Life After VISA: 3rd Party vs. Merchant
 

Don't know if this has been discussed before or not but I'd like to bring it back anyway as we are getting closer to the dreaded day :)

What's the benefit of running with a 3rd party system these days ? From what I understand chargbacks are still your responsability ? What are we paying 11-15% for ?


Also, what are the downsides of running on your own merchant account via say Netbilling ?

Wow... no competitors responded.

m0rph3us, contact me tomorrow if you can and I will explain everything to you.
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Thank you, Mitch Farber

Why not post the explanation here? I'm sure there are plenty of people who would be interested but are too lazy to call.

yeah.. i'd be curious to hear the explanation :-)

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.

exactly the people that last a couple of months...

[*] 24 hour customer support.[*] 1-800 number[*] 24 hour tech support
$1.25 + 8 cents a minute + 2500$ a month for an employee
[*] they pay all fines/penalties
guess so. If you are over 2% you're doing something wrong though.
[*] they manage relationship with acquiring bank/Visa
hmm.. not really worth 14.5%
[*] their scrub database and algorythm
netbilling et all have this too
[*] their password management system including good security
Their system is a joke. Hackers crack it in minutes
[*] their affiliate management system
$500 for a similar (better) alternative
[*] they take care of the affiliate checks and any problems
postal fees + $500 for 1 day employee to *print* 1000 checks.
[*] no up front holdback/deposit to get started, just 5% ongoing
10% ongoing. How'd you get hooked up with 5 ?
[*] their great stats and reports scripts
see above
[*] 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)
Their decline rate is sky high


From what I see... the total cost on top of a merchant billing solution would be the ~$3000 for checks and a support staff.

$0.30 per tranaction + 1-5% on a merchant account

So you save at least 10% on merchant vs. billing. If you do 50k a month. That's 5k in your pocket. You pay $3k and have $2k left over.

Again, I would really like to know more benefits of sticking to IBILL et all. vs. a merchant.

Also, netbilling, please do write the info also on the board. I will give you a should though when I'm ready.

Because I am lazy.

no you're not... but id guess you pretend to be:) I had this argument tonight already.