Hi Emgee,

Charges for accepting credit card are variable, depending on too many factors, depending on who is the credit card issuer, how low or high the incentive is, through to the volume of business and value of transaction being put through the credit card processing system by a seller. In this respect, we are regarded as a small seller, so the processing charges we have to pay for accepting credit cards are high.

We will continue to accept Debit cards without adding any surcharge for the facility.

Ketan at ARC

Hi Norman,

Yes, have a look at PayPal policy around the use of the words 'Person verified by PayPal', 'Delivery Address Confirmed by PayPal', 'Dispute process'. These three areas are commonly used by certain buyers, as well as PayPal, to excuse withholding of funds, or commit fraud. At this point, I have to leave you to paint your own picture, as there are good as well as 'too clever' people reading this thread.

Unlike banks, PayPal is not governed by any financial institution in the world. They are free to make up their own policy which is loaded in their and the customers favour. Whilst being well meaning for the customer, it is open to fraud due to the 'revocable' nature of funds being offered in a transaction.i.e.fund with strings attached, like money attached to the end of a fishing line. You can put the money in your pocket, but PayPals hook is linked to it, for it to remove out of your pocket when it feels like it.

So, if there is a 'dispute' raised by a buyer, the automated system first withdraws the funds from the sellers account, and tells the seller to show/prove why he should get paid. For this, the seller has to jump through a series of hoops. Again, whilst being well meaning, it is VERY open to abuse. We have gone through this process several times. We have won each and every dispute. PayPal does not consider the sellers history in any way. The process is more like 'you are GUILTY' and you have to prove your innocence.

With debit/credit card processing, the dispute resolution process before charge back is a lot more civilized. In our experience, the card issuer appoints a person to look into the dispute – regardless of order value. The investigator looks into the card processing history of the seller. they have security systems in place. Then he/she will call the seller regarding the dispute, to hear the sellers side of the story. Then the investigator make a judgement on charge back. In ARCs history, we have had two such disputes, both of which have ruled in our favour…so far.

This situation of PayPal is very well known to sellers, and ALL regular legitimate sellers have gone through this process. Many are afraid of loosing business if they refuse to accept PayPal. Financial Regulatory Authorities, and Politicians concerned are well aware of PayPal and related eBay operations, but they choose to turn a blind eye for what every reasons.

Ketan at ARC.

Hi Graham,

Did think a lot about this. Then went and checked our payment processing records over time, and noted several points:

1. A good number of customers were paying by debit card – Good for them. No charge.

2. Initially reducing the order value to £100.00 max on PayPal moved over more customers to use debit cards, and few onto credit card.

3. Over the past year and a half, where credit cards were being used, the processing charges have been increasing. So I examined the type of cards being used and noted that more of such cards carried a higher % fee. The average increase was 0.5% across the range of credit cards. It doesnt sound a lot, but it is a lot in money terms, even though it effected a limited number of customers.

Over the past month, I have already increased product selling prices by just over 1%. This is to pay towards cost increases for purchases from South China for general consumables, which have risen by between 30% to 50%.

As a matter of 'loose' principal, I too would not like to pay the £1.00 surcharge for using a credit card. I don't really know how this will develop. At the same time, the way I see it, a good number of my customers are paying with debit cards, so this change should not effect them. Considering a parallel 'loose' principal, it is difficult for me to consider to bury or increase the selling price by a further 0.5% for consumables, in order to service the less customers wishing to pay by credit card, at the expense of more customers paying by debit card.

Ketan at ARC.