comparison of 3rd party processing rates VS merchant account
 

This is a question for people have made that switch from 3rd party to merchant account - after all fees whats the % you are saving VS using a 3rd party biller.

All 3rd party processors have different rates so what "NET" percentage are you getting with a merchant account + the gateway when you combine ALL the merchant account fees and also all the gateway fees.

Thanks!

If anyone providing merchant accounts can tune in would be appreciated!

bump for some input here...

100% of my clients who switch from 3rd party to their own mid in primary position are making more money.

I think you need at least 3 to 4 merchant accounts to make coin and live a decent life.

Of course .... but what is the effective processing % when you factor in all merchant fees AND gateway fees.

As i said above this will differ as all have slightly different rates but as someone moving from lets say ccbill at 14% , what % of my revenue will be going to processing with a merchant account + gateway fees.

will % of my revenue will be going to processing be approx
6%?
7%?
8%?

just trying to get an idea of savings others are seeing...

Worth it just for flexibility. Create your join forms the way you want them, can add any features you want as you go. It costs the same upfront really, typically they want $1500. But doesn't ccbill want $1250 per year? Epoch similar.

It's just so easy to have your own MID it really should be a no brainer. It's your sites, it's your income, it is silly not to control as much of it as possible.

Ugghh... putting in a ticket to change the look or size of text on a join form? No thank you.

We have just gone the direct merchant account route, our rate is 3.99% with no upfront fees, happy to intro you, just email me at [email protected]

You're estimates aren't far off. Your own merchant account lets you be in charge. You hold the data too. You also have to do your own customer support. For low volume that support is usually very manageable. For high volume the extra cost for 3rd party help is affordable and certainly justified.

I'll quote you. Send me a note.

processing
 

shoot me an email anytime, [email protected]

Really ?

Why ?

Do you think Paysimple is good? I just can't stomach the $1000 fee for Visa and MasterCard with CCBILL. Paysimple seems good? I didn't read terms and conditions thoroughly yet.

Do you think Paysimple is good? I just can't stomach the $1000 fee for Visa and MasterCard with CCBILL. Paysimple seems good? I didn't read terms and conditions thoroughly yet.

Check out our SecurionPay offer:

fees: 4.9% (to start with) plus 0.35 euros per transaction

Visa/MC fee - only 500 euros total (charged directly by the bank)

As for flexibility, well i could write a lot below but i prefer to show you:

https://securionpay.com/docs/tutorials/form
https://securionpay.com/docs/tutorials/checkout
https://securionpay.com/docs/checkout

Complete flexibility from A to Z. You do whatever you want in regards to customisation of your own form, you can set up an embedded one with no redirection or just add two lines of code for our Checkout pop out and enjoy Xsales or one clicks with your partners.

Fees with a merchant account are between 6% & 7% (Including : % merchant account + gateway with % on each transaction + $ x.xx per transaction (Usually depends on your volume of transactions)

VS 12%-14% for a third party processor.

Now that being said, you must handle lot of things with your own merchant account that you don't need to with a 3rdPart biller like banks chargebacks, tech issue etc. This will add a certain cost which varies depending on several factors.

At the end, getting your own merchant account worht it if you have a big amount of transactions.

Btw, if it was not clear from the above we provide MERCHANT ACCOUNTS only and the percentage is a total price that includes both the bank and gateway fees. No hidden fees.

You're swiss? Are you processing for what adult sites now? I don't know yours...

Any providers that don't request company? I'm looking to accept credit cards on my adult website. But I don't own a company.

Hi Adultmobile,

Yes, our company is based in Switzerland and we accept plain Ecommerce and all type of high risk business including adult :). Feel free to check other threads about us here or visit our website for any information you need. You can also contact me directly.

Cheers!

Do you still need some kind of go between (such as Netbilling) to make things work and have to have NATS or similar to use your own merchant account?

Hi, with us you get a full package: your merchant account, our gateway and an acquiring bank behind. Apart from that we can fix you with additional bank account for the settlements in one of our banks. That means you are all set.

NATS or MPA3 is not a must or obligation in that flow.

What is your relation with CommerceGate, BTW ? People in Prague said they owned your program?

Strictly % based, your own merchant account costs more per sale, but you get many more sales for a variety of reasons.

Our numbers say otherwise. We have been processing since 1998, have thousands of merchants and all of them have their own merchant accounts, with great success.

Even for smaller merchant and startups, having a merchant account has many benefits. Between the control, flexibility and savings, size, does not matter. NETbilling handles customer support as well.

Questions?

Mitch

Remember to add the cost of NATS to the mix. $150 per month for their basic fee then $350 per month on up to ridiculous heights, all based on volume.

In the end, when you add up all fees and extra hassles (like writing checks to affiliates) the real benefit is not % of savings. Maybe you save 1% or 3%, something like that. No, the advantage would be scrub control, better throughput (in theory) and more information and ultimately control over your forms and settings. You would then need to calculate if all the benefits outweigh the additional cost/work. This is why, in the end, many do not switch from a 3rd party processer. (This does not necassarily apply to those with high volume of joins or transactions.)

You do not need to write affiliate checks even with your own merchant account. Webmaster Checks is integrated with NETbilling.
What it really comes down to is control and savings. There is absolute savings as well. If you are a merchant that does not care about having more control and like paying more, then 3rd party processing does a fine job for you. If you are a growing business and want to be more hands on with one of most important parts of your business, then having a merchant account is certainly the way to go. With our solutions, you even have the ability to dictate exactly how our customer service agents handle the customer calls on your behalf.

Also, the 1-3% in savings that you refer to is actually low but even if it were correct, 3% equated to about 10% actually savings in dollars. Who wouldn't want to save 10% in processing fees?

Thanks, Mitch

This was my thinking too. Additional costs of NATS + probably an extra server for it not to mention the work in switching, time and money spent cutting your own afiliate checks. Then if you want Netbilling customer support or similar customer support/phone thats extra too. Then you have to work to keep hold of your MIDs. High volume yes but everyone else, I'd say no.

We have many merchants who process under $10k per month that would argue otherwise.
Again, it all comes down to how much control you want over the financial aspects of your business.

I invite you to contact our sales team and ask for a walkthrough of our system. You will see what you have been missing out on.

Mitch

Netbilling sucks. Terrible customer support. But thx Mitch finally got my account cancelled......

Well unfortunately we can't make everyone happy. I personally went through the entire email chain of yours with our support department and everything was replied to promptly from our side with several missing replies on your end. Check your spam box.

Wishing you all the nest in the future.

Mitch

I found my merchant account setup actually converted worse than epoch and thus made less. But I'm the only one I know of

We are happy to help solve that issue. Want to setup a call for Monday?

Mitch

You can be a sole proprietor if in the US but need a corp if in the EU or elsewhere.

In short you'll need at least 3 merch's with 2 gateways & 3 third party billers who are willing to play ball. Set the weights in nats equally so no one has a large chunk of your business. Netbilling, seg, epoch all solid choices. The banks & iso's is where you have to scratch your nuts carefully
Ds

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

he is quite the charmster in new business threads...as far as trust...not so much

you mean 1 merch and 1 gateway will not suffice?

Thanks Duke!

That totally depends on your business model. As with all business choices, having a backup never hurts. We have many merchants with one merchant account but several of our larger ones have more than one. We provide some awesome tools to manage them in different ways.

Mitch

I wouldn't call it a "go between" as the gateway and fraud scrubbing are essential to make it all work. Let us know if you have further questions.

Mitch

Hi bizgoddess69,

Having all in one basket and being depended on just one solution might be sometimes risky (fraud/chargebacks, tech issues) . Having a backup or two, depending on your business size, is most likely an optimal solution. Having 5 of them or more just dilutes your margin if you are not a multimillion dollar per month giant.

Flexible gateway with robust APIs that gives you few MIDs with different banks is a good idea. It spreads your risk, gives you flexibility and control to funnel traffic where the best conversion is.

One gateway with few MIDs would give you plenty of space to grow. Fraud protection and chb management are no brainer and a proper gateway is not only equipped with tools and functionalities to keep your ratios under control but also allows you to manage your own client database properly.

Let me know if we can be of any help.

Lucas