Partner Article

Accepting credit cards from international customers: alternatives to PayPal

PayPal has long been the default option for small businesses when it comes to accepting credit card payments from international customers.

Its relatively simple set-up and easy interface have made it popular for financial transactions throughout the world. But what it provides in convenience it takes away in potentially crippling fees. PayPal imposes a 4% fee for cross-currency transactions, which could be a significant chunk of income for small business owners.

Fortunately, there are now several alternatives to PayPal and an increasingly competitive market is keeping fees down. Below we take a look at some of the alternatives out there.

ProPay

ProPay allows small businesses to accept electronic payments including credit card transactions. The buyer simply enters their credit card details when checking out and payment is sent immediately to the seller’s account. It is integrated into eBay and works seamlessly on the site.

Other pros include a good reputation for customer service, ease of use for buyers (there’s no need to set up a buyer account) and no buyer fees. However, setting up a seller account can be rather convoluted and annual fees can be quite high. Transfers into checking accounts can also take some time, typically around three to four business days.

Braintree

If getting fees down is a priority, then Braintree could be a contender. A clear advantage is the lack of monthly fees and there’s no minimum transaction fee either. Although it is only available for businesses based in North America, Europe or Australia it can accept payments from anywhere, and it aims for two business days to get the money into the seller’s account.

Braintree is also integrated with shopping carts such as Shopify and WooCommerce.

Disadvantages include potential problems with implementing it into the seller’s website, as it comes across as rather technical. With unlimited support and a little know-how this shouldn’t necessarily be a problem.

WePay

WePay has similar fees to Braintree and a whole host of features that make it an exciting e-commerce site. It’s simple to integrate into sellers’ websites and accessed either through easy to use “buy” buttons or via WePay’s shopping cart. And while sites such as PayPal charge the seller monthly fees to manage transactions on their site, with WePay transactions take place on the seller’s site and there are no monthly fees.

WePay also gives the option to enter credit card details manually if required. There’s an automated system for depositing earnings into the seller’s checking account and payments arrive each day. A potential downside is WePay’s insistence on hosting all possible features itself, which leaves sellers little scope for flexibility when it comes to using functions provided by other systems.

Stripe

As with WePay, payments via Stripe can be made easily through simple links or a complete shopping cart. The shopping cart isn’t Stripe’s own, but Shopify and WooCommerce can both be used, amongst others. Stripe fees compare very favourably with PayPal, both in terms of transaction fees and (lack of) monthly fees.

Account set-up is fairly simple and payment transfers to bank accounts are automated, though they can take up to seven days. Another drawback is that it can also be more complicated to integrate into the seller’s website, though specific apps and plugins are available to help the less technically minded.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by BusinessesForSale .