Ask YC: Recommend a merchant account provider
There are too many too choose from and no way that I know of to differentiate. Please help.
22 comments
I work for http://bluefin.com as one of their developers. The site isn't much, but we offer merchant accounts and a payment gateway which has an intuitive API to use.
And on the pricing side we can beat paypal's rates easy. I use it for all my side projects as well. If you have any questions about merchant accounts (which I did when I did my first website that accepted credit cards) feel free to call us up.
You can ask for me (Noah) if you like.
And on the pricing side we can beat paypal's rates easy. I use it for all my side projects as well. If you have any questions about merchant accounts (which I did when I did my first website that accepted credit cards) feel free to call us up.
You can ask for me (Noah) if you like.
Can you kill the autoplay sound on your website? No one likes those.
Ditto the recommendation to kill the intro sound on the website, and extending it further to, "the website needs some serious work". (I understand you may not be in a position to do anything about any of this.)
It's got too many stock photos on the front page that don't describe anything about the company or its services -- they're just there fulfilling this "blueness" theme. Why is there a picture of J. Random Dude in a suit? How does that help describe or sell the service?
I use three-second test for website design: go to the website, look at it for three seconds, and then close the window. Now tell me everything that you learned in those three seconds. I find my eyes dancing around the page, finally landing on the bold "Bluefin payment systems" text at the beginning of your paragraph, and then time's up. After the three seconds is up, do I want to go take a second look at the website? Is there a draw? Well ... not really.
After glancing around some more, I finally find the navigation in the top left -- which is in light gray, in (the wrong kind of) subtle contrast to the blue theme everywhere else and dark page text -- and then I statr getting to the information I want, but I still have to drill down to it (click on the "Payment Gateway" item, which takes me to a page with all the other services that I'm not interested in, and a link to "learn more about payment gateway" -- basically a totally unnecessary middle step).
So, from a UI standpoint, the website IM(NS)HO needs a complete reworking. Then, there's the technical matter of using JavaScript mouseovers for your rollovers instead of css :hover tags, etc...
I dunno if Bluefin is really well-established, or still growing, or generally cares one way or the other about its website, but ... maybe somebody there'll find this helpful.
It's got too many stock photos on the front page that don't describe anything about the company or its services -- they're just there fulfilling this "blueness" theme. Why is there a picture of J. Random Dude in a suit? How does that help describe or sell the service?
I use three-second test for website design: go to the website, look at it for three seconds, and then close the window. Now tell me everything that you learned in those three seconds. I find my eyes dancing around the page, finally landing on the bold "Bluefin payment systems" text at the beginning of your paragraph, and then time's up. After the three seconds is up, do I want to go take a second look at the website? Is there a draw? Well ... not really.
After glancing around some more, I finally find the navigation in the top left -- which is in light gray, in (the wrong kind of) subtle contrast to the blue theme everywhere else and dark page text -- and then I statr getting to the information I want, but I still have to drill down to it (click on the "Payment Gateway" item, which takes me to a page with all the other services that I'm not interested in, and a link to "learn more about payment gateway" -- basically a totally unnecessary middle step).
So, from a UI standpoint, the website IM(NS)HO needs a complete reworking. Then, there's the technical matter of using JavaScript mouseovers for your rollovers instead of css :hover tags, etc...
I dunno if Bluefin is really well-established, or still growing, or generally cares one way or the other about its website, but ... maybe somebody there'll find this helpful.
It's blatantly a standard Flash template from TemplateMonster, fyi.
Those are good to throw something together quickly with a professional appearance to it, but I would never run a proper business on a TemplateMonster template...
Daniel
Those are good to throw something together quickly with a professional appearance to it, but I would never run a proper business on a TemplateMonster template...
Daniel
Check out http://www.quotesignal.com/merchant-account-comparison-calcu... *
If you get a quote, run it through this calculator first. The site only has two partners right now, but check them out anyway.
Also, the blog has some information for how to calculate what your costs are going to be: http://www.quotesignal.com/blog//?p=4
It's a three-part series.
* I co founded this site.
If you get a quote, run it through this calculator first. The site only has two partners right now, but check them out anyway.
Also, the blog has some information for how to calculate what your costs are going to be: http://www.quotesignal.com/blog//?p=4
It's a three-part series.
* I co founded this site.
http://www.chasepaymentech.com/ + PayPal
Chase has excellent rates and amazing customer service. I've tried many Merchants and they're by far the best I've ever used.
Chase has excellent rates and amazing customer service. I've tried many Merchants and they're by far the best I've ever used.
We found Chase in Canada (I can't speak for them in the US) to be quite lacking in responsiveness. I was pretty surprised about it actually.
We're going with Optimal Payments up here (www.optimalpayments.ca), who have been very responsive, amazingly helpful, and have really good rates for Canada too :)
We're going with Optimal Payments up here (www.optimalpayments.ca), who have been very responsive, amazingly helpful, and have really good rates for Canada too :)
We use http://www.merchantplus.com
Low rates, authorize.net compatible API. Haven't had any issues with them and support is resposive.
Low rates, authorize.net compatible API. Haven't had any issues with them and support is resposive.
We used SecureTrading for one of our businesses. Their documentation was a bit byzantine at first (heavy on the technical info, but light on the actual business process that one needs to follow). However, I can really warmly recommend them because they offer good prices and excellent tech support when you're in trouble (and when your payment gateway is in trouble, you really want good support!)
Daniel
Daniel
I know I am bragging - but I don't think you could find a better merchant account than the one I have to offer. Check out my blog for more info http://www.straightpassthrough.biz
http://trustcommerce.com or http://getbraintree.com/
Both are good for recurring billing.
Both are good for recurring billing.
I used to work for TC. At the time they didn't provide merchant accounts, just payment processing. Of course, they had partners that did provide merchant accounts.
Paypal's merchant services are pretty easy to get up and running. The rates are ok if you're doing low volume, though if you're doing high volume you can find much better.
Check out Moneris, though they may not be the best choice for you it's the most used one around here. It really depends on where most of your business will be done.
google checkout's features are limited, but the rates are competitive and it's essentially free if you use adwords enough
We're using Cybersource at HubSpot. They acquired authorize.net, so it's the same company now.
Does anyone use amazon FPS?
I tried to sign up for it a few months ago, but the signup process was so buggy that I gave up on it.
authorize.net + paymentech
I second Authorize.net -