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What is the *cheapest* way to accept debit/credit online?

764 Views 24 Replies 13 Participants Last post by  root*children, 
Sleepymama
I'm being killed by paypal fees. My prices are pretty low to begin with, and paypal is taking a major chunk of my profits. Is there a better deal around or do I need to raise my prices?

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Steph
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C
I know it seems alot of ppl tack the fees on if you don't use funded pp. That's what I'm thinking about once I get myself up and running.
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M
Quote:

Originally Posted by CraftyMommaOf2
I know it seems alot of ppl tack the fees on if you don't use funded pp. That's what I'm thinking about once I get myself up and running.
I don't know that this is the best route to take for a business though, since it will turn away buyers. I think it is okay for ebay, but I wouldn't buy from an actual business that was going to charge me the PayPal fees. Plus, it is technically illegal for a business to charge cc fees to the customer.
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C
I was coming back to say that it had all been ebay and coops that did that...lol. I didn't know it was illegal, but I haven't really checked it out much. (You know what I want to do Melanie, so it's not an issue for me for awhile.)

OT: Hope you feel better Melanie
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wemoon
You will want to figure that cost in with your price. If say you have to make $5 on your product, and it costs you $1 to make it, and paypal takes $.50, then you would want to charge $6.50 for your product. Charging the customer for CC fees is illegal, but it isn't illegal to say you want to make $5 and then figure out all your expenses and price so you can make $5. The only way it would actually be illegal is if you say *If you use a CC add on .50 for processing*. Does that make sense?

All CC processing places are going to charge. I think PP is actually halfway decent, cause it is only based on each purchase. Alot of other places will have a yearly/monthly fee on top of each individual purchase. And you can get the PP debit card and earn some of the percentage back when you use your card, so that would bring the cost down even more.
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ma2maya
Yeah...relative to a merchant account you would get through a credit card processing gateway, PayPal is less expensive.
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S
www.propay.com is the best, $35 a year, doesn't get any better than that! you manually process all cards and then can deposit directly to you bank, easy as pie. No other fees, either.
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M
Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetladyaz
www.propay.com is the best, $35 a year, doesn't get any better than that! you manually process all cards and then can deposit directly to you bank, easy as pie. No other fees, either.
Do you use Propay and Paypal? I find that MANY customers like the convenience of PayPal and not having to type in their info each time, so I have been reluctant to stop using it.
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S
yup, i offer both. It makes it easier.
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Sleepymama
Thanks! So you do paypal for funded and propay for cc and debit?
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S
yes!
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Ame
In my experience PayPal is the same cost or less than a merchant processor. If you have a PayPal business account the fee is 3% per transaction....but if you get the PayPal debit card they refund 1.5% which makes the actual cost of accepting payments through PayPal 1.5%. Most merchant accounts charge a per trans. fee plus 2-3% of the transaction, and sometimes a monthly fee too.

Does ProPay have a per transaction fee or just the $35 per year ?
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ma2maya
Looking at Propay, it still seems that PayPal would be less expensive.
In addition to the $35 annual fee, you pay 35cents +3.5%/ transaction and a transfer fee of 35cents. With PayPal, it is 30cents + 2.2 to 2.9%(discount rate depends on sales volume).

Maybe I should do the paypal debit card too. Make things even cheaper. Any feedback on the paypal debit card?
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wemoon
I just applied for one and was approved within a day. I'm thinking it will be sweet. But if you go to an ATM with it, you'll get charged ATM fees and you won't get the 1.5% back. It has to be an actual purchase. I think that will work fine for me, cause mainly I want to use it to buy my fabric and other business stuff. I think it will really help keep the biz finances and the personal finances seperate.
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root*children
I heard you don't get charged the paypal fees if the total cost for the order is $4 or under. Is that true?

I just do ebaying, and I don't accept c.c/d.c. paypal b/c I'm not sure of that, and alot of my auctions end pretty cheap. I make c.c users pay through bidpay. I don't know if that would work for WAHM businesses... probably not, I'm assuming.

Sorry that I'm not much help, but I'm interested in this too, so I'll just lurk
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Sleepymama
That $4 and under is NOT true. I sell mama pads seconds for $1 and they take out .33 for one pad
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Ame
The PayPal debit card is SUPER....ther is no fee for it and you get 1.5% of your PayPal fees back each time you use the card to pay for purchases. I don't withdrawl money from the ATM...because of the fees invloved, but I use the card to pay for gas, groceries, etc.
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ma2maya
I think paypal wavers the .30 per transaction charge if your item is less than .30 or .35, but I do believe you are still charged the discount rate. I suppose this works for those who do penny auctions and someone wins at a really low price.
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S
i also use the pp debit card for most of my business purchases...that way the pp fees dont bug me so much! lol
all in all, pp fees are some of the cheapest around for cc processing.
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wemoon
I need to buy some fabric sooooooo bad, but I'm trying to hold off till I get my PP card! It will be about a $200 purchase, so I WANT that percentage back! I'm not sure if I'll be able to wait for it or not.
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