What payment processors does your system use to charge users?

PRIMARY PAYMENT PROCESSOR

The following payment methods are supported via the primary payment processor (the solution is built into our system so you don't have to install and setup a credit card gateway separately):

• Visa
• Mastercard
• Amex (USD, GBP, EUR only)
• Solo (GBP only for customers from the UK)
• Laser (EUR only for customers from Ireland)
• DIRECTebanking /Sofortüberweisung/ (EUR only, for customers from Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany)
• iDEAL (EUR only for customers from the Netherlands)
• Moneybookers (USD, GBP, EUR only)

PAYPAL (http://www.paypal.com)

PayPal is our secondary payment module which you can combine with the primary credit card processing or you can turn it off completely. We recommend to use it as an additional payment option. Users can pay with their PayPal account and can also pay with credit cards.

Why are we using 2 processors instead of just using PayPal?

THE FACT:
After we implemented the direct credit card gateway, we noticed a 30% increase in HotSpot sales.

Here's why:

1. PayPal is relatively slow. Users may have to wait for a minimum of  5-10 seconds until they're transferred to PayPal's payment page.
2. PayPal is often doing maintenances in every month (sometimes 2 times a month). During those times, the IPN (Instant Payment Notification) is not working and Paypal is calling back our servers with a long delay (up to 12 hours). What happens is that the customer pays for the service successfully, but the access is not granted because Paypal is not reporting the successful transaction. This means problems for the user, and also for the operator and makes a hotspot service unreliable.This is happening multiple times in every month, you can check it here.
3. PayPal is using their own security system which can be a hassle for end users. Based on the customers country, the credit card history and the purchase amount, PayPal may require users to register a PayPal account before their purchases.
4. PayPal may ask users to VERIFY their accont BEFORE they are able to pay. Users have to wait for their bank statement to complete the verification process which prevents them to buy a HotSpot access at your location at the moment they wanted to. This means they cannot use your HotSpot and you may loose money.
   
   In 2004, PayPal announced the 'Account Optional' feature. Using this feature, buyers can pay for a product or service without having to sign up for a PayPal account. Unfortunately PayPal account optional doesn't work in every country. What worse is that verification IS required in certain cases.
   
   Here's the official statement about this from PayPal, at 03-23-2007.
   
   "1. In which cases the user have to verify the account before he can pay with credit card?
   
   Depends on the transaction, the amount, the number of times the card has been used, the amount of the transaction, on what is being purchased, this is to name the most common. There are others that we do not know about for security reasons.
   
   2. What countries are affected? (all or is there any country in which you don't force users to verify their accounts at all?)
   
   All countries are affected.
   
   3. What is the amount that they can pay without verifying?
   
   Again, this depends on the transaction type across all transactions of that type. I don't have an answer since the system determines what it will accept at the time of the transaction after looking at what has gone on with all transactions.
   
   Frank I.
   PayPal Certified Developer
   PayPal Merchant Technical Support
   http://www.paypaldeveloper.com
   PayPal, an eBay Company"
5. VISA is using an additional security method called 'Verified By Visa' (this feature is called MasterCard Secure Code at MasterCard). With this feature users can set an additional security to their cards for internet purchases. When a user enter their bank card's details on PayPal's website and this feature is enabled on their cards, he's redirected to Visa's site or their own bank website where he has to enter the additional security code. Since all websites are blocked until the user pays for the internet access (except the processor's websites, fe. PayPal and WorldPay), the user cannot pay because he cannot enter the additional security code (his own bank's website is blocked)
   
   THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN WITH OUR PRIMARY GATEWAY BECAUSE  it never asks for this additional security code, even if the user asked for this additional verification from Visa or his local bank (we have this feature turned off).