High Costs of Online "Gateways"

From Entrapreneur Magazine, a great article on prominent ONLINE gateway processors and the high costs of using one.  Covered here are: 

• PayPal Payflow
• Checkout by Amazon
• Google Checkout
• Authorize.net Payment Gateway

The article show how just the gateway charges can amount to as much as $0.35 per transaction, 5% of the purchase, and $0.25 per batch!   These charges can be ON TOP OF the regular bank charges for processing!  One charges $90 per month for just basic fraud prevention.

Remember, when you spend the time and money to integrate to these processors, you are locked in and provide a captive audience for their fees and charges.  In addition, since these are oriented toward e-commerce, their support for Mail Order/Telephone Order (MOTO), call centers, and retail is minimal or non-existent. 

Curbstone avoids tying our customers to online "gateways" to avoid the high costs and limited functionality listed in this great article.

A Guide to Online Shopping Carts