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3rd Party Credit Card Processing

The Best 3rd Party Credit Card Processing Solutions Available


3rd party credit card processing can offer great advantages for an online business. You will sometimes pay higher transaction fees than if you had your own merchant credit card account, but usually you will not have to submit to a credit check as all the credit card payments will be accepted on the third party payment processor's own merchant account.

It's the perfect setup for both small and newly established businesses.

You will be under more constraints than you would be with your own merchant credit card account, but you will be free from having to compute and remit sales taxes and foreign VATs, and the third party payment processor will provide you with an itemized list of transactions each month, along with a check for the amount of your sales earnings, less their agreed-upon processing fees.

Many third-party processors will even remit your payments directly into your bank account at your request. It's like having all the tiresome work done for you.

There is a wide assortment of 3rd party credit card processing solutions out there to choose from, all offering different benefits and charging different fees for credit card online processing.

Some third party payment processors work best for selling soft digital goods like software, ebooks, and online subscriptions, while others work best for selling hard tangible goods like printed books, CDs, and clothing. Some even provide the option of a website "shopping cart" while others offer to sell your goods one item at a time.

You will need to compare several of these services to determine which would meet your needs. To make your job easier, here is my pick of the best 3rd party credit card processing solutions.

Processing Digital Product Orders

ClickBank

ClickBank charges a $49 account setup fee and no monthly fees. You pay a fee of $1 plus 7.5% for each sale transaction.

You can sell multiple digital products, but you cannot sell tangible goods or services. ClickBank does not provide digital order fulfillment. You provide the links to a non-indexed page on your own website where your customers can download their purchase. The download pages are easy to set up and instructions are provided.

There is also an excellent single-tier affiliate program with a large network of affiliates you can draw on to promote your product. If you use their "affiliate program," you are limited to selling one product per account, otherwise, you can list up to 49 different digital products on a single account. To sell multiple affiliate products, you must open multiple accounts at $49 each, but this is quite reasonable for all that's offered.

ClickBank automatically handles all the tracking and paying of your affiliates. This is a great feature.

ClickBank is simple to use and extremely popular. I use this third party credit card processing solution to sell all my digital products, and I find it to be a safe, reliable way to accept credit card payment online. It is quite affordable and very easy to implement.

ClickBank.com

DigiBuy

DigiBuy charges a $29.95 account setup fee for the first product and $9.95 for each additional product you wish to sell, and no monthly fees. You pay 13.9% for each transaction, plus an electronic download service fee of $0.01 per 100,000 bytes. There is a $3.00 minimum transaction charge.

You can sell multiple digital products using this 3rd party credit card processing solution, but you cannot sell tangible products and services.

DigiBuy provides digital order fulfillment by way of an "expiring link." As a security feature, the customer must download his or her purchase within a set time before the link expires. This protects you from fraud by preventing people from forwarding the download link to others who didn't pay for the product.

DigiBuy.com

PayLoadz

PayLoadz charges no setup fee and a $0 to $500 monthly fee that is based on your sales volume and the amount of space your digital products take up on the PayLoadz servers.

PayLoadz does not process credit cards so all charges are processed through your PayPal account. You will need to open a free PayPal account before you can use this system.

You can sell multiple digital products through PayLoadz, but you cannot sell tangible goods. The ordering and fulfillment of digital products is automatically handled using their secure digital delivery system.

PayLoadz provides an affiliate program, but you are responsible for paying your own affiliates through PayPal. They also provide an online store to display your products.

PayLoadz.com


Processing Tangible Product Orders

CCNow

CCNow charges no setup fee, but there is a 30 day trial period for new accounts in which all transactions are charged 9%. There is a monthly fee of $9.95 for US based businesses and $11.95 for non-US based businesses. You pay additional transaction charges based on where your business is located:

  • US based: $0 for sales under $100; 9% for total sales over $100 per month.

  • Non-US based: $0 for sales under $100; 11% for total sales over $100 per month.

You can use CCNow for selling any quantity of hard goods, but you cannot sell digital goods. There is an easy-to-implement shopping cart feature.

CCNow.com


Processing Digital & Tangible Product Orders

PayDotCom

PayDotCom charges no setup fee for your first product, but there is a one-time fee of $29.95 that allows you to sell multiple products. There are no monthly fees. You pay a fee of $1 to $3 for each transaction, depending on the cost of the product.

You can use PayDotCom for selling any quantity of digital and tangible goods, including subscriptions and memberships.

PayDotCom provides a flexible two-tier affiliate program with a large network of affiliates you can draw on to promote your product. There is also a "marketplace" to display and promote your products.

The PayDotCom system has many good features and is worth a look. You need to open your own free PayPal account to use this 3rd party credit card processing solution.

PayDotCom.com

KAGI

KAGI charges no setup fee and no monthly fees. You simply pay a transaction fee based on your sales volume:

  • $0 to $25: $1.25 plus 5% for each transaction

  • $25 to $100: 10% for each transaction

  • $100 and up: $5 plus 5% for each transaction

You can use KAGI to sell any quantity of digital and tangible products. They can also provide secure digital order fulfillment for an additional fee.

KAGI provides a good affiliate program, and they will also sell your digital products through their online store.

KAGI was one of the first companies to provide a 3rd party credit card processing solution online, and they continue to do it well.

KAGI.com

2CheckOut

2CheckOut charges a $49 setup fee and no monthly charges. You pay $0.45 plus 5.5% for each transaction.

You can use this flexible system to sell multiple digital and tangible products, services, subscriptions and memberships.

2CheckOut.com

PayPal

PayPal's affordable "Shopping Cart" option charges no setup fee and no monthly fees. You pay a fee of $0.30 plus 2.9% for each transaction. You also pay a "cross border" fee for payments received from customers outside the USA. This fee may be detrimental if you sell mostly to non-US-based customers.

You can use the PayPal Shopping Cart to sell both digital products and tangible products, as well as subscription and membership payments. There is even a unique provision to receive donations.

You need to open a free PayPal account to use this 3rd party credit card processing solution.

PayPal.com


Summing Up

Since each online business has its own unique requirements for credit card online processing, and each 3rd party credit card processing solution offers its own unique benefits, I can only provide a general overview of the services available.

Before you make any decision for your online business, you need to research the various credit card processing solutions available and determine which will work best for the needs of your online business.

Note: All options and fees quoted were accurate at the time of writing, but might have changed. All dollar values are in US funds, the universal currency of the Internet.


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