How to choose the best payment gateway for small businesses?

Make sure your payment gateway is PCI DSS compliant. How can you do this? Well, PCI stands for Payment Card Industry, and DSS stands for Data Security Standard. All payment gateway providers in the UK that use bank cards to process transactions need to operate in compliance with this standard which includes: data handling by the computer software for the business, protection against internet intrusions on sensitive data for financial transactions, protection from data theft by employees of the company and correct hard drive disposal.

If you are taking international orders, it’s key that your payment gateway has the capability of accepting and processing multiple currencies, card types, and card schemes. For example, if your business is based in the UK, you’ll also need to check if there are any additional fees for international payments and how many countries and territories require your company to have a merchant account.

Some gateways can take three days to a week to make your money available. If you require flexible access to your cash flow, find a payment gateway that can give you quick access to your funds.

Depending on the nature of your business, how soon do you need to start processing payments? If you’re running a temporary pop-up, you will probably need a payment gateway with instant sign-up and quick integration. That way, you can start accepting payments on the same day. With other payment gateway apps, you may need to wait before your merchant account is set up.

Merchant accounts are business bank accounts that allow companies to process debit and credit card payments. In essence, the merchant account acts as an intermediary between the cardholder and the transfer of the funds into a business account. That way, merchant accounts make instant payments possible. In turn, your business won’t have to wait for your customers to pay their credit card bills for you to receive your money.

It’s possible to get your payment gateway and merchant account from separate providers. It might not seem convenient, but going the separate route could get you better card processing rates. Usually, payment processors that offer a payment gateway and a merchant account tend to be more expensive. That’s also the case with eCommerce payment gateway apps that offer you merchant accounts from their favourite providers on a referral agreement per account.

The best payment gateways are those that can grow as your company grows. Before getting a payment gateway, you should think about the future and scenarios where you’ll start handling increased volume without slowing down other aspects of your business. Some payment gateway apps offer scalable business how-to solutions, flexible invoices, and accounts that can be customised to meet your potential growth.

Seek out some word of mouth or the words of others. Make sure to read user reviews before selecting a payment gateway for your company. Checking out what other users have to say, including the best and worst customer experiences, is a great way to get an unbiased opinion of what to expect. Look for honest reviews about customer service and support, ease of access, account security, invoices, and affordability. You can find user reviews on popular business software platforms, such as Trustpilot, and various tech YouTube how-to use channels.

If you need an efficient way of unifying all of your payments, then you need a merchant dashboard. That way, you can see where, how, and when your inbound payments are coming from and which account payments are pending. Any merchant worth its weight should give you the best overview of your cash flows, invoices, bank accounts, and real-time events, including:

• Transactions management accounts to manage your business transactions, download reports, initiate refunds, and resolve disputes such as chargebacks and settlements.
• Bank account management so that you can manage your daily banking account activities. You can use this feature to edit how your dashboard appears, your business details, created invoices, bank account details, settings such as loans and overdrafts, and account notification settings.
• Instant notifications to inform you of any payment activity. That way, you can be informed of every payment or event and also recognise any fraudulent activities with your online payment account transactions.

Some of the best providers, like Square, PayPal, Stripe, and Shopify, are popular gateway providers because they can also act as your merchant account. Of course, there is a cost involved, but it takes care of most of the heavy lifting. You simply sign up, decide on how you want to pay each month, and you can start receiving payments.

If you choose a different type of payment gateway provider or build a custom solution, you’ll need to open a merchant account with a bank before you can start accepting credit card and debit card payments.

Speaking of set-up times, some payment gateways may charge a fee for account installation. Additionally, you’ll need to factor in administration, monthly account maintenance, and transaction costs. If you process regular transactions, high costs can sometimes be justified. However, if you handle a lower volume of card sales, you should avoid payment gateway accounts with high monthly fees.

Most payment gateways give you a couple of different options for customising your payment flow. These include how to add your company branding and logos, account settings, a choice of languages and currencies, and card payment methods. Whatever you do, choose a payment gateway provider that offers the choice of payment flow that works within your company’s existing infrastructure.

Also known as card-not-present (CNP) transactions, you’ll need a credit card reader and a point-of-sale (POS) terminal or an online payment gateway. A card-not-present (CNP) transaction occurs when neither the cardholder nor the debit or credit card is physically present during the sale. Although the name says phone, it’s most common for orders that also occur or by fax and mail. As technology gets more innovative, over-the-phone business transactions are becoming less popular, given how more faster and advanced portals of payments are evolving.

That’s because they are generally slow, not the most secure, and error-prone as the process involves sharing your sensitive debit card or credit card number with the merchant and the merchant manually entering that data into their card reader. Card-not-present transactions incur the highest processing costs because they are more susceptible to scammers and online fraud.

They are changing the way vendors and merchants accept payment. Remember when many services were cash-only? That’s becoming a thing of the past. That’s because in-store payments have evolved into in-person payments. As long as the merchant is present, they can accept card payments. That’s great news for market stall traders, workmen like electricians, ride-sharing services, pop-up food services, and more account-based services like plumbers in the UK who have struggled with coming up with ways of how to accept remote payments through an app.

These transactions involve the customer presenting the debit card or credit card to make a purchase. Because they pose a lower risk of fraud, in-store transactions typically have lower fees than the other types of credit card transactions. To process an in-store or in-person payment account in the UK, you’ll typically need a card reader/reading app and a POS terminal to process the credit card or debit card.

Without a doubt, the most common avenue of accepting credit and debit card payments is on the internet. If you want to accept online credit card and debit card payments, you’ll need an online presence such as an online store, marketplace, or website integrated with a payment gateway account. eCommerce shops, restaurants that accept orders online, and companies that provide digital services like apps are examples of businesses that rely on online credit card or debit card processing options. Because of the convenience and ease of access, online payments typically have higher processing costs and charges than other forms of card transactions or card payments.

Once you complete an estimate of your small business costs, you might think that the costs are too high for you to manage or afford. Instead of giving up on your business plans, you could instead go down the funding route. Your initial funding could come from a combination of debt and equity financing.

That said, small business financing is quite uncommon for unknown businesses. That’s because most lenders and venture capitalists only feel comfortable offering funding to established, well-known UK companies, platforms, and apps. As a result, you’ll need to find credit lenders or those who exclusively work with start-ups or small businesses and app or online entrepreneurs, as there’s sometimes more potential for success but also sometimes more risks attached.

Business credit cards are easier to obtain than small business loans. Corporate credit cards are also better than using your personal credit cards for business expenses. Also, business credit cards usually get you a higher credit limit than any personal credit card. It goes without saying, but a business credit card has many perks, including separating your personal and business finances if you’re registered as an LLC or corporation in the UK. Separating your business and your personal finances not only gives you peace of mind but also helps you keep your personal liability protections after forming an LLC or corporation in the UK.