Non-US Credit Card Gateways
Web Commerce Today, Issue 19, February 15, 1999
The US is now has a number of Internet gateways to the credit card processing system (see "A Short List of Internet Credit Card Gateways," http://wilsonweb.com/wct2/981215gateway-shortlist.cfm). But what about those of you in other countries? Here are some we've found.
NetBanx, Ltd.
NetBanx, Ltd. (http://www.netinvest.co.uk/ phone +44 (0)1223 845594). Provides connection to processing network in the UK. Allows Merchants to transact in 116 currencies and settle in 16. Set-up charges are between £75-£500 depending upon the complexity of the service. Commission on sales (what in the US is called the discount rate) depends upon the volume of monthly sales. Less than £2,000 is 4%, going down to 1% after sales of £10,000 per month. It can be incorporated into various store systems, including Actinic, iCat, Cat@log, Shop@ssistant, and its own proprietary NetStart product. Available to merchants with merchant accounts with UK banks: Barclays, NatWest, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Midland, Bank of Scotland, or Lloyds. For merchants who do not qualify for a Merchant Credit Card Account (such as two years in business), NetBanx offers a Bureau Service.
CyberSource
CyberSource (http://www.cybersource.com) is a US company with partnership relationships that allow it to provide many services to countries outside the US. CyberSource International Ltd., Sunbury International Business Centre, Suite 16; Brooklands Close, Windmill Road, Sunbury, Middlesex, England, TW16 7DX. Phone +44 (0)1932 787 253, fax +44 (0)1932 787 256. Email: tonyb@cybersource.com Some of the services they provide include the ability to transact business in 28 currencies including the Euro. Their data center in London is linked on private network to access points in 16 countries: Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Russia, Holland, UK, Sweden, and Manhattan. So if you use their service and have a site in Japan, the Internet connection to the Internet gateway will be fast. Internet connections to points far away, as you know, can be tortuously slow sometimes when the Internet is having indigestion. Currently they provide tax calculation in the US and VAT in Europe. Soon they'll be offering tax calculation in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Israel, Egypt, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina.
CyberSource has a partnership with NetTrade Finance (a subsidiary of IBM), that allows them to manage a merchant credit card account for the merchant who doesn't qualify for one on his own, or doesn't have a UK bank. "Getting a merchant account to do Internet transactions is a leap of faith for the bank," says Bates, "and many European banks are quite conservative. Also, many online businesses are brand new countries so far as the Internet is concerned. Our philosophy is that we reserve the right to do a withholding based on the level of chargebacks a merchant experiences. But on day one, it is good faith on both parties. We don't touch the funds at all." They wire transfer the funds to the merchant's own bank account. Whatever currency the merchant sells in is the currency that is wired to their bank for payment. According to Tony Bates, CyberSource's International VP, typical fees for this service are 3% discount rate (credit card fee) and about US$1.45 per transaction. US customers of CyberSource can take advantage of this service, too.
£295 per month is minimum invoice for their fees, that pays for about 300 to 400 transactions per month at UK 90p (US$1.45 per transaction). Fees for fraud screening in the UK 30p (about 49 to 50 US cents) per transaction.
Australia
Our correspondent in Australia, Catherine Wilson (cwilson@ie.net.au) of Internet Express in South Melbourne, writes, "Only very few Australian banks deal with online transactions at all. Westpac (Bank of Melbourne, http://www.bankmelb.com.au/) do and use ABA, Camtech and Telstra Surelink as the three options to the secure transaction software. The Commonwealth Bank does not accept credit card transactions from the net into merchant accounts, nor do others. ABA, Telstra and Camtech are all expensive to integrate for a small business ( minimum 3K). They do not include realtime payment or digital signatures. "
"The option to start an account in an American bank based in Australia is not looking good either. Bank of America just has a 'wholesale' bank here and its merchant accounts handled through the National Australia Bank." She suggests looking into Asian banks such as the Bank of Hong Kong.
If you know of others that are working for you in your country, please e-mail me at rfwilson@wilsonweb.com so we can pass them on to other readers.