[houeis]

Hello everyone,

Well the question is simple. Who is safer to use as a payment gateway when it comes to charge backs and disputes? A merchant account, or paypal? If you do lots of sales, and specially international sales, your bound to get disputes for none-reciept. Who protects you incase of fraud, or attempted fraud? Thanks!

Huss

[versas]

Here is what you want to know.

[SAMG]

Paypal is a joke, thats why so many other companys were started, to get around the joke. They protect the buyer and the buyer, thats it.

[syia]

Paypal is better in my opinion.. it is well established..and seems ok.. for my business. I have been using it for 2 years

[radreality]

it depends on what you are selling and the capital you have to start. There will be upfront costs associated with getting a merchant account and then there will also be upfront costs associated with a payment gateway on your site to utilize the merchant account in addition to the transaction costs.

With paypal, you only have transaction costs. Now, paypal might not be the best, but there are several other companies similar to it that you can choose from.

As far as security and chargebacks. They are going to happen no matter what sooner or later. Whether its paypal or VISA or Mastercard, they will generall always back the buyer....thats just the way it is. There should be fraud measures that all payment processors take to ensure that the transaction is legit as its taking place, so you really shouldn't see a huge problem with it unless you are in a high risk industry.

______________________________
Robert Falk
Business Developer / Investor
Self Help & Success Forum

[mulatto401]

You have to understand that Paypal is very VERY serious when it comes to security, and will verify you when you start making serious money, including freezing your funds and asking you for your SSN, tax ID, last 5 supplier invoiced etc.

Which can be very unprofessional, but nothing a phone call can't handle. (If you can find their phone number that is).

I should know I went through the BS. Those ppl on those sites, just hate Paypal because they didn't complete the verification and have there money lost, for had a fraudlent transaction and blamed Paypal for it.

Merchant accounts are just as likely to get fraudlent transactions and chargebacks.

I had a charge back of $15 and they received their order, proof via USPS tracking and they still got there money back from merchant.

The big companies can handle these because they have the money where these little companies cry when it happens because there home based businesses and want everything to go 100%.

[Xanifur]

I find paypal to have bad customer service. Every E-Mail I sent to them when they froze my account was replied to with: "Sorry, you will have to wait" OR "You have to mail us your proof of identity, drivers license, a statement that confirms your address"" bla bla bla. Not to mention their sales reps have horrid grammar.

I'm only using them because of startup costs. I'm thinking of switching to Google checkout very very soon. Lower rates, plus all transaction fees are free until '08

[megrisoft]

Paypal is still fine.2CO never ever listens to the vendor.They never even tell why the money was refunded and there is no time span with them for returning the money.Many times even when the job for the client has been done successfully they refund back the money,

[Corey Bryant]

Depends on what you are selling, etc. With (some versions of) Paypal and other IPSPs (Internet Payment Service Provider), you have a third party in the mix. The consumer can call the issuing bank or the IPSP if the money is requested back.

Having an IPSP usually is better in some instances because of the risks. They will scrub the transaction more and if you have a lot of chargebacks, chances are you will not get on the TMF / MATCH list. Keep in mind though that using an IPSP, you add another party into the transaction.

Having your own merchant account, you are able to fight chargebacks via the acquiring bank / merchant account provider, even though the card associations are the final decision maker. Having a great TOS will help, but keep in mind that there are people that know exactly what to say to the issuing bank to get around your TOS.

[jasaunders]

I haven't had any problems using Paypal Websites Payment Pro merchant services.

You will get disputes and chargebacks no matter what processor you use. Paypal is very reputable. It seems like some of the comments above are related to normal paypal transcations, not using their merchant services. I have found their customer service to be very good. Even their technical help in implementing their API is very good, always got extremely quick responses.

[SL2700]

Paypal is terrible. I had to use them to buy an item and it took seriously forever to get them to put the account number in my bank account. Then I found out that it was their fault and not my banks, who they kept blaming it on. Their customer service is terrible.