[slopshop1]

Hi i have someone building a Competition website for me. Problems are the high street banks wont touch it with a barge pole.
So i have had to find alternative ways to accept card payments.

We have been trying to get paypal to work but the designer is having problems getting paypal to confirm the payment has gone through quickly enough.

I am now looking at Moneybookers who say they can give me a merchant account, but although i have seen them as a payment option for many things i dont know how trustworthy they are.

I always assumed Paypal were a trustworty option but am now hearing many horror stories about them freezing accounts and not releasing funds.

The big problem i am finding is that companies seem to be scared to touch competitiion websites.
Does anybody have any advice or a trustworthy alternative to those two?
Many thanks

[pandadoodle]

Bit more info, why will the banks not touch you? What are you doing? Prizes and so on

[Lorariel Hosting]

slopshop1, on 05 September 2011 - 08:46 PM, said:

Hi i have someone building a Competition website for me. Problems are the high street banks wont touch it with a barge pole.
So i have had to find alternative ways to accept card payments.

We have been trying to get paypal to work but the designer is having problems getting paypal to confirm the payment has gone through quickly enough.

I am now looking at Moneybookers who say they can give me a merchant account, but although i have seen them as a payment option for many things i dont know how trustworthy they are.

I always assumed Paypal were a trustworty option but am now hearing many horror stories about them freezing accounts and not releasing funds.

The big problem i am finding is that companies seem to be scared to touch competitiion websites.
Does anybody have any advice or a trustworthy alternative to those two?
Many thanks

Moneybookers are decent - they provide a good honest service - they are fully regulated by the FSA and a variety of other regulators and you have to provide ID at certain stages etc - but then they are happy to "work with you" if there ever is a problem, they will ring you and help deal with it - rather than cause/be the problem.

Why won't the banks touch you're venture?

[slopshop1]

Lorariel Hosting, on 06 September 2011 - 07:08 AM, said:

Moneybookers are decent - they provide a good honest service - they are fully regulated by the FSA and a variety of other regulators and you have to provide ID at certain stages etc - but then they are happy to "work with you" if there ever is a problem, they will ring you and help deal with it - rather than cause/be the problem.

Why won't the banks touch you're venture?

Hi thanks for the reply...
As soon as they hear the words prizes and competitions they run a mile. They percieve it as a slightly murky business which might hurt their image...(how funny is that) Barclays wouldnt even give me a normal business account.

Luckily the Limited company i set up is under a different name to the website because i have other sites i want to develop...so i told them the business was an online enterprise and i couldnt give them much more with out them having sign a non disclosure agreement.

But i was also finding that some merchant service providers were being funny about letting me set up an account if i was selling high end electronics saying it was too high risk.

Part of the reason i am looking for an alternative for paypal is that when i first spoke to them they said the prize competition business was too high risk for them to get into....they told me it was a problem with my company holding credit card info..but when i told the guy on the help line that i would prefer not to hold the details and i could use the service where i only had emails he thought i might get away with it if i kept under the radar..

Now i hear so many horror stories about Paypal freezing accounts with loads of money...(friend of mine who runs one of the bigger festivals in europe had over £250,000 frozen by paypal) I thought its time to try a different solution..plus paypal is proving very difficult to plumb in!

[rallport]

slopshop1, on 06 September 2011 - 08:56 AM, said:

Hi thanks for the reply...
As soon as they hear the words prizes and competitions they run a mile. They percieve it as a slightly murky business which might hurt their image...(how funny is that) Barclays wouldnt even give me a normal business account.

Luckily the Limited company i set up is under a different name to the website because i have other sites i want to develop...so i told them the business was an online enterprise and i couldnt give them much more with out them having sign a non disclosure agreement.

But i was also finding that some merchant service providers were being funny about letting me set up an account if i was selling high end electronics saying it was too high risk.

Are you speaking directly the the merchant banks or to the PSP?

[slopshop1]

rallport, on 08 September 2011 - 01:00 PM, said:

Are you speaking directly the the merchant banks or to the PSP?

Thats what i waas saying..banks wont have anything to do with...talked to a few merchhant service providers (not all of them) and they wernt too helpfull..but Paypal and Moneybookers so far seem to be working. Paypal as long as i dont hold card details but moneybookers said i would probably be able to get a merchant account.

Thats why i was asking if anybody had any dealings with them..are they trustworthy?

[TheHat]

I use PayPal and Moneybookers and both have been very good. I use them with modules through Prestashop.

The only thing I will say is Moneybookers keep a reserve amount which you cannot touch. Its a certain percentage from sales. This is I think a rolling 6 monthly thing, can be very annoying. Its used for refunds.

TheHat