Why Opayo / SagePay is better than PayPal for your card payments
Author: Ben Jeffery
While every project is different, we recommend a number of suppliers for specialisms like dedicated hosting, search engine tools, email marketing and online payments. Since 2001 we've worked with PayPal, WorldPay, eHSBC, SagePay and Stripe among others. Sagepay is now called Opayo. Read more of the features we've created for our clients in our web-based software solutions portfolio.
What does a payment provider do?
If you want to take secure card payments online, you have two basic options. An 'all in one' service like PayPal lets you take payments into a PayPal account, which you can then transfer to your own bank. Or you can have an internet payment gateway provider like SagePay which works alongside a merchant account, normally provided by your bank (although SagePay also offer merchant accounts).
Trust and reputation
SagePay has now rebranded as Opayo, recognised by all the major banks and credit card companies, providing a completely secure service that protects your customers and your liability.
The SagePay logo also generates more trust in online shoppers. While PayPal is easy to set up, it's because of this fact that it is often associated with amateur and very small businesses. A lot of shoppers also assume (wrongly) that they need a PayPal account in order to pay a shop that uses PayPal. Because SagePay customers have to get through the stringent application for a merchant account, their customers are generally more well-established.
Customer features with Opayo / SagePay
Although they're not the only payment gateway to provide a virtual terminal, SagePay's online access lets you process manual payments and refunds, without the cost of renting a physical card terminal.
SagePay also allow you to customise every stage of the customer's process, either by using a 'frame' of the SagePay form in your own website, or customising the pages on their website to match your brand. You can also customise graphic emails. Whether you want to reassure customers that they're being re-directed to a secure website, or keep everything seamless within your brand.
Technical advantages of using SagePay
We've integrated many of our bespoke e-commerce websites with SagePay, found it easier than most providers, and have experience with various options to fulfil payments. Unlike PayPal, the checkout information is sent from our website to SagePay in an encrypted form so it cannot be altered to provide false prices. And when an order is confirmed, the user is sent back to our website so that we can process the order fully.
Save money with SagePay
Getting a merchant account is cheaper for a number of reasons, the main one being that your own bank is likely to give you better transaction fees because of your existing relationship. These will typically be 2-2.5% compared to 3.5% + 20p with PayPal. You'll also pay a flat fee of around 10-20p for debit cards, which can be considerably cheaper than the transaction fee from PayPal. SagePay currently charge a flat fee of £25 + VAT per month for up to 333 transactions, which is in addition to the transaction fee you'll pay your bank.
Managing your money and cashflow is easier because your money is transferred directly into your bank account the day after the sale (subject to clearance). There's no need to manually transfer money from PayPal and you get your money sooner. And you can even integrate SagePay with Sage 50 so your accounts are always up to date. We've provided this kind of bespoke sales integration before.
Need secure card payment for your online shop?
We're a registered SagePay partner but we work with all payment providers. As a team of six established in 2001, we have lots of experience and a bespoke approach which means we can say yes to almost any e-commerce request. get in touch.