Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

We`ve used Paypal Buy Now buttons for over two years as part of their Pro Merchant Program. We`ve had thousands of transactions, with very few issues.

Paypal`s fees for credit card processing are good, we pay just 2.2% + $.30 per transaction. This is a better rate overall than we paid to our commercial merchant account supplier (North American Bancard), as they would add fees and increase rates on a regaular basis. We only use Paypal now.

We do pay a $20.00 monthly fee, but we also leave money in the Paypal account that receives interest at a current rate of 5.02% through Barclays with SPIC insurance.

The Pro account also allows use of the Paypal Virtual Terminal. That allows you to verbally receive someone`s credit card info over the phone, and process on line through the Paypal Virtual Terminal. That is a very nice feature that we use a lot since we have a toll free number for order placement.

Another nice feature you can setup with Paypal "Buy Now" buttons is calculating how much to charge for shipping, based on several different factors. We use the total amount of order to have Paypal automatically calculate what to charge customer for shipping. Of course the system also allows for charging sales tax based on where the order ships to.  Google `Buy Now" buttons do not have these capabilites. 

One downside, we can`t set up different shipping rates for domestic versus international orders, which would be a nice feature for us, as we do sell internationally.

Regarding support, we have a Pro Merchant phone hot line number that we have always received fast and responsive support through.

We`ve looked at the Google system since we have both Google Ad Word and Ad Sense. But we find they do not yet have all the features that Paypal presents and that we need to function efficiently.