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I'm currently looking for an online payment solution for a business website I'm working on and it turns out it's a bit more complex than I'd first though.

I'd like to run at a very small download fee that we keep and the rest goes to the user but I can't find a merchant account that will work with this as they all charge a flat transaction fee AND keep a percentage of the sale for themselves.

Does anyone know of any that just take a percentage OR a flat fee or am I going to have to rethink my business model?

We're UK based.

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Downloading digital content such as music or software? What do you mean by "the rest goes to the user"? – Dan Feb 8 '12 at 16:22
Content type isn't really relevant. The basis is that the user gets all the sale proceeds apart from a small fee which we'd keep. This won't work if our small per download profit is eaten by transaction charges. – SpaceBeers Feb 9 '12 at 11:43

closed as not constructive by Zuly Gonzalez♦ Apr 20 at 19:47

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7 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

As far as I know all payment processors/gateways apply both a transaction fee plus a percentage. I hate it, but PayPal seems to have the lowest rates and doesn't require a merchant account with a bank.

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There's the US service Dwolla which sounds promising but isn't international yet. – SpaceBeers Feb 8 '12 at 16:18
up vote 1 down vote

Depending on your anticipated transaction volume, and whether or not you can use a merchant account, SagePay Go might be an option.

For accounts with less then 1000 transactions per month they charge a single monthly fee of £20.00...there are no fees charged on a per-transaction basis

The only thing is they do require that you have an Internet Merchant Account.

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Is it really only 10p per transaction over 1000 a month? No hidden percentages etc or do they come from the Merchant account? – SpaceBeers Feb 9 '12 at 16:07
Yep that's right, there aren't any hidden charges at all. I imagine there's a cost associated with the merchant account but it wouldn't be too hard to compare those rates to other payment processors and make sure Sagepay comes in cheapest. We have dozens of clients using this service and every one of them has said it's worked out much cheaper for them then what they were using previously (usually Paypal/Barclaycard ePDQ). – Clive Feb 9 '12 at 16:31
It's 2.5% or 40p for merchant services. I need Dwolla to go international. $0.25 per transaction flat. No merchant account fee, no percentages, nothing. – SpaceBeers Feb 9 '12 at 16:34
Amen to that. Unfortunately they've said "We do not have plans to expand internationally at this time" in this post from a couple of weeks ago :/ – Clive Feb 9 '12 at 16:51
Bleugh. They Tweeted me yesterday saying "We're definitely looking to go international, but we gotta do it right and that takes time. We're hurrying!" – SpaceBeers Feb 9 '12 at 16:56
up vote 0 down vote

check out : https://stripe.com/ its a payment solution for devs...and paypal killer.

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1  
Stripe is currently US only. The OP is located in the UK. – Zuly Gonzalez♦ Feb 8 '12 at 18:50
up vote 0 down vote

If you use PayPal express, only the percentage fee applies. Your customers do not have to have a PayPal account either, credit cards will be accepted.

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up vote 0 down vote accepted

I'm not really in a position to need this setting up yet but as things stand I think I'm going to use Go Cardless for payments if Dwolla isn't international by the time my site's ready. I'm building it myself in my spare time (web developer by trade) so it might be a while anyway.

Go Cardless are UK based and charge 1% up to £2.00 max per transaction with no other charges.

Dwolla are US based and charge $0.25 per transaction with no other charges.

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Any reason for the downvote? – SpaceBeers Feb 13 '12 at 17:18
If it's just payments to content providers, you could see some of the answers to this question: answers.onstartups.com/q/36723/5259 – Gary Rowe Mar 14 '12 at 13:34
up vote 0 down vote

I work for Nochex, which is a UK company based in Yorkshire.

We provide merchant account + payment gateway in one bundle with one charge. We charge 2.9% + 20p per transaction. We don't charge recurring monthly or annual fees. For a Merchant account we charge a £50 set-up fee (Seller accounts which only accept payments from UK cards are free to set-up). this looks like a good match for your needs.

Find more details at www.nochex.com

Good luck, Peter

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up vote 0 down vote

I don't see how gocardless can possibly fend off chargebacks so although clients may pay through gocardless, they are not present so can contest and easily get a chargeback leaving you out of pocket.

I'd love to see if this is true or not, I can't see how the exposure can be managed

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1  
This is a comment not an answer. – Karlson Oct 5 '12 at 12:48

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