credit card charges

[Toy Giant]

I was wanting to add in % charges to cover off the extortionate costs I'm now getting from the bank for all the card transactions and I can't seem to find anywhere to do this within Bluepark. I use the barclaycard epd payment service so maybe it's within there that I need to set up the costs. Does anyone know ?

[Gillf]

Don't do it! You will just put customers off. There has been loads in the news about this with regard to airlines etc. The government is even thinking of bringing in legislation on the matter. Why not find a better payment processor or negotiate with the current one. They might bring the charges down if they think they are going to lose you.

[Toy Giant]

I've done all of the above already and negotiated my rate down but I take some large orders sometimes for several £1,000s and then a few weeks later get hit with charges of several hundred pounds for one order and am quite sick of it. I'm happy with the bank and have my merchant facility so don't want to set it all up again, been with them 10 years. There are companies who charge a small charge for credit card transactions or a percentage cost and actually that is allowed so long as the cost is clear for all to see and not hidden.

[Red Devil]

Try looking at http://www.sagepay.com/online-payments

Looking at your website, can't see who you are using other than PayPal.

[Toy Giant]

My payments gets processed through Barclays EPDQ or I take Paypal, Bacs or the dreaded cheques

[Red Devil]

oh now that is very interesting, it's been ages since I looked into my payment options with anyone else as I've used Barclays for so long and it looks like with SagePay I'd just pay the £20 per month charge for less than 1,000 transactions a quarter That would save me £
100s

Exactly ... others on here use Sagepay so they will be able to give you their experiences.

[ThomasMurray]

I've been with SagePay 18 months now & had no problems whatsoever.

I know there used to be some down-time and problems before we joined, but it looks as if they've sorted that now.

[Dave]

I agree with Gill that adding surcharges is a big no no and will put people off buying from you. Anyway, if you increase your order values by adding a surcharge you will pay even more in bank charges!

If you are being hit with charges of several hundreds pounds for one transaction I suspect the charges you are incurring are not very competitive. Obviously I don't know exactly what order value you refer to in your post but if I took a single order for £10k (I wish) depending on the card the customer has used I would not expect to pay more than £115 to £150.

I know you said you don't want to change from Barclays but this could be your only way of reducing your bank charges.

We joined the Federation of Small Businesses (approx £130 per annum) because they have specially negotiated rates with Streamline and we moved from Barclays and made massive savings.

[MDJO]

Im a first year member of FSB (£150 for first yr, £130 thereafter). I am using worldpay via fsb and have to say charges are extremely reasonable. I also have a face to face terminal and that is v.v. Cheap too. Along with free forever banking from CO-OP, we've saved a fortune in financial charges.

[Ashley]

In a trade environment or when you are selling high value goods, it is normal to charge for a credit card payment. Ever try to buy a car on a credit card?

[Chrisg]

We are in negotiations with PayPal and talking about dropping Sagepay all together. Because we plan to put all our turnover through Paypal they are talking about a rate that made my eyes water and will save me thousands in card charges each month.

World pay would not drop my card fees on commercial cards below 1.8% and as most small business now get issued with this type of card regardless we get hammered.

[MDJO]

Hi. I've just seen this via twitter www.gocardless.com. Seems to be a cardless payment facility where money is transferred direct from customer accounts. No merchant accts, fees, set up fees. 1% fee upto max of £2, that seems to be it. Not sure if it would work with bluepark. It mentioned something about an API wrap at which point i lost all understanding. Possibly a competitor for paypal.

[925 Gifts]

I use cardsave and sage pay.

cardsave for my machine 1.04%
sage for my ecomms 2.00%
20p for debit cards

[925 Gifts]

Also do not touch paypal anymore. way more hassle than they are worth. and much too expensive.

they tried to entice me with eye watering rates. but no matter what they say the system will put you in whatever band your transactions entitle you to. CS reps have no control over that. so you end up paying a lot more.

[Terry]

I have used SagePay (Used to be called PROTX) for a little over 5 years now - and have nothing but praise for them. Their customer support is excellent, and their rates are very competitive. I pay just £20.00 per month with them, and this also gives me a virtual terminal so that I can take card payments over the phone etc. There is very little don time, and if you do have any issues at all, they are sorted extremely quickly - cannot recommend them highly enough

Terry