VEMS webshop never charges anyone's credit card, ever.
We simply cannot! We do not ever receive the customer's card number. Do not ever send your cardnumber to us (or anyone, especially via non-encrypted email).
- We have set up a path (gateway => our bank).
- [here] when you choose Visa/Mastercard and click Pay, enter your data and than confirm your payment, that way:
- You charge your card, and set some amount on this path (some of which finally reaches our bank account)
- We can only passively watch a report showing what's happening
- how much was paid, and with what orderid, or other well identifiable comment so we service the WebShop order.
- We can see the last 4 digits of the cardnr and the expiry date though
What can go wrong?
- customer pays twice solution: DO NOT PAY TWICE
- bank charges slightly more. During payment, you see the value in USD (clearing works in USD). Banks do not use xe.com rates, but usually within 1%.
- The most extreme so far: a GBP bank took +5.3% more GBP (and the merchant is charged 2.5% for card transaction). So the total fees (7.8%) of the worse card payment equals the average paypal fee: Paypal charges 4,8, or 12% depending on 0, 1 or 2 currency exchange happens in the path from the customer to merchant
- the charge appears the account later than expected (eg. 2010 January instead of 2009 December). While this is
Paypal charges 4,8, or 12% total fee depending on 0, 1 or 2 currency exchange happens in the path from the customer to merchant. This is largely invisible to the customer (most deducted at the merchant side).
- Beware: paypal tries to trick users to accept payment in 3d currency (eg. EUR, when GBP is paid to an USA or HUF account). Always accept in original or target currency (never in 3d currency!)
- You can and should avoid 2 currency exchanges, but because of certain restrictions (what can be withdrawn, or spent with card) 1 exchange usually cannot be avoided internationally
- Hint: avoid paypal if you can. Otherwise request a card for your paypal account (visa or mastercard). It can be used at much more places (including local shops and ATM), and using card is better than paypal for you and the merchant as well (merchants often charge a part of the payment fee, eg 2..3% for paypal to discourage customers and limit paypal in utilizing it's monopoly and raising fees further).
While we cannot charge your card, with the card payment to ACMV LLC,
- we can void a transaction (costs approximately 0.5 USD total) at least within 1-2 hours
- or we can refund some of it, than we waive appr 5% (=2 * 2.5%)
Other details: another Paypal fraud:
Card processing gateway: we originally contracted with verisign (~500 transactions /month included in the monthly fee), and things went smooth.
- than paypal acquired verisign (without our consent), and things degraded. At one point paypal charged ~360 USD claiming thousands of 0.01 USD (!!!) transactions, charging us 0.20 USD for each.
- Note that 0.01 USD transactions are obviously fraudulent because the transaction fee we pay is 0.20 USD so if someone "pays us" 0.01 USD, we get -0.19 USD (the beneficiary is paypal !)
- We asked Paypal repeatedly in writing that no transactions should be allowed below 2 USD (remember the gateway is operated by [Paypal]) so only they can apply this.
- but unfortunately Paypal knowingly and intentionally lets through (wether they are closely complicit in generating them or not) these obviously fraudulent 0.01 USD transactions despite our repeated explicite written request.