Does a good alternate exist to PAYPAL? Although their service was useful to me for a number of years,  they turned  savage when I disagreed with one of their decisions. I need to find another such entity.
Ideas anybody?

get your own merchant account would be one way.

here are some others

# NOCHEX
Pounds Sterling debit cards

# PAYMATE
Australian and NZ dollar payments

# MONEYBOOKERS
European payments service

# PAYBYCHECK
US Dollar checks

# E-GOLD OR STANDARD RESERVE
Set-up and accept payment by e-gold™

what are you trying to do?

Send money?

Receive money?

sell good/services on your site?

ballbrit wrote:

Does a good alternate exist to PAYPAL? Although their service was useful to me for a number of years,  they turned  savage when I disagreed with one of their decisions. I need to find another such entity.
Ideas anybody?

Hi, I am responding to the above quote: The only other form of payment that has popped up is google checkout receiving and paying moneys  which i have ready to use. It looks easy enough but the only thing is it is obviously new so not so prolific as paypal, but i am sure by being signed up with them there will be a way around that. The one thing i will say from my point of view of google they are very good at makeing things a lot easier than most,paypal is very complex sometimes ,well to me anyway!! If any thing else comes from this subject i would be very interesed to know about it as i have a couple of frustrations with paypal. I have not looked in to it in depth yet.

Hey Steve...I'm just speaking from limited experience...

I recently helped a friend luanch a new e-comerce site from which we set it up to accept both PayPal and G Checkout...altough he's only been in biz a very short while not 1 order has come through G..all through PayPal...I personally like G checkout but it hasn't seem to take off. I'm sure time will change that tide though

anyways..just something i found interesting

on one of my sites where I offer paypal and a normal merchant CC system, 85% of people use the merchant facility....so paypal is not THAT popular

not forgetting there are 1.1 BILLION internet users - only 100 million PayPal accounts (but how many active users)

Like NIC, I'd like to know more about what you're doing... The best fit isn't always the most obvious, and there are so MANY possible gateways you could use.
What, in particular, made pay pal the right choice for you before? For instance, if you're selling goods/services, are you hosting your own secure check-out pages, or were your checkout pages with pay pal?
How much back end support for transactions between your site and a simple payment processing gateway can you/your staff handle?

matte wrote:

not forgetting there are 1.1 BILLION internet users

who said that?

what does the figure above represent? those with access to the net? 1  thing u have to remember is there is a difference between those that have access to internet and those that purchase online. While the number of people whom have access to the net in poor areas grows many people who have access will not (and simply can't) ever buy anything online

so while 100m paypal account holders out of 1.1b people with "access" to the internet is only 10% - i bet that percentage grows quickly when u look at it in terms of people with access to the net that are potential online shoppers

On anther note...yes i fully agree offering as many payment options as possible...on the site i mentioned above we had G Checkout, PayPal, and 2co (for all credit cards and so on). you want to accomodate everyone

Hi,

Mike of MWUnlimited here. Below please find some info located at StormPay.com:

Create "Buy Now" Buttons for your website..
21-May-2006 13:08
Log into your StormPay account and click the "Merchant Tools" link found on the top menu bar. Buyers can click the "Buy Now" buttons on your website and make payment directly to your StormPay account.

Perhaps this may help.

Nic wrote:

matte wrote:

not forgetting there are 1.1 BILLION internet users

who said that?

what does the figure above represent? those with access to the net? 1  thing u have to remember is there is a difference between those that have access to internet and those that purchase online. While the number of people whom have access to the net in poor areas grows many people who have access will not (and simply can't) ever buy anything online

so while 100m paypal account holders out of 1.1b people with "access" to the internet is only 10% - i bet that percentage grows quickly when u look at it in terms of people with access to the net that are potential online shoppers

On and on anther note...yes i fully agree offering as many payment options as possible...on the site i mentioned above we had G Checkout, PayPal, and 2co (for all credit cards and so on). you want to accomodate everyone

1.1 billion in 2006  is the most recent estimate. 1B was surpassed in about December 2005  -  according to those who watch these things....Just saying PP is not all that impressive compared to those who prefer to use CC online.

I agree with providing people with a choice is vital.

> The subtitle of the article is "China and India lead the charge" - again a difference between those who have "access" to the net- and those that may realistically buy online - don't expect many caricature sales to come from either those countries anytime soon using PayPal or a Credit Card

> to get back to the question asked if you reside in the countries above a very good alternate to PayPal is Xoom.com

> no protest- far more people have credit cards then paypal accounts that's for sure

> IMO having 100,000,000+ subscribers is pretty impressive (and i guess eBay thought PayPal wasn't too shaby when they dropped $1.5 Billion to aquire it)

Yes India and China are leading the charge, but that is the future mostly...20 something percent of all internet business is still US based (set to diminish with Chin and India coming on)

But I guess the most important aspect - ballbrit has never returned to this discussion so this discussion is I guess moot!

matte wrote:

only 100 million PayPal accounts (but how many active users)

153,000,000 users and as a company they're still a youngster. As for how many active users, enough to generate 18 billion dollars of transactions a year.

I only know as I've been working closely with some of the folks at PayPal on their mobile checkout, I helped beta test the service and have written up an article about it which gets published this week so I was privileged to get involved and find out more. Hence my being a bit quiet in here........

I agree with Nic about accepting more than one payment provider, it's a good idea to offer your customers options.

There's also things like LUUP which is p2p & p2b payments by text message and wap and works in UK, Norway, Germany, Poland and soon China, for actual cash processing over the counter like top-up cards and so on there's PaySafeCard which covers most of Europe. Loads of options. Business Link in the UK have a load of resources on finding payment providers.

Just because ballbrit has buggered off doesn't mean the conversion must die.......

I use 2checkout and paypal and 8 out of every ten customers choose 2checkout over paypal. I recommend having more than one payment options and allow your customers to choose unless you have an integrated credit card system.

Stormpay, none of my customers chose to use, not did they for moneybookers or egold. i guess the product or service makes a difference with the customers you are trying to attract. My customers are normally one time purchasers using credit cards and find paypal bothersome to sign up.

valencia wrote:

find paypal bothersome to sign up.

Correct me if I'm wrong, It is my understanding now that customers do not have to sign up for making a payment.

ColoEagle wrote:

valencia wrote:

find paypal bothersome to sign up.

Correct me if I'm wrong, It is my understanding now that customers do not have to sign up for making a payment.

am pretty sure that both nochex and paypal can do payments via card now without the client having an account.

i don't believe you can...at least from what i have seen you need to sign-up first which i agree is inconvenient for a few moments but then is definitely convenient in the long run

[if i hit your "buy me a beer button" the only options i have is to sign UP or IN for example]

If you have the ability to open a PayPal account (which people in many countries still can’t) and you are selling anything online it’s well worth it- again you’re providing another option for your clients and the more options the better

Besides Visa and Mastercard my guess is PayPal is probably the 3rd most used online form of payment (although I'm pulling that "fact" out of my ***) - either case its up there

I have offered moneybookers on my site - for nil usage (it was used to send money to an eastern european contact - I now use Ikbo for that

I just did a test with PP for CC, it seems you do not have to sign up.

ballbrit wrote:

Does a good alternate exist to PAYPAL? Although their service was useful to me for a number of years,  they turned  savage when I disagreed with one of their decisions. I need to find another such entity.
Ideas anybody?

How I got round this was by signing up with Kagi.com to process my orders.

They allow me accept PayPal payment plus all the other cards.

That way I do not loose any sales, plus I avoid the problems of PP.

You may consider this route.

Hope this helps.

Just found this forum, and would be contributing  positively here.

Hope to meet new friends here.

Regds

GD.

ballbrit wrote:

Does a good alternate exist to PAYPAL? Although their service was useful to me for a number of years,  they turned  savage when I disagreed with one of their decisions. I need to find another such entity.
Ideas anybody?

Hmmm the OP has not returned to participate. But it breaks down to what meets your immediate, as well as projected business needs and thresholds, as well as catering to your customers needs. IMO you need to empower your customers by offering payment options.

Ballbrit, almost most all transactions have a certain level of risk, its part of doing business.