Finding a payment processor for your website and getting it right

Because of how important this topic is, we are now going to cover exactly how to find a payment processor for your website business and getting it right.

The chances are that if you want to sell your goods or services online via your own E-commerce website, or Drop Shipping store, then you will eventually need to find a reliable company that is able to process your visitor’s credit & debit card information on your behalf.

The old-fashioned way of doing this (usually for bricks and mortar businesses that have a physical store location) is to go ahead and go through the hassle of setting up a merchant account with their local bank; Then invest in a whole heap of cumbersome physical POS (Point of sale) equipment such as a till/Cash register (to place the buyers cash into), a card reader machine (a machine that the customer places their credit or debit card into) –  and then finally of course the POS software that will enable everything to work as it should.

Payment processor options for online businesses

One of the great things about the internet and doing business online is that often you can completely bypass the need for traditional & expensive computer equipment, as well as almost all of the red tape that’s usually involved with trying to get started in an online buisness.

A simple Google search along the line of “Payment Processor” will bring up a wide and ever-growing range of online payment processing companies that are will to act as both your merchant account and credit card processor.

How online payment processors usually work

How can they do it?

In regards to exactly how online business credit card processors usually work, they essentially act as your merchant account by having all of the credit card processing abilities & facilities built into their computing systems. They will usually have already invested millions of Dollars into the physical hardware and Software equipment that will enable them to do this.

They can then offer to act as ‘middle-men’ between entrepreneurs and their customers by offering to process payments on a mass scale for multiple vendors.

Why they do it

As for the reason why all these different companies would be springing up offering to be your ‘middle-man’ and help you to process your customers’ payments on your website, it’s very simple –   It’s usually for the Money.

You see, the company will usually take a small percentage of each and every sale that you make. Each payment that they help you to process. And this is how they usually make their money.

Depending on the company in question, they could be processing thousands, hundreds of thousands, or (in the case of a company like PayPal), Millions of credit and debit card payments on behalf of their merchant account holders every single day!…… leading to a very nice profit for them; and this is the main “why”.

Why you shouldn’t try to do it (process Credit and debit card payments) yourself

The most direct reason as to why you would never even want to try to process credit card payments by your self is due to the fact that it is just too damn expensive, and just too much of a headache, not to mention hard work!

First, you would have to purchase the right equipment that is likely to set your business back several hundred if not thousands of Dollars, then you have to maintain and upgrade said equipment often in order t ensure your network is safe and up to the latest of security standards.

Top recommended Payment processor companies for you to choose from

PayPal

Website: www.PayPal.com

PayPal and finding the right payment processor for your a website and you

Of course PayPal would make it onto our list at it is quite often one of the first choices for entrepreneurs when they finally get to the stage that they need to decide which payment processor to use for their website – due to the simple fact that they are easily one of the most popular and widely known, and many have already used PayPal either on eBay or elsewhere to pay for purchases.

They currently have over 135 Million active users in 190+ countries, covering 26 of the worlds most popular currencies. So the chances are that visitors to your website will already have a PayPal account that they feel very comfortable using.

Stripe

Website: www.Stripe.com

Stripe finding a payment processor for your a website

Stripe represents an excellent alternative to PayPal, due (we feel) mainly to the way that they operate and run their business. They for one are not as strict and ‘heavy-handed’ as PayPal can be. Many developers also already use stripe due to the fact that they have an extensive and robust API that allows developers to easily be able to integrate a reliable payment platform into their website.

Many developers also already use stripe due to the fact that they have an extensive and robust API that allows developers to easily be able to integrate a reliable payment platform into their website.

Stripe also integrates seamlessly with the majority of CMS (Content Management System) based website building platforms such as WordPress, Magento and the like.

Skrill

Website: www.Skrill.com

Skrill finding the right payment processor for your a website and you

Skrill (previously called Moneybookers) is another plausible alternative to PayPal. To be honest, we have not yet had a chance to personally make use of Skrill as a company, but we have been hearing some very positive things about them and how they treat their customers.

Other attractions to Skrill include the fact that they famously have low transaction fees, free account setup and you are even able to send our text messages directly from your user account.

Skrill also allows you to have a PrePaid debit card – onto which you can transfer funds directly from your account balance.

Overall, Skrill really does seem to be on the side of the internet entrepreneur.

2Checkout

Website: www.2Checkout.com

2Checkout finding a payment processor for your a website

2Checkout is another of the popular payment processors that had to make it into out

Authorize.Net

Website: www.Authorize.Net

Authorize.Net finding the right payment processor for your a website and you

Authorize.Net also had to make it into our top 5.

Conclusion

Finding a suitable payment processor for your website is something that you will inevitably have to do sooner or later. It’s unavoidable if you want to be able to accept payments from your customers online.

In your quest to find the perfect online payment processor for you, you will no doubt realise the positives and negatives of each company – and it’s up to you to decide which company best fits your business.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this article; and that we have given you to good suggestions to start with on your journey to finding the best online payment processor for you…

…ENJOY!