Getting a payment gateway for your Indian business is possible, but not an easy task. You want to deal with a reliable service provider who offers great quality at a reasonable price. There are lots of offers that you can find on the market today, but how to pick the best one? We will go through a range of aspects, explaining to you what you should pay your attention to in order to make the right choice.
Reasons to Opt for This Service
Setting it up is essential to accept payments by credit/debit card made by your clients. The main job of this service is encrypting and transmitting data securely. There is no chance to accept transactions for your products/services without it.
Just a few decades ago, setting up a payment gateway required going through a long and hassle procedure, but today, everything can be done in a less time-consuming or overwhelming way. There are lots of service providers, and it may be a pretty difficult task to choose something.
Aspects to Pay Your Attention to
There are lots of things to take into account when searching for a service provider, including the following:
· Price;
· Customer and tech support;
· Payment options;
· Currencies;
· Integration options;
· Convenience;
· Chargeback protection;
· Reputation;
· Other features.
Price
Many people who try to launch new businesses want to keep their expenses to a minimum, and therefore they want to understand if it is possible to use a payment gateway without charges. In fact, lots of owners of businesses that have been operating for years also wonder if it is possible to decrease their costs by changing a service provider. You can find lots of ads promising you to have this service without any fees, but this is just a trick to catch your attention because no 100% free payment gateways exist in this or any other country.
Generally, utilizing this service is associated with paying the following:
· A fixed setup fee;
· Annual maintenance charge (AMC);
· Charges per each transaction (TDR).
Some services that claim to be free may not take some fees from you, but something you will still have to pay. Before signing a contract with a certain service provider, you should have a clear idea of how much it will cost you because your business profitability depends on that.
Customer and tech support
If something goes wrong, you want to know that you will be able to find help immediately. If your clients cannot make payments, they will get frustrated with your service and you will lose them. Therefore, you should find out what working hours of the experts are and what contact options are available for you to reach them. It is also recommended to try to contact them and check how quickly they respond to you.
Payment options
It is wonderful if you can offer your clients to make purchases using their credit/debit cards, but other payment options also exist. Allowing your clients to choose out from many payment solutions will contribute to your good reputation. Therefore, you should think of finding a company with various payment systems.
Currently, the following are some popular payment methods in India:
· Credit/debit cards, including Visa, JCB Cards, Citibank, American Express, and others;
· eWallets, including Stripe, PayTM, BlueSnap, Skrill, AirtelBank, SBI Buddy, PayUMoney, and others.;
· PayPal.
Currencies
Opting for an Indian payment gateway is interesting for those operating in this country; however, this does not mean that they can accept payments only in the local currency because if you aim at operating internationally, you just need to find a service provider allowing accepting transactions in different currencies. For a start, you should determine in which countries you want to offer your services in order to provide their citizens with an opportunity to pay in the currency of their choice.
Integration options
There are several integration options that can be used and the best choice for a certain business depends on technical aspects of a website. Sometimes, integrating a payment gateway is possible by site owners who know programming languages, which may reduce their cost. Anyway, you should get comprehensive consultation from the support team of a certain service provider to find out what integration options they have and which one is optimal for you.
Convenience
Making payment processes easy and convenient for your clients is essential. If it takes lots of time and efforts to make a payment, they will lose interest in your services. Another thing to take into account is using 3D secure. On one hand, it ensures a better level of security of payment transactions, but on the other hand, it takes additional time and actions from users to complete their payments, which they do not like.
Chargeback protection
If you have never heard of this, you should know that chargebacks are a pretty serious problem for online vendors because they may lead to higher fees or even closing their merchant accounts. That is why you should check out if there is reliable chargeback protection offered by a service provider.
Reputation
You want to ensure that you are dealing with a reliable company that you can trust. It is recommended to find as much info on the company as possible. For instance, you can check if they have accounts in social media networks where people can ask questions and leave their reviews. You may also want to read customer reviews if there are any that you can find on the Internet.
Additional services
There are lots of helpful features that you might want to use, and that is why you should check what is provided by a certain company. For instance, you can pay your attention to the following:
· Recurring billing;
· One-click payments;
· Mobile payments;
· Account for several users, setting up permission levels and others.
Service Providers Available in India
Now that you know the most important aspects, check out the following service providers that can be used in India:
Ikajo
Our solution for your site/app allows accepting online payments. Its users do not have to pay any AMC or setup fees and will also use NEFT/RTGS/Bank Transfer for free. For other payment methods, they will charge you TDR of 2%
CCAvenue
Thanks to this company, you will accept payments in over 27 different currencies through more than 200 payment methods, which is really great for those who want to operate internationally. They offer free setup, but you will have to pay AMC of Rs 1,200. TDR varies and starts at 2%.
EBS Payment Gateway
It is the first company in the country that got the PCI DSS 3.0 compliance. They will set up your merchant account for free. There are several pricing plans available at the moment, including Starter with TDR 2-3% depending on what features you order. There is also Premium, which fees are discussed individually based on your situation and needs. AMC will cost you Rs 2,400.
PayPal
This service provider does not require having an own merchant account because all your business payments will go to/from a previously set up account that is also used by many other vendors. You will not have to pay any AMC, but TDR is 4.4%+US$0.30+Currency conversions charges. Unfortunately, PayPal does not have great customer support, but it is a great solution for new businesses or those who have problems with setting up their merchant account.
fonePaisa
This service provider has lots of different features and reasonable fees. There are no withdrawal fees and they allow accepting payments in various currencies.
AMC is discussed individually.
· TDR for Domestic cards – 2%;
· TDR International – 3.5%.
Of course, there are also other companies that can be found in India, which means that it is a competitive market, so you will be able to find the best option on condition that you spend enough time and effort on determining what you need, comparing conditions of different companies, and checking their reliability.