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paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

Switched to authorize.net after paypal booted me after 17 years (im over it now lol). Will authorize.net be strict like paypal too? Anything to watch out for

I sold tons of legit items on paypal then got greedy and added these bags that were selling like hot cakes and paypal didn't like that.

But using two domains i have i'm going to go legit with authorize but wondering pros and cons of this.

Been using them for few months and working out good so far but taking precautionary tales.

Plus my ebay is my original account that is taking authorize too and going legit on that his account also.

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

Authorize is your friend, not like PP

I can only say that

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

Authorize.net is just your payment gateway. When you sign up w/ authorize.net, they automatically will partner you with one of their preferred payment processor.

What you need to be concerned with is your payment processor, the merchant that processes all your selling activity via your payment gateway.

You need to start selling slowly with a new merchant processor, just as if you were a new Paypal seller. The merchant/payment processor will put you under high scrutiny as a new seller. You should be in contact with your AM their and stay within the initial limitations, otherwise their Underwriters will shut you down.

If they ban you, you will need to search for a new payment processor or have your authorize.net sales guy do that for you.

I use Authorize.net and they are much, much better to deal w/ then PP. It's night and day. The main drawback when selling on eBay is most customers do not like to pay without PP. You may lose a few sales that way.

But in my years, it is much less of a headache.

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

Authorize.net is just the middleman in the transaction.

The Payment Processor (Merchant Bank) is the one you need to be concerned about. You may find their vetting/underwriting process is a lot more stringent that PayPal's.

Things you might sell may fall under the definition of "High Risk". Here is only a parial list of such categories:

Answering Services
Diet Centers
Health Clubs
Internet Access Providers
Investment Opportunities
Liquidators
Motivational and Self-improvement Courses
Non-Retail Pawn Shops
Seminars
Tanning Salons
Vitamin/Herbal Supplement Sales
Water Purification
Non-Retail Jewelry
Electronics including Laptops and Computers
Cellular Phones and Pagers
Non-Retail Computer Hardware and/or Software sales.
Legal Advice and Kits
Auto Accessories/Tire Rims
Business Practices Promoting Racism, Violence, Abuse, Discrimination or Other Immoral Activity
Illegal products/Activities of any Kind
Intellectual Property Rights Violators
Airlines
All Adult Entertainment, sexually oriented or pornographic merchants, including but not limited to: Adult telephone conversations; Internet sex/porn; Adult pictures & photos; Misc. adult entertainment (not elsewhere classified)
Collection Agencies
Credit Repair Services
Stolen property
Internet Tobacco Sales
Drug Paraphernalia
Escort or Dating Services
Gambling Establishments
Lottery Sales
Massage Parlors (unless licensed for physical therapy)
Multi-level Marketing
Time Share Sales
Bankruptcy Lawyers/Firms
Travel Agencies
Age Verification Services
Adult Videotext Merchants
Negative Option Billing
Outbound/Inbound Telemarketing
Internet Pharmaceutical Sales
Long Distance Services
Pre-paid legal advice/services
Cable box de-scramblers
Internet/Mail-Order designer/imitation handbags
Internet/Mail-Order watches
Male or Female Sexual Enhancement Supplements or Products
Pre-Paid Phone Cards
Internet Perfume Stores
Annual Billing with High Average Tickets
Matrix Merchants
Downloadable Software
Internet as Seen on TV Products
Knock off Athletic Shoes
Sunglasses
Medical Advice
Human Growth Hormones
Check cashing services
Counterfeit items, including but not limited to: Currency; Coins: stamps: Counterfeiting equipment; Trademark infringement items
Investment opportunities
Pyramids/Ponzi Schemes
-------

There are likely tons more as well. Comes down to WHAT you are selling, how much volume you process, and your prior history.

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

I don't think any business to business can be friends as dealing with money you can be cut off instantly. But I know what you mean lol

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

I don't think they had some limitiations. Should I contact them as Christmas is around the corner and sales are gonna jump tremendously.

So Chase is my payment merchant and if they blindside me and let me go for some reason:

1). Am I able to go to another payment merchant that uses authorize and authorize won't care as long as the bank approves me (I'm guessing previous records from another bank won't matter or will authorize have records of their own they will use).

2). are there lot of payment processors that utilize authorize.net? if one goes down i can go to the next.

3). I do remember signing up with authorize directly before chase and was using them that way, so in some cases they are middle man but also direct merchant correct?

3).

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

Nice list. Was this compiled by you on the fly or cut and pasted from some compiled list.

But interesting that lot of health related items get banned.. maybe due to fda reasons and people getting sick?

So seems like paypal isn't really all that bad as it's just all payment gateways pretty much operate similar and have these boundaries.

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

That list was taken from a payment processor that works with Authorize.net. It's just an example of the many categories that may be considered as "high risk".

Understand there are MANY merchant banks out there, each with their own underwriting critera. Think of them like insurance companies. Merchant banks deal in RISK, and they consider some industries/categories/products and what not risky based on a variety of factors.

In fact, the entire Financial Services industry is concerned about risk.

If your business model touches on any of these areas, you might want to research payment processors who deal with that accordingly.

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

I think I need to preserve authorize.net as it's only acceptable payment platform for ebay. And since my ebay platform is not restricted , should find a different payment platform for my 3 domain's I'm running.

Is there good alternate to authorize (i'm keeping this for my legit ebay account and legit domain i'm running now).

I was thinking stripe (but dealt with them before and they are kind of headache as well as I was selling legit items and once my sales were going up they demanded invoices which I sent over and got cleared then few months later asked for invoice again and I decided to move to authorize).

So any alternatives i'm looking to use for more stealth items and stealth domain i will be running? good4checkout or something like that is pretty good..?

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

Authorize.net is awesome. I suggest going through Chase Paymentech because I sell dietary supplements(high risk) and they have no issues with it.

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

I too have chase paymentech. And they have so much rules and pamphlets etc.. but guess it's good. So if somehow paymentech doesn't work out and you get the boot does that mean you can still use authorize but just find a bank that is the payment provider?

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

Yes

Yes, there are many. Just need to call up authorize.net to have them add the new merchant info to your account.

No authorize.net is not a merchant. You're missing the fact that authorize.net is just the gateway. They just collect the payment and send it to the merchant (bank) for processing.

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

I'm with paymnetech chase but before, i went to authorize.net and signe up directly with them so when I did that, that means authorize.net is a merchant if going directly to them. Paymentech i had to go via Chase... so can someone confirm this? I rather avoid going directly with authorize.. in case there is easier linkage

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

I used authorized.net and was limited after the first month, but it was my fault, I listed my category of items as auto parts but sold other items and they shut it down for that specific reason. so dont do that.

Then I had to wait 6 months to get $2000 back just like paypal, BUT heres the kicker, they add some bogus processing fees to that so you wont get all the money back, they actually tried to tell me my balance was 112$ from $2000!!! i had to bitch like a mofo at these people and they ended up 'waiving' the fees after my tirade. I had no charge backs or any marks on my record either. now if i listed in the correct category I might have never had an issue, i think ill try them out again one day...

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

Now we are getting to nitty gritty of authorize. I remember back in ebay days (like 17 years back) some sellers used authorize, and it was like paypal's nemesis. Never thought of using it but since paypal is gone it forced me to go here. And someone on the forum mentioned payment tech 2 months ago and i'm with them. I think they charge me a monthly fee so it's more expensive then paypal but gotta do what I have to do. And, I did mention to the representative who approved me if i can just use the api credentials and key and accept payment for my other shop i'm running . (sports related niche, while other is a pop culture niche).. But she said it needs to be separate.

Seems your items you were selling were completely dlifferent then auto parts? Was it like health related supplements or something?

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

Also, 112$ to 2000... that brings quite the chills in me but I think paymentech is depositing to my bank account on a daily or every other day basis. So seems like the holds are not that severe.

Were you able to get back on authorize using another payment merchant? Or did they have tabs of your history....

As mentioned by members here they said that authorize is just a gateway or middleman but as mentioned from my experience I actually signed up with authorize.net directly to them so they might be direct and indirect with previous records?

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

they said I could reopen an account anytime, just need to put the correct category for the items i would be selling.

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

That's good but the hold is very startling. But interesting why they didn't desposit to your bank quickly right now authorize deposits to my bank without me doing manually like paypal.

Either way, guess one reason some people are scared of success.. You get lot of earnings then something happens. sigh

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

I just opened an authorize.net. it has a paypal account option. If you use that can't you still accept paypal? Or will Paypal eventually flag it still. I sell on a website instead but I love Paypals immediate access and their seller protection. Was wondering if Authorize.net is a buffer.

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

I got my hopes up when I saw that feature too - but I found out it's worthless for people like us. If you enable it, you link your Paypal account to your Auth.net account and all it does is makes your Paypal transactions show up in your Auth.net transactions. But the payments are still processed by Paypal, so you would still have to have Paypal active on your listings.

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

What if you don't do ebay sales? I use a shopping cart on my website. They had an authorize.net plugin.

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

Wait are you saying you put in the authorize.net api credentials on ebay but wasn't able to use it cause you still need paypal?

Or were you trying to accept paypal as well as authorize (have best of both worlds and more sales)..

If it's the latter then it won't work, but if you were trying to use authorize as alternate to paypal on ebay, that will work right?

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

Authorize.net has an option to link a paypal account through them. You put it in and Authorize.net runs the transactions through paypal. You have to just link the account. Its under the digital payment solution in settings. It looks like Authorize.net then becomes a gateway for paypal.

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

Ok I just askied authorize.net and all it is is allowing your paypal transactions to show in authorize.net basically for reporting reasons.

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

Yes, auth.net works perfectly fine for eBay.

What I was talking about was linking a PP account to your Auth.net account. Auth.net makes it seem like you can link your PP business account to your Auth.net account and then process PP payments through your Auth.net account without having to link the PP to your eBay account. But that's not the case. As storm's recent post confirms, it's a worthless feature which just makes your PP transactions show up in your Auth.net transactions.

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

That's exactly what I thought a year ago when I noticed it, but I quickly came to the same realization as you recently have lol. :doh:

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

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Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

Contact the seller "elmo" in the account marketplace here. He can help you with that.

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

My experience is that it may work fine on a PC, but the mobile apps can not process payments through authorize.net. The majority of my customers can't figure out how to log on with a browser.
Is this not the case for other people?

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

THat's pretty bad cause most purchases on ebay is via mobile apps. i'm guessing (cause web platforms such bigcommerce and shopify) sales are happening on mobile apps. I had to disable email newsletter popup because it was affecting mobile apps and decrease in sales so I hope that isn't the cause with authorize.net and ebay mobile.

Hmm.. might have to check myself as a buyer on my own shop

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

This has always been the case for me as well. If you browse some of my other posts RE Auth.net, I constantly complain about how useless they are for eBay. I get maybe 5% of the sales I would get with PP.

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

So your saying most people are using ebay mobile app to make purchase and when it comes to checkout with authorize, the pop up menu poses problem?

And even issues if it was via mobile browser?

I wonder if ebay did this on purpose so they want paypal to be exclusive but then again they want the sale to so not sure if i should even consider selling on ebay which is legit account but has authorize not paypal..

Seeing your image on your signature says authorize.net makes it feel this bad news is real news :(

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

But then again, if it's niche item that is catered to hungry buyers, it might still work as buyers tend to be persistent on getting what they want. So my specific ebay niche , might still survive.

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

I really, really think so.

Auth.net doesn't work with any form of mobile eBay. Mobile browser or mobile App. If customers try to pay from the eBay App and the seller only accepts Auth.net, the customer used to get a generic error message which didn't give any details. Just recently the error message has started telling buyers to try again from the desktop version of eBay.

Even still, the vast majority of buyers don't want to go through all that trouble. So they remove the item from their cart and purchase from another seller.

A lot of those who are willing to switch to their desktop are turned off by the lack of Paypal. They think they're giving their credit card info directly to some eBay seller. In reality Auth.net only shows the last 4 digits of CC #'s and everything else is pretty much the same as Paypal. I try to explain it to customers by saying Auth.net performs exactly the same service as Paypal without the added security risk of having your financial details stored on some Paypal server somewhere. Most don't buy that, lol.

Are you using a merchant account now?

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

I seriously doubt it to be honest. I thought the same thing since my sales volume was so high when I made the switch.

Go for it, but also start listing your stuff on another account which still accepts PP.

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

Well, I appreciate you are the "authorize" guy (the fact you have the image on bottom says you are passionate about authorize (j.k)

As mentioned mobile shopping is higher then desktop so guess having the shop all connected with authorize linked destroys the purpose of running ebay now. It's a side hobby gig for me as I wanted to use my art degree to use but now seems this is gonna little more of a hassle.

Ebay definitely monoplozing and not allowing authorize to take piece of the pie.

I am a merchant but run own domains and customers don't mind providing cc numbers usually when it's own domain as I'm getting many transactions , but really wanted to use my legit ebay account that has many feedbacks and continue from 4 years of being suspended.

I don't wanna go the ⊗⊗⊗⊗ pp account which is why i wanted to incorporate authorize.net but guess, I'll just have to do some tests on listings and see if it generates or not. Sales will be dramatically lower i'm sure but this will be a good test to see buyer behavior directly.

Would be nice if they had some stats or app that shows people opting out on checkouts (like abandon checkout) which may be strong indicator they got frustrated with payment.

Authorize doesn't care it's not getting much of ebay as many merchants outisde are using them so guess not much fighting there.

Anyways, i do believe though that if your item is one of a kind of item, buyers will go to do desktop version. I used to have a very niche related items and buyers would be so hungry to get the item they would ask to wait for their funds to clear , please hold one item for me , etc...
So, there is ways around this to generate but should be nice to see what happens.

Meanwhile, I'll try to get my paypal again. lol 17 years they give me the axe. Feel like someone who can't get over their ex hahahah

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

So you have shop accepting only authorize? is it working out ..
Wondering if anyone can address the mobile checkout error to ebay .. or do they not care or authorize.net is becoming more scarce on ebay.

Back in the days i would say 5% of ebay sellers used this so I'm guessing its more like 1% now:?

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

You can also pm moderators (purple names) for guidance.

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

Was doing some short searching and saw mobile ebay app sales aren't the majority. So that's good news for authorize folks (1 percenters?)

Re: paypal alternative Authorize.net
 

That's gotta be outdated information. In 2013 it was something like 25% of sales came from mobile (for me) but it's steadily increased since then. In Paypal I'm pretty sure there's an option somewhere to see how many sales come from mobile vs. desktop.

I think it's far less than 1% of sellers using Auth.net. For me to find any other sellers I had to Google something like "Authorize.net eBay". Found a guy selling phake beats. Pretty obvious he made the switch after PP requested supplier invoices.

While you can't see "abandoned checkout" stats like on a real website, you will quickly end up with tons of unpaid orders. Make sure you turn on Unpaid Item Assistant and set it to open cases after 2 days, because most buyers aren't going to pay. I hope you have better results than I have but I don't want to get your hopes up.

Jeffweico or someone else a while back was talking about how eBay and Paypal had an agreement when they split which says eBay has to send Paypal a certain percentage of their payments, otherwise eBay must pay Paypal the difference at the end of each year. I don't know if that's true, but it would explain why Auth.net is virtually incompatible with eBay.