Questions regarding receiving money from customers or sending money to vendors.
22
votes
21answers
3k views
Furious client does not want to pay
We run a website and charge clients to have 'listings' on our page (full company profiles). The vast majority of our clients is satisfied and receives new clients through our website. Our rate is ...
20
votes
17answers
4k views
What is the best merchant processing solution? [closed]
If you want to take credit card orders (or pre-orders), what is the best merchant processing solution?
I've heard the PayPal and Google Checkout will freeze your funds if even a single person ...
18
votes
11answers
5k views
When to use merchant account instead of PayPal?
I wonder when it makes more sense to open a merchant account and use a payment gateway instead of old plain PayPal option? This should depend on the revenue processed, because merchant account has ...
16
votes
4answers
1k views
What to do when customer doesn't pay?
I'm at a startup with about 30 employees and we are doing pretty well and have a good number of customers.
One customer owes us about $10,000. Not enough to make it worth it to file a lawsuit but ...
14
votes
6answers
1k views
Are there any viable alternatives to Paypal for a small site?
I don't want to have the hassle of dealing with credit card or direct payments directly on my website, the volume and amount of transactions don't justify the effort.
I've set up Paypal on the site ...
11
votes
7answers
4k views
First employee at Y Combinator funded company
I may have the chance to be the first employee of a startup going to the YC summer 2011 program.
The thing is I think they are planning to cover my expenses but not to actually pay me or offer any ...
10
votes
2answers
2k views
What is the difference between merchant account and payment gateway?
I am still a newbie on the topic of merchant account and payment gateway. I tried to look around for information on merchant account and payment gateway, but I can not find a satisfying answers on the ...
10
votes
2answers
377 views
How to pay commissions internationally?
I am looking for a way to handle payouts to authors living both in and outside of the USA. I heard about Paypal Mass payments but are there any other better alternatives to pay commissions ...
9
votes
8answers
1k views
New startup - how to handle billing?
My subscription-based application is going to be written in Ruby on Rails; I have two routes I can go as far as billing is concerned:
I can use a hosted service that takes care of managing the ...
8
votes
3answers
415 views
Should I give a discount when people pay with credit card
I have a software product (price around 700 USD). Some customers use PayPal, which is very low-touch and easy for us. Others want to do the whole procedure: RFQ / price quote / PO / invoice / wire ...
8
votes
4answers
398 views
How do I respond to client asking for retainer back?
After deciding on a list of requirements with a client and agreeing on a price, the client sent me 50% of the total before work was started, and we agreed the remaining was to be paid at delivery.
I ...
8
votes
6answers
590 views
Using Paypal for accepting online payments
Reading posts on this site I came accross the strong advice for any serious business to stay away from Paypal as an instrument for accepting online payments. On the other hand lots and lots of online ...
7
votes
6answers
2k views
Late payment policy / best practices
I am considering instituting a formal late payment policy for our product. Our terms have always been net 30 but it is something that we never consistently enforced. As the company grows and ...
7
votes
8answers
556 views
Accepting payments… subscription plans
So, I am a total newbie when it comes to payment processing, acceptance of payments, subscription plans, etc.
I've recently built out the SaaS offering and will be in beta with it through the end of ...
7
votes
5answers
707 views
Third-party subscription payment processing like Recurly?
Does anyone have any experience with third-party subscription payment processing services like Recurly?
What else is there?
6
votes
3answers
5k views
Is it legal in US or Canada to accept donations?
Is it legal (US/Canada) to accept donations if you're not a government registered non-profit organization? I've seen it on a couple of sites and was wondering what are the laws surrounding those ...
6
votes
4answers
397 views
Is yearly subscription for a new SaaS a bad idea?
We're working hard on a new SaaS idea. We're bootstrapping as much as we can and are not looking for outside investment. Our goal was start charging for the service on a yearly basis, in our minds ...
6
votes
4answers
343 views
Collecting payment info before vs. after trial period?
Does anyone have any data (or opinions) on whether to collect payment info during the sign-up process, or after the trial has ended?
Collecting it up front probably converts better (though not always ...
6
votes
2answers
1k views
How does a business owner take money out of their business
Let's say I own a business selling widgets on the web. I'm incorporated, most likely an LLC. The business is doing really well and there is a lot of cash flow. Since I'm separated from the business by ...
6
votes
1answer
243 views
How do I handle large payments (over $15,000)?
As a side-project to my IT Consultancy business, I have developed a software product which I intend to sell. The URL for the new product is at http://www.scichart.com
I am partnering with FastSpring ...
6
votes
3answers
651 views
Can one pay for expenses that a start up requires before forming your LLC or Corp?
Can one pay for expenses that a start up requires before forming your LLC or Corp? Is it then possible to count them as expenses when you start one?
6
votes
3answers
610 views
Looking for payment system with licensing (key delivering) for .NET software
I developed .NET application and planning to sell it on monthly/yearly subscription plans.
At first I found that Plimus has licensing system and everything else that I need, but when I finally decided ...
6
votes
5answers
547 views
Barriers to truly global payment processing?
As a startup in Australia, one of the problems commonly faced here is getting a suitable payment service that customers world wide can use.
It seems that since the implementation of global AML/KYC ...
6
votes
1answer
365 views
Automated recurring billing systems Paypal vs others
We have today paypal integration, which was very simple, one time purchase.
Now we want to into recurring payment model and charge users on monthly or yearly basis. We would also allow users to buy ...
5
votes
5answers
1k views
Paying remote contractors?
Let's say I hire some remote contractors. Some are based in the US, and some are international.
I want to pay the contractors on a bi-weekly basis.
What is the best service to use for paying my ...
5
votes
3answers
295 views
How can you reduce the number of credit card chargebacks for a website selling high value products that are vulnerable to fraud?
From this question on Merchant Account Chargeback Ratios, one answer suggested that websites selling high value items will have higher charge backs because more criminals will attempt to purchase ...
5
votes
5answers
764 views
What are the ways to sell desktop applications
I'm figuring the ways to sell software online. I want a service that is easy to use. PayPal is good, but I'm not sure if most of the people have PayPal. Also Fortumo is a good service, it works in ...
5
votes
5answers
289 views
are payments processors mutually exclusive?
I'm bootstrapping a software business for the first time. I worked in 'stealth mode' for one full-year and now I've got about 100 private-beta-testers loving the software (and already begging for ...
5
votes
3answers
208 views
What is legally required in order to accept monthly payments for a SaaS product?
I have been working on a web product for over a year now and I've finally gotten to the point where I've finished integrating the payment / subscription / credit card processor into the product, ...
5
votes
3answers
350 views
Where can I find a high risk online payment processor?
I run a business that works to provide electronic goods to our customers, and we have serious problems with customers defrauding us by claiming failure of delivery or similar through our current ...
5
votes
3answers
956 views
Upgrades, Downgrades and Cancellations in Paypal recurring service
I plan on using Paypal for a monthly subscription service and would like to know how to handle the Upgrade/Downgrade/Cancellation from users:
For cancellation, is it recommended to develop the site ...
5
votes
7answers
2k views
Use Spreedly or Chargify or neither?
I plan to add subscription plan(s) to my website (built using ASP.NET). I may be using Paypal as the payment gateway for now. I might consider adding credit card payments in the future. Although ...
5
votes
1answer
65 views
If you're working on a project that's not yet a company how do you give ownership to others?
I'm working on a personal project that I hope to be able to turn into a company onwards into the future. If I incorporated now I feel it would bring in a lot of legal issues I'm not capable of dealing ...
5
votes
1answer
271 views
Micropayment solutions outside United States?
I have a small project that sells legal music online, per transaction is less than a dollar so the traditional payment solutions are not my option because they charge too much fee.
I found out that ...
4
votes
7answers
2k views
Looking to hire good freelancers - looking for original ways for paying them?
I am building a small startup.
We haven't raised any money yet, and we're in the stage where we need the help of some very talented free lancers (mostly graphic designers).
The prices they are asking ...
4
votes
11answers
396 views
Why are international sales so poor compared to US domestic?
We sell software online. Our international trial to purchase ratio is abysmal compared to US domestic. I'm trying to determine why? Some possible answers:
Higher piracy overseas
PayPal and PO are ...
4
votes
5answers
292 views
Receive one-time payments without credit card or paypal
My company takes payments via credit card and Paypal, but occasionally we have international customers who do not have a credit card (or debit card with Visa or Mastercard logo) and do not have a ...
4
votes
5answers
2k views
When operating an LLC, how do you pay company expenses?
When operating an LLC, how do you handle company expenses? Do you pay for them yourself and deduct them on your taxes (as it is a pass through tax entity), or do you pay for them from the company ...
4
votes
2answers
165 views
B2C - Should I have a free plan?
For a B2C subscription service, is it recommended to have a free plan? Based on my research, users who sign up free plan suck up a lot of support resources and a number of well known services have ...
4
votes
3answers
187 views
How to pay content creators
I am developing an iOS app that provides educational content, created by professionals (teachers, professors, etc). New content will be added continuously. The number of content editors is limited ...
4
votes
4answers
330 views
Australia based payment processing [closed]
Since Authorize.net is US/Canada only, I am wondering if there is a Austrlian counterpart to them providing service similar to them?
What are must have,
Recurring payments
One time payments.
...
4
votes
1answer
253 views
Payment processors and VAT
I'm trying to understand how VAT responsibilities are handled by payment processors like FastSpring and SWReg. From the HMRC website:
What is VAT?
VAT is a tax that's charged on most business ...
4
votes
6answers
311 views
Strategy for unveiling a social network?
I have identified a niche community, for which I want to build a social network.
From compete.com, I see that the TAM is at least 10K unique active users. Their web activites revolve around an archaic ...
4
votes
3answers
622 views
Online Merchant Account/Payment Gateway for Non-U.S. based Businesses
As many of you - who do not live in the us - surely know, it's near impossible to find an online merchant account/payment gateway other than paypal standard for non-us based businesses.
If there's ...
4
votes
2answers
912 views
Do you use Braintree Payment Solutions?
Has anyone here used Braintree (http://www.braintreepaymentsolutions.com/)? Are you happy with them?
4
votes
1answer
230 views
Developing a social payment system
I have seen sites like klout.com used in measuring social influence of people. I want to know if it's possible to develop a payment system where people pay using their social influence. For example we ...
4
votes
2answers
133 views
How to handle check payments to workers?
On my site, users earn virtual currency, which can be converted to cash payment. Is there a service that can facilitate in sending out cheques, paypal, or wire payments to the users?
I don't want to ...
4
votes
2answers
149 views
Amazon Payments for B2B Software
We sell B2B software, and receive most of our payments by bank transfer or cheque. We're currently using Google Checkout to take online card payments.
We have some issues with Google Checkout though:
...
4
votes
1answer
75 views
What do you do about known payment fraud?
As someone that's sold services and webapp subscriptions online for about 8 years now, I've seen a lot of payment fraud, mostly in the form of signing up with stolen credit card numbers. I've managed ...
4
votes
1answer
218 views
What type of insurance does an online payment business need?
I'm offering an online payment solution that other business will build upon. I'm going to have a service agreement that will promise certain things such as quality of service, uptime, etc. I will ...
