A CHEAP WAY TO ACCEPT CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS ONLINE
Very often, we get asked by small
businesses how they can accept credit card
payments online.
What we tell them is that, unfortunately, if
you want a full-blown credit card and shopping
cart system on your web site, it does cost money.
And, because many of our readers and customers
run very small businesses (eg. sole traders), the
benefits of online credit card systems just don't
outweigh the significant costs.
Enter Paypal,
a system which will suit many small business
operators, that allows you to set up your site to
accept credit card payments with no initial
outlay of money. The only cost of the service is
a fee per transaction of between 1 and 3%.
The main limitation at this stage, however, is
that Paypal only allows transactions to be made
in US dollars, Canadian dollars, Euro dollars and
Pounds Sterling. They state that they are working
towards adding new currencies, and so we hope
that one day they will offer transactions in
Australian dollars.
But don't let the currency problem put you
off. We have in the past offered our services to
Australian customers in US dollars via credit
card payment. One recent example was someone who
insisted that they would prefer to pay by credit
card. With the customer's agreement, we simply
took the amount and converted it to to US
dollars, and then sent the invoice. No additional
hassle was necessary for the customer, he simply
paid the account online via credit card and his
credit card company simply charged his account in
the equivalent amount of Australian dollars.
Easy.
Paypal offers you a couple of ways to accept
credit card payments.
One is to actually have a link on your web
site. When the customer clicks on it, they enter
a secure site that actually resides on the Paypal
domain, but is set up to look like your own site.
They simply follow the prompts, enter their
details, click on submit, and the money is put
into your account and the customer is returned to
any page on your web site you want.
The second way is to send an invoice via
email. You simply fill in the details within your
Paypal account screen and hit Send. The customer
receives an email with details and a link which
takes them to a secure site for payment.
As mentioned above, the advantage of Paypal
for small businesses is that there are no upfront
fees whatsoever to join, unlike other merchant
systems which can cost you hundreds or even
thousands to set up and then charge you annual
fees on top of that.
To find out more, visit the Paypal web site at
www.paypal.com
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