Alternatives to Paypal

[DogDoc]

In addition to my veterinary and herbalist practice, I run an online store that sells Irish flutes and whistles. It started as sort of a joke years ago but has become a serious business.

All my transactions are done online through a godaddy store. All my credit card payments are processed by Paypal. I run thousands of dollars a month through the account.

I've recently learned that Paypal is seriously anti-gun. I have no interest in supporting, much less funding, their political agenda.

Does anyone know of a gun-friendly company that could take their place in my business?

Doc

[jipel]

Tagged for interest.

[Texican_gal]

Here's an alternative, but I don't know about their politics: wepay.com

[Dr. Keith Seto]

squareup.com?
CostCo also offers credit card merchant processing through some vendor.

[EDELWEISS]

email sent

[Scott]

Tag for interest

[Shooter76]

I never heard Paypal was anti-gun... Where did you run across this?

[Mickey Rourke]

I think it stems from EBay purchasing PayPal and they have a policy on no guns.

My only suggestion is that, if we only buy from pro-gun (or Pro-Christian/Pro-Life) supporters, there will be many needed items missing from our daily life.

If you are going to shun one, you should shun them all.

[Jeremy]

I still use paypal for items against their rules, it's fun. Paypal is the most universal of the services so it benefits me to use them.

[Nick Randall]

The best pirates are those that use the system to their advantage, as/if they need that system.

[Gabriel Suarez]

When I see a site that uses PayPal I think, "shoe string mom and pop operation...not a serious business". You want to be seen as a serious business? Then get a real merchant account and process your own payments.

[Al Lipscomb]

There are a number of companies that can help you set things up for your own merchant account. They do the shopping cart and help set things for the secure transaction. Whoever is hosting your site may have such a service available.

[DogDoc]

For those that mentioned using the system as needed, I don't disagree. But, given the choice between equal services, if one of them is interfering with my rights (ie...paying for a legally purchased gun) r shoving an agenda down my throat, I'll choose the other.

The recent boycotts of the big sporting/hunting show back East that banned black rifles and had to cancel because of all the pull outs has shown the power of voting with our wallets.


Doc

[JeffC]

Doc,

Take a look at Authorize.net.

-jeff

[Web Services]

This subject led me to many hours of research. You must look at all fees, setup fees, monthly fees, transaction fees, authorize vs charge fees etc etc. Some don't communicate well with shopping carts, some require to use their online virtual terminal rather than letting the shopping cart transact directly, some make the shopper leave your site to go to the payment form. Some are JUST gateways and are not merchants at all. Some have dual charges for gateway charge and merchant charge (it's good to find a gateway/merchant all-in-one).
Then there is the issue of availability, we love 24/7 here and I always try to buy services with 24/7 support, clearly available toll-free phone numbers, and so on. Free support is also good, one merchant I looked in to made all their customers go through a ticket system and were open 5-5 EST.

If I might be the voice of opposition, Paypal was very generous about gun business, I had to knock others off my list because they simply refused to suppose firearms at all. Authorize.net might have been one of them, and they couldn't handle our revenue load for what we were looking for in fees. Some of these "cheap" merchants have limits on what they will handle. Either in terms of number of transactions, amount of any single transaction, or amount of all transactions in a month, or year's time.

Regarding Paypal again, there is a difference between their gateway, which is what everybody knows, using your Email to make payments, etc, and then their merchant services which accepts credit cards and does not take people away from the shopping cart domain.

Personally, if I am browsing the web for some random widget and I've never shopped their before and I can't trust them, I LOVE to see Paypal as an option. They are secure, trusted, my information is not sent to the store but is rather processed outside the store, so I don't have to worry that my credit card is being printed on some paper and handed to a fat financial guy and then stuffed in a drawer somewhere or stored in a plain-text database. I will always use Paypal when available, unless I trust the store, am not afraid of them improperly handling my payment info, or I want to have an account there.
If you are going to handle a crap load of transactions or start to get in high revenue, or want more standard merchant/gateway controls, you might outgrow them.

Here are some Paypal alternatives that you might research and compare:

Authorize.net (very widely used, popular)
Quickbooks merchat services (you don't need Quickbooks itself to use this)
CyberSource (international support, bill me later, lots of validation testing)
First Data Global Gateway (offline terminal support and other services)
Plug'n Pay (fairly basic services, probably not for high volume/revenue)
Paypal Payflow Pro (this is gateway services for your shopping cart, will communicate with other merchants)
NMI Gateway Services (real time reports, batch uploading, virtual terminal etc)
eSELECT plus (verified by Visa, batches, etc)
Chase Paymentech


If you are having moral issues, remember that any of these merchants/gateways are usually backed by a big-name bank. So also look at who these companies are powered by. Authorize.net is powered by Cybersource and Visa, in fact Cybersource owns Authorize.net. So you can also explore these connections.

Happy hunting, and I don't envy your researching!

[JustMe]

ive had a number of peers, running large internet businesses, suggest moneybookers. i have no personal experiance with them myself.

at this point i think paypal has pissed off enough people that alternatives are generally more accepted. that said, im seeing more and more sources for small business merchant accounts with simple website integration. so perhaps you can just skip the middlemen entirely.

[JustMe]

When I see a site that uses PayPal I think, "shoe string mom and pop operation...not a serious business". You want to be seen as a serious business? Then get a real merchant account and process your own payments.

i agree. but for those that are new to this, just make sure you retain the services of someone local, reputable, and that cant hide from you when problems arise ... and they will.

on the flip side, even godaddy accepts paypal. the real story is lots of people love to use paypal since paypal works so hard to avoid having status as a bank .... ill let readers fill in the blanks. so having your own merchant account AND paypal, does not look bad, and has a lot of benefits to make sales you might not otherwise make.

[Otis]

Much good info here! I'm going to have to explore alternatives, also,


I never heard Paypal was anti-gun... Where did you run across this?

PayPal Acceptable Use Policy

https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=ua/AcceptableUse_full&fli=true&locale.x=en_US

Prohibited Activities

2. relate to transactions involving (i) ammunition, firearms, or certain firearm parts or accessories, or (j) ,certain weapons or knives regulated under applicable law.


PayPal User Agreement



https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=ua/UserAgreement_full&fli=true&locale.x=en_US#9.%20Restricted%20Activities.

Refer to Section 10.3 Actions by PayPal - Restricted Activities

PayPal can freeze your funds for 180 days and that $2,500 is presently a reasonable minimum estimate of PayPal's actual damages



just sayin'

[olywa]

I like PayPal. I use it a lot. I like that I am protected if a transaction goes south.
I agree if you avoid all things that you don't agree with. You would be without a lot.

[RayMich]

I never heard Paypal was anti-gun... Where did you run across this?

I know people whose PayPal accounts were cancelled when PayPal learned that they were selling firearms and ammunition.

[Doug Little]

I use Chase Paymentech which uses Authorize.net as their gateway provider. I have had good service from both. Authorize.net also has an iPad/iPhone app that is pretty convenient to use as well. If you are processing a fairly high volume, the rates are pretty competitive from Chase Paymentech. I have also received excellent customer service from them. I have been using it on my website with my shopping cart for a little over 3 years and have had no issues at all.

I use PayPal for some personal transactions, such as eBay and the like, but I don't use it for the business. I ran into the 'freezing funds' problem...they just 'decided' that they needed to put a 'hold' on my funds and informed me via email. I took it off my shopping cart that day. About a month later they decided they no longer need to 'hold' my funds, but I haven't gone back. I don't like people/companies messing with my money.