Credit Card Processing Advice

Hi all,

Well its my first post and after a lot of searching i thought i needed to ask a specific question and get some advice....(new to CC processing)

The website im working on is for the Perth Mountain Bike Club (Australia - Non-profit) and im setting up a new website running php/mysql, no dramas there.

The problem is that we will be hosting a fundraising event for a seriously injured local rider John Waddell that was competing in a world cup race in quebec earlier this year. We are hoping to set up a page where peope can donate a set price of AUS $50 which will go to his rehabilation. We only require this page to be up for a two months....and we need it up ASAP..

The new host im planning to go through offers SSL and has OSCOMMERCE shopping cart software, what i dont know about is the best way to process this information. Setting up a merchant account appears way too expensive for our non-profit/volunteer club, and we dont have access to an offline processing terminal for credit cards.

What is the best option. As we only expect minimal numbers of donators (MTB is a small sport, it would be great if we could get 1000 people to donate money) merchant appear out of the question. In addition the club does not have a credit card, if that will be an issue (we use our own and get refunded by check/cash).

I cant find too much detail on the processes involved in using Paypal. What is required from our end to process the credit card details into our bank account? and would the webmasters on this forum recommend this as the best option?

Thanking you all in advance as the site has already helped me with lots of other question.

Not sure what to suggest, but PayPal works just fine here in the US. I've already collected several times and it was all automatic transfers. It sounds to me from what you are saying that's probably all you need at this point. I would suggest looking closer into what you can or can't do with PayPal in and if they can convert to your currency. Paypal seemed a little hard to navigate at first, but they do provide fairly good details. Your answers should be there if you look closely enough. One of the things with paypal is that you have to go through a couple verification processes to be able to collect your money. You need to follow those instructions closely to get it right and get verified.

Hope that helps.

Thanks very much,

I hadnt found all the info on the paypal site i came across a bit more after another look, and yes that appears to be fine for our needs.

My questions now are more on collecting the money from your paypal account. and Australian dollars conversions.

I assume im right in saying i will need a Premier/Business account to recieve CC payments so i can expect to be charged rates of US$0.30 + 2.9%, With a max fee of US$5.

Currencies supported appear to be US, GBP, EUR, CAD, JPY, how exactly will i be able to charge AUS$50? any ideas? In Paypal's FAQ there is a questions that says

"Can I set the currency of my Website Payments buttons?

Yes. To set the currency of your Website Payments buttons, just choose the currency from the drop-down menu in the Button Factory when you create your button."

Without actually setting up an account, does anyone know if i could choose AUS$ from that list and then paypal will do the currency conversions?

also

collecting money from the paypal account into our bank account from the site appears to be as simple as.

Log in to your PayPal account
Click on the Withdraw subtab
Click the Transfer funds to your bank account link
Choose the bank account to which you would like to withdraw the funds and enter the amount
Click Continue
Review the details of your transaction
Click Submit
Your funds should appear in your bank account balance in 3-4 business days

Is this so (what verification do they actually ask for)?

also every time i withdrawl money a withdrawl fee will apply as from the paypal website of

Withdrawl fees:
Bank Location Currency Withdrawl fee Return fee
Australia Australian Dollar $1.00 AUD $20.00 AUD


IPN or 'instant payment notification' for simplicity sake will not have to be set up, for our needs..is this correct?

my understanding of paypals product is paypal takes away the cost involved in setting up a merchant account. They simply take everyones orders process them with there own account and then pass on the transaction fees (+ a little extra) to the customers. Therefore once setting up the account and putting it on the page, people will just fill in their donations form, submit it, paypal notifies them and myself via email, processes the transaction (without IPN) putting the money into the paypal account, then i can simply withdrawl it all into the bank account every so often...thats it hey?


Anyway if you have got down this far, thanks very much, and any help with my questions would be greatly appreciated. Your all the best.

Cheers
Jas

Sorry one more thing,

if i do not use IPN to notify donators of the status of their transaction will i need to order a SSL connection with the web host?

Thanks

Before you decide, that is if you haven't decided already you should read this other post of mine, maybe it will help:
http://www.ozzu.com/sutra84928.html#84928

Hey,
Check out CharityWeb (http://www.charityweb.net/)

My organization (CARE USA) used them as our online donation provider for many years, from 1996 until March 2004, when we left them to move to a more sophisticated system (an advanced web CRM tool that included donations among other things). The company is really good, the guy who runs is, Kurt, is very knowledgable and his service is reliable and inexpensive. Plus, you can get personal attention a custom pages that reflect your branding, as opposed to some generic gateway page where you get to advertise PayPal...

Anyway, just a suggestion!

.c

If you want a reliable and low cost option for cc processing, I think you can find it at http://www.ikobo.com. I use them and as I know they have no setup fee and no monthly subscription. The fees are low (1.9%-2.9% plus 0.29$ per transaction for the merchant account). It's also a reliable soultion because from what I know their funds are FDIC insured, they have fraud protection and also have partners like Sun Trust and Bank of America. It's a company based in Atlanta, Georgia and their busines runs for more than 2 years. I hope this helps.

It's true that at the beginning things might seem quite difficult. Especially with the fees some merchant account providers have, let alone those of the real gateways. To a small business they are quite forbidding. I think tiramisu26 is right in what he/she said about this ikobo. I've also read up on them and they look ok. For instance there is no fee to create a merchant account and they give the option of splitting the fees between you and your customer anyway you want. I think it's worth a look.