Paypal alternative???

I am looking as well...

Mikelann told me about this one a while back and she sounds happy with it: Practice Pay Solutions. Used by lots of coach/consultant types.

I'd love to hear from any of you who have used it.

Anita, it looks like moneybookers.com is only offered for EU transactions. ?

ikobo touts a flat $5 fee to transfer between banks/debit, and costs more for credit card. Could work for those who don't rely on credit cards and who get larger payments each time. (Another reason to package your services!)

obopay claims they offer only 25cents per transaction and you can "send money" via your phone.

It really does depend on how much money you are moving around monthly, how often and how much you tend to move on average per transaction, from what I understand. Is this a sometimes thing or are credit card/debit transactions a mainstay of your business? In some businesses it will increase your revenue dramatically to have cc offered.

Art, what do you think about these services I've mentioned above? Practice Pay Solutions, obopay, ikobo? Great to have you aboard here to answer questions.

It also depends on the size of each transaction. I have very few transactions but an average transaction is probably $500. The $0.30 part is insignificant. If your average transaction is $6, the $0.30 fee is going to add another 5% to your transaction fee.

Ok, Practice Pay is another credit card processor like the companies that I represent. Their big thing is an affiliate web marketing program. Add a PPS tag on your website and if any click through signs up you get something good. I'm not sure what right now because its late and I'm not going over to their site to check again. Ikobo is a wire transfer service like Western Union only web based. Obopay is a prepaid debit card primarily. They make their money from you signing up for their bank account and charging big fees for its useage. Click through and you can look at the fees online. None of us that have bank accounts would ever do that. They're trying to bank the unbanked basically. This is a service that I can offer as well but the only version I've liked is the Payroll card. I think a lot of payroll companies can do the same thing. Art T.

I signed up with Arthur Torelli. He is a Biznik member. http://biznik.com/members/arthur-torelli

It just makes sense that someone who deals in credit card processing would help you get new business. After all, they have a vested interest. I could have gone with many other options, but at the end of the day, I wanted to network and have the possiblity of referrals coming from my credit card processing, which is worth a whole lot more than the very small fee.

My two cents.

Art,

Propay is $35 PER YEAR, not month. Quite a difference.

Hey Miss Banu + everyone,

I actually offer payment processing. Check out www.LowCostProcess.com

I can get you the system for a $450 one-time setup + $15 /month + extremely low percentages on the major credit cards. You can slide cards in person using your computer for retail shops, you can take cards over the phone, and you can use a shopping cart feature much like PayPal over the web -- or even use the API to integrate it into your current ecommerce website.

The reason I absolutely love this system and became a reseller is because of the subscription feature. It always remembers your clients and stores their information securely. At any point in a subscription you can pause.hold.delete, as well as charge for services rendered outside of the subscription without changing the timing of the subscription.

When I work with clients, I take 50% down on a credit card, then have the client agree (sign a payment agreement) to charge dates or payment deadlines, which I setup in the system. Then I render services to the client, while the system takes care of the billing automatically. It really is too easy!

Any credit card processor can say that when you accept credit cards, you make money. But what I say is when the system can be fully automated, you make more money.

Thanks for listening. =D

Matt, $35.00 is the annual fee for Propay but their percentage rates for that bracket are 3.50% + $0.35 per transaction and they have a $0.35 batching fee with a $1,000.00 per month limit. I don't know what happens if you go over $1,000.00 on this program but I'll bet you don't get paid right away. This kind of program is ok for a casual acceptor but if your business is growing particularly in the payment processing area that limit will get in the way.

Art, I know, that was just the basic cheapest option they have for someone who does less than $1000 a month in credit cards. Personally, we use their next step up for $59 per year because that covers $3000 a month. (We get a lot of cash and checks).

Interesting discussion. We went with PayPal and pay only per transaction about $5 on $150 + shipping for a dollar more. We have no limits, no yearly fee.

And the transfer takes about 24-36 hours. That works for us. I totally understand how something that works for us may not being working at all for others.

So far no problems - 4 years in.

See David that puts you the same place as everyone else. If you're not processing a lot of transactions you're fine but if that volume goes up consistently you should find a better option. Art T.

Hey Brandi, I looked at you website and that product looks pretty cool. Just an FYI most of the products that we have been discussing here do reoccurring billing. I would like to know about how your software products integrate with processors other then the ones listed on the site. Can your customers keep their processor if they like them or would they have to switch if they wanted your software products? Art T.

Art,

All things in their order. Right now, PayPal's working. If it becomes a problem, then I will fix it or move to something better. Brake Director has a seasonal sales, but with a major Event plus added sales and marketing/promotions along with that Event, we should see an uptick in our sale. Eye on the Goal. Stay tuned.

This has been a very, very useful thread. Many thanks, Banu for bringing it to everyone's attention!. best, Karen

No, problem David. I remember we spoke before. Art T.