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One of the highlights when running a business is getting paid. You walk a little taller with a little more confidence that the latest business decisions you made were on target.
Getting paid over the internet used to be really difficult. PayPal initially made huge steps in online payments but it takes consumers off to their own website so you're no longer in control of the buying experience. It's like shopping for shoes and then having to go to the bank to direct transfer the money across.
We've used a number of online payment providers over the years, but after frequently seeing the regular onboarding process take 6+ weeks it was time to look elsewhere.
New Payment Provider - Stripe
Stripe's biggest advantage is that you can get an account and start charging credit cards in nearly any currency within 10 minutes.
Gone are the weeks of business audits and account restrictions. If you're in business, they'll payments for you and deliver them to your business account in 2 days.
Additionally, BookingTimes integrates directly with Stripe so you never have to leave your website to process payments for your cart, bookings or sales transactions.
For more information, go to Stripe.com
Buy Now Pay Later - zipPay
For a long time, many "buy now, pay later" services haven't supported service based business. Apparently, it's easier to go and confiscate the clothes that someone has bought if the client hasn't made any payments.
The good news is, that you don't need to worry about that. zipPay will let you offer a "buy now, pay later" option when people purchase your services. zipPay is a digital wallet (an online credit card) which will let you sell your big ticket items and give your customers the ability to pay it off over time. They're not charged any interest, upfront payments or fees (unless they miss a payment).
We've integrated this with our shopping cart which means you can sell products, packages and gift vouchers. We're looking to incorporate zipPay with our online bookings screen in 2018.
To apply, go to zipPay.com.au
Alternate Payment Providers (Australia Only)
It would be remiss to cover our other online payment providers.
NAB Transact is still remains the cheapest payment provider for large volumes of transactions at 1.5% plus 30c per transaction. They have a monthly minimum fee of $30 / month.
SecurePay by Australia post has no monthly fees and charge a flat 2.4% on every transaction.
eWAY also has no monthly fees and charges 1.9% plus 20c. They can take a long time to process your application if you're not keeping on top of the process.