Would you affiliate with a merchant which only had Paypal as a payment option?

[Azam.net]

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Just wondering if there was any negative perception of a merchant which only had Paypal as a payment option. I know there was negatively when you had to be a member of Paypal to make payment, but now you can accept credit cards from non-Paypal members.

What do people think?

Thank you for the feedback.

[Shane]

it's a double edged sword I think, depends on the product to a degree too, but my train of thought is that for each person it puts off it may have enabled another person to make use of paypal, it's widespread and a very large percentage of users have a paypal account

I think there is still a stigma attached to it from a business point of view, we use it on one site but will soon be putting worldpay on there to offer a non paypal option.

much as it annoys me tho..

paypal, no hassle, money is in your account when it's paid..

worldpay, loads of hassle, a depost equal to one months turnover and a 30 day payment period and higher charges, so basically they sit on two months revenue at any one time and charge you extra on top, they could provide free payment solutions.. can you imagine how much cash deposits they are sitting on at any one time ?? must be mind blowing all at x% interest .. cheeky gits

from a user point of view I still land on a paypal only payment site and think ahh hobby site.. even though we use it too

[cymonguk]

it does give a negative perception, even though as a merchant i offer it alongside credit card processing and I get 60% of payments that way! When I offered no other option I got fewer purchases, many people will think that you are an ebay merchant, and so wont trust you.

Worldpay is very expensive, i use a company called forcetronix £75 setup, similar fees, only problem i am having now is the responses to a negative from the system is in danish, and i cant get it to change, tbh i havent tried too hard though, my to do list is too big

[deadgoodundies]

Shane, don't use worldpay it's the biggest ripoff in terms of charges.
There are plenty of others that are good i've used velocitypay (which was set up from a group that left protx) and protx themselves (who we currently use) and both are much better.

we also use paypal as a secondary payment method (always handy to have a secondary just in case) which about 25% of out customers use over normal credit card payments

[buspassjohn]

We use Secpay/Bank of Scotland the cash is in our account in 3 days, we also offer Paypal as a lot of customers have credit balances from their Ebay sales.

Still keeping a Protx account live as a secondary backup but last Christmas they were so unreliable during peak periods, they couldn't handle their traffic and the site was down too often. Switched to Secpay and no downtime so far!

[OLBG]

I think the main issue is that if its the only method then it makes the site look cheap - almost like a hobby site from a garage rather than a sizeable business you can trust to ship the good, handle issues etc.

Its probably just all perception but then thats still important - as I think even us lot who are major online buying advocates still have our ways of assessing whether we can trust a site.

So No I wouldnt in general

[Mogga]

I do.

MInd you I know the bloke who runs it so that adds trust I spose.

[Ste]

Yes, I would. It has that perception about PayPal that it is a quick and cheap way to get a shop online and accepting payments.

Plus its so easy to pay, I have even started paying by that option when purchasing online.

[deadgoodundies]

Still keeping a Protx account live as a secondary backup but last Christmas they were so unreliable during peak periods

Yes we got caught up in that but it wasn't acutally a problem with protx's service - they were under a DDOS attack which can happen to any business , from what I know they have invested around 1 million pounds in a more robust infrastructure which whilst can't be guaranteed it won't happen again (I don't suppose anyone could) if it does happen they are able to combat it more effectivley

[Elaine]

I would only use a merchant site with paypal as a favour if I knew the owner - otherwise no.

As regards payment we use HSBC, not accepted by all shopping carts, but it's worth looking round for one that does, excellent system, payment transferred into your bank account immediately, and the HSBC staff we've dealt with are very good and know their stuff - which is an oddity in the banking world!!

[deadgoodundies]

I'd have to say im at the other end with HSBC, I had to use them for a ex client and we had no end of trouble intergrating them into their ecommerce site (even though there was a specific module for HSBC) one of the main problems was that when we used them any tech support regarding the intergration was handled by an Indian call center and I couldn't understand half of what they were saying.

[anshul123]

Still going through Bank Transfer and other methods except paypal gives you a better option and clearer approch.

with options except paypal you can be on the safer side....

[buspassjohn]

Yes we got caught up in that but it wasn't acutally a problem with protx's service - they were under a DDOS attack which can happen to any business , from what I know they have invested around 1 million pounds in a more robust infrastructure which whilst can't be guaranteed it won't happen again

That's the crux of it, we lost 1000's of pounds in orders last year and will not risk it again.
PS have great holiday, don't forget to take an underwater camera, even if its a throw away one.

[drivetowin]

I think it would depend how niche the product was - I have a merchant I promote who sells gifts for a particular niche (royal memorabilia) and they have only paypal for checkout but they convert very well.

[cymonguk]

you are all suggesting that the processors you claim are wonderful, etc but you forget to mention that all these are just processors, they do not provide merchant accounts, so plus the charges you get from protx, etc you will get charges from your bank, plus you will have to get a merchant account from a bank, who unless you have 2 years of trading behind you will probably not give you one, chicken/egg

worldpay does bypass all this...