ARC - PayPal and Credit Cards

Hi Bandersnatch,

Sorry, no offence taken at all

I really dont know if the market will accept cc surcharge easily. Yes, you and many respected elders on here have suggested that this could be a risky option. Dont really know until I try.

It was risky when we pulled out of exhibitions. Similar discussion took place at that time, but I do appreciate that this is a different thing all together.

Its a bit like throwing dung up against a wall and seeing if it'll stick. If it doesn't, then we review the...

Life is too short to just 'wonder' what if..

Ketan at ARC.

Edited By Ketan Swali on 09/08/2014 16:38:34

Hi MichaelG,

Yes we do still accept Postal Orders and cheques. We ask people who wish to pay by this method to call/telephone and check availability. If in stock, and if they wish to place an order, we allocate the stock to them against an order number, give them the total amount for the PO or cheque, and await receipt for the same. This way, correct amount is sent by the customer, to avoid disappointment. Unfortunately, we do not take back orders. We only sell what we have in stock. We do not wish to hold on to peoples money if we do not have an item in stock.

Ketan at ARC.

Another "correct" answer, Ketan

Thank You.

MichaelG.

My vote would be for passing merchant fees straight through, transparency is good. So if people really want to use their Platinum AMEX card they can, but they pick up the 4.5% (or is it 6%?) merchant fee for the privilege and debit card users pay nothing. Seems fair to me.

Steve

LOL Steve,

To be fair to AMEX, their merchant charges have come down a lot, close to VISA and Mastercard Credit Cards…say to around £2.70 average per web transaction by the time you pay all handlers in process, so very roughly 2.7%, which in some way can be regarded as cheaper than PayPal.

We stopped taking AMEX some five years ago, because we probably put through about 5 to 10 transactions through the system per year!…most of them for one customer…who frequents this forum.

Apparently AMEX has just signed some special deal with some major U.K. banks in order to push sorry 'promote' the AMEX card to such banks customers, so look out for some great deals from AMEX by end of this year you al.

Ketan at ARC

So what's three quid in bitcoin ?

If a credit card is used to purchase items, does the trader receive immediate payment, or do they have to wait under some sort of monthly settlement type system?

Edited By V8Eng on 09/08/2014 22:26:23

Hello V8Eng,

This depends on sellers agreement with the service provider. In ARCs case, we get the funds within two to three working days after we accept the amount authorised against a debit/credit card for an order.

Ketan at ARC

"So what's three quid in bitcoin ?"

Is that paying or receiving?

N

It's about parity with the magic bean.

That would be 0.0085 BTC or 8.50mBTC

Next day even or two to three days at most for normal sellers of goods and services ie. people like Ketan who sell a product, have a good financial portfolio and don't have excessive chargebacks. However, if you are running a gambling, pornography or ticketing website the best you can hope for is payment after twenty eight days with a rolling reserve as a percentage of your take. For example, if you take £1000 in a twenty eight day period you will likely get 80% of it and the Merchant Provider will keep back 20% - IF you have a good financial position. I personally know one person who has £500,000 on deposit with a major High Street bank as "security" as his business is perceived as "High Risk" and this is the norm for the area he trades in.

It isn't straightforward but the Banks are actively searching for business at the moment so, as always, it is time to renegotiate the charges and fees

Finally, I think it is very brave of Ketan to be upfront with the charges and I wish more people operated in such a transparent way. It has buggered me for my Paypal purchases though and Ketan can look forward to yet another creative purchasing scheme from me

As some of you know, I recently bought some bearings. Now, it didn't matter whether I bought one or a hundred and one - the postage was "free". I can't see that personally but at least the price you are looking at is what you are going to pay. I really don't believe the old excuse of Plus VAT because it is a business either. Just obscures the true cost to many. For example, if I was - as a small business - trying to raise capital for say a new machine costing ten thousand pounds I wouldn't go to the bank and say "lend me ten thousand pounds" would I? I would need £12,000 to cover the VAT. Yes, I know, if you are VAT registered you claim it back.. But not everyone is and they are the majority.

graham.

I like the convenience that PayPal provides. In most cases you just hit the PayPal button then enter your password, no faffing around entering address, credit card number etc.etc.etc. Many traders have lost my business by not accepting PayPal for this very reason. Like others, I also won't expose my Bank account by using a debit card online.

In the first instance I will continue to buy from sellers that comply with my present (PayPal or CC) buying criteria. Only if I have difficulty sourcing what I need will I change the way I buy things. This is nothing personal, it's just habit/past experience, convenience and security.

I must add that I'm buying very much more stuff online from eBay than I ever expected. Mostly due to very low or zero postage costs and the sheer convenience.

OK,

So, on another thread, Chris Denton has pointed out issues relating to ARC failing to accept PayPals Access card product, and the problems which followed. I would like to move the said conversation here, in the appropriate thread.

In all fairness to Chris, this post is not directed at him in anyway. It is directed at the PayPal product. At some point in the near future, ARC will update the payment page on its website to say that for security reasons, we currently do not accept PayPal or related cards, e-payment/virtual payments.

After reading PayPals link here:**LINK** (thank you PM for the link), I can further understand why a person may choose to consider this product from PayPal, especially where a seller refuses to consider PayPal, and the buyer has funds in their PayPal account to pay with. Two points come to my attention:

In its comments, PayPal says:

1. It is 'like' a debit card. (but its not really )...we come back to the VW advert!...its like a VW..but its not really ...Come to think of it is it better or worse in the current climate

2. In their terms and conditions link https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/accesscard-terms point 2.1, it says 'Your card is an e-money product; it is not a credit, charge or debit card.

This means that it will also cost ARC more to accept and process it, in processing charges. Its another way for PayPal to get around the system for companies who do not want to accept PayPal.

Once we rejected/abort the authorisation - i.e. did not take Chris's money, PayPal kept his money for over a month and then returned it to him.

You may agree or disagree, but at present ARC still prefer to keep away from considering PayPal and its related products. Once, again, please accept my apologies for the inconvenience.

Ketan at ARC.

Hi there It is easy for customers to rip you off with paypal. I have lost several hundred pounds when the buyers filed a fraudulent transaction claim and I also had chargeback claims.

I don't like using debit/credit cards to pay online as I don't think they are very safe. I do use them for ArcEuroTrade and similar UK companies I know and trust. However, I don't think they are safe. We enter our card details online including the three digit security number. How does the security number make the card safe when we have to give the security number to suppliers?

I did hear of a sales rep who took a card payment and used the details for online gambling. I won't embarrass the company he worked for by mentioning them.

Edited By David Clark 1 on 18/10/2015 18:12:24

David,

I don't entirely understand what you are getting at. The on-line payment gateway is secure. The seller as in our case, uses a secure payment gateway provider - Sage Pay in our case. We don't even get to see your card number!. Additionally, to get the service of on-line payment - Merchant Services - involving our bank, World Pay, Sage Pay, SSL security, ARC as a company has to jump through many hoops, with compliance and personal recourse guarantees. Now a days, most U.K. registered on-line businesses, - one which are legal - operating in and operating from the U.K. have to go through these hurdles, to accept on-line payments.

Ketan.

Yesterday on a shopping channel (don't ask), they showed a person marketing a USB stick which you put into your computer, to hide your IP location. It marketed the concept of security. Really?...sure it was nothing to do with the person not wanting to show who he is incase he is seeing a site which he shouldn't or doing something he shouldn't, or committing fraud of some description?

Such devices issue 'virtual I.P' addresses.Combine that with 'virtual cards' to place an order on ARCs site, and it returns a 'high risk' score, because it is difficult to figure out who the payer is and/or if the person is legitimate. What does such a user hope to gain?

Ketan at ARC.

I generally do use a debit card to pay on line. What I generally don't do even in ARC's case is store the details on line with them.

In a few cases such as BT details are with them but not the security number - EVER on any of them. It shouldn't be. Not all that much protection really but better than nothing.

I have had my debit card hacked and copied but not from online use, simply buying petrol in a garage. I had a phone call at work one day. Bank asking me if I had bought any petrol the day before. Odd thing to recall instantly so they followed it up with the comment buy petrol 3 times, several full shopping baskets from different super markets and lastly a holiday in Spain along with a book to read on the way. Several £1000 in total. The biggest inconvenience to me was that the card was frozen. It took them a few days to sort out. That was bad as I couldn't withdraw any money. We were going on holiday before that happened so had to take £1000 out of the BS and stuff it in the car's glove box. Petrol easily sorted out as I always fill to a £1. Groceries and holiday not me so no problem. Actually they made a note about filling to the nearest £ and noticed that I had changed to nearest 50p suggesting I had bought a VW. I had. Any time I make an online debit card transaction it's vetted through the bank. If feel that things are a lot better in this area these days but I don't generally leave details with retailers due to an experience some friends had - odd transactions rather a long time after they had used the card with a particular retailer. I am not keen on giving the detail out over the phone either for that very same reason.

If paypal is offered I do use it providing there is no surcharge but often wonder why the hell I often have to type my address out again. Irritating and it might allow some one to send stuff some where else. I do like the only to paypal registered addresses aspects.

There is one problem with using debit cards - protection for the buyer. Credit cards offer more. With distance selling regs in the uk that might not be so much of a problem as it used to be. However if any doubt I use the credit card.

John

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I've never been asked for a surcharge when using PayPal but once again I'd go elsewhere to buy stuff if I was.

A friend of mine has a credit card with a low purchase limit on it exclusively for online purchases so that if it does get hacked in some way the damage is limited.

Another way I like to buy stuff is through Amazon as I know if I have any problems I'll get reimbursed and they don't surcharge for CC use.

I've not yet found that I can't buy a product I want the way I wish to pay for it so in that respect customer is king so they say. Let's hope it remains that way.

Why assume that a person is up to no good, just because he wishes to maintain his privacy?

Martin.