Ask YC: Recommend a merchant account provider
There are too many too choose from and no way that I know of to differentiate. Please help.
And on the pricing side we can beat paypal's rates easy. I use it for all my side projects as well. If you have any questions about merchant accounts (which I did when I did my first website that accepted credit cards) feel free to call us up.
You can ask for me (Noah) if you like.
It's got too many stock photos on the front page that don't describe anything about the company or its services -- they're just there fulfilling this "blueness" theme. Why is there a picture of J. Random Dude in a suit? How does that help describe or sell the service?
I use three-second test for website design: go to the website, look at it for three seconds, and then close the window. Now tell me everything that you learned in those three seconds. I find my eyes dancing around the page, finally landing on the bold "Bluefin payment systems" text at the beginning of your paragraph, and then time's up. After the three seconds is up, do I want to go take a second look at the website? Is there a draw? Well ... not really.
After glancing around some more, I finally find the navigation in the top left -- which is in light gray, in (the wrong kind of) subtle contrast to the blue theme everywhere else and dark page text -- and then I statr getting to the information I want, but I still have to drill down to it (click on the "Payment Gateway" item, which takes me to a page with all the other services that I'm not interested in, and a link to "learn more about payment gateway" -- basically a totally unnecessary middle step).
So, from a UI standpoint, the website IM(NS)HO needs a complete reworking. Then, there's the technical matter of using JavaScript mouseovers for your rollovers instead of css :hover tags, etc...
I dunno if Bluefin is really well-established, or still growing, or generally cares one way or the other about its website, but ... maybe somebody there'll find this helpful.
Those are good to throw something together quickly with a professional appearance to it, but I would never run a proper business on a TemplateMonster template...
Daniel
If you get a quote, run it through this calculator first. The site only has two partners right now, but check them out anyway.
Also, the blog has some information for how to calculate what your costs are going to be: http://www.quotesignal.com/blog//?p=4
It's a three-part series.
* I co founded this site.
Chase has excellent rates and amazing customer service. I've tried many Merchants and they're by far the best I've ever used.
We're going with Optimal Payments up here (www.optimalpayments.ca), who have been very responsive, amazingly helpful, and have really good rates for Canada too :)
Low rates, authorize.net compatible API. Haven't had any issues with them and support is resposive.
Daniel