Doing what you Love and Getting Paid: the need for a Payment Gateway.

Getting paid.  It’s an important part of your business, right?!  As a small business owner, you went into business because you LOVE what you do AND you wanted to get paid for it.  It’s a wonderful match, so you’ll want to make sure you know how to achieve this.  In order to get paid for the service you provide, you need a payment gateway. 

What’s a Payment Gateway, you ask?  In short, the payment gateway is what allows you to take online payments, and is the bridge between your booking platform and your bank account.  If you own a rental business or a tour company, and want your customers to not only book online, but also pay online, then getting a payment gateway is the way to go.

Payment Gateways are a great asset to your business and gives you and your customer the piece of mind that is needed when purchasing a service online.  Some of the key features are Security, Convenience, and Compatibility.

Security: This is probably the most important feature when considering taking payments.  This means choosing a payment gateways that is equipped with fraud prevention and one that is compliant with PCI standards such as data encryption when storing credit card information.

Convenience: Having a payment gateway allows you to receive purchases and bookings 24/7.  It alleviates you from having to get the customer’s credit card information, and manually enter it to get paid.  It all happens in an instant with a payment gateway, and you’re paid right away.

Compatibility: You’ll want to select a Payment Gateway that easily integrates into your platform.  In addition, if you’re using a booking system to take online bookings, make sure you confirm that the two systems can connect.  This is ideal so that your customers can book and pay all within the same system.  Talk about a seamless experience!

So, how much does this all cost?  A payment gateway will charge fees on processing a transaction for you.  Fees usually are structured per each credit card transaction.  A common price structure would be 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (higher rates apply for international).  Take note of other fees that apply such as for refunds, chargebacks, and perhaps a monthly fee.  Make sure you know up front what all the fees are so there are no surprises.

Now, who to choose?  Do your research!  This is a big choice and there are many options out there.  Make sure it meets the needs of your business and use these tips here to help you decide which is right for you.  Some of the biggest players in this industry that all have great reputations, and meet these 3 key aspects of security, convenience, and compatibility are Stripe, Authorize.net , and PayPal.