Accepting credit card payments online can be a great way to automate the payment process and make it easier and convenient for customers to buy. However, a full financial analysis along with an analysis of payment gateway solutions needs to be undertaken to make the project a success and realize a proper return on investment.
Accepting credit card payment online is essentially a process with 4 types of stakeholders involved.
The first stakeholder is your company. Your company will provide a method for requesting the information from the customer. This can take form of an online web form or a virtual terminal if the client calls in.
The second stakeholder is the gateway solution provider. This is a company like Authorize.net that provides the web application solution that takes the information inputted by the customer and hands it over securely to the processor.
The third stakeholder is the processor. A processor like Moneris or Chasepaymentech, takes the information from the payment gateway and interacts with the financial institutions. This stakeholder processes the credit card transaction by interacting with the credit card and banking network
The fourth Stakeholder are the financial institution involved, mainly Visa , Mastercard and your bank. Your financial institution provided you with a Merchant account. In the case of Moneris, and ChasePaymentech they service both roles as a processor and merchant account provider. It takes the credit card payment from the customer and settles it into your banking account after receiving authorization. Although the whole transaction takes place in a matter of seconds, the actual deposit into your account will take one to two days.
When making a decision on a gateway provider, we recommend that you pay particular attention to the customer service component. In other words resolution of online payments should be quick and effortless when you interact with your payment gateway solution provider.
It is possible to pick a payment gateway solution provider like Athorize.net and integrate with one of the large payment processors such as Chasepaymentech, First Data or Moneris. However, we would recommend against this. Separating the various stakeholders makes it difficult to resolving customer service issues. You will find yourself in a situation where payment processor and payment gateway will try to off load responsibility on one another. For this reason we recommend a “captive gateway” solution. This is an integrated processor and gateway solution provider. The three we recommend are e-Selectplus from Moneris, Chasepaymentech’s Orbital and Internet Secure.
After analyzing the three payment gateway providers, technically they are virtually the same although Orbital uses old XML platform, while e-Select Plus uses ASP and ASP.net platform.
There ought to be no customer service issues, both provide 24/7 support.
Financially, it appears Chasepaymentech is the better choice. However, their credit card transaction cost is $0.10 more than Moneris. The discount rate although negotiable should also be a big factor in the overall equation because these costs could quickly add up in a low value, high volume scenario.
Cost Comparison: Moneris e-SelectPlus Chasepaymentech Orbital Gateway and Internet Secure
| Solution Costs |
|
|
|
| Feature |
Moneris e-Selectplus |
Paymentech Orbital Gateway |
Internet Secure |
|
|
|
|
| One time Set up Fee |
$150 $250 Admin |
$125 |
$0 – $199 |
| Account Service Fee* |
$7.00 per month |
$9.95 per month |
None |
| Payment Gateway Solution fee |
$45 per month |
$30 per month |
$25-55 |
| Support for USD payments |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Time for Bank Deposit |
1-2 days
24 hrs with BMO and Royal |
1-2 days
24 hrs with Scotia |
Daily/Weekly/Bi-weekly
Any bank in Canada |
| Support for Recurring Payments |
$5.00 per month |
Included |
Included |
| Support for Virtual Terminal
Allows you to key payment information if someone calls in |
yes |
yes |
Yes |
| Contract Termination |
3 year contract required
$300 early termination |
3 year contract require
$300 early termination |
3 year contract
$195 early termination |
| Customer Service |
24/7 |
24/7 |
24/7 |
| Merchant Costs |
|
|
|
| Web Chargebacks |
$10 plus $5 handling fee |
$25 |
$17.98 |
| Discount Rate |
Visa 1.89%
Mastecard 1.89%
|
1.5-3.4% based on average transaction value and yearly volume |
Visa/MC/Discover 2%+
Amex 3.55%+
Interac Online 1.89% |
| Transaction Fee |
$0.15 |
$0.25 |
$0.29 |
| Minimum |
$20 |
$25 |
No monthly minimum fee |
*Description from Moneris on the account Service Fee
The $7.00 Account Service Fee does include access to our online reporting tool Merchant Direct.
Merchant Direct provides 24/7 access to daily card transaction data (available by 7am the next morning and stored for 3 months) and monthly consolidated statements (available by the 3rd day of the next month and stored for up to 2 years).
Merchant Direct is searchable, so you can find transactions by transaction number, card number, date or amount. As it reports settled transactions, it makes it easier for you to investigate and resolve your own out-of-balance situations quickly and easily.
With comprehensive single and multiple location reports, the information can provide insights, and facilitate trend analysis and forecasting to assist in making good business decisions.
