Portal Home > Knowledgebase > Articles Database > The problem with UK billing
Posted by Ben ozric, 01-17-2002, 09:02 AM I'm looking for a billing solution while I build my client base. The problem I have is that I want to have two sites, one for the US with costs in $us and the other for the UK with costs in £. Many clients in the UK are still weary about buying online and do not understand that paying in Dollars is not a big deal! So, what I need is a billing solution that will work in those and other currency's. More importantly I'm not ready to go down the merchant account road just yet and require a cheaper alternative. I've used CCNOW for other sites but they will not accept HOSTING as a product + they only work in Dollars. I like the idea of the billing company taking a percentage of each transaction but I don't really want to have pay much on set up fees. It would also be nice if I could have my company name appear on clients CC statements but I understand this is not easy to get with the type of companies I'm looking to use. Also, what happens if a client wants an extra service such as a new feature added to their account. Can I ask others who use these type of billing solutions how they actually bill? Does the customer click a SIGN UP link on your website which takes them to the billing company to do the business or are the CC details collected via a form and emailed to you where you manually enter the CC details? Are there any further points/features I should consider? Thanks for any advice Ben
Posted by banihani, 01-17-2002, 11:07 AM worldpay.com will allow you to charge in $ USD and £ UK.
Posted by Dataman, 01-17-2002, 08:22 PM I looked at worldpay.com but there costs seem to be quite expensive, unless I missed something. Thats the trouble with the UK every site that I go to in the UK are always charging about 3 times more than other contries. Sometimes I wished that I lived elsewhere.
Posted by Ben ozric, 01-17-2002, 10:38 PM It strange that! In the UK we seem to pay higher taxes, everything is more expensive & what do we get in return? The worse public services, rising crime and a nation so politically correct the word English is taboo! Anyway back to billing. I took a little look at worldpay and they seem like a community of shops from the home page. There's bugger all information when you select their service for hosting and Internet type business. What is the deal with worldpay? How much? Seems to be a lack of companies supplying the billing services I and others require - surly not!
Posted by Dataman, 01-17-2002, 10:48 PM Nice one. What I'm looking for is a company like propay.com to handle my billing when I start up. Their service is similar to paypal except customers don't have to join them. You collect customers billing details then log into your propay account and enter the details manually, bit like a merchant gateway. The bummer is that they only offer this service to the USA. I need to find either a UK company that supports something like this or someone that supports International companies. Nochex is good but they only support UK debit cards. I still need to find a decent reseller plan first though. Thanks Dataman UK
Posted by Ben ozric, 01-17-2002, 11:08 PM Well, I'm in the same boat as you. If you find something for billing please let me know. I'd been looking at resellers who offer discounts on resold accounts but now I'm thinking it would be better to buy one big account and divide it as I see fit. This would also mean I could move some of my own sites to their own accounts without having to pay extra. MChost looks good buy they are taking to long to answer my questions. Good luck
Posted by Dataman, 01-18-2002, 03:26 PM World pay are a rip-off for first timers, I just tried to signup for an account for cc card processing, I could find costs until I was 3/4 way through the sign up process then I was hit with a total off 200 UK pounds, That was for 1 service. If they offer a cheaper solution that I missed someone let me know, I'll mail them but I normally get quicker answers in the forums. Thanks
Posted by Ben ozric, 01-18-2002, 04:03 PM OK, I emailed a load of companies today. I'm always annoyed when you send a list of questions and they just say 'see our website'! Many of my questions were with regards being in the UK and their websites are useless. Anyway, here's a run down: www.worldpay.com They only offer a merchant account which I really did not want to look at. £145.00 (ex VAT) annual fee - £50.00 (ex VAT) one off set up fee - 4.5% per credit card transaction (including Banking Charges) - 50p per Debit Card transaction So they take debit - does this include Switch? They neglected to say! Ok, www.paysystems.com They insisted I tell them my website address and what products I was selling before they would talk to me! I already told them it was hosting in my email! www.ecenow.com Again, merchant account except they want over $800 to set up. They really are taking the p*ss. www.revecom.com For TPP Sale accounts: Discount: 3.95% Auth Fee: $1.00 Setup: $49.00 Best so far, still did not answer half my questions though! Bloody rude. This one's a classic: www.2checkout.com Here's what they said: 'Please review our site for answers to most of your questions. Anything that remains unclear we will be happy to answer but we do not dedicate support time to questions already answered via the questions link found on our website.' Ok, that's kind of fair enough but do they want my business or not? It's like me going in to a shop and asking about a product and them say 'sorry, I can't be arsed to talk to you, read the brochure'. So, instead of just answering my questions I have to go to their bloody site (which I have already been to) and sod about trying to find the answers. Bollocks to them! Is it just me or is there not a HUGE gap in this market for a competitive company who know how treat potential customers? I'm still waiting to hear from a couple of other companies.
Posted by Dataman, 01-18-2002, 04:26 PM Thankyou I'll try one of them
Posted by Ben ozric, 01-18-2002, 05:48 PM www.ibill.com are the only ones to answer all my questions via email. They look interesting. No set up fee's but they do take 15% of each sale. Sadly they do not accept sterling but hope to accept the euro in the near future.
Posted by vipe, 01-18-2002, 07:57 PM Ben, FYI - PaySystems is the customer front end for Revecom.
Posted by Essential, 01-23-2002, 01:13 PM Be aware!! Revecom / Paysystems do not allow you to accept payment in anything other than dollars. Even though they mention multi-currency on the web site. <---- Unhappy customer.
Posted by Manu, 01-23-2002, 02:43 PM been with worldpay 4 a few months now, seems strange - when i was signin up for an account they helped me very fast via email questions - and any problems i had with the account - but now it seems support tickets dont even get answered - i sent one a few weeks ago, another this week still waiting for an answer .... why not just call them i hear you say .... well im lazy and its more cost efficient this way hello to all btw new here
Posted by Dataman, 01-23-2002, 03:00 PM How much did you pay to get setup on Worldpay because the last time I looked it was £200 which is to much for me as I am only just starting. I don't mind paying up to $50 but £200 is just a complete ****** well you know what I mean. You can get your own credit card machine or merchant account cheaper that.
Posted by Manu, 01-23-2002, 08:13 PM paid something like £150 also paying £20 / month to protect me against any credit card fraud. Only went with them to intergrate modernbill software with it and coz i can charge in 3 currencies - £, US $, and Euro.
Posted by hosting_ie, 01-25-2002, 09:03 AM This company are based in Ireland, so not 100% sure about uk banks (I know they talk to Nat West and some others) http://www.payandshop.com We use them for serveral sites (we are hosters) and have referred customers to them. They have API's in nearly all major languages, are very good value for money and support is excellent Tell them Stephen from hosting365 sent ya! All the best, Stephen
Posted by GordonH, 01-25-2002, 06:03 PM Hello Worldpay are not that expensive. It worls out at less than £20 per month and you get proper merchant accounts. The Revecom type of operation is not possible in the UK because credit cards are covered by the consumer credit act and merchants have obligations which can only be met through structured merchant agreements direct with banks. We use Worldpay to bill in US dollars, Euros, Canadian Dollars and Pounds and don't have any problems apart from the privacy policy/cookie issue which they are dragging their feet on. Gordon
Posted by Dataman, 01-25-2002, 06:12 PM I can't understand this because revecom/paysystems have just emailed me saying that they can accept me as a client. As for worldpay, it's the setup fees that I can't afford yet. They ask for £145 for setup and an extra £50 for something else,can't remember what which the total is nearly £200 setup. If they are prepared to spread the cost out over a matter of months I will sign up with them, but I doubt they will. Thanks
Posted by GordonH, 01-26-2002, 05:28 AM Yes You can use Revecom, but nobody could set up a 3rd party billing system based in the UK. Its £50 application fee and then about £200 annual fee if you are accepted for Worldpay. Its the only multi currency suystem thats viable at the moment. Gordon
Posted by Dataman, 01-26-2002, 07:57 AM Hi, Thanks for the reply, £50 setup is cool, but the years fee of £150,£145 whatever it is is this to be paid upfront or is it spread out over the months. I would ask them but sometimes from companies you wait days for an answer and you guys are good at answering questions anyway and quicker. Thanks
Posted by GordonH, 01-26-2002, 08:05 AM Its an annual fee. I am sure its £170 plus VAT so its really 200 However in the US they charge $25 per month so its much the same sort of price. To give you an indication, inclusing the chargeback insurance our CC transactions cost us 7% for US transactions and 6% for UK transactions (on average including the VAT on service charges which we are able to reclaim anyway. It also includes all the payment gateway charges). The difference is due to UK customers paying with debit cards which have lower commission rates on big purchases. Gordon
Posted by Dataman, 01-26-2002, 08:28 AM I think I will email them and ask because you still havent answered my question. Is it UPFRONT, I know US you pay $25/mo
Posted by GordonH, 01-26-2002, 08:39 AM Yes Its up front but only after they have approved you. Gordon
Posted by Dataman, 01-26-2002, 09:04 AM Thanks
Posted by Essential, 01-29-2002, 08:01 AM I have been recommended http://www.planetpayment.com/ as an alternative to WoldPay who have ****ty support.
Posted by Dataman, 01-29-2002, 08:48 AM Not bad, but there's no way that I'm paying those sort of fee's to start with. It' quite weird though, if you select US for everything, it works out $95 more expensive than if you use UKP, yet I'm sure it's an Amarican company.
Posted by GordonH, 01-29-2002, 09:23 AM Planetpayment.com does not support UK debit cards. This is a major problem. Also more expensive. Gordon
Posted by Dataman, 01-29-2002, 12:52 PM Try Nochex, I don't know if you will like them cause they are similar to paypal, but customers may prefer them because they're based in the UK, I sometimes use these just for UK debit cards
Posted by jgriff64, 01-31-2002, 11:09 AM I am not sure if you will find what you are looking for if you want to pay less than 200 pounds (including setup) for a whole year. I have moved to WorldPay from a proper UK Bank Merchant account as it works out cheaper. We paid about 150 pound set up and around 30 pounds a month for a proper merchant account. I am very happy with worldpay. I see some points saying that WorldPay is a proper merchant account, but that isnt totally true, your contract is with worldpay not a merchant bank, hence you are not permitted to show credit and debit symbols on your website. You can only do this in agreement with a merchant bank.
Posted by GordonH, 01-31-2002, 11:59 AM Hello Its an interesting point about the logos. I got an e-mail a while back virtually demanding that I display them on the payment pages to show what cards we accepted. When you did into the Worldpay thing you find out it is real merchant accounts. You can even request your merchant ID's and go direct to the banks. I know that Amex get very annoyed with Worldpay for nott elling their customers that they have proper merchant accounts as there are services available to us that we never get to use. The main advantage is the chargeback issue. There are no punitive fines and its possible ti insure against chargebacks through them. Although I heard they were not allowing hosting companies to do this anymore because of the level of chargebacks. We got to keep the insurance because we have another level of security on top of theirs. Gordon
Posted by jgriff64, 01-31-2002, 12:10 PM You are allowed to show them on the payment page, ' WorldPays Servers' but not your own. As i had my own merchant account before hand i already had the logos on my website. Before WorldPay would turn my account to live after testing they gave the above reasons ' on my post above' and said we had to remove the logos before they would put us live.
Posted by AL-Benjamin, 01-31-2002, 07:40 PM if your going for a full blown merchant account then try planetpayment.com i use them and im based in the uk. you can accept in $ and have it sent to you in £ or any combination you like really. The best bit being that you can argue with them about the prices. i got mine halfed.
Add to Favourites 
Print this Article
