As a small business owner or freelancer you are always looking for more and better ways to get paid. This is especially true when you sell your products and services online. You may have setup shop online, but sourcing a payment gateway that suits your billing and business style may be a bit difficult.
Your customers can pay for their online orders via many payment gateways. Traditionally most companies offer wire transfer, cheque, cash and direct bank deposit, but there are many other payment methods out there that can help you to get paid. Let’s take a look at the criteria you should use when choosing a payment gateway for your company.
Geographic location of your customers
Ask yourself if most of your customers are based in your own country or do the majority of your sales come from customers that are outside of your country. Whether you use a geographically general or specific payment gateway is up to where the majority of your clients resides. If most of your customers are from your country you can use a local payment gateway. If most of your business is conducted with global clients you need to get a gateway that allows this.
The majority of payment gateways have certain currencies they support. What currency will your customers be paying you in? Find out which currencies these are and always pick a payment gateway that supports the currencies your clients will want to pay in.
Once-off vs recurring payment
Now you need to decide on the types of payments you will be collecting. Ask yourself if your clients will be making once off or recurring payments?
If your clients need to make once off payments you can look at services that provide the customer with the ability to make an instant, secure credit card payment. You can also look at an online wallet, like PayPal, that allows instant payment via an account that can be topped up via credit card, bank account or wire transfer.
Let’s say that the most of your clients will need to pay on a recurring term for the products or services you provide. For example; a fortnightly payment for the house maintenance services your company provides. This means you will need to look at a payment gateway that facilitates the submission of recurring debit orders to credit cards and bank accounts. Make sure you use a service that supports collection in the currency your customers use.
Overall service and fees
The last deciding factor should be the overall level of service and costs involved in such an undertaking. Use the criteria below to help you make an informed decision:
- Find out what fees you will be paying on the transactions you make through your gateway. These vary, so always go for the gateway that gives you the best overall rate and service.
- Reporting: Does the gateway provide suitable information for easy account reconciliation? Do they inform you of failed payments and securely store client payment details.
- Merchant account: Do you have a merchant account at a financial institution? If not, some gateways act as your merchant account. Find out what kind of bank accounts you will require to withdraw funds from or use a specific payment gateway before joining up.
- Do they comply with local and international laws governing payment gateways? Check with your local governing body to make sure the payment gateway you wish to use are compliant.
Dave Bapsnill has been in the online invoicing industry for many decades. He recommends that you choose payment gateways based on location, cost and the product or service you are looking to sell.





