[Geoff]

I am thinking about using Yahoo ecommerce webhosting for $40.00 a month. It has shopping carts and all that good stuff. I just need to know if I should get it or not? Does anyone have it? If so coudl they explain to me the pros and cons?

Thanks.

 

[jdr8271]

Its way too expensive, in my opinion. You could buy hosting for about $10/ month from another company, and buy a cart like X-Cart for about $200, or if you know php, you could install something like zencart for free.

 

[badalou]

Lets see, yahoo at $40 a month? $480 a year.

You know you can get space at like godaddy for about $5.00 a month hosting for all the space you need and set up a free shopping cart using paypal (No you customers do not have to be a member) If you do not know how to design a website I bet you could find someone. Does yahoo build your site for you. if not are you going to pay someone anyway. How many product do you wish to sell?
I bet there are a hundred people here including me that could give you info on the paypal payment buttons.
Oh and the other thing. Are you having to process the credit cards yourself. What are the bank fees. I use vertual terminal from paypal and I pay only 20. a month.
Louhttp://www.kissmyroyalflush.com

 

[honeyflip]

Hmm, X-Cart sure does look good (http://www.x-cart.com/). Jdr, is that what you're using on your site?

 

[Geoff]

My bank, also doesn't offer a business merchant account... so I need a gateway. I don't get it.. I just hate paypal, and I need a nice shopping cart that can be integrated w/ my website layout

 

[honeyflip]

Geoff, you might want to consider Paymentech for your bank merchant account. I just signed up with them. The approval process was pretty easy.

 

[jdr8271]

Im actually on the paypal shopping cart. I have seriously considered switching to the X-Cart, but I dont want to have any downtime (lost sales).

Your bank doesnt need to process credit cards. There are tons of companies out there that will process credit cards for you. Do a google search for "merchant account"

 

[Geoff]

Geoff, you might want to consider Paymentech for your bank merchant account. I just signed up with them. The approval process was pretty easy.

Yea, but I'm under 18 yrs old... can I still get approved?

 

[jdr8271]

you should still be able to get approved. Most places have a 99% approval percentage. You can always just process credit cards through paypal. Even if you dont use paypal shopping cart, you can set up a cart program, and run payments through paypal.

 

[Geoff]

Paypal is pretty bad... I'm scared of it after reading paypalsucks.com

 

[Geoff]

http://www.paymentech.com/glofaqorbapp.do

Is that where I apply for my merchant account w/ paymentech?

 

[badalou]

I have been using paypal for over 3 years and have never had a problem with them. I think most of the complaints come from ebay people who are not in business and deal with a lot of strangers.

Paypal is pretty bad... I'm scared of it after reading paypalsucks.com

 

[aokusman]

paypal has been good to me.

 

[honeyflip]

I think, with Paymentech, they want assurance that you are integrating with an online storefront provider (such as Yahoo) when they process your application.

 

[Geoff]

^ So if I get X-cart, then I apply for a paymentech merchant account, which will process the credit cards? And then, the money will be in my paymentech account, which I will have to transfer into my regular bank account. What exactly are the fees?

 

[pawmedia]

Paypal is pretty bad... I'm scared of it after reading paypalsucks.com

Be careful when reading those sites. Many are simply set up with affiliate links to another random card processor.

Take paypalsucks.com for instance... they are recommending 995merchantaccounts.com which according to that website is Card Service International.

Do a search for Card Service International on google. They are a major player in the processing arena and they have a referral program... http://www.cardservice.com/why-partner.aspx

Sooooo... back to the google search... you'll also notice that the following URLs point to their services:
[snipped]http://www.cardserviceonline.com/
(and MANY more)

You get the idea... these are all people trying to make a buck selling referrals.

Not a bad idea, right? Create a blahblahsucks.com site and point people to another service and make $$ on every click. Not a bad idea at all.

If you dig a little deaper, you'll find many complaints against this company also (like http://www.consumeraffairs.com/business/cardservice.htm).

Bottom line is most of the stuff on paypalsucks is from long ago and paypal has been a much better company since ebay bought them. Also, many of the people complaining about frozen funds were the people that continued selling porn with paypal after paypal got out of that business.

If you're looking for a cheap processor with integrated USPS shipping, it's a great option. I use it for a number of different things. I get charged 2.5% + $0.30 per transaction. Then I use the PayPal debit card to purchase inventory (using the money that is immediately available in my account) and I get 1.5% cashback on the spot. So in the end, I'm paying 1% plus $0.30. Where can I get a better deal?

I've had the account for 6 years and I've never had a single issue or chargeback.

 

[pawmedia]

^ So if I get X-cart, then I apply for a paymentech merchant account, which will process the credit cards? And then, the money will be in my paymentech account, which I will have to transfer into my regular bank account. What exactly are the fees?

The card processor would charge the card and notify your instance of X-Cart if it was successful or not. The card processor would then sweep the funds into your bank account on some agreed schedule.

X-Cart works with the following processors: http://www.x-cart.com/payment_gateways.html

One minor issue with X-Cart is that they are based in Russia. If you're in the US and you need their help, they are in the office while you're sleeping. Great product otherwise... their hourly rate for development is very low compared to US based vendors.

 

[Rodney]

I've used CardService International for years and they have been great.

I also use Authorizenet (I like their gateway over the cardservice linkpoint gateway).

I don't think you'll have a problem with any of the big name merchant processors if they use one of the more popular gateways.