I am currently re thinking my shop website and this includes using online payments stuff.

Any advice recommendations for a new business online??

Moon

paypal seems the easy way for traders.

Visa Mastercard require you paying them to be able to accept them.

PayPal is only good for people who already have accounts.

I'm not sure what mikey is referring to, but I strongly recommend WorldPay. They are owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland and are relatively cheap for the amount of services they offer. They have small and large clients, including famous names like Friends Reunited. Check out http://www.worldpay.com

Also, what bank do you use? Do you have a credit card merchant account already?

The problem with world pay is that it is £100 set up and £160 annually on top of which you are charged per transaction.

I know I ain't gonna get away free - but a bit hceaper would be nice.

Moon

What about the other question?
Also, what bank do you use? Do you have a credit card merchant account already?
:)

From what I've heard, PayPal and WorldPay are the way to go for small to medium sized businesses - one of them will probably be able to accommodate you.

I've integrated a few e-commerce providers and found that they're generally quite... no... very poor on the customer service side of things. We currently use Secpay (http://www.secpay.com) at work and they seem great. They cater for smaller companies (offering templates, hosted pages, etc...) through to large corporate organisations too. They're a very competitively priced company with plenty of scope for upsizing. However, I think they're more aimed at large companies who have sort kind of technical person available...

Let us know how you get on and give any of us a shout if you get stuck!

You might also like to read this website:

http://www.paymentserviceproviders.com

I've never used them but heard about them whilst investigating e-commerce companies at work. They might be able to offer some advice...

I bank with Nat West 'cos the shop is Prince's Trust funded and no I don't have one of those accounts thingies yet.

I have looked at Paypal and the only thing that was putting me off was the registration of your card to make a purchase.

I am thinking of using a post nuke site to run the shop - but I don't know much about it. I have always programed in HTML.

The shop was previously running on a Worldpay account which was loaned to us from another local business - however problems are arising which are making me look elsewhere should things get any messier.

Moon

useful and impartial info here: http://www.electronic-payments.co.uk/index.jsp

Re credit cards, be aware that as we move to chip & pin cards the fraudsters will focus on "card not present" transactions. That means that accepting a card number by phone or internet will become even more of a risk than at present.

oneandone.co.uk may well be the answer for you, you customize their shop software and they handle credit card transactions, have a look here. (http://oneandone.co.uk/xml/static/eshops)

I have used them for my web hosting and I have had no problems. The waiting time for the phone support is comparable to phone banking.

We use secpay too and haven't had any problems.

I'd strongly advise steering well clear of *nuke sites. As one of the main ways you'll get new customers is from search engines *nuke sites are your worst enemy (they have long URLs and poor HTML code).

Either stick with html, or use php with templates so you can easily change the design of the site. Feel free to PM me if you want any tips on search engine optimisation.

Is it possible for your site to take payment DIRECT to your bank account without having to use a 3rd party like Paypal or Nochex?

Originally posted by DaBouncer Is it possible for your site to take payment DIRECT to your bank account without having to use a 3rd party like Paypal or Nochex? Not really. The banks don't want to get caught in the middle of the disputes between a buyer and seller who only exist in the relative anonymity of the internet. And who can blame them, there's enough of a problem with fraudulent credit card use over the internet.
If both participants in a transaction know and trust each other then they can come to an accommodation that doesn't involve a third party - you might run accounts for regular customers so you send the goods when they ask, you invoice them and they pay-up (which they may be able to do direct to your account from an Internet Banking account).

So basically I'd need to use Paypal/worldpay or something like that to get my payment before I send it to my account?

Check out www.protx.com. Flat rate for under 1000 transactions per month. No setup fee.

They currently are not integrated with Natwest. My company are beta testing their Natwest integration for them, but you're looking at at least 3 months.

Worldpay are good, but expensive.

I run a learndirect centre and we offer a course called "Putting you business on the web" which is government subsidised. the course takes 12 hours, costs £30 and is done online so you can do it at the learndirect centre or at home/office. Drop me a line at sheffield@best-training.co.uk if interested

Could someone tell me how I could complete a learn direct course with two kids and no babysitter??

Moon Maiden