Accepting Credit Card Payments for small operators

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Codliveroil
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Accepting Credit Card Payments for small operators

Post by Codliveroil »

From reading this forum CC pmts seem to be a big problem and it appears Stripe, fab, paypal and others all come with their own problems with costs, high % fees, setting up, etc.

Forgive me if this has been suggested elsewhere, but I can use it myself, I think, but here goes:

It is not for everyone and would only be useful for owners who can/want to receive funds in a different European currency example advertise in GBP but get paid Euros, or Danish Kroner to GBP, etc. Also it does not give the payee any payment protection just the convenience of paying by card, but for us the advantage of no charge backs.

By using Transferwise to move funds from a UK account to a European account I discovered that not only do you get a fantastic rate but the fees are very small, a few GBP's and it's all done on line. You, or a client, can send the funds to Transferwise by (bank transfer not relevant for this discussion) or by Visa or Mastercard. They add only 0.3% or 0.4% for Euro cards. This is infinitely better than all the other methods.

I m still trying to get my head around this, but I can offer clients that book direct the option of sending me a transfer of GBP to my GBP bank account from their bank account in the normal way, or to pay by card by using Transferwise, I receive Euros at a fantastic exchange rate, free of any fees, and the sender only gets charged a tiny 0.3 or 0.4%, It just means, to me, that any credit card payments end up in my Euro account not my GB account, but this is okay I need to pay running costs there anyway.

You also get a link from Transferwise to give to your clients who want to pay by card. You also earn $$$ or points for recomendations, not read that carefully yet.

I don't know what I have missed yet..any comments, suggestions please.

The Transferwise site is very professional, (Skype people) endorsed by Branson no less and is easy to use. No I am not on commission, I only discovered this yesterday from another post on this site.

Sorry for the long post.

I pasted below the key points.

Paying with a credit card when sending money through TransferWise is a quick and simple process. All the important information you need to know is listed below.


TransferWise can currently accept credit card payments for sending from GBP, EUR, NOK, SEK and DKK.



The limits for credit card payments from each currency are - 2000GBP, 2500EUR, 20,000NOK, 20,000SEK and 20,000DKK.



Paying with a credit card carries an additional handling fee of 0.3% for GBP, DKK, NOK and SEK, and 0.4% for EUR.



The card types we can accept are - Visa and MasterCard
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kevsboredagain
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Post by kevsboredagain »

Is this something new? I've offered Transferwise as a payment option for about a year now but only 2 people have opted to use it. I was not aware you could now by it by credit card. Must add this to my website.

The disadvantage though, which many people won't like, is that you have to create an account to Transferwise, which means waiting time and jumping through a few hoops. Others systems like Paypal can accept a payment by credit card with no account.

Despite offering bank transfer, Transferwise and Paypal with 3.5% charge added, nearly half opt for Paypal and don't mind the fees. If that ever reaches maybe 70% I'll up my prices a little and make Paypal "free", so everyone pays the 3.5%.
Codliveroil
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Post by Codliveroil »

kevsboredagain wrote:Is this something new? I've offered Transferwise as a payment option for about a year now but only 2 people have opted to use it. I was not aware you could now by it by credit card. Must add this to my website.

The disadvantage though, which many people won't like, is that you have to create an account to Transferwise, which means waiting time and jumping through a few hoops. Others systems like Paypal can accept a payment by credit card with no account.

Despite offering bank transfer, Transferwise and Paypal with 3.5% charge added, nearly half opt for Paypal and don't mind the fees. If that ever reaches maybe 70% I'll up my prices a little and make Paypal "free", so everyone pays the 3.5%.
The information they require is barely no more than what you would have to give if you were shopping on line and there is no wait. The 3.0% saved by either the client or in my pricing is better than some other institution grabbing it.
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kevsboredagain
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Post by kevsboredagain »

Codliveroil wrote:
The information they require is barely no more than what you would have to give if you were shopping on line and there is no wait. The 3.0% saved by either the client or in my pricing is better than some other institution grabbing it.
Sorry but that's not true. You have to prove who you are and send proof of ID and address. I use Transferwise a lot myself and when I recommended it to by boss at work, it took nearly a week to get verified. He wasn't very happy. I don't remember it taking that long when I signed up but it was certainly not instant.

I agree it's better than giving 3.5% to Paypal.
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French Cricket
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Post by French Cricket »

No verification needed for small transfers.

80% of my guests now use Transferwise and they can be signed up and payment made within the hour.
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kevsboredagain
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Post by kevsboredagain »

French Cricket wrote:No verification needed for small transfers.

80% of my guests now use Transferwise and they can be signed up and payment made within the hour.
I stand corrected then. On their site it says that a credit card must match the transferwise account holder details but I did not see anything about small amounts. It also says verification takes 1-2 business days. Will need to look into this.

Interestingly they also don't recommend using a UK card to pay a Euro transaction because the conversion will be done by the bank so end up costing more.
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Post by Hells Bells »

Depends on your card, my Halifax Clarity card has no fees for Euro transactions and converts at close enough to bank rate.
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Post by AndrewH »

kevsboredagain wrote:...Others systems like Paypal can accept a payment by credit card with no account...
I am not so sure that that is true now, Kevin. In order to complete a Visa card payment for something last week, I was told that I could do it through PayPal without opening an account with them. Not so as it turned out. If I already had a PayPal account I could pay with my card straight away. If I did not have a Paypal Account, then I would need to open one first in order to pay using my Visa card. The sellers provided no alternative means of paying by card.

I don't and won't have a PayPal account (I did once and vowed never again when things went badly wrong), so those sellers lost the business and it served them right.
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Post by Codliveroil »

kevsboredagain wrote:
French Cricket wrote:No verification needed for small transfers.

80% of my guests now use Transferwise and they can be signed up and payment made within the hour.
I stand corrected then. On their site it says that a credit card must match the transferwise account holder details but I did not see anything about small amounts. It also says verification takes 1-2 business days. Will need to look into this.

Interestingly they also don't recommend using a UK card to pay a Euro transaction because the conversion will be done by the bank so end up costing more.
Kevsboredagain, with respect, you are reading this wrong. It says the credit card must match the holder details, that is the billing address on the card, same with any online CC transaction. So if you set up with one address (Billing address) and then use a card that has another "Billing" address then that card will be rejected.

Also, let me clarify, TW are saying it might cost you more if you set up a transaction in one currency and pay with a different currency card. For example if a transaction is set up GBP to Euro, that is, to pay in to TW GBP and transfer out to Euro then be sure to pay in with a GBP card and your bank has to do nothing with forex, simple. Of course if you set up Euros to Pay say danish Kroner then you pay with a GBP card then your bank will hit you with a poorer exchange rate to convert the GBP to Euro first, this first part has nothing to do with TW. This is what they are trying to explain.
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Post by Codliveroil »

AndrewH wrote:
kevsboredagain wrote:...Others systems like Paypal can accept a payment by credit card with no account...
I am not so sure that that is true now, Kevin. In order to complete a Visa card payment for something last week, I was told that I could do it through PayPal without opening an account with them. Not so as it turned out. If I already had a PayPal account I could pay with my card straight away. If I did not have a Paypal Account, then I would need to open one first in order to pay using my Visa card. The sellers provided no alternative means of paying by card.

I don't and won't have a PayPal account (I did once and vowed never again when things went badly wrong), so those sellers lost the business and it served them right.
This is correct, you need to set up a Paypal account first to pay with a card.
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Post by French Cricket »

Thank you, Codliveroil, for posting that explanation - I was just girding my loins to do the same thing and you've saved me the trouble!

Transferwise really is very simple for the guest. They transact in their own currency, via card or via the Faster Payment bank transfer service; TW does the exchange and transfers it into the receiver's bank account. Their fee is £1 for transfers up to £200, or 0.5% for higher amounts, payable by the guest. The transfers arrive very quickly.

I honestly can't think of a better way for people in the UK to pay for their holiday in euros.
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kevsboredagain
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Post by kevsboredagain »

This is very sneaky by Paypal. The online help, at least the French one that I see, says a Paypal account is not needed and indeed when I last tested it, over a year ago, an account was definitely not required. I even tell my clients this on my website payment page.

The online help is not actually wrong though because an account is not required to use a credit card, it's just that doing so will create you a Paypal account in the process!

However, now when the credit card form comes up, it looks almost the same as before but with an extra field, right at the end for creating a Paypal password. They therefore take all your details and force you to create an account when taking the credit card information.

Time to do some Googling.
Last edited by kevsboredagain on Wed Jul 22, 2015 4:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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kevsboredagain
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Post by kevsboredagain »

Codliveroil wrote:
Kevsboredagain, with respect, you are reading this wrong. It says the credit card must match the holder details, that is the billing address on the card, same with any online CC transaction. So if you set up with one address (Billing address) and then use a card that has another "Billing" address then that card will be rejected.
Their website actually says
"The name on your credit card must match the name on your TransferWise account. If it does not, please be aware that your transfer will be delayed and potentially cancelled."

As I have never tested this out myself or had any feedback from my clients who have used it, I will simply ask Transferwise myself to clarify, as what you say seems to contradict their website. I would also like to tell my guests no account is needed.
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Post by Nemo »

Codliveroil wrote:This is correct, you need to set up a Paypal account first to pay with a card.
Unless different countries have different rules, you should not need a Paypal account to pay by CC. Of course they want you to have one, but you should find the small print somewhere that allows you to pay by CC without an account. This link gives a screenshot of what it should look like. http://panelsyndicate.com/help/paypal

I've always told my guests they don't need an account. Maybe someone needs to test something now to see if they can see that info!
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Post by kevsboredagain »

Nemo wrote:
Codliveroil wrote:This is correct, you need to set up a Paypal account first to pay with a card.
Unless different countries have different rules, you should not need a Paypal account to pay by CC. Of course they want you to have one, but you should find the small print somewhere that allows you to pay by CC without an account. This link gives a screenshot of what it should look like. http://panelsyndicate.com/help/paypal

I've always told my guests they don't need an account. Maybe someone needs to test something now to see if they can see that info!
A bit of Googling tells me that it is not only country dependent but also depends on the level of Paypal account. They also will ask for an account if you use the same card a few times. There are loads of articles online saying an account is not required but just as many contradicting this.

So it would seem there is no definitive yes/no answer on the matter.
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