[Harry J. Fletcher]

I would like to donate but as I had a recent problem with PayPal I prefer not to use them. they declined one of my credit cards as being expired when in fact I was using a newly issued card with a new expiration date. They couldn't seem to get the problem straightened out. this why i prefer to cut out the middleman i.e. PayPal and have fewer problems. that way there is less control by an outside party in a transaction essentially between two parties. There are other reasons as well why I preffer not to use PayPal such as their policy on firearms transactions.

What I am suggestion is setting up a direct credit card dotation system where I can enter my credit card and have the donation processed without anyone else getting involved accept my credit card company and the person I am making the payment. Anyway these are my two cents worth.

Regards,

Harry

[Chad Arnow]

Harry,
Nathan is the final decision maker here, but I would like to point out that it costs money to set up credit card processing. There are at least fees associated with transactions (sometimes greater than PayPal's fees). There are also charges if you get a processing machine. Even virtual online terminals often have costs.

Using PayPal cuts out all of that except the per-transaction fee. Simply put: it would almost certainly cost more to go outside of PayPal than to use it.

[Brian K.]

Paypal accept's credit card processing, you just have to set up a business account, which I believe is free. The percent per transaction I believe is 3% at the highest, which is less than paypal transactions, plus a twenty-five cent fee per transaction.

The only problem would be, each transaction would have to be individually handled, as there is no automated way to setup a donation fee to be processed by credit card.

[Nathan Robinson]

myArmoury.com won't be getting a security certificate or a credit card payment processing system of its own. That would cost me several thousand dollars. Renewing the certificate yearly is also another annual expense I'd have to pile onto the large pile that this site already costs me.

Even if I *did* do all that (and I've done so several dozens of other times for my Web development business over the years), it would not eliminate the middle man. There's still the merchant account company involved. That *must* be played by somebody and in the case of myArmoury.com, that role is played by PayPal.

Everything seems simple when you're on the outside looking in.

PayPal is secure, reliable, and easy to use. People don't need to have accounts to make payments with PayPal. People can do one-time payments without having an account. There's no setting up a credit card or bank account or anything like that required to make a Payment. It's as simple as clicking the pay button, entering in the credit card info and paying. No account names. No passwords. No saved credit card info. Nothing. One time only. Easy as pie.

[Nathan Robinson]

Just to add to this so you guys can understand that there's more to this issue than just "setting up a direct credit card donation system":

Even if I applied for a typical virtual terminal to accept credit cards over the phone (one of the least expensive options as I wouldn't have to have a merchant account nor an online certificate) the costs are like this:

Pricing
$30 monthly fee
2.4% - 3.1% + $0.30 USD per transaction (Visa, MasterCard, Discover)
3.5% and no fixed fee per transaction (American Express)

This would defeat the purpose of the whole thing as even this cheap, cheap, cheap solution would eat away at any money I was bringing in. That is, unless one of you wants to donate, say, $60/monthly.

Going further, if I wanted to add online credit card processing ability, I'd have to buy a security certificate at $500-900/year. I'd have to get a merchant account (minimum $30/month and as much as $150/month even at the tiny amounts of transactions I'd be doing) and I'd have to do the development stuff to integrate it into the site.

Believe me, I've chosen the least expensive solution there is that offers convenience and security to the members.

Remember, there is no need to have a PayPal account to pay for a donation. You can do a one-time payment with a credit card and the info is not stored anywhere. It's simple and secure.

[Artis Aboltins]

Sometimes it is not the only consideration - for example, I did tried to add a small donation, but for some odd reason I could not - paypal kept rejecting my card, despite fact that I have been using it for years, through paypal transactions quite often

[Scott Hrouda]