Know-How Exchange : SEO/SEM

If you have your own merchant card, then all of the ecommerce software can use your merchant card processing within your site.

I even believe that PayPal offers merchant card processing as well (without having to use their website, just their APIs).

Have you asked your Bank to assist?

Most banks have card processing facilities online and will recommend gateway service providers they have worked with before. DBS for example.

Hope that helps.

ChrisB

Hi Jay & Chris,

Thanks for your quick responses. I'll take your replies one by one.

JAY
We do not have merchant account/card as yet because we are just launching the B2C website. Yes, PayPal do offer API's to accept card payments on the website itself but I would not prefer PayPal because PayPal is quite infamous for blocking merchant accounts at their will anytime in case of any chargeback claimed by any customers (even by frauds). PayPal don't quite protect sellers but go with buyers instead. And moreover they keep blocking the account for six months (cannot take out existing money in it) without any reason thereof. I can't afford to ruin my business because of useless PayPal policies. In any online business chargeback happens and sellers cannot stop such fraudulent chargeback. Instead of investigating the matter, PayPal simply blame sellers and block their merchant accounts till the chargeback is settled and to open the account again, merchants have no option but to refund the money even if they are not at fault. The above is the feedback from my industry acquaintance and frustrated merchant forums.

Another point is that PayPal merchant account is only available for US based companies.
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CHRIS
We have spoken to DBS Singapore for merchant account for online card payment settlement and they offer this service on their own, but again it is not preferred because:
1. They charge hafty security deposite and since we are testing the waters, we would not like to go for it till the website gets serious traffic. For economic point of view, it is not a good business decision.

2. Commision rates per transaction is quite high.

3. Setup is complicated and all process takes atleast 30 to 45 days. (right from application to website integration)

Navdeep Dhingra

Hi Jennifer,

Thanks for your reply. Actually, I have never heard about 'charge.com' and 'EDPS' before, but since you have a good experience with them, I'll definately like to look at these options.

if possible, can you please let me know on your which websites you are using these payment gateways. I would like to have a look at the process flow.

Also, are you processing the payments directly at your websites or you are directing all your customers to the payment gateway websites. I mean, your customers fill in all the credit card information at your site only or at checkout they are directed to payment gateway sites for payment processing and they fill in all the card informations at those sites and returned back to you.

Please let me know if don't mind sharing the above information with me. Thanks again for sharing your experience

Navdeep Dhingra

Navdeep

Australian banks don't charge deposits and the set up process should be less than one week at the outside.

The DBS policy sounds distinctly odd - have you tried your own bank in Singapore? Or any foreign banks that operate business banking, for example, HSBC, ANZ, Lloyds, Citibank?

BTW any merchant agreement will include the right to charge back so if what you are selling is a high average transaction cost and you don't have a solid financial trading history, that might mean the credit card service provider will be nervous about funds coming in and being moved out of the account, and there being insufficient funds available in the event of a chargeback.

You may need to go through a risk analysis to show them why that isn't going to be a problem for them. I'm guessing the vicarious nature of purchasing habits in high-end, fashion-driven home furnishing might be what makes them uncomfortable.

I bet if you had a bricks and mortar presence they would not be nearly as worried about it.

This will be an issue for any card service provider, I would think.

You need to look at the risk profile from their perspective, and figure out how to demonstrate you would operate the account in a very responsible manner.

If you could get a parent-company guarantee, instead of a cash deposit, that might get you over the line.

ChrisB

Hi ChrisB,

Thanks again that you have taken out time to reply.

No doubt, you raised good points that I need to see the risk factors and charge back from the bank's perspective. I agree with your point that these fashion driven home furnishing products do pose a little risk factor for banks or credit card provides because they fear more charge backs but I am sure you will also agree that charge back happens in any online business and most of the time these are charge backs are raised by frauds and not genuine ones.

DBS ask for deposits from everyone who wants to use their payment gateway for online business. They are asking for deposits from us only as a part of their business policy. WE are operating our business account with DBS only and that too from last 8 years without any negative credit rating. Moreover, we have our offices in India and USA apart from having our registered office in Singapore. The only thing is that we are trying online business first time.

I don't know how come companies like PayPal or Authorize.net can register businesses like ours to use their gateways to accept credit cards online. Don't they fear risks of charge backs? I recently registered with Authorize.net and they never demanded anything from us to supprt our credit history. They simply need is that we should have a presense in USA and that we have. The process was easy and seamless. Now, in next couple of days, I'll get the API integrated in my website and we will be ready to accept cards online.

But most of the banks avoid rendering such services, I don't know why? May be they do not want to get into the nitty-gritty of charge backs and online frauds.

But, I sincerely appreciate your thinking and suggestions.