Hello everyone

Ive been doing quite a bit of EBaying, and now looking at seeting up an online shop, and just trying to work out what I need. Someone told me I need to have a merchant bank account, but couldn't I just use paypal?

Or do you have to have one if you run an on line business?

Hi Harry, welcome to MLF

It depends on what kind of payment mechanism you are putting in place. If want to take card payments online, or offline using a credit card reader, then your bank will need you to set up a merchant account. The merchantt account is used to authorise customer transactions, collect payments and then transfer to your bank account.

There are banking costs associacted with this, but it does give you a much more professional image, as well as allowing you to offer many forms of payment.

You could just use Paypal, which doesn't require a merchnat account, but this can scare customers away.

That said, there are plenty of businesses that only use Paypal, so its down to the type of shop you want to open. You could always put a toe in the water, then apply for a merchnat account at a later date.

Hope that helps.

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Steve

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Be aware that many merchant account companies are requiring that you PCI DSS certify your website if you take credit cards online. You can google PCI to understand what that is and why certification is necessary.

PCI certification is expensive and you may elect to not get a merchant account because of the extra expensive. We use one of the lowest cost certification companies in the business. If you still want to get a merchant account, PM me and I'll tell you who we use to get our PCI certification from.

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Ralph F
Business Text Messaging Service
www.MobileTextingService.com

I have spen many hours researching this subject and paypal is the cheapest and easiest merchant process I could find.

As the setup is free and painless I will be using it to launch my site and I will raise a poll on the forum asking for peoples opinions on the best merchant technically and there personal opinions of the reputaions.


Actually Stev einstead of waiting 2 months for my site lanch how about raising a poll now.

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JobsVitae.co.uk | Careers Advice

Hi rfresh

My understanding is that for most online retailors, (ourselves included) that we would fall into the self certification category, ie we are using a third party gateway who is compliant. That said, this isn't something we have been asked to do by our merchant account provider, and as far as I'm aware, this isn't a legal obligation?

Although obviously card details and data security are something all businesses should take seriously, and ensure strict internal controls are in place.

https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/index.shtml


Be interested to hear from anyone who has opened a merchant account recently, if you did incur extra expense becoming PCI DSS certified.

If they are, then that will surely play into the hands of providers like Paypal and NoChex?

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Steve

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thanyyou for the help. I think I will stick with paypal to startwith but I shall read up on this pcidss stuff.

thanks all

Harry, I would suggest sticking with paypal for now, when you are sure that your monthly take is worth thejump then go down the Merchant route.

Paypal works seamlessly, here is one I have done for a client, Custom Furniture

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thanks, thats a good looking site. I was worried it wouldnt look professional with only paypal, but that one looks great.

I've got a friend who is going to do the site for me, but as a rough idea how much would something like that cost? Just ball park so I will know in the future.

All depends on how much content, but that was within the offer price on my site, came in at £750 inc VAT.

Blatant plug on my part Kip FX Design | Graphic | Web | Print | Prices

Hope this helps.

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Follow Me On Twitter | Kip FX Design Web Site | Plugged.it Social Network

Hi Harry, thats a little unfair to ask for a quote on a public forum. I would suggest you PM Kip if you want to take advantage of his services.


Edit - Ahh, Kip beat me to it, no worries

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Steve

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Sorry Steve!

And here was me saying I wanted to keep in favour with forum owners

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lol I'll get my coat..

I thought it was unfair to ask you for a quote without you having all the right info.. was what I meant, not dont tout

So plug away.

There you go Harry, £750 and you get a nice shiny site from our man Kip

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Steve

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ok thanks

Harry,

You will have more benefits when using a Merchant Account.

But like Steve said, just to test the waters, why not start with just Paypal?

You can always upgrade later when you know business is going well.

You will incur some costs with a Merchant Account. Paypal is Free.

You can be assured though that they are both safe and secure.

Blessings!

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Drivers Woods and More - Golf Clubs and Accessories!

Harry,

I don't think Paypal scares customers away. I think it attracts them. Security.

I think the lesser known brands scare more people away. And are less secure. And you get more chargebacks.

I don't know what this thing is against Paypal. I think it is the same phenomena as people hating Microsoft - it's just standard to hate the top dog.

Anyway, the best thing to do if you want to test your business idea is start with paypal. And then move onto another system if necessary (you'll probably find that it won't be necessary).

The only problem with paypal is that it doesn't include an easy-to-setup shopping cart. But I think it's just as easy to use their shopping cart setup as it is to go via the merchant account way.

As a payment gateway, we have plenty of merchants on board that still use Paypal as well as our service. It never hurts to have multiple payment options for customers as there will always be those customers who love PP and those who loathe it. Kind of like Marmite I guess!

Simon

I eneded up going for sagepay now the prodcut is very good, the service is very good, the price in comparison and very cheap and here come the but the lead time is awful it has taken us 3 months to get it all signed off. I have lost count fo the amoutn fo forms I have to fill in.
multiple check from sagepay, RBS and PCI DSS.

paypal may be expensive but it tooks me 2 days to get signed up and implement on the site.

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JobsVitae.co.uk | Careers Advice

3 months seems a long time. Our average application time is 3-4 weeks and that is from the merchant contacting us to the bank awarding the merchant ID. I have heard that Sage Pay do have long and complicated forms to fill in. We have nothing like that and we leave the risk assessment to the bank to cut down on application time. Granted PCI does take a while and the banks tend to confuse matters by telling merchants they need to be accredited for website processing - even if using a PCI accredited gateway. I should know... we have been PCI Level 1 for nearly 5 years now and every so often our bank sends us a letter saying we need to become accredited I wouldn't mind but we actually use them as a merchant bank for our gateway customers!!

We use paypal and it gives customers comfort that they are dealing with a professional company?

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MARK PITTS
Owner & Managing Director
Professional Swimming Pools
Utility Warehouse

Also using paypal now on Kip FX Design Web Shop which is our own shop, just need to fill it up now, amazing how many clients did not know we did print! So this weekend has seen a busy Kip (4am I got to sleep this morning) and be a few more late ones.

I am currently looking at a few merchants, a fan of HSBC biz banking, but keep hearing great things about Barclays online payment systems

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