Comment by skyhook_mockups | Hacker News Reader

Comment by skyhook_mockups | Hacker News Reader

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skyhook_mockups

I'm also from Australia and have recently gone through the process of getting a merchant account (from St.George bank).

From stories I heard in the past, I was expecting a horrible experience (banks not being able to grok the concept of digital goods etc). Turns out that either the stories were a furphy or banks have gotten a lot better.

Here's the process I went through.

1. Application

2. Set up a single page website to give a brief overview of product

3. Include TOS and returns policy (adapted from wordpress.com)

4. Wait 7 days for approval

Thats it. One week to get a merchant account with no prior business history. The rates are fairly standard:

1.4%/trans, $33 monthly, $44 anual fee, $33 chargeback fee

I think off the top of my head those rates beat those provided by paypal, stripe, etc. although I'm happy to be corrected if anyone has up-to-date info about them

I'll also be paying $300/yr for gateway fees since I have no desire to handle CC details directly.

Things have certainly improved in Australia. When I first applied for a merchant account for a startup over 10 years ago the guys at ANZ sent out a sales person to our office who bought along a range of EFTPOS (debit card) terminals to demo.

When we clarified that we required online payments, he chuckled and said 'oh, no way we do that, it is far too dangerous'.

He then proposed a compromise solution where we collect credit card numbers and then punch them manually into the terminal to process payments.

We ended up incorporating in the USA.

Ok, but to the topic at hand - are you able to bill directly in USD with St George without the buyer wearing the exchange risk and overseas transaction fee?

I ask because merchant accounts denominated in AUD are widely available, but for USD it still appears that only the NAB have multi-currency support.

Sorry.. I'm not sure what you mean by 'exchange risk'.

To your question though.. no I cant bill directly in USD. I am very new (and ignorant) to receiving online payments, so I'm really curious what the issues for Americans are. The on-line currency converters are accurate to (I would guess) +- 1hour currency fluctuations so would give a very accurate estimate (to within cents) of the cost of a transaction... Wouldn't this be good enough?

Otherwise if this is an issue then paypal should do the job... 2 mins to set up and gives an alternative option.

Would be good to hear your own personal experiences.

No, not good enough. Each bank chooses different exchange rates. Using a converter gives you a spot price from one institution. There's no telling what the customer will actually be billed. Indeed there's no certainty that the transaction will even be journalled that day. Moreover, they'll be slugged for an "overseas transaction fee". Finally, it means you're unable to use any kind of collateral that quotes a price, because you can't guarantee it.

It's a marketing disaster, in fact, and would look completely amateurish.

Paypal is never Plan A.

Thanks for your insight. I guess as an Aussie I'm used to seeing a slightly different amount (usually within $1) of the quoted USD for a transaction... however maybe US users are different. In any event, I think given that my own business is only just launching I'll have to go the less than pro route of offering paypal along with direct payment (in AUD) and hopefully that will garner me enough business to start looking into direct USD transactions.

St George really is an exception! I've had all sorts of problems in the past with other banks. In recent times Bankwest has been great too, but St George wins for API's available if you need to do more than just accept payments on the web.

St George is excellent, the NAB didn't want to know us but had no problems with St George in the 2 years we have used them.

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