eBay

dipmicro · ‎04-28-2011

I found out we are loosing some sales, because PayPal refuses to process certain credit cards. One customer told me their credit card is fine, but PayPal says it cannot be used for payment. Turns out this customer had PayPal acct. before but refused to associate it with bank acct. She tells me the acct had no issues.

I call PayPal,hey what's up with that, I was told you guys can help me accept credit cards. The PayPal rep says, it's security measure and they only refuse accept CC associated with PP acct. if there is open issue. We never discussed this particular customer anyway.

I am looking to enable as many payment options as possible. Credit, debit, interac by email, etc. Looking through offerings of CC processing companies like Millenium, Federated, Global Payments (they work with CIBC), ChargeNational. Some have rip-off reports, others do not. I am looking to start using them online and later online, face-to-face as well.

Can anyone comment on accepting credit/debit, costs, etc ? Seems the field is very competitive, but there seems to be some hidden charges making the cost vary a lot between providers.

Also I am little on the edge about the security. I realize PayPal is not preventing people using their CC "just because", there must be a good reason for those measures. I would hate to start accepting called-in payments and my unauthorized charge-back rate going into the sky after that. Do you guys require billing and shipping address match on called-in cards, or how do you prevent fraud ?

dipmicro · ‎04-28-2011

Global Payments responded fairly quickly, offering 1.9% VISA and MC discount rate, 0.1% VISA/MC assessment rate, package cost $10/m and setup $200.

Are these good rates ? I am not sure if we will be able to channel all our volume through them, I would still like eBay go through PayPal, plus they did not offer any debit and AMEX is also missing. I would like to be able to process AMEX even if the cost would be higher (as CC user myself I rank AMEX Canada quite well and would like to be able to accept their CCs).

Since there is so many rip-offs with the payment processors and this company is working directly with CIBC, I am inclined to go with them, even if there is better offerings out there. Kind of cautious about those "no setup fee" companies.

femmefan1946 · ‎04-28-2011

FWIW, a jewellery seller who does craft shows tells me her sales at shows doubled when she got a wireless cc machine.

She felt the cost of buying/renting the machine plus the fees she pays her company were well worth it in increased sales and higher value sales. (She sells fairly highend handmade pieces with the average necklace selling for $100-$200)

Our family B&M gets more payments by cc and debit card than in cash. We get perhaps two cheques month, usually from mail order customers. (BTW, the in-store cheques are usually post-dated.)

Our auction house mostly gets cc payments, although dealers buying in auction go for cheques (papertrail). We do offer PP for the auction but almost no one uses it.

However, we offer both credit card and Paypal for online sales. Overwhelmingly, even on our own website , customers prefer Paypal to giving us their cc number.

pierrelebel · ‎04-28-2011

"I realize PayPal is not preventing people using their CC "just because", there must be a good reason for those measures"

Looking at the big picture. this situation may apply to less than 1% of all purchases. It comes into play when a buyer has reached the PayPal buying limit and refuse to have the account verified by giving PayPal the bank account information.

I came across two such situations over the years and both buyers (reluctant to give PayPal the banking information) paid by cheque. The irony is that these buyers were giving me the very information they would not give PayPal (bank and account number)!

Most buyers who reached the PayPal spending limit understand their buying days on eBay are limited unless they verify their account and they generally do.

"interac by email" is a great system (I love it) but is no longer allowed on eBay (it was years ago).

dipmicro · ‎04-28-2011

"interac by email" is a great system (I love it) but is no longer allowed on eBay (it was years ago).

I tried it last week, enabled my business acct. and send transfer from my personal acct. It was almost instant - and costs me close to nothing (per transaction fee on my business acct), I like it. Pretty much all Canadian banks support it.

What other payment methods beside cash, MO, cheque, CC, debit, email interac - are available to Canadian buyers online ? (Oh yes, we do receive cash in envelope on a rare occasion 🙂

axe_n_gear_music · ‎04-28-2011

60% of my sales on my website are via Mastercard, Visa or AMEX, the rest is Paypal and the odd one is cash in person. eBay sales are more like 20% credit card but that is a very significant amount.

You will find that the rates are similar to Paypal (in many cases slightly less, but the important thing is that there are alot of buyers out there who do not have a Paypal account and you must offer a variety of payment methods to reach every buyer.

The best thing I did was to get a toll free number (plus it also points to my cell phone, so it is very handy). I get tons of buyers who call to complete a sale by CC, or who inquire about a product and end up just buying over the phone, and or adding a ton of accessories to their existing order. ( which equals zero eBay fees and the best customer service). Buyers love fast and easy.

Most buyers that I have dealt with (all of them actually) cannot checkout with Paypal and use a credit card. I get so many people emailing after they bought something and saying that they cant get their credit cards to work during checkout on eBay when they are trying to pay. Funny how they dont read the listing details where we say that "we accept Paypal, or the buyer can call toll free to use CC from anywhere in North America. "
Anyway, accepting offline CC has been a huge bonus for my business, both on my website and in my eBay stores. I have a ton of customers who buy through me instead of the competion soley because the competition only offers Paypal.

And as far as security goes, you can easily do a name and address verification by phone when you process the customers card for payment. I only have been burned once, two years ago, by a buyer purchasing through my website from South Africa who had a stolen card (cardholder's name was registered in Miami, I found out too late) and I did not take the few minutes to do the name and address verification. (Lost about 800 bucks on that one, but a good lesson was learned- I was far too trusting...alot more street smart now. Live and learn, I guess)

Dip, I use TD Merchant Services - their toll free number is 1-800-363-1163. Press 1 for English, then 2 for new account info.

Cheers,
AXE

westernstargifts · ‎04-28-2011

(Oh yes, we do receive cash in envelope on a rare occasion 🙂

Got one yesterday.:-)

godboma · ‎05-02-2011

I am using Internet Secure for all my CC payment on my website. They also offer Interac Online which is used by some of my customers. They have good rates (at least better than Paypal). No problem with them for the last year.

If you hesitate a bit, you will receive a special setup price 😉

zarzuella · ‎05-03-2011

I have a Costco account and set up my Elavon credit card processing through that for a better rate (swiped transactions 1.72%) Here's a link to the Elavon site:

http://www.elavon.com/acquiring/costco-canada/

Ann

dipmicro · ‎05-03-2011

Goboma, thanks for pointing out Internet Secure. I already contacted them for rates. Waiting for the response.

Ann, the Elavin offer looks very good, if you have B&M store, thank you. We used to have executive Costco membership before but currently we do not go to Costco, the closest one is 20km.