The Ultimate Payment Gateway Comparison Guide
With competition fierce online, it is especially important that your checkout process offers the right kind of credit card processing for your customer.
Choosing the absolute best gateway for high-risk business possible for your online store can save you money. A payment gateway is so critical to the success of a merchant account because it provides all the security needed to transfer information from one bank to another. A secure payment gateway must adhere to a series of industry regulations known as PCI compliance. If the payment gateway does not follow the rules set forth, then as the merchant account holder, you will most likely be penalized with a variety of fees.
The Difference Between a Merchant Account and Payment Gateway
A merchant account is the term most commonly used to describe the overall ability to process credit cards. However, a more accurate definition of a merchant account is simply a bank account that can securely receive an hold monies from your approved credit and debit card transactions. When a credit or debit card transaction is approved, money is initially moved from the customer’s issuing bank to a merchant account. Money is then automatically transferred from your merchant account to your business checking account or sometimes even your personal checking account within 1-2 business days.
A payment gateway is accurately defined as the software that works with a series of servers to transfer or move credit card or debit card information from the actual card to the issuing bank of that card for approval. The payment gateway also transfers approval or denial notices from the issuing bank back to the processing software.
A payment gateway is so critical to the success of a merchant account because it provides all the security needed to transfer information from one bank to another. A secure payment gateway must adhere to a series of industry regulations known as PCI compliance. If the payment gateway does not follow the rules set forth, then as the merchant account holder, you will most likely be penalized with a variety of fees.
Braintree
The popularity of Braintree has grown signifigantly over the last few years. It caught the eye of Paypal and was soon acquired by Paypal. It offers a variety of unique features such including the ability to accept payments from PayPal, Apple Pay, Android Pay, Venmo, and Bitcoin.
“Braintree helps businesses of all sizes, from small to large enterprise, accept, process, and split payments to help maximize business opportunities and revenue growth. Companies around the world benefit from the technology and support of Braintree coupled with the scale, backing, and confidence of partnering with a PayPal service.” Source
Rates: Average rates charged by Braintree is 2.9%+ $0.30 transaction fee (after first $50,000), and a $15 chargeback fee.
Stripe
Stripe has taken the payment gateway world by storm. They have a great strategy that many small business owners can take advantage of. They make it as simple as possible for any business to do business at anytime.
“Stripe builds the most powerful and flexible tools for internet commerce. Whether you’re creating a subscription service, an on-demand marketplace, an e-commerce store, or a crowdfunding platform, Stripe’s meticulously-designed APIs and unmatched functionality help you create the best possible product for your users. Hundreds of thousands of the world’s most innovative technology companies are scaling faster and more efficiently by building their businesses on Stripe.”
Rates: If you look at Stripe’s charges on their website, they are competitive at a 2.9% + $0.30 fee and a $15 chargeback fee.
Authorize.Net
Authorize.Net is a giant in the Payment Processing industry. They have longevity in an every changing industry. They are one of the largest payment gateway providers. They provide a handful of services to their customers including fraud prevention, recurring billing and Quickbook’s sync.
“Merchants can easily connect to the Authorize.Net Payment Gateway, which provides the complex infrastructure and security necessary to ensure fast, reliable and secure transmission of transaction data. Authorize.Net manages the routing of transactions just like a traditional credit card swipe machine you find in the physical retail world.” Source
Rates: Authorize.Net has a $49 setup fee, a $25 monthly gateway fee, and a $25 chargeback fee. The transaction fee is 2.9% + $0.30.
PayPal
Paypal is unique payment gateway solution that is used around the world. It offers an easy, quick set up that many customers find convenient.
“Buy from merchants all over the world. Our online payment services are available in over 200 markets globally and can convert your payment to 25 currencies. No matter the online payment method, your money goes farther with PayPal.” Source
Rates: PayPal charges the mostly standard 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction and a 3.9% + fixed fee per international transaction. Paypal has a variety of options for their customers and their rates may vary.
SecureGlobalPay’s Payment Gateway
SecureGlobalPay is different. We proudly carry the title of “complete payment processor”. This means we offer both a merchant account and payment gateway services under one unique platform to meet all your payment processing needs.
Multi-Channel Platform Services
Multi-channel platform services can give you, the business owner, the ability to accept credit cards through multiple channels at any time. With our secure payment gateway solution, you can collect credit cards through your website, via mail or telephone (MOTO), on your mobile device and even through your in-house POS system under one platform. With our payment gateway solution, you will also be able to collect and process both credit cards and checks.
Invoicing
With SGP’s Payment Gateway, you will be able to send customized invoices with detailed product descriptions and an embedded payment link to your customers. You will also be able to securely email the invoice to your customer. Once your customer receives the invoice, they can either pay the invoice via the embedded link or send a check to you. Our detailed payment gateway reporting system will allow you to quickly see if an invoice has been paid or if it is delinquent.
Recurring Billing
Our recurring billing system can help you to maintain a steady revenue stream by automatically debiting bill payments from your customers bank account. Once the necessary customer information has been added to the recurring billing system, you can let the software do the rest of the work. Customers who choose the option of having their payments automatically debited from their account each month often find that it can help reduce late fee charges. You can schedule each customer with a customized billing solution that will work best for them.
The customer will have the ability to stop the scheduled recurring billing payment at any time. If the expiration date on the customer’s card is coming due, the system will even send a reminder notice to your customer to update their information.
The SGP Payment Gateway system will also send your customers a receipt that they can keep for their records each time a payment is deducted from their account.
Sync With Quickbooks
If your business runs on QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier or QuickBooks Enterprise, we can sync all of your merchant account activities with Quickbooks Syncpay.
Accept All Cards Including
Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover Card, JCB, Diners Club and more.
Developer Friendly
SecureGlobalPay’s Payment Gateway is compatible with over 100 different shopping carts. We have easy-to-read documentation that can assist developers with any instructions that are needed when configuring our payment gateway and online ecommerce system.
Understanding Our Fees
One Time Set Up
Typically, a merchant account provider will charge a one-time set up fee (between $100 – $500). SecureGlobalPay will waive this fee.
Month to Month
It is not unusual for your merchant account provider to charge a monthly fee to help maintain the merchant account. These fees average between $20 – $50 per month. However we can make special arrangements where you don’t have to pay a monthly fee.
Per Transaction
There is generally a small per transaction fee charged for each transaction (unless you choose to have a larger month to month fee) and a percentage fee, typically between 2.00-3.00% for MasterCard/Visa and American Express.
SecureGlobalPay Fees
We will do everything we can to get you the best deal possible. Call us today and we will waive all one time set up fees and treat you the way you deserve to be treated. We can also offer a really great percentage fee as low as 0.35% in most cases for Mastercard, Visa and American Express. CONTACT US TODAY!
