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Ask HN: What's the most cost effective payment processor for $1 transactions?

11 points by mmaunder ↗ HN
Right now we pay 32 cents fixed cost per transaction and 3% to 4% variable cost through Merchant Warehouse and use Authorize.net as the gateway. We're launching a product with a $1 price tag. Paying 36 cents on the dollar for processing seems excessive. Any suggestions for a cost effective payment processor for low value transactions? Thanks!

11 comments

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whichdan
https://www.paypalobjects.com/IntegrationCenter/ic_micropaym...

PayPal Micropayments would be 10c/transaction.

JoachimSchipper
Note that Paypal will allow you either a micropayment or a normal merchant account, though - so this only works if you don't need a normal account.
mmaunder
Thanks. Looks like Amazon FPS is the same price:

http://aws.amazon.com/fps/#pricing

I'm not sure either offer the level of integration I'm after which is to store credit cards using a system like Authorize.net CIM and allow one-click ordering. Am researching both.

Thanks for the replies all! Much appreciated!

whichdan
If you want to expose Amazon or PayPal to your customers, anyone with an account on either respective site could use their previously-stored credentials to make a payment, which would get you halfway there. I'm not sure if either offer what you're looking for, but having someone create a PayPal account could be an easy way to get your service running cheaply and quickly.
flabbergasted
Have you considered adding bitcoin as a payment option? Seriously, it's nearly free and easy to manage, even with the rapid price changes. Plus you get extra attention by adding your store to the growing directory of merchants who accept bitcoin.
arn
and yet it doesn't actually solve his original problem as the number of people who use bitcoin is certainly negligible in the grand scheme.
flabbergasted
In the grand scheme, bitcoin, (or a derivative technology) could certainly become a game changer in the not too distant future. Accepting bitcoin probably doesn't hurt.
joyce_ampah
I like to meet a hacker that i like to work with
fastspring
I'd look at the microtxn service from PayPal.