17 Responses

• Ann Donnelly

  Thanks Gordon, I’ve been meaning to do a study like this, so you’ve saved me some work! It’s especially useful where you’ve noted spending limitations for PayPal purchases (because it wasn’t obvious on their site).

  I used to think the same about Realex, but I think it’s easier now for people to get their own online merchant accounts and fees are more comparable now.

  Another issue is that PayPal doesn’t accept Laser, which may be a big issue for some Irish traders. With Realex and WorldPay you can accept Laser.

  I did a study for a client that had a bit of a high abandonment rate at the point of payment and it seemed that many customers were still confused at the PayPal payment page and thought they had to have an account to use it (many of their customers were older and maybe not as familiar with PayPal). We are considering switching to Realex where the shopping cart is integrated into the shopping cart for a more seamless transaction - not all payment providers allow the facility for this for Irish traders.

• Gordon Murray

  Hi Ann,

  The Paypal limitations weren’t obvious to me either, I got the information through an email from a Paypal employee.

  Good point about Laser, Im using Laser more and more where I can for paying online. Thats another good reason for Realex.

  I’ve set up plenty of sites to use Paypal for various purposes, Im looking forward to an excuse to use Realex on a site again.

  Gordon.

• Leon Quinn

  What about the cost and hassle associated with getting an internet merchant account - you havn’t mentioned this above!? I tried to get one a few years back and had to jump through a ton of hoops only to be refused in the end with no explanation..

• Gordon Murray

  A merchant account for Realex? The short answer is I don’t know much about it. I set up a Realex account for a site years ago. It’s still running now and allowing the business to bring in money. I do remember it was a bit of a hassle at the time, specifically to allow it to take in multiple currencies.

  I hope to use Realex in the ver near future for my own site. If and when I have any good or bad experience in setting it all up I’ll probably write about it along with anything I learn in the process.

• Leon Quinn

  Yep Realex and most other instant credit card processors require a merchant account with an additional monthly and setup fee. It’s still hard to see beyond Paypal really although I didn’t know about that guest buyer limit..

  PS - get the subscribe to comments plugin dude!

• Gordon Murray

  Hi Leon,

  I’ll have to look into the requirements and costs of the merchant account and update the post.

  Also, I added in the Subscribe to Comments plugin

  Gordon.

• Dave Kelly

  Don’t know if you’ve seen it, but there’s a good comparison site for Irish web payment options at http://webpayments.ie/. They guy who runs it is also on Twitter (@webpayments) - he was very helpful recently when I was looking at different payment options.

• Gordon Murray

  Hi Dave,

  I’m following @webpayments already, haven’t talked to them yet though.

  I’ve found Realex on twitter (@realexpayments) to be very helpful too.

  Gordon.

• Aedan Ryan

  Hi Gordon,

  That’s a really useful comparison. We use only Realex and are very happy with them. You do need the merchant account set up with your bank so that the payments get settled into the business account. The merchant services section of the bank (e.g. AIB Merchant Services, Evalon (for BOI)) will charge per transaction (about 2% for Visa/MC and 27c per Laser transaction). So the Realex charges above are only half the story. With Paypal the charges with them are higher but that’s all that’s charged.

  On the webpayments website they divide teh providers down into Payment Service Providers (like Realex) and Payment Bureaus (like PayPal).
  http://webpayments.ie/web-payments/compare-the-providers

  Another thing to consider is how quickly it takes to get the funds to your bank - as cash flow is always important. With Realex the funds get to the bank within two working days maximum. I am not sure how long it takes with the other providers.

  One thing we have been considering for a while is whether we should add PayPay to our site - as well as haveing Realex. I wonder if would get any more sales conversions by having PayPal as another options.

  Aedan

• Gordon Murray

  Hi Aedan,

  Yah, since writing this I’ve seen the costs of setting up Merchant accounts. I’ll put up a post in the next couple of days when I have all the info showing the costs of those too.

  Some businesses I know report 4-5 working days for payments to go into their bank accounts with Paypal.

  My reason for researching this in the first place was because of the problems a few peeople I know have experienced with Paypal. Paypal will try to force all users to create an account and log in and all Guest payments are limited, this can really confuse and frustrate buyers.

  In the next week or two I will be setting up a site for a customer that will have Realex and continue to use Paypal so I can report back to you on how good or bad having both running together might be.

  Gordon.

• Aedan Ryan

  Hi Gordon,

  I agree re PayPal, anything that complicates the buying process and confuses the buyer may cause a higher incidence of abandoned purchases. With Realex and I’m sure with other providers, you can have the complete payment process contained on one page on your site (no moving out and back to another site).

  I’d be intereted in hearing about the site with both Realex and Paypal - it would be good to know the percentage of customers opting for each once it’s up and running.

  Aedan

• Dave

  Hi Gordon,

  Great article. I must look at moneybookers as I do not have them listed on my site. As pointed out in earlier comments you should include the Internet Merchant Account costs for the Payment Service Providers so you will be comparing like with like. Email me or contact me on twitter if you would like some help with this.
  I recently added a comparison table of Payment Service Providers to webpayments.ie which might be useful if you want to include other Irish providers such as SagePay and WorldNet TPS in your comparison.

  http://www.webpayments.ie/web-payments/compare-the-providers/comparison-of-payment-service-providers

  I will be adding a similar table for Payment Bureaus next month. It is quite time consuming to produce but I’m slowly making progress with it.

  Thanks,
  Dave

• Gordon Murray

  Hi Dave,

  Wow those comparisons you have are very very detailed! I’ve added an update to the end of this post giving readers a link to your comparisons.

  I’ll be writing a similar post very soon showing the merchant account costs for the various banks.

  Im collecting the information from the banks at the moment, some are fast to respond, some are slow, some have different requirements depending on who you ask within the same organisation.

  Can you ping me when you get around to putting up the next table?

  Gordon.

• Dave

  Hi Gordon,

  Thank you for adding the link to your article. I will let you know once I get the Payments Bureau Comparison table up there. I am working on the provider profiles for the Payment Bureaus right now then I’ll use the content from those to complete the comparison table. I’m not sure if you have seen the provider profiles for the Payment Service Providers but they Payment Bureau ones will be similar. Here is a link to the Realex Profile -

  http://www.webpayments.ie/web-payments/compare-the-providers/realex-payments

  I will be interested to read your post on Internet Merchant Accounts as that is an area I plan to address when I’ve completed the Payment Bureau comparison.

  Thank you,
  Dave

• Gordon Murray

  Hi Dave,

  Plenty of details on that page too, thank you. 110 new customers for Realex in June ‘09, Impressive!

  Gordon.

• Dave

  Check out the other providers too - there are profiles for WorldNet TPS (another Irish Company), SagePay, DataCash, Endeavour and Iridium.

  Dave

• murmurs 24/07/2009 | Murmurs

  [...] compared a short list of online payment providers recently and as a result found out about Webpayments.ie. They have an excellent and very detailed [...]

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