Back in 2015, weattended the Stripe Australia launch at NAB HQ to kickstart the eloquent payment gateway’s debut in Australia.
It’s was welcome entrance at the time and the the payment space in Australia was ready for a new player. Prior to their arrival there were mounds of unnecessary bureaucratic red-tape that provided incentives for firms to acquire credit card transactions through a bank in Australia.
Often clients consult with us on choosing a suitable payment gateway for their business and to date the choices are generally the following:
1. PayPal
2. Complex and Costly (albeit full-featured) integrated Bank Payment solutions
3. Paymate was also one of my favourite choices until recently when they decided to ditch their loyal client base in some industries (including us) in favour of a more industry-restricted and POS-centric solution.
4. Pin Payments
5. Eway
Choosing the best payment system for your business’ needs
Choosing between the options generally comes down to two main factors
- The function you need the payment system to satisfy
- Fees you’re willing to accept. Just like home loans, all the different systems have different fee structures. We find that much like with a bank, once you’ve got a usage history, it’s much easier to negotiate down their standard fee structures, so don’t be put off by what you read on their websites.
The main advantages of Stripe
The advantage of Stripe and it’s Australian early-mover competitor, Pin Payments – was the reduction in red tape required to process credit cards. Surprisingly, this doesn’t come at the expense of security – rather than is bundled in as part of the package.
Previously, when you acquiring Credit Card information via transactions on the internet, you required to have all systems completely PCI Compliant. Whilst PCI Compliance is still a mandatory requirement for both Stripe and Pin Payments, businesses have the added convenience of outsourcing some of the more ‘risk adverse’ parts of these regulations to Stripe or Pin respectively.
This is achieved through the use of JSON API, which allows for cards to be sent once to the payment processor’s server and securely “vaulted”. In return a token-key is issued to the issuing website or system and all future transactions merely call the token to acquire a transaction, meaning the actual card data is not transmitted.
In addition, the use of SSL mitigates most of the initial risk in parsing the card data to the payment processor in the first instance.
Creating custom recurring billing systems aka. Direct Debit systems
We’ve saved businesses thousands of dollars by creating custom integrated Stripe powered payment systems which handle their customer transactions. This kind of solution is especially fantastic for recurring billing because many of the direct debit solutions out there will add their percentage on top. In addition, the simple architecture of both Stripe and Pin as well as their expansive libraries and documentation provide for a simple, seamless and carefree integration with your website, system or application.
Our preference and gateway of choice is Stripe. Whilst both payment processors are similar in disbursing acquired funds (seven days from the date of the transaction except in the case of them being flagged for fraud), Stripe refunds any fees charged if you refund a payment to a client. Moreover, the fees to process VISA and MasterCard are lower with Stripe (1.75% + $0.30c vs 2.6% + $0.30c for Pin) and Stripe supports American Express out of the box (albeit at a less generous 2.9% + $0.30c fee).
Disadvantages with Sripe
Beware though, these gateways unlike PayPal are not subscribers to Alternate Dispute Resolution schemes such as the Financial Industry Ombudsman as they do not hold Australian Financial Services Licences. If you have a barney with them, you’re left to the courts and common law.
WooCommerce, a popular WordPress plugin for WordPress-based E-Commerce stores has a plugin available for both gateways. Stripe is more widely supported by online apps as it is a well-known Sillicon Valley venture.
Happy Swiping
