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Recommendations for Website Payment Systems?

Posted by Cliff on from the that-age-old-question-of-micropayments dept.

An anonymous reader asks: "I run a smallish website that provides stock quotes, charts, etc for a very under-reported stock market. (I won't link here due to the Slashdot Death Ray effect, and because this is a real question, not an advertisement). Over the recent weeks, many of my site members have been asking if they could make a small contribution to help off-set costs, which I am considering. 'Tip Jars' seem tacky and I know many people aren't comfortable with Paypal. So, should I roll my own, or are there any highly recommended ways of doing this that I am missing? Any suggestions?"

5 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. Paypal? by avalys · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Most of the people who are uncomfortable with Paypal are the ones who think whining about it makes them seem experienced or intelligent. For simply sending money, there's nothing wrong with it (as long as you don't mind using them).

    The money you lose from people who enjoy bragging about how they refuse to use Paypal will be more than made up for by the time you save not having to implement something like this yourself.

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    1. Re:Paypal? by bcrowell · · Score: 5, Insightful
      The money you lose from people who enjoy bragging about how they refuse to use Paypal will be more than made up for by the time you save not having to implement something like this yourself.
      Yep. I started by accepting only PayPal on my site, and then started accepting credit cards as well. The credit card stuff is a huge hassle. It's not just the hassle of setting it up initially, it's the hassles that come after that. For instance, I got a $1000 order from a woman an Nigeria who was using a stolen CC number. The CC companies I've had to deal with generally have horrible support. One thing you might not realize is that when you set this kind of thing up, you're not just setting up a business relationship with the company you signed up with. Although the company I signed up with was PayQuake (not recommended, BTW), I've actually had to work with all of the following: PayQuake, Authorize.net, Global Payments, American Express, Discover. Discover kept pestering me to add their card to my account. I said no, because my business is 95% wholesale, and people don't use Discover for wholesale. Well, all of a sudden, I started getting charged a certain amount every month to take Discover. They'd just gone ahead and done it without my permission.

      With hindsight, CC ordering is only worth it if you're really doing serious amounts of business.

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    2. Re:Paypal? by Chess_the_cat · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Can a bank hold my money with no explanation? The answer is YES.
      Can a bank freeze my account for no reason? The answer is YES.
      Can a bank take money out of my account without my knowledge? The answer is YES.

      Guess I better get my money out of the bank.

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      Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
  2. Rolling your own payment system by CDarklock · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd recommend going with some established solution that fits your budget. Rolling your own is likely to expose your users to all kinds of subtle security issues that could result in some nefarious jerk getting their credit card numbers or the like.

    A creative solution I heard once was to auction "thanks" on eBay. For $2.50, you could buy the seller's "thanks", and you could buy as many (or as few) as you liked through the usual Dutch auction process. I don't know if anyone ever actually did this, but you might want to consider it.

    Personally, I always use PayPal for website donations. I've never had anyone object.

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  3. get over it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And put a donation button on your site that goes to PayPal. Just a small elegant button that says "support this free service" or something like that. Link to PayPal, or to a page explaining your expenses.

    It's not begging. It's not tacky. It's just common sense. Bandwidth and time cost money. You can't distribute them for free like you can information. It makes sense to pay for them. Like I always say, "Information wants to be free, but bandwidth wants to be expensive."

    After a while you can experiment with the other obscure services that people use, but PayPal is *it*. Yeah, "paypal sucks" but most people haven't had any problems (including myself). Just don't pretend they are a bank.