Google Checkout just announced that they’re going to put their transaction processing fees up to 3.4% + £0.20, from 1.5% + £0.15. This brings them to exactly the same price point as Paypal, and represents around a 250% increase in the cost of processing a transaction.
I don’t really see what the point is in pushing Google Checkout now, except for those people who somehow think that Paypal is evil and Google isn’t. Since both of them decrease the per-transaction fee based on your transaction volume, it doesn’t make sense to split your transactions between more than one of them.
I guess Google decided that they had spent long enough undercutting Paypal.
I prefer Google checkout, because PayPal tends to take money out of your bank account using direct debit if you have it configured – whereas Google Checkout always uses your debit or credit card. The benefit of this is that (for bank accounts without overdrafts) transactions on the card will just bounce if you don’t have sufficient funds, but with a direct debit you will get an “unpaid item fee” and be charged an obscene essentially punitive fee (as I know about all too well recently).
That’s a rather extreme edge case isn’t it? If I were to go overdrawn I would be charged for it no matter how it happened. I would suggest learning how not to go overdrawn, as opposed to hoping that the bank will save you from yourself.
Ouch. We were just about to use Google checkout for our payment system at work, as it was the cheapest for small scale, low value sales. We don’t do enough sales to fall into the cheaper bands. Ordinary Credit card processing is pretty steep too.
Does anyone know of any alternatives that aren’t a con artist?
I only know of NoChex, which is 2.9% + 20p (I think?)
No idea about the amount of con-artistry on offer, though.
Well, AFAIK, at least Google will not hold your account indefinitely because you suddenly sold too much or something.
Another factor to consider is that money paid in to a PayPal account is generally “held” by PayPal in your account until you order it to be transfered in to your bank account (which incurs a fee), and during this time it could be earning interest which is instead going to PayPal. I am not sure if this is the same for business accounts in PayPal, or Google Checkout – but it is another factor in selecting a service to prefer.
Google used the direct debit solution on collection because it is the most efficient way to collect considering the size of accounts that they are handling. Every company would prefer or desire a cash flow in order to keep on top of the finances. Its paperless processing also provides a lot of help for the business.