Pay online sites in sa a bit of a rip?

[ant101]

hey guys,
I've been looking around at charges for online payment system in SA for online shop for sometime, and I must say the % commisions do seem very large for most solutions.
Adding up to 5% on your invoice charges, in an economy with tight margins does seem excessive and depending on your margins, it's actually not even possible!

Does anyone know of some low cost solutions ? I suppose you could prompt the user for an EFT rather ?
but that sux because you have to wait for it to clear.

Anyone got some wise advise! ?

[JStrike]

hey guys,
I've been looking around at charges for online payment system in SA for online shop for sometime, and I must say the % commisions do seem very large for most solutions.
Adding up to 5% on your invoice charges, in an economy with tight margins does seem excessive and depending on your margins, it's actually not even possible!

Does anyone know of some low cost solutions ? I suppose you could prompt the user for an EFT rather ?
but that sux because you have to wait for it to clear.

Anyone got some wise advise! ?

5% is pretty cheap. You can get quiet a low lower, but you need volume first

[deweyzeph]

hey guys,
I've been looking around at charges for online payment system in SA for online shop for sometime, and I must say the % commisions do seem very large for most solutions.
Adding up to 5% on your invoice charges, in an economy with tight margins does seem excessive and depending on your margins, it's actually not even possible!

Does anyone know of some low cost solutions ? I suppose you could prompt the user for an EFT rather ?
but that sux because you have to wait for it to clear.

Anyone got some wise advise! ?

Try Payfast (http://www.payfast.co.za), they are the best option for someone just getting started in online selling.

[chrisc4290]

Nothing on-line is cheap in SA. Now and then, you get bargains in England

[cbrunsdonza]

hey guys,
I've been looking around at charges for online payment system in SA for online shop for sometime, and I must say the % commisions do seem very large for most solutions.
Adding up to 5% on your invoice charges, in an economy with tight margins does seem excessive and depending on your margins, it's actually not even possible!

Does anyone know of some low cost solutions ? I suppose you could prompt the user for an EFT rather ?
but that sux because you have to wait for it to clear.

Anyone got some wise advise! ?

You must be a clown fish ... since when are our margins tight. Also considering that banks take 5% on credit card purchases, that charge should already be in the retail price.

There are some guys charging less but it all depends on what your volumes are. We have recently looked into payment gateways and accepted the 5% comm as acceptable for a quality gateway.

[VG008]

Create 5 saving accounts with each bank.
When the client checks out, the client should select a bank (they bank with) and then you provide them with your banking details.
The transfer will be real time (bank2bank).

The banks also offer real time notifications to businesses when a deposit is performed into their account.
However, you need a dedicate line

[Inn3rs3lf]

LOL, okay, 5% commission for an online pc store will break you, unless your turnover is huge.

The markup from suppliers is on a sliding scale from 10% max to 5%.

So, you use say, payfast, and you make nothing off your product. Can't increase your margins because the store thats one click away with eft has the same product for less.

Hence about 90% of online stores do eft and eft alone. This is not taking prophecy, takealot etc into account.

So yeah, only option in that industry is eft. If you move over into other industries, I would gladly charge 5% extra to conpensate for the payment module.

[ant101]

..,a clown fish ... since when are our margins tight. .

eerm... cbrunsdonza, "OUR" margins? I was talking about MY margins. I gather from your little typo you actually work/own some pay online site ? hence the inability to offer any reasonable advice on my original question and rather pass a insult on... nice dude.
See fellow posters for some quality responses!!

[ant101]

Thanks VG008, yeah I like the idea of direct EFT's ! Its a winner.
I'll also provide another "Other" option on the site for other banks like Investec, RMB etc. to go to a default account.

I was always coming back to EFT's as a cheap option, but didn't see the end use of your simple account solution.
Thank you very much!
Cheers