodhound · 02-10-2006, 07:08 PM,

Quote:I didn't sign up for Amex or Discover. Yet. Baby steps. I figured Visa and MC are a good start and I can add the others later?? (I think?)

You can add both of them later. I've never accepted Discover because the rates are higher and everyone I know who accepts it has said they're a pain to deal with.

iron_chick · 02-10-2006, 08:01 PM,

Do you get many folks who pay with Amex?

landofsmiles · 02-10-2006, 08:05 PM,

I have CardServiceInternational and am happy with them for the most part. Also, they give $50 referral fees when someone signs up through you. And their 24/7 customer service is excellent. However, I did have two instances that didn't sit real well with me. One was back in October when I processed a $3000 charge. It was my first charge and they were a little bit leery (understandable)but they held it longer than I thought they should have even after all the banks gave the green light. And they made it slightly difficult for me to talk to someone about it. To their benefit, though, they did take care of it and gave me personal assistance.

The second instance happened last week. I was at a Home & Garden Show and someone charged a $1300 item. I decided to call it in because they say that phone authorizations are free. Yeah, they're free but they raised the rate from 2.19% to 4.14% because it's "non-qualified" when you get phone authorization rather than using your virtual terminal. So that dinged me for about an extra $25.

Bottom line, once you learn the ins and outs and rules and regs, I would still recommend them to anyone. Compared to my last mercant account, they are very above board and extremely user-friendly. And compared to ebay/PayPal, they are a Godsend!

~Bob

landofsmiles · 02-10-2006, 08:06 PM,

I would NEVER take Amex, personally. They almost ALWAYS side with the buyer and their fees are a ripoff.

bargainbloodhound · 02-10-2006, 09:08 PM,

landofsmiles Wrote:I have CardServiceInternational and am happy with them for the most part.

We used them for almost 2 years and were fairly happy with them too but we originally signed up for them through charge.com so we were paying higher rates than you're paying (and higher rates than the paypalsux.com rates in the 1st post) which is one of the reasons we switched this week. Things I didn't like about CardService: they charged us a $70 annual fee last year (it was supposed to be no annual fee), and they raised our rates from 2.39% to 2.59% late last year.

Quote:And compared to ebay/PayPal, they are a Godsend!

Yep.

Quote:Do you get many folks who pay with Amex?

We just started accepting it this week (the Amex part of our merchant account was activated Wednesday). We've had a lot of buyers who wanted to pay with Amex over the past few years though.

xppman · 02-11-2006, 03:54 PM,

Well I'm just glad to see iron_chick got an MA.
The less money we all give to ebaypal the better ImO.

I like my MA so far. No problems at all.

The number of PP transactions has all but dwindled to a trickle. Laughing7

bargainbloodhound · 02-12-2006, 02:14 AM,

Quote:The number of PP transactions has all but dwindled to a trickle

Same here.

thegateways · 03-22-2006, 03:33 AM,

If you have an operational company in the EU, you can check with chronopay as well, they can offer a 3rd party solution as well as an own merchant account. Also, they can offer a virtual terminal at no extra costs. With their 3rd party solution there are no monthly fees and no set up fees.