CoolE

Here's what I gladly pay for:

• 24 hour customer support.
• 1-800 number
• 24 hour tech support
• they pay all fines/penalties
• they manage relationship with acquiring bank/Visa
• their scrub database and algorythm
• their password management system including good security
• their affiliate management system
• they take care of the affiliate checks and any problems
• no up front holdback/deposit to get started, just 5% ongoing
• their great stats and reports scripts
• their reputation/brand (many surfers recognize the name "CCBill", for example, and respect it and are more likely to sign up with them than with a company they never heard of)
• and the list goes on...

As far as I'm concerned the 14.5% is easily worth it. I would not in a million years triple the number of things I have to worry about just to cut that percentage down to 2 or 3%.

I guess every webmaster has different priorities and things he wants to focus on, but the worry-free IPSP way is the way for me. It's a bargain at 14.5%.

It's like my server... I pay two or three times what many of you pay for your servers. But it's worth every penny. My host is the best, has his shit together, treats me like gold, has most of my work orders done in 2 hours (at any time of the day - 24 hours a day) and has my server locked up tighter than a drum.

It's all about being able to sleep at night knowing that your business is being taken care of, and you are partnering with the best on the really important stuff. Call it "risk management" I guess. Or "Beware being penny-wize and dollar foolish."

Having said all that, I don't want to take anything away from NetBilling and the other companies that offer merchant account services. They offer some of the same things in that list above, but not all, and if you look into it, you realize that you bear much more on your own shoulders. It boils down to how much room you have left on those shoulders to bear additional risk/responsibilities. It's right for some, but not for all.