Paypal vs other merchant providers

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itxtme

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#99930 30-Mar-2012 06:27

I am just looking into payment gateways for a client and have found the bank based ones to have absurdly high charges. In fact the best value for dollar with little tie in terms appears to be paypal. I know a few people on here use paypal so I wanted to ask questions around your use.

- If you use it, is it the only payment gateway/merchant you use?
- How much does it cost you from your bank to receive a payment from paypal? (does it come as a NZ transfer or International)
- Are there any other gateways that you can recommend/any reason you don’t like paypal.

I am looking at the business based one where no signup is required for payment.

freitasm

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#602282 30-Mar-2012 06:39

I use Paypal. It charges NZ$1 to withdrawal funds to your account. It comes as a deposit, so whatever I send is whatever gets into my account. Usually two business days for money to show up on BNZ.

sbiddle

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#602291 30-Mar-2012 07:21

DPS is good, and has a great API and documentation.

Kyanar

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#602404 30-Mar-2012 11:33

freitasm: I use Paypal. It charges NZ$1 to withdrawal funds to your account. It comes as a deposit, so whatever I send is whatever gets into my account. Usually two business days for money to show up on BNZ.

If you withdraw more than $150 you don't even get charged that $1.

Personally, I do not like PayPal. At all. They are more expensive than a merchant account provider for any decent amount of transactions, they provide zero protection against fraud for anything that can't be physically held in your hand (and some things that can) and have extremely poor customer service. I personally use Westpac and DPS.

toprob

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#602469 30-Mar-2012 13:18

I use both Paypal and BNZ Buyline, processed manually online, generally about 50/50. I don't think I would want to use Paypal exclusively, but it is a nice system for a business like mine -- although everything I sell is online, my products/pricing makes it not that attractive to fraudsters. I've had a good few years with Paypal, with minimal hassle.

However if you do get a fraudulent transaction, you have to be prepared to lose money, so if your products are more high-risk, then you will have trouble. Luckily I've only ever had to refund 2 suspect orders in the 8 years I've been using these systems. Never had a credit card chargeback with BNZ, which is the way it should be with the care that goes into this.

I've used Paymex before,before they closed up shop, and would love to go back to an instant processing system for CCs, but it is quite expensive for a tiny little business like mine. Paypal fills this gap well, and the Buyline account helps to deal with larger orders locally.

New Zealanders tend to use Paypal a lot less than overseas, so it depends on your market as well. About 60% of my customers are local.

I try not to have too much tied up with Paypal at any one time, just in case something blows up, but I always withdraw >$150 to save a dollar:)

sleemanj

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#602513 30-Mar-2012 13:59

I use paypal, have done for many years.

Charges are not that bad for casual purposes, some months I might take no payments, others a couple thousand dollars. Just a cost of doing business.

Multi currency is useful, I charge clients in different currencies depending on their preference.

Withdrawing is easy. They obviously pay from an NZ holding account, it's not an international transfer (but neither is it overnight, takes a few days).

High visibility overseas (not so much locally though unfortunately).

The APIs are well documented.

---
James Sleeman
I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...

itxtme

2102 posts

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#602729 30-Mar-2012 21:11

Thanks for the info, some of the terms on the national bank seemed over kill - 36month contract, monthly charge and percentage, may even have had a charge per transaction on top of that from memory!

itxtme

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#602836 31-Mar-2012 10:34

I have had another look at my banking fees and one fee is for international deposit into an ANZ account have a charge. Do any of you get charged by your banks for recieving a deposit from Paypal? Do you know if they have a NZ account that the deposit comes from? I will contact DPS on Monday, its frustrating so many NZ companies do not have their prices listed..

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sleemanj

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#602853 31-Mar-2012 11:20

itxtme: Do you know if they have a NZ account that the deposit comes from?

As mentioned, it is a local transfer.

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James Sleeman
I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...

itxtme

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#602991 31-Mar-2012 18:06

sleemanj:
itxtme: Do you know if they have a NZ account that the deposit comes from?

As mentioned, it is a local transfer.

Sorry missed that, thanks!

mattwnz

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#602996 31-Mar-2012 18:22

itxtme: I am just looking into payment gateways for a client and have found the bank based ones to have absurdly high charges.? In fact the best value for dollar with little tie in terms appears to be paypal.? I know a few people on here use paypal so I wanted to ask questions around your use.

- If you use it, is it the only payment gateway/merchant you use?
- How much does it cost you from your bank to receive a payment from paypal? (does it come as a NZ transfer or International)
- Are there any other gateways that you can recommend/any reason you don?t like paypal.

I am looking at the business based one where no signup is required for payment.
?

I use paymate. The good thing about them is that the money goes into your account straight away, so you don't need to withdraw it, or pay to withdraw it. But I think having your own merchant account is the cheaper option when processing more transactions, as you pay less of a percentage.

blakamin

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#602997 31-Mar-2012 18:31

I use paypal to trnsfer money from my Oz bank to my NZ bank... pretty easy! And when I withdraw the money, it shows up in 2 days in my ANZ account

Kyanar

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#603068 31-Mar-2012 22:20

itxtme: I have had another look at my banking fees and one fee is for international deposit into an ANZ account have a charge. Do any of you get charged by your banks for recieving a deposit from Paypal? Do you know if they have a NZ account that the deposit comes from? I will contact DPS on Monday, its frustrating so many NZ companies do not have their prices listed..

Yeah getting a merchant account can be a bit pricey for smaller volumes or smaller transactions, but it's worth it if you have big transactions or lots of them. There is a per transaction charge from the merchant gateway (e.g DPS) but its like 20c, on top of a roughly 2% charge (less than Paypal!)

DPS does not do merchant accounts by the way - you still need a merchant account from your bank.

richms

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#603072 31-Mar-2012 22:47

toprob: I use both Paypal and BNZ Buyline, processed manually online, generally about 50/50. I don't think I would want to use Paypal exclusively, but it is a nice system for a business like mine -- although everything I sell is online, my products/pricing makes it not that attractive to fraudsters. I've had a good few years with Paypal, with minimal hassle.

How are you processing online sales manually with BNZ?

Richard rich.ms