No Merchant account yet.

[DeadDingo]

Hi All

 

I am applying for a merchant account with Barclays international. I have a UK bank account but and working and living in Japan at the moment (I am a UK citizen) So it might be a little tricky for me to get a merchant account, especially as I am a sole trader working from home and this is a "pocket money" venture sort of thing (But I still want it to look and be professional as well as be secure for me and my customers).

 

I have already bought my own dedicated SSL certificate so all that side of things is secure (account creation etc), All my T&C and site details are inplace etc.

 

So my question is 2 fold,

 

1) Do you think it would be fairly easy for me to get a merchant account, even though I am not a registered company anywhere.

 

2) what modules/systems are available for me to take credit card payemts worldwide (just incase I can`t get a merchant account). I currently have the paypal IPN installed and my paypal account is set up to allow creditcard payments without paypal account. But lets face it, I do not trust paypal as far as I could throw them.

 

 

 

Thanks a lot in advance for any input and suggestions you can give.

(I hope this is the correct area to submit this question)

[jasper12]

Barclays do accept sole traders and really easy to set up: an in principal decision over the phone. Have you checked out their fees (?250 set up + ?20 a month). Don't know about getting a Merchant Account if you are overseas.

 

I am going in the opposite direction: I have opened a Barclays Merchant Account and a Nationwide Business Account (free to members) and am using SecPay as my gateway (?50 sign-up +?10 a month). However I have just discovered that the NW account will not accept Direct Debits so Barclays can not take out any fees!! Rather that go through process of opening up another Business Account I have decided to downgrade to budget options because my site is not generating enough to warrent the large fees.

 

Try looking at Paypal (it accepts credit cards for non-members) and it is free or 2checkout.com which charges around ?30 to set up and that's it. (I also think Fasthosts do one also?)

 

Finally, think carefully about whether the 'pocket money' from your site could justify the fees. If I did the same over again I would have waited to see how much my site was earning before jumping. You can always upgrade later.

[DeadDingo]

Thanks for that.

 

I just had a quick look at the 2checkout things works and I'm not sure if I understand it or not. It is just a module at the end, or do they have to leave my site to go there and come back again, like paypal? (i.e. does it look part of the site (aka professional))

 

What are they like as a company to deal with?

 

This could be a cheaper way for me to go to begin with?

[DeadDingo]

Also, How does this compare to securepay? Is it a similar system (don't know that much about that one either)

 

 

If anyone can suggest the one they think is best to use (dont really want people to leave my site to make payment if possible)

 

ALL advice is appreciated.

 

 

Thanks

[jasper12]

You can either use it as a stand-alone with your 'buy now buttons' (see http://www.rupertparker.com for example) or it can take the aggegate from your shopping cart.

 

The latter may be a problem because, if someone buys more than one item, it still looks like they have bought just the one. I think that your customer may well have to enter their details again , also.

[DeadDingo]

Does anyone use 2checkout and if so, is it any good? Does it have their logo on the pages at all, or does it look like part of your normal site?

 

Cheers

[Tsuri Japan]

Like you I'm an expat living and working in Japan who wants to pursue a better payment method. I'm bookmarking this now :thumbsup:

 

DeadDingo have you tried accepting bank transfers yet? I'm just about to try adding that module with my Mizuho bank.

 

Sorry to say but Paypal is pretty safe. I've done about 20 transactions and things have been smooth as. I even had someone pay with a E-check. Paypal said in the details section to wait for confirmation!!!

 

Anyways this thread is interesting and I'll pop in from time to time to see how things are going.

 

Nigelman :thumbsup:

[DeadDingo]

I am with citibank and had not looked into that.

 

I tried 2checkout.com, but they are VERY selective about what people can sell, and I found it very restrictive and decided not to go with them.

 

I am now using metacharge. The only thing with them is that you need to have the "Headoffice" based in Europe. If you still have a UK address at all, you can use that (even if a sole trader)

 

They are not the cheapest option, but seem to be OK so far.

 

I still kept the paypal option as well just to cover all my bases.

 

Hope this helps a little