Buy Things Online With Credit Card
When buying online, you can ask for delivering a check payment
to you in the mail. Most shopping basket software allows you to
select this option when you are setting it up. If you already
have an offline, bricks and mortar business, you may simply wish
to accept credit card payments over the phone.
Even though this method is convenient and easy to do, there are
some basic problems with these solutions and it all comes down
to the way people shop on the internet. Customers expect to be
able to add items to their basket and proceed to the checkout to
pay. If they then find they must telephone you or print out and
send their order, they may simply abandon their order and hop
over to another website. Shopping online is all about
convenience and if you are unable to provide this, you may be
losing customers without even being aware of it.
So, what are your options and what is it all going to cost?
Well, the good news is you can do it all very simply and
cheaply. Paypal does not have a set-up charge and is a large and
trusted online payment processor servicing 78 million accounts
worldwide in 56 countries. Your only cost is a small percentage
on each sale; a transaction charge. Payments from your website
go straight into your Paypal account from where you can transfer
amounts to your bank account with the click of a button. Once
you sign up with a payment processor, you can either link to
their secure server from your shopping basket facility or build
'add to basket' buttons via a simple web query form. The html
generated is then pasted next to items on your web page and your
customers will be transferred to a secure server when they go to
checkout.
Having your own merchant account gives you the choice of many
different online payment gateways whereas traditional merchant
accounts are normally set up through your own bank and will
become integral to your business account. Most, however, do
charge a set-up fee, monthly fee and transaction charge. Just as
you would offline, do make sure you research any company you
sign up with on the internet. Print out and read their terms and
conditions. It is recommended that you take particular notice of
where they are operating from, their fees, when and how you will
receive your money into your account.
Another point to consider is the question of chargeback. This
happens when a buyer requests a refund of an amount already paid
to you. Reasons include not receiving goods ordered or items
arriving faulty, damaged or not as described. Sometimes requests
are made if the buyers card was used fraudulently.
If the chargeback request is successful, your merchant payment
processor will charge you a processing fee. However, some
companies will now provide you with insurance against
chargebacks inclusive in your monthly fee. It's certainly worth
shopping around for the right solution for you but knowing you
have done your research will give you some peace of mind.