Secure Payment Gateways

7 Deciding Questions You Should Ask Your Payment Gateway Service Company

by Michelle Newman You own an online business shop and you are worried about Internet payment scams. As a merchant, you want to protect yourself against online credit card frauds. There's only one service that could give you such proprietary protection. It's called secure payment gateway service. And you can get this service from a payment gateway company or provider. Your next step, then, is to find a good payment gateway company. Please note the word “ good”. You see, there are many payment gateway providers out there that offer dismally poor service at exorbitant fees. These companies will bleed you dry. They are only after your money. If you are not careful, you can lose important revenues with the wrong choice of payment gateway provider. Shop around and compare companies. Here are some deciding questions you should ask your prospective payment gateway personnel: <ol><li>HOW LONG HAS THIS COMPANY BEEN IN SERVICE? Don't settle for their glib answers. Fraudulent company people tend to lie. Find out for yourself by checking out your government's finance bureau or your Department of Trade. </li><li>WHAT'S THIS COMPANY HISTORY? If the prospective company has many cases of service withdrawals from customers, then chances are it's bad. It does not deserve one minute of your patronage. You better get out of their office as fast as you can. </li><li>HOW LONG HAS THEIR PARTICULAR SOFTWARE PACKAGE BEEN IN USE? Payment gateway companies provides software and various service packages. If you choose a particular software, be sure to ask the sales people how long this software been in the market. If they say it's the newest trend, consider it a red signal. It could have many bugs on it. As much as possible, go for a software that has been at least five years in implementation. </li><li>CAN YOU “TEST DRIVE” A DEMO SOFTWARE? Listen carefuly to their answer. If they give you  vague, run-around excuses, it means that they are hiding something from you. Avoid them. Legitimate payment gateway companies always have a demo software in hand for customers to try. </li><li>WHAT IS THE AVAILABILITY OF THE PAYMENT GATEWAY SETUP PROCESS? Good payment gateway companies can setup their service in your establishment in as short as one week-- give or take a couple of days. Anything more than this is unjustifiable and is not worth your time. </li><li>HOW MUCH WILL THE SETUP AND SERVICE BUNDLE COST ? If the sales people give you evasive answers, consider it a warning signal. Bid them good day and get out. You see, only legitimate companies can give you the approximated costs right upfront without going through much verbiage. </li><li>CAN YOU MAKE INQUIRIES FROM THEIR LIST OF CUSTOMERS? Remember that this is one of the most important questions you should ask and which they could satisfactorily answer. If they give you a list, then call these customers one by one and verify each of them. If the payment gateway company give you the lame excuse that the list is confidential in nature, then treat it as a NO. It's the classic icing of the cake. If these sales rep personnel could not furnish you a list of their costumers, then they have no customer to begin with. Ergo, you face potential risks if you conduct business with them. Better get out of there and find another one. </li></ol> ( Michelle Newman is the CEO of a leading Fortune 500 company based in San Francisco. She lectures on various business topics like marketing, competitive business strategies, and management-related issues. She does some business writings on her spare time.)  <a href="http://www.onlywire.com/submit?u=http://www.securepaymentgateways.com/7_deciding_questions_you_should_ask_a_payment_gateway_service_company.html;t=payment%20gateway;tags=Payment%20gateway" target="_blank" title="Add this Article to Onlywire"><img src="http://www.onlywire.com/i/onlywire.ico" alt="" />Add to Onlywire!</a>

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