Is PayPal a turnoff

We only accept cheques! I think it depends on what services they are offering. If it was for actually designing a website I wouldn't expect to be paying by PayPal or really even credit card. Most companies would probably expect to pay by cheque on receipt of an invoice.

I do accept paypal payments from international clients who prefer it. Otherwise, I get cheques.

I only accept cheques at the moment myself. I don't think that most of my clients know what paypal is. Heck, *I'm* not even exactly sure what it is. I'm a little nervous around "virtual money"

*taff pats his mattress knowingly*

I have been thinking about paypal a little more seriously though the further afield I wander. I did have a client quite recently ask to pay via credit card but he didn't grumble much when I told him I didn't accept them. He's only the second client in all the time I've been in business who has even asked so I'm quite happy that I've never taken on those headaches and costs.

By the way - this should really be in "Internet Business Discussion". I'll move it after I submit.

If a webhosting company only accepts Paypal to me that is a sign that they're either underage or a new company (at least that is how it's been from what I've seen in my years in this business). Keep in mind that this doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing.

I think Paypal is a bit of a turnoff in the business field for the reason everybody uses it for anything, it's to general
ok that didn't come out right but sounded good when the voices in my head said it to me
Like Taff said, people paying for services don't know about the 'interweb' stuff

I don't have PayPal as an option, but if requested, they can pay me through it. I do a LOT of subcontracting work (more than regular clients), which means I'm normally dealing with people who know what PayPal is and use it themselves.

I will pay for things via PayPal, but I prefer to use processors that take my credit card info, not go through PayPal.

Quote: Originally posted by Suzanne
I do a LOT of subcontracting work (more than regular clients), which means I'm normally dealing with people who know what PayPal is and use it themselves.

This is what's making me consider trying paypal - for payments to subcontractors, not necessarily payments from clients.

Well my amin draw to paypal was the cheap rates they give to business account for processign credit card purchases through there system. The reason is the person ends up creating an account there, but they still get to use a major credit card.

There rate is in the 2.5-2.75% range plus 30 cents.

Most of my stuff is hosting that I want this for. Check is the form we accept from clients of web design and for their hostings.

However I looked into other companies that give you processign abilities without a merchants account and they are around 3% to 5% plus 1-3 dollars per transaction.

That is my primary reason for asking.

That and I know it is used for everything...but isnt that the idea of money to be used for eveerything

Shane,

Take a look at these two companies...

- http://www.2checkout.com/
- http://www.paysystems.com/

THAT IS EXACTLY WHY I WANT TO USE PAYPAL

Paysystems: Fees starting at 3.95%* discount rate and $0.35* per transaction.

2checkout: $49 Setup Fee
$0.45 per Transaction
5.5% of Transaction Amount

PayPal: 0.7% + 30¢ to 2.9% + 30¢
If you receive a payment from a user in another country, an additional cross border fee will be charged. The cross border fee is an additional 1% for U.S. Dollar payments and 0.5% for Canadian Dollar, Euro, Pound Sterling, and Yen payments. This cross border fee is currently waived for Canadian sellers receiving payments from U.S. buyers.

That is a HUGE difference. Especially with PayPal being free.
Not sure if many of you knew paypal rates...I have account already, just have yet to upgrade it to a merchant or premier account.

Not sure if the other do it, but when you upgrade the account it becomes a Money Market account as well so you earn a small return on any cash laying around in there...

So now that I mentioned that...anyone change their opinion?

I know PayPal rates are lower, but usually the cheapest isn't the best! With PayPal if you have a chargeback or any complaints they will lock your account without notice. You can have thousands of dollars you will never see again or it will take a long time to clear things up and get your account back. It's simply not a very stable service to base your business on. It's OK as a side service for those customer who prefer using PayPal instead of giving their creditcard number.

Here's a site you might want to read before making your decision.
http://www.paypalsucks.com/

Anyways, I wish you the best either way you decide to go.

I use 2CheckOut and I like them alot versus paypal. For one, my client don't have to sign up with 2Checkout like PayPal makes you do. They just pay and go. The admin panel is 10x better. You can accept online checks and credit cards and you can accept international orders. There's also alot of shopping carts that work well with 2Checkout. 2Checkout might be a little more expensive, but they do give you more bang for your buck.

We've used 2CO for over a year and the only bad thing I can say about them is that their admin panel is extremely slow and their prices a little too high. They have now added a feature that lets your customers pay in many different currencies which is great.

I own several different online (and offline) companies. I have separate merchant accounts for each of them, and a Pay Pal account for each of them.

I have found that if you are selling hard goods that you ship to a customer or if you are selling to customers that are not very web savvy, being able to accept credit cards is a big credibility booster.

However, if you are selling services to other webmasters, Pay Pal works just fine. In fact for my consulting firm all I accept other than checks, cash, money orders and the like is Pay Pal.

For web hosting services I think Pay Pal will be just fine.

However, from a cost standpoint, as long as you are an established business a real merchant account is usually cheaper than Pay Pal on a per transaction basis. (I do not count services like Paysystems and the like as a REAL merchant account.)

For most of my companies we process cards with Total Merchant Services. Our discount rate is 2.19% and $0.20 per transaction. (Cheaper than Pay Pal.)

However, my rate is a bit lower than a new business because of the volume of transactions and ultra-low charge-back history.

Bottom line is - Pay Pal will work fine for you at first, but in the long run get a full merchant account.

Thanks Eric, that is what I am hoping to. Nice to hear a true merchants account is cheaper. I just heard you have to have a $5,000 minimum balance to get a merchants account. Since I am trying to start up with virtually no capital it is hard for me to go with high fees and charges. Plus I did it wrong. I should have gone into business and then gotten the server. I did it just reversed and now I am seeing it was the wrong approach.

i think paypal just says to everyone that you cant get a merchant account and that seems to be slowing a lot of us down as it is still pretty expensive to open one, the banks should be paying us to use thier merchent services.

Quote:
the banks should be paying us to use thier merchent services.

How exactly would banks make money from transactions if they paid their merchants for transactions?

Just interested to know the logic behind that statement

i thnk he was referring to setup and recurring fees. for instance verisign charges something like $250 and $60/month -- hell i've had months where i didnt even make that! the same flat rate fees for a company that pulls $100,000 in sales a month and someone who pulls $1,000 in sales a month just doesnt make sense, a simple flat rate % with no extra fees tacked on would make the most sense to attract small businesses and independant contractors, even if the rate is higher. The more you sell the more you pay.

Ah, I see the point...Kind of like the poll tax issue, but with web designers

just signed up for this: http://www.regsoft.com/index.shtml

no signup fee or monthly fees, 10% per transaction. looks ok, they host the downloads and provide toll-free customer service. i'm not exactly thrilled with their control panel interface so far though...