Cheapest Payment System

From your experience what is the cheapest, most reliable payment system?
I've doing some looking around, and when you consider merchant account fees, payment gateway fees, transaction fees it doesn't seem to leave much for the trader!
On another note, I was thinking of selling an item on ebay using using dropshipping when i found what seemed a reasonable priced item, and having found that i could undercut all the other sellers on ebay and still make a decent 20 punds profit, i thought wow!. Then, when i calculated ebay and paypal fees, it turned out that i would actually be losing 3 pounds. SMACK!

May be your best option. Otherwise, I would look into Authorize.NET.

You should also check with 2checkout, worldpay, chronopay, moneybookers depending on your location and need.

2 checkout and pay pal is very good merchant account alternatives for small business start ups, usually it cost alot to have your own merchant account and it can be pretty difficult of obtain a one due to geographical reasons as well

powerpayservices.com is pretty cheap

I would recommend calling your local bank and seeing what they have to offer. We use a local company here, and they go through authorize.net, but they gave us a far better deal.

I disagree. Your local bank is going to use a credit merchant service anyway. You're better off cutting out the middle man (i.e. the bank) and look for a cost plus merchant service. They will usually be up front about the costs associated with ms and what their fees are. If you use a bank your going to add points on top of the merchant service points.

Protx.com is a good solution as it has a development API and the transaction costs are very low.

I'm not sure what there policy is though with international business.

With some payment gateways you need to be careful as they will entice you with a small transaction or gateway fee but charge you massive amounts when payment disputes come up, i.e. an administration fee. I would make sure you read the terms and conditions carefully for any of the ones you choose and choose one which has been in business for a considerable amount of time.

Try searching on Google for "internet payment gateway reviews", i'm sure they'll be numerous articles to read.

I'm just saying it's worth a call. It worked out for us. We couldn't find a better deal than what they gave us.

I understand what you're saying. I suppose I was giving my two cents and it may of come out the wrong way. Of course look at all options, I just wanted everyone to be aware of it as well too!

In my experience there isn't too much difference between the deals they sock it to you somewhere.

The main thing to look out for is resellers in this industry. Try to find someone an buy direct.

I don't have anyone I would endorse, I constantly am on the lookout for a better deal.

Things to watch out for.
How long it takes to receive your money.
What percentage they are going to charge you.
What per transaction fee they are going to charge you.
Ease of gateway usage and implementation.
How you can win any chargebacks if the worst happens to you.

Hi,

wondering what's the cheapest online payment system if you sell your songs online for less than 80ct / each.

I don't want to use ONLY stores like iTunes, CDBaby etc.
and these big companies like PayPal, Google Checkout and 2CO for example take a base fee of 30$ + 2.9% (or even more) of the amount...
So that means there wouldn't be much left after a sale for a starving indie artist

Is there any really cheap payment system specialized into sales for SMALL amounts (ebooks, mp3s...) - should also accept credit cards...

Accepting daopay is almost certainly the easiest way for you to pay any bills in the cheapest and very secure

Agreed, I use PayPal and Google Checkout. Both charge the same rates.

They also seem reliable and I think give the consumer a little bit of confidence.

You should also check out alertpay and moneybookers.