There are dozens of online credit card processing systems. Options range from pioneers such as PayPal to more modern systems such as Ingenico. Having many choices is great, but you can't really go through all of them. To make things easier, we've narrowed down the choices. An in-depth comparison of online processors—3 apps that are most widely used—can help business owners reach a decision faster.
However, we will not claim that one mobile or online payment processor is better than the other. Different businesses have varying online payment processing needs.
What a small business considers to be important for processing customer payment might not be the priority of those that regularly process a high volume of orders. There's no one-size-fits-all solution to mobile and online credit card processing.
Instead, we will be choosing three of the most popular online payment processors on the market today and going in-depth as to what their pros and cons are. Readers can count on this review to be 100% unbiased and fair.
Online credit card readers have become a must-have not just for online stores but also for brick-and-mortar businesses. With a solid digital card reader, even a small-time merchant would be able to accept online payments made by customers from faraway locations like another state or country.
Stores and shops that still don't accept online payment options should start exploring their payment processing options. Otherwise, they might lose their market. Remember, just as you have the option to expand your market, other business owners and businesses can tap into your current market as well. If you don't keep up, you might get left behind.
Newbie merchants who are unsure whether they need to start accepting online credit card payments can get in touch with Processing Card. Our team of pros will help you decide whether your business would benefit from mobile and online credit card readers. Contact Processing Card today!
A common misconception about offering your services and products online is that you need to be very tech-savvy to do so. Yes, a good knowledge of new, modern technology such as mobile phones is excellent. However, one does not necessarily need to be a technologically adept wizard who can create a high-quality website to transition to online sales.
If you're looking for a simple, easy way to take your business online, go with PayPal. It's a very popular mobile/online payment processor that customers like for convenience, simplicity, and overall efficiency.
There's really not much you need to know to get started. They have a very easy-to-use mobile app, predictable processing fees, reliable payment gateway pages, and versatile payment processor solutions. PayPal is suitable for both big and small businesses—whether they have their own website or not.
Apart from being one of the easiest to understand payment processors on the market today, they also have transparent, predictable transaction fees. This makes accounting simpler for small business entrepreneurs who are just starting out. You won't have to adjust your financial accounts regularly just because of unforeseen fees and charges.
On scalability and versatility, PayPal remains to be one of the best options available. With flexible contract terms and zero monthly fees, entrepreneurs are free to upgrade—or downgrade—their account however they see fit.
Another feature worth mentioning is that merchant clients are not necessarily required to use PayPal as their primary processor for the online credit card transactions on their website. You are free to accept credit card payments via other payment processing options.
Likewise, you can also opt to set up PayPal as the exclusive payment processor for online payments via mobile wallets and credit cards made on your website.
You won't have to pay any monthly fees or charges to open and maintain a merchant account with PayPal.
For all sales made on payment gateway pages, PayPal charges a fixed standard processing fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. Note that these fees will jump to 3.1% plus $0.30, however, for transactions and payments done over your virtual terminal.
Perhaps the biggest disadvantage to using PayPal is they are very strict when it comes to fraudulent transactions. In fact, they charge a non-negotiable $20 fee for all chargebacks.
Plus, PayPal won't credit back paid processing fees when you issue a refund to a customer. That means that every customer refund will cost your business 2.9% of the transaction amount plus $0.30. They also charge a 1% fee for instant transfers.
Newbie business owners applying for credit card processors for the first time might notice that commercial institutions have stringent requirements. Most of them limit their services to "safe" businesses. If you are branded as a high-risk business, expect to have some issues qualifying your company, website, or brand for a credit card payment processor.
However, there's no reason why any merchant should limit themselves to just commercial processors. There are plenty of third-party online merchant account service providers that cater to high-risk businesses. In fact, there might be a bit too many of them now.
If you need a reliable online credit card payment processing system that caters to high-risk merchants, use Durango! They are a reputable, established credit card processing brand known to cater to clients from a wide array of industries. Whether you have bad credit or distribute goods such as tobacco and CBD oil products, they can help you.
Even among high-risk payment processing brands, Durango is known to be one of the most versatile, accommodating credit card processing service providers out there. Of course, they can't guarantee the approval of every single merchant that comes their way.
However, you can count on them to do their best to hook you up with the best credit card payment processing service provider available in their network. They work with many banks and financial institutions.
Another reason to work with Durango is they provide offshore merchant services. This is very important considering that most clients looking for online credit card processing systems aren't brick-and-mortar shops but rather e-commerce stores.
As an e-commerce entrepreneur, it would be very beneficial if you could incorporate a payment gateway into your website so you can accept payments globally.
Unlike commercial payment options like PayPal and Square, high-risk merchant account services providers like Durango do not disclose their monthly fees and transaction charges upfront. You'll have to get in touch with an agent to learn more about their pricing and cost system.
However, contrary to popular belief, these brands don't hide their fees and rates to trick their customers. The reason Durango cannot disclose their pricing model is the cost of their services varies on a case-by-case basis since they cater to high-risk clients.
For example, those with low credit scores and poor business performance may have to pay a higher cost to subscribe to their services. Meanwhile, businesses who have a strong background or are nearly qualified to be a low-risk client can negotiate for better rates and fees.
New clients can get either tiered or interchange-plus pricing, but it is also stated on their site that most applicants will be assigned a tiered pricing model. The brand only offers interchange-plus pricing and rates to lower risk ventures.
Perhaps the only disadvantage of Durango is they are not upfront with their service fees. However, when compared with other high-risk merchant account services brands, it is said that they actually offer competitive, fairly priced, and reasonable rates.
Remember: High-risk clients generally have to pay more for point of sale and payment processing systems. You don't need to compare them with commercial payment processors.
Small e-commerce stores that are just starting out and are looking for a cost-efficient, reliable third-party brand to process their customers' credit card payments can use CDGcommerce. It's ideal for online stores of all sizes.
When looking for a reliable payment processor to handle mobile and credit card transactions on your e-commerce website, you need to go for a versatile option like CDGcommerce that's geared toward digital sales. Don't just settle for merchant account service providers with a low pricing model.
The goal here is to equip your website with a processing system that handles high-volume orders, accepts global customer payments, and does not crash when multiple customers log use the payment gateway.
CDGcommerce offers flexible month-to-month terms. Merchants can customize and switch to different pricing systems midway through their contracts. This is very beneficial for startups who have fluctuating needs. After all, what you prioritize today might not be as important later on when you're processing a higher volume of orders.
Apart from the reasonable, flexible pricing terms, they are also focused on improving the overall experience of small business owners. The problem with bigger processors like Square and PayPal is that their offers are best suited to the needs of bigger, high-volume merchants.
In fact, their software system is known to crash with low-volume transactions. Fortunately, this isn't the case with CDGcommerce.
New entrepreneurs with a limited budget should consider CDGcommerce as they offer their services almost for free. Clients won't need to pay for any monthly, PCI-compliance, and new account setup fees. Plus, since clients are not bound to any high fees and rates, one can cancel the account they use without any hassle.
CDGcommerce offers a reasonable, transparent per-transaction fee of 1.95% plus $0.30 for online transactions. The per-transaction fee spikes, however, to more than 2.95% plus $0.30 if the payment is made via non-qualified channels like a premium card, corporate card, virtual terminal, or international gateway.
The biggest disadvantage of CDGcommerce is they only offer their services to merchants based in the U.S. Also, the products and features they offer might not be the best option for retail store owners who don't have a website. For these cases, it's best to use a point of sale system geared for in-store checkout transactions and such.
Is an online merchant account a good investment? Of course! The rise of technology gave way to the development of online shopping. More and more Americans are choosing to pay various bills and purchases via online channels. In fact, experts believe that the number of new and old online shoppers in the U.S. is expected to exceed 230 million by the year 2021.
Are you still on the fence about which option best suits your business' online credit card processing needs? We'll help you narrow down the best payment processing service providers on the market and see which payment solutions best fit your needs. Reach out to Processing Card today!
