Payment processors

A common question: which payment processor should I use on my website? 

Well, if you need a payment processing system for your e-commerce website you have several choices. All have differing charges and conditions making this decision one dependent on your websites individual circumstances. The information below is updated regularly but you should check with the respective websites before making a decision.

Firstly you need to decide if you wish to process and store customer credit card details on your own website or use a third party processor.

If you wish to process the payments yourself extra costs will be involved in the set up of your site: SSL certificates will be required and there are restrictions on the type of hosting you will require.

Using a third party payment processor means that your site will not store any card details from your customers transactions, meaning less security implications for your site. There are several organisations which offer payment processing services (WorldPay, HSBC, Google Checkout, PayPal, Netbanx and Protx) all of which have different pricing structures and your choice of which processor to use will often depend on how many transactions you expect to make each month and the size of these transactions.

As well as having a payment processor you will also be required to open an internet merchant account.

Pros and cons