[ic] Authorizenet question?

[Duane Hinkley]

Scott Martin wrote:

>
>
> Duane Hinkley wrote:
>
>> Scott Martin wrote:
>>
>>> Hi
>>>
>>> Just the other day we had a credit card processing company salesman 
>>> at our office. We currently take cards over the phone and asked him 
>>> if they  do e commerce applications. He tells me they offer 
>>> authorize.net & I need software at a cost of approx $ 500.00 US.
>>>
>>> Is this something I really need or does the perl module take care of 
>>> it?
>>>
>>> Very new to all this but appreciate any suggestions, alternatives etc.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> Scott Martin
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> interchange-users mailing list
>>> interchange-users at icdevgroup.org
>>> http://www.icdevgroup.org/mailman/listinfo/interchange-users
>>>
>> Be warry of Merchant account salesman.  They make their money off 
>> commission so their goal is to sell you as much as possible.  I've 
>> seen new businesses stuck with over $600 in a deluxe credit card 
>> terminal equipment, high monthly fees and a three year contract.  
>> They often don't realize they can buy compatable equipment on Ebay 
>> for around $100 or they can buy a cheaper version equipment.  I've 
>> even had them  tack on services I didn't request.
>> Also read the agreement with them closely.  I had one sell me a one 
>> year contract them claim is was a three year contract when I tried to 
>> cancel after a year.  I was fortunate I read the contract and he didn't.
>>
>> It doesn't surprise me he wants you to buy more than you need.  All 
>> you need is a Merchant Account and the Authorizenet gateway service.  
>> You also don't have to buy the Authorizenet service from your 
>> Merchant account salesman.  If you have an existing merchant account 
>> you can contact Authorizenet directly and they'll get you set up very 
>> quickly, normal a day.
>>
>
>
> Hi,
>
> Thank you for the quick response! We are currently with BOA, with a 
> terminal unit for entering numbers manually. If I ever get my site 
> going, what is the best & most secure way of accepting credit cards?
>
> Thanks Again
> Scott Martin
> _______________________________________________
> interchange-users mailing list
> interchange-users at icdevgroup.org
> http://www.icdevgroup.org/mailman/listinfo/interchange-users
>
Scott,

I tell my clients it's best to start out slow.  Contrary to what 
television would have you believe, the day a site goes live it doesn't 
start receiving floods of orders.  Depending on what type of search 
engine strategy you have, it make take a while before getting many 
orders a day.  

So if you're not working hard to promote in search engines (or other 
methods) and expect the orders to trickle in, then I recomend just using 
the GPG encryption on Interchange that sends you the encrypted credit 
card numbers.  Then you unencrypt them and run them manually through 
your terminal.

At some point when the orders pick up and become difficult to manage 
running the manually, then I recomend Authorizenet.  I've had clients 
use other services but Authorizenet has always been the most solid and 
reliable.

The reason I recomend this approach is Authorizenet will run you about 
$35 a month.  So unless you have the income from the store to cover it, 
you can save that money until you get the right formuala to pull the 
customers in and make those sales.

-- 

Sincerely,

Duane Hinkley
Down Home Web Design, Inc.
(208) 424-0572 Fax(208) 587-0738

duane at downhomewebdesign.com
www.downhomewebdesign.com