Blog
All-in-one Payment Processing Services
18 May 2017
Payment gateways fall into two camps – those that require you to set up a merchant account with a bank and those that don’t. If you don’t have a credit card processing account already then you’ll be wondering which one to choose.
Many of the Booking Rooster’s corporate clients use a payment gateway like DPS Payment Express, ANZ e-Gate or e-way. To use these services you also need a merchant account with your bank.
If you are expecting a high volume or value of ticket revenue this is worth investigating these options, but if you’re looking to get up and running in a day or two and don’t expect instant high revenue you might prefer to take the simple route and use an all-in-one service like Braintree, Stripe or PayPal.
These three services all allow you to sign-up online, and normally process your application within days or even minutes so you can get up and running fast. They also have clear, simple pricing structures, making it easy for you to budget for the cost of credit card processing. Why not start with one of these options, then shop around to see if you can find a better deal with your bank and their choice of payment gateway?
The key questions people ask when they are deciding between these services are:
- What does it cost?
- When do I get the money in my bank account?
- What do I need to do to sign-up?
- Who else uses it?
- Who is behind it?
This article reviews the answers to these questions as at 18 May 2017.
Stripe
What does it cost?
The prices for New Zealand dollar transactions, in NZD, on 18 May 2017 were:
- $0.30 per transaction
- 2.9% of transation value
- No set up or monthly fees.
When do you get your money?
You receive your first payment from Stripe 7 days after the first credit card payment is received in your bank. After that your money will be transferred to your bank account 2-7 days after each transaction.
Stripe is very new in New Zealand and it is not yet clear what the NZ pay-out period is. In Australia and the United States Stripe pay your funds out 2 days after receiving them. In other Countries they pay out 7 days after receipt. That is, you receive money in your bank today that was processed 2-7 days earlier. They reserve the right to put ‘high risk industries’ onto a 7-day rolling option.
Their promotional material suggests you can configure your account to transfer your funds on various alternative schedules – daily, weekly or monthly for example. Don’t misread this. You’re getting your money from bookings made 2-7 days ago on a daily basis – not today’s money today.
How do I sign-up?
You can sign up on the Stripe website. It’s fair to say the process feels a little clunky, but it really is a breeze compared with filling out bank forms, and in our case, we were up and running immediately we finished the application. Better still, they make connecting your Stripe account to Events Pronto a breeze. Here's the process for getting an account:
- Sign up and verify
- Click “ACTIVATE YOUR ACCOUNT” (and fill out a form)
- Wait to be accepted.
Before you get started you’ll need to round up a couple of resources:
- Your NZBN number. You can get this from the NZBN website, by searching your company name or charity name. For businesses it is also available on the companies office website.
- The bank account number that you want your funds deposited into.
- If possible the application should be made by a company shareholder who owns a 25% stake or more.
If you are a charity you might feel stumped when you get to a question asking for details of the business owners. The Events Pronto team checked with Stripe and for charities they want the trustee names in place of the business owners.
Who else uses it?
Some brands techies might recognise include Tableau, Slack and Hubspot. Consumers might recognise Target and Under Armour, while the community minded will know the Unicef and Salvation Army brands.
Who is behind it?
Wikipedia describes it as a US company that operates in over 25 companies. It was founded in 2011 by Patrick and John Collison. Patrick is still the CEO.
Braintree
What does it cost?
The prices for New Zealand dollar transactions, in NZD, on 18 May 2017 were:
- $0.45 per transaction
- 2.9% of transaction value
- No set up or monthly fees.
When do you get your money?
The money you receive today is usually in your bank account in 2-3 business days.
How do I sign-up?
You can sign up on the Braintree website. Fill out the form and they’ll be back with more questions within one business days, and possibly a few more later. Before you get started you’ll need to round up a couple of resources:
- Your NZBN number and business start date. You can get this from the NZBN website, by searching your company name or charity name. For businesses it is also available on the companies office website.
- An estimate of your annual sales, average transaction value and largest transaction value.
- The bank account number that you want your funds deposited into. (The way they ask for the bank account could trip you up. They ask for a BSB number and a Bank account. The BSB is the first six digits of your bank account. The rest of your bank account number goes in the account field (trust us, we googled it, then did it ourselves).
We signed up at night. The next morning there was a friendly email from Braintree asking for more details about our business. Here’s what you need handy at this phase:
- Copy of bank statement for business account, which displays date, bank name, your company name and account number.
- Copy of the applicant’s passport or Driver's License (front and back).
After answering these questions, we were asked a few more. They weren't difficult to answer and covered much the same territory as Stripe had covered at sign-up.
Who else uses it?
Some of the big-name brands that floated past us on their website were TED, Fitbit, Facebook, Stripe and Pintrest. Xero also offers this as an option for having invoices paid online.
Who is behind it?
It advertises itself strongly as a PayPal subsidiary. While it offers the ability to process credit cards and PayPal transactions, Events Pronto only offer the credit card processing option on this service. This option does not include the big 'join PayPal' button that has been known to infuriate and confuse Kiwi's.
PayPal
What does it cost?
The prices for New Zealand dollar transactions, in NZD, on 18 May 2017 were:
- $0.45 per transaction
- 3.4% (NZD transactions only)
- No set up or monthly fees.
When do you get your money?
It can take up to 7 days.
How do I sign-up
You can normally sign up and be using PayPal to process payments within minutes. Be sure to create a business account – or add one to your existing personal account. If you choose the personal option you’ll not get to where you need to be. Some tips that might help you when singing up:
- They have an obvious route for people who don’t have a business (eg community organisations).
- They use the word ‘private company’ where kiwis would use Limited Liability
- They make NZBN and date of business registration clearly optional. To add your NZBN number, just get it from the NZBN website, by searching your company name or charity name. For businesses it is also available on the companies office website.
- They ask for your drivers licence or passport.
- They ask if you got more than 50% of your gross income from dividends, interest, rent, royalties or the likes. (Braintree ask that sometime in their sign-up too. It looks to be something they must ask in some jurisdictions).
Who else uses it?
Wikipedia describe PayPal as one of the largest online payments systems in the world. Although it appears to have the simplest sign-up process, it appears kiwi businesses and consumers are shy of the service – often assuming that you need a PayPal account to pay via the service, when in fact you can choose between joining PayPal and simply using it to pay by credit card online.
Who is behind it?
PayPal is a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay.
Connecting Events Pronto to your Payment Processor
This is the easiest part of the process! Just go to the 'Organisations' tab in Events Pronto, choose the 'Payments' option from the submenu and then tick 'credit cards'. Choose your credit card processing service, then:
- If you choose Stripe, you'll be taken to Stripe, where they will ask you to verfiy that you'd like to connect. Then, you're done.
- If you choose Braintree you will be asked for your Merchant ID, Public and Private Key. You'll find these under the heading 'Production API keys" on your Braintree Welcome page.
- If you choose PayPal you will be asked for your PayPal username, password and signature.
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