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Best Gateway? Recommendations Sought


fatbear

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What's the "best" gateway out there? Well, "best" means a lot of things to different people. Here's what I'm interested in:

 

  • Inexpensive
    • Cheap for low volume credit/debit transactions (< $2500 per month)
    • Minimal monthly and annual fees
    • Rates that don't go up dramatically after just a few months

     

    [*]Robust - works thoroughly with Whmcs for taking payments, processing refunds, handling callbacks, etc.

    [*]Short Contract - no long contracts with the gateway provider

    [*]Trustworthy - few complaints relating to unexpected fees, dispute handling, or other failures to deliver quality service

There are so many gateways. I wish this site had a rating system (like Amazon.com) in which Whmcs members could rate the gateways.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Hi fatbear. You might want to consider PayPal Website Payments Pro account. Costs $30/mo plus average 3% per transaction for credit cards. Everything is processed on your site invisibly.

Rick

Thanks, Rick, for your feedback. The one I would have picked is Elavon. Their posted rates are just 1.99% + $0.27/transaction. And, their web page claims the ability to get monthly statement and application fees waived. Elavon is through Costco, so I tend to believe their rates are among the lowest.

 

So what's the downside to Elavon/Costco? WHMCS doesn't list them as a gateway. Drat!

 

I have heard a lot of problems from people using PayPal, especially holds being placed on funds. There's even an anti-PayPal website: aboutpaypal.org. I don't have any direct experience with them, but the horror stories are enough to keep me away from them.

 

So, I'm hoping to find a gateway that WHMCS supports that has really good rates (like Elavon). I'm hoping someone knows which WHMCS gateways are the "best " ones to consider in terms of rates, WHMCS compatibility, features, and merchant friendliness.

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Thanks, Rick, for your feedback. The one I would have picked is Elavon. Their posted rates are just 1.99% + $0.27/transaction. And, their web page claims the ability to get monthly statement and application fees waived. Elavon is through Costco, so I tend to believe their rates are among the lowest.

 

Yes, I would think since it is through Costco it would be among the lowest. What is the monthly charge, or is there one?

 

So what's the downside to Elavon/Costco? WHMCS doesn't list them as a gateway. Drat!

 

That is a huge downside as you will have to manually handle all the things that WHMCS automates with the larger institutions. Since you've drilled the percentage down to 1.99% I assume you'll be handling a lot of credit cards? Perhaps this is false economy since all the transactions in WHMCS will have to be done by your bookkeeper or yourself? Time is money after all.

 

I have heard a lot of problems from people using PayPal, especially holds being placed on funds.

 

Our PayPal account is 10 years old and we certainly would have jumped ship if they were as bad as some of the sour grapes sites say, lol! :lol:

 

In any case, please do let us know how Elavon works out.

 

Cheers,

Rick

Edited by uberhost
Typo
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Hi Rick,

 

What is the monthly charge, or is there one?
If you have an Executive membership at Costco, there is no monthly charge!

 

And, as you mentioned, it is a huge downside that WHMCS doesn't support Elavon. Their 1.99% rate is their advertised rate... you don't even need to be a "big" player to get that rate.

 

I'm currently with iTransact (also not supported by WHMCS). Their rate is 2.38%. But, again, WHMCS incompatibility is a show stopper.

 

Elavon, formerly Nova, is the 4th largest US credit card processor and a top 6 acquirer in the European marketplace with millions of merchant locations around the globe. See Wikipedia. I'm surprised that such a large gateway is not one of the gateways that WHMCS supports.

 

WHMCS Developers: <plea>Please support Elavon!</plea>

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I'm not familiar with many of the other Merchant Services out there but I did have a stint where I used to sell them for a living to local small businesses in my area. Lots of hidden fees etc.

 

I second UberHost and since 1998, I've been using PayPal and have had a great experience with them from support to fees. My vote is PayPal all the way. There is also Authorize.net which is another popular service provider but I've not tried them yet as PayPal covers my needs.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I go through a company called Newtek to handle my credit card processing. They use USAePay which is supported by WHMCS. Email me or PM me and I'll get you in touch with a representative. Its really easy and can be hooked to an existing business account with no problems at all.

 

bryce at bravobryce dot com

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We switched from Authorize.net (through CDGCommerce.com), to Paypal Website Payments Pro.

 

The thing to check is your actual payment gateway costs, rather than the rate they give you. With authorize.net and a rate of I think 2.37%, (only on the most qualified transactions though), the various transaction qualification levels ended up costing us 5.5% of total payments. We switched to Paypal and are at the 2.2% rate level, with total costs being about 3.5%.

Edited by Troy
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  • 3 weeks later...

We use Elavon along with auth.net it is fully automated with WHMCS. PM and i'll tell you where to get it very cheap almost free..

 

By the way there are cheaper provider then Elavon!

 

What's the "best" gateway out there? Well, "best" means a lot of things to different people. Here's what I'm interested in:

 

  • Inexpensive
    • Cheap for low volume credit/debit transactions (< $2500 per month)
    • Minimal monthly and annual fees
    • Rates that don't go up dramatically after just a few months

     

    [*]Robust - works thoroughly with Whmcs for taking payments, processing refunds, handling callbacks, etc.

    [*]Short Contract - no long contracts with the gateway provider

    [*]Trustworthy - few complaints relating to unexpected fees, dispute handling, or other failures to deliver quality service

There are so many gateways. I wish this site had a rating system (like Amazon.com) in which Whmcs members could rate the gateways.

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Why not go with someone who charges TRUE interchange rate instead of fixed %... i.e interchange +0.020 etc

 

 

We switched from Authorize.net (through CDGCommerce.com), to Paypal Website Payments Pro.

 

The thing to check is your actual payment gateway costs, rather than the rate they give you. With authorize.net and a rate of I think 2.37%, (only on the most qualified transactions though), the various transaction qualification levels ended up costing us 5.5% of total payments. We switched to Paypal and are at the 2.2% rate level, with total costs being about 3.5%.

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