PayPal Payflow Pro / Merchant Accounts

[KingHippo]

Does anyone have any experience using PayPal Payflow Pro? If not, can someone just tell me if this sounds like reasonable fees?

Setup: $249.95
Monthly: $59.95
Transaction Fees: 0.10 / transaction after first 1000 transactions

This is only the basic stuff too. There's a ton of extras. So does this sound reasonable if its going to give me full control of the payment code in ASP.NET?

I don't even know if I can make one sale yet with this economy. I hate to be spending all of this money on this plus the web hosting fees.

Also, how much is it for a merchant account usually? This is just the payment gateway.

[vangogh]

I don't use the PayPal Payflow Pro. I'm sure there are some advantages to it, but I'm fine with the basic. I forget the exact name of the service I have with them, but the cost is only a % of the transaction and I don't need people leaving my site to complete the transaction. I think PayPal takes about 3%

I also have a merchant account through an authorize.net reseller. I think it cost a couple hundred to set up and they also take a % of each transaction as well as a transaction fee. It's a little less though similar to what PayPal takes.

The hard part of the merchant account is getting them to accept you. I felt like I had to jump through hoops before they would accept me, though at the time I was just getting started in business and didn't have much equity in anything.

If you're hesitant to spend the money now just set up the basic PayPal where they don't charge you anything beyond the transaction fee. I think once you are selling you'll find either Payflow Pro or a merchant account is the better option and saves you money, but in the beginning the basic PayPal will work and it's the easiest thing to set up.

[KingHippo]

My biggest concern with PayPal Website Payments standard is that it may lower my business' credibility. Basically the user gets to see a really nice website at first and then when they go to order one of my products, they have to jump over to PayPal's page.

Maybe this is just my imagination? Maybe people will actually pay me on PayPal's site? Also, doesn't PayPal show the number of sales you do? If I'm starting out with 0 sales, that's going to lower a user's trust of my business ever further and they will most likely leave the site.

[vangogh]

With the PayPal plan I have people don't have to leave my site. The payment mechanism would keep them there. I don't think there's really an issue with PayPal though. I think it's become common enough that most people understand what it is. It's never seemed like a credibility thing to me.

Another option you could try is Google Checkout.

[KristineS]

We use Paypal Website Payments Pro for our retail stores and it's worked well. We've never had any problems with it. This version also allows people to stay right on your site, so they don't even have to know it's Paypal. Although we did elect to offer Paypal as a payment option and people do use it.

[vangogh]

I think that's the one I have too. I couldn't remember the name, but it sounds right.

[abbynelson28]

PayPal pro is good I've been using it since last 7 months till date no problems.. Whatever initial expenses are those are one time .. PayPal is simple and secure and customers are also familiar with it nowdays..

[vangogh]

A few years ago I had reservations about PayPal, but I've come to see them as a really good option. Like you say it's simple and secure. I know there are the occasional horror stories, but I think those are the exception and not the rule.

Abby how much did you have to spend initially to set up PayPal Pro and how much do they take per transaction?

[Corey Bryant]

The set-up fee is a bit much - you can find resellers that are selling / offering the gateway at a cheaper setup. Their monthly fee is a bit more expensive than some of the other gateways, but a lot of people liked it, especially when it was associated with Verisign.

Most of the gateways will give you the code to use on your secure website and offer an API to keep checkout consistent.

A merchant account itself can vary, depending on what you will be selling, how much, etc. You might also take a look at Merchant Accounts Guidance Needed as well for a little information.

[abbynelson28]

Thank you for the information for paypal Account. I want to know some knowledge for payment withdrawal and Deposit.