PayPal

PayPal is a well-diversified product and overall payment gateway. Their service is user-friendly and their brand recognition can be simply overwhelming. This product is well-known around the globe and is a trusted payment method. Not many people know about the aforementioned products unless they have started up their own ecommerce website and have completed their research. PayPal customers know and understand their brand as both the consumer and the business.

Features: You can use PayPal alone or add it as another payment alternative to use with your other payment gateway. PayPal has an easy and quick set up to start accepting payments within 15 minutes of beginning the process. You can email the customer’s invoice by a click of a button. There is a virtual terminal available allowing you to process credit card orders from phone, mail and fax orders. PayPal allows you to complete mass payments to issue rewards, rebates and commissions. They even offer total industry solutions. Promoting goodwill can never be a bad thing and through PayPal you can promote giving to charitable organizations and political campaigns.

Cost: You will find that PayPal is much less expensive than other payment gateways.

• Setup fees: $0
• Monthly fees: $0
• Transaction fees: Total monthly sales $0 to $3000 = 2.9% and $0.30, $3000 to $10,000 = 2.5% and $0.30, $10,000+ = 2.2% and $0.30.
• Currency Conversion fee: 2.5% charge to send funds to another country, 1% fee to receive the funds from another country
• Website Payments Pro fee:  monthly $30
• Virtual Terminal fee: monthly $30, transaction fee $0.30 and 2.4-3.1% of total sale.

Local Bank

Using a local bank can provide you with one stop shopping and a good resource to help you get your business up and running having the support of an organization to get you started. Many banks have already researched and are able to provide you the names and features of a payment gateway that will work with the bank’s own merchant services.

Features: Each bank will have their own features to compliment the payment gateway that is chosen. Some of the common features include credit and debit card processing, eCheck processing, gift card services, fraud and risk management services, online reporting services, online payment processing and touch-tone processing.

Costs: Most banks do not advertise the costs of their services so you would have to make phone calls to a merchant sales representative to see how their services could enhance your business.