I'm an Einzenfirma with the need to bill by email invoice (in English) and credit card payment for foreign customers. I sell only a service - no product - so no need for shopping cart or inventory management. I'd like to avoid PayPal because of problems I've had with them in the US.

Any recommendations? Or is PayPal in Europe more reliable than the American version? I understand the Euro PayPal is an actual bank, and so is better regulated than the non-bank Ami PayPal...?

A virtual terminal for inputting CC payment info would also be nice, though email will be the main mechanism.

Thanks!

http://www.six-card-solutions.com/en/pages/default.aspx
I've been using these guys for years.

I looked into Telekurs before the name change, and the no go for me was the amount of time that they kept my funds...seemed to be 30-60 days, which was not acceptable to me.

Not sure if I was wrong or if that has changed, but our US corp gets much better terms so we process CC payments in the US.

Best,

fduvall

Swisscom Click and Buy



http://www.swisscom.ch/res/internet/...dbuy/index.htm

As far as I can tell six-card doesn't provide email invoicing. Also, it requires a PC (which I can work around with VM Fusion on my Mac, but it's a hassle).

They look great for a high-volume web store though!

I'd love to process the payments (esp the US dollar ones) in the US, but I don't see a good way to do that without declaring myself as a US business. Paypal would be ok if they weren't so flaky with credit card processing (arbitrarily rejecting payments by many people's cards, etc.) and using a non-Paypal solution seems to require a physical US presence.

Don't use PayPal... they are fraudulent, just as their big sister eBay.
I type from experience.

Yup, you're one of apparently thousands with this sort of experience. I never keep a balance in my paypal account for fear of my funds being seized/frozen/disappearing.

This is so ridiculous and comical I just have to share.

I set up a PayPal business account out of curiosity just to see if it's as bad as everyone says. I then sent 4 email invoices to customers (all people I know personally and trust).

Invoice 1: Customer followed paypal link to pay, paid with credit card, and then got a receipt for payment that showed their own name as the payee and their email address randomly swapped with mine in a couple places. Customer was confused but I convinced them paypal just messed up and I did get the $.

Invoice 2: Customer followed paypal link to pay, and payment with credit card was rejected with "This credit card cannot be used for this transaction. Please try another card." (this is with a card the person has used forever, never with a problem before).

Invoice 3: Exact same experience as Invoice 2.

Invoice 4: Customer followed paypal link to pay and paid with credit card. I verified I received the payment in my account. Yay! 2 hours later I got email from paypal saying all funds in my account had been frozen by paypal "for my protection" pending the resolution of their investigation into "questionable transactions" in my account. They now identify me as the claimant in a dispute with customer #4 over the funds for Invoice 4. Customer 4 is a friend of mine and has no idea what paypal is doing. Paypal says they will unfreeze my account when I provide them written proof that I have, indeed, shipped the product to the customer with a paypal-certified shipper (this despite paypal's own database showing the transaction as being for a service, with no product shipped).

Wow.

I thought if I ran afoul of the paypal issues everyone complains about it would take longer than, like, a day.

(I'm now waiting out of curiosity to see what happens. My two paid customers are both happy to just cancel their payments through their credit card companies if paypal doesn't give me the money back.)

paypal = clueless

It's strange, I've been using PayPal almost since the beginning (2001? I think) and I've never had a problem. I've run 100,000's through the account and apart from one disputed chargeback (the buyer fraudulently cancelled a transaction - we threatened to sue the customer and got the money plus costs back directly from the customer) never had any problems.

This is a UK based PayPal Business Premium account with transactions being done via static web links in a mixture of currencies (GBP, CHF, EUR, USD and JPY), mainly B2B with a few B2C with most people using credit cards and a few Americans using eChecks.

I do sweep any funds in the account into a UK based bank account everynight because of the horror stories, but never had any problems. Ironically I like them because I think their anti fraud checks are better than anyone else I have tried.

I've used paypal several times to purchase things, but would never use it to accept payments. Too many horror stories for my liking.

Been there done that ... had the same problems Axxxe.... was a long time ago and the issues still pending .... i gave up ...

I wonder if Postfinance is any use to the OP ?

Good for receiving payments locally with a Postkonto, and you also have the IBAN / SEPA for European customers, BIC for all others ?

They might also have a payment gateway for SMEs.

More comedy:

Paypal concluded their "investigation" and are siding with my customer in our fictitious dispute over payment because I failed to meet the eligibility requirements of the PayPal Seller Protection Policy.

They are refunding the customer's payment _minues the transaction charge_(?!?) by sending funds to the customer's PayPal account.

But the customer doesn't have a PayPal account, they paid with a credit card.

AWESOME!

Supports my point above... Pure FRAUD!

hi
try with telekurs but the samll business option. For us this was by far the cheapest and really waht we needed. It is good for about 100 transaction a year. we did it as we want to give our customers the service of the credit card payment.
hope that helps

Can you tell me how long Telekurs is keeping the funds now, between processing the card and delivery to your account? When I looked into it 3 yrs ago, it was something like 45-60 days. Would help me make a decision for 2010.

thanks,

fduvall

Hi
30 days
the only negative is the high card commission, but this is really up to the customer he could also pay by bank transfer should he wish so.

very good is the small one off setup fees.


Contract Mail Phone Order Easy (MPO) for VISA and MasterCard
· Commission rate VISA and MasterCard 3.35% for CHF, EURO, US$ (Minimum commission CHF 0.70)
£ Sterling 3.55%
· Set up fee CHF 200.00
· fee per transaction CHF 1.50 (no need to buy a Saferpay licence)
· Reimbursement: after 30 days
· Duration of contract: 3 years

That makes it pretty much a no-go for me. Don't know how Telekurs justifies keeping my money for so long...

Most of my clients are ok with doing a wire transfer. However, with LARGE firms, it is often easier to accept a personal/corporate CC rather than generate a PO and all the associated paperwork.

Thanks for the feedback. Will have a look at the Post account mentioned upthread.

fduvall