NYOEMPIRE

ddkity84 · Posted: Thu 11:23, 17 Mar 2011 Post subject: Online payments for the SME

By : Fred Neple ,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]
Submitted 2011-03-15 10:43:56 If you have an online enterprise you will be very conscious of the difficulties that can be associated with payments; especially if your organisation is brand new. In the early days most people make use of providers such as PayPal or they take cheques and postal orders for goods and services. It is simple setting up payments and having a top class website if you have a good deal of funds to set up your business, but it's not so easy if you are operating on a bit of a shoestring,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]!
Nevertheless,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], online SMEs can have a professional, cost-effective and productive service should they choose the correct payment processor to make it happen for them. Numerous SMEs don't look into this since they are concerned that it will cost them the earth to get a payment gateway installed in order to take card payments.
The best way forward is to get in touch with individual, independent payment processors to check what they can provide you with; it genuinely doesn't matter how small your enterprise is if you choose the appropriate company.
What else to look for when you get in touch with an online payment processor:
> 24hr customer service from UK based call centres.
> Cheap, competitive merchant fees that truly reflect the risks associated with your online business.
> Capped merchant fees for the length of your contract.
Those are just a few basic elements you should be getting from your independent payment processor.
Why not continue to accept cheques?
Cheques will soon be gone. That is the basic reality of the matter, and if you're going to pursue to accept cheques then you will no doubt by now be conscious that the cheque guarantee card is just about out of circulation already; very few banks (if any) send out new cheque guarantee cards these days. If you are going to accept cheques with no guarantee card then you're very likely to suffer several bouncing ones and this will come as a dreadful inconvenience to you and your enterprise.
Phone Payments
You could of course manage telephone payments through your website using a virtual card terminal if you feel that is the direction you want to go. A virtual terminal requires you or simply a member of your staff to take debit and credit card numbers over the phone and enter them manually with your payment processor. However, this does carry a few risks and your merchant fees will most likely reflect this.
The most sensible thing to do would be to speak to your independent payment processor and employ their expertise in order to discover which service would be more practical to you as a business.