Tell me more ×
Answers OnStartups is a question and answer site for entrepreneurs looking to start or run a new business. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 3 down vote favorite
1

I have a SaaS product and want to offer my customers the ability to accept credit cards themselves. What's the quickest way to set this up?

EDIT: I'm starting to think that giving the SaaS user a way to embed a PayPal button would be "quickest"/"easiest". I'm cutting the feature for the time being but I would love to see any other alternatives.

share|improve this question

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

One thing to keep in mind is that you cannot act as an agent that processes payments for your customers without getting on the wrong side of the credit card companies.

share|improve this answer
Thanks Kenneth, that's what I was afraid of. Do you have any links to examples? – Jon Kragh Feb 10 '11 at 1:32
Sure, check this one out: merchantequip.com/merchant-account-blog/140/… – Kenneth Vogt Feb 10 '11 at 5:15
Thanks Kenneth! I never knew that this could actually be ILLEGAL if done incorrectly! Great info. – Jon Kragh Feb 11 '11 at 2:18
I marked this as the answer because - it looks like in summary - this is tricky and could easily be illegal!!!! – Jon Kragh Feb 11 '11 at 2:27
up vote 3 down vote

Take a look at the offerings from:

Typically these services provide ways for YOU to charge YOUR customers. But maybe they have options so that your customers can charge their customers.

I have issues with this type of service because many of them lock you into their choice of gateway providers, their APIs, and their price increases.

Recently Chargify completely did away with their free tier, causing all the small companies who had invested tons of time implementing the Chargify API to have to either start paying for the service, or scrap all the work they had done. Luckily I was still just evaluating them, so I wasn't burned. But they did go from top on my list to bottom overnight.

I just came across a new one, but don't know much about them (are they PCI compliant, are they stable, will they be around in a few years, etc.). On paper they look good, as they support numerous gateways and offer a migration tool from the others. See them at http://zingybill.com/

share|improve this answer
Thanks Tauren! I'm still looking for the charge on behalf of option... doesn't look very easy. I believe I need to rethink the solution. Cheers, Jon – Jon Kragh Feb 10 '11 at 1:33

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.