SSL & CC Processing suggestions

[salewit]

I'm about to embark on a serious e-commerce site and I would appreciate any suggestions from those already into it. I'm looking for CHEAP in both cases.

1) Any recommendations for a CC processing company? Average sale about $40 and perhaps $2000 in sales a month to start. I'm willing to process manually if less expensive, but can also automate (OSCommerce).

2) How about an SSL cert? The shared one would be fine, except that order confirmations are using the secure links which really have no company name identity. When someone gets an email that says: "You can view your order status at http://secure22.nocdirect.com/~foo/orders.php" I think it looks kind of bad.

I did a quick search of SSL certs and I'm floored by the $200-300/year prices. That's more than the hosting!

Thanks
Sam

[jason]

For SSL, I think JPC can sell you Comodo InstantSSL certs starting at about $50/yr. See www.instantssl.com for details and then fire an email off to sales to see if they still offer them directly. If they don't, I'm sure they'll be more than willing to help you with everythng you need to purcahse and install the cert.

I don't do any CC processing on my site, so I can't really help you out there. JPC resells a plan through Business Payment Systems that looks pretty good--$.25+2.29%/transaction with free AuthorizeNet setup and what looks like about $20/month in fees. Click on Ecom at the bottom of the JPC homepage for the details.

--Jason

[gamerajp]

I agree to Jason, Jaguar/Aletia told me it costs $59/year for now when I asked. But it's still a good deal to get your own SSL that cheap. If it's Japan, more than double!!!! (still cheaper compared with other SSL like verisign, geotrust etc though )

[tfs]

salewit,
Did you find a good solution for shopping and online cc processing?
I am embarking on the same challenge. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

[salewit]

Yes I did. I'm using PayQuake for the processing and I can't remember who I used for the SSL. It was $30/year and it's been working fine. I see now that GoDaddy is offering SSL certificates and I think their price is $30.

The CC processor associated with Jaguar is a total bust. I spent about an hour filling out lengthy forms, and faxed them and e-mailed them over. I don't know what happened to them, but that was about a year ago, and I haven't gotten a reply since. Avoid that one. Nice to know that all that extremely private info was ignored.

Sam

[Connie]

On the SSL, You will have to have a dedicated IP in order to have your own SSL certificate. If your an old Jag customer you probably have this. So you need to know for sure whether you have a dedicated IP or a static IP. If you were not grandfathered a dedicated IP will probably cost you an additional $1.00 per month.

There is a little less hassle if you purchase a SSL through Jag than doing it yourself. Been down both roads. All I have ever had to provide Jag was the same information listed in the whois data base. The last SSL I purchased I purchased direct. I had let the SSL expire on a domain and Jag would not reorder for about a week and recommended I go direct. Same cost either way. Buying direct was a real hassle. A lot of e-mail and faxes sent.

For a payment gateway I recommend Authorize.net. At one time Jag was offering free set up with Authorize.net but that could have changed.

Having a SSL and a gateway still does not allow you to process Credit Cards. You have to be approved by a merchant card processor for Visa Master card. Amex and discover require separate approval. However the gateway will accept the cards that you are approved for.

I won't recommend a CC processor. If you have a good relationship with your bank that would be the best place to start if the allow on-line transactions. If they don't then you would need to capture all info on your site and run it through a terminal like local merchants do. In this case you will not need a gateway.

If you don't have a CC processor, that is the first thing you need to do. Regardless of what else you do If you don't have the processor your sh**t out of luck.

I've been accepting CC on-line since 2000. Be extremely cautious in regard to choosing a processor.

[Spathiphyllum]

Very helpful summary, clssam.

[jason]

I have a FreeSSL certificate (www.freessl.com). When I bought it they were having a special and I think I paid $19/yr for it. They are back to regular price now, $39/yr. FreeSSL certs are issued by GeoTrust and are recognized by all modern browsers, but it doesn't cary the brand recognition of others like VeriSign, so they aren't recommended for heavy ecommerce sites. It uses the same the same industry-standard 128-bit encryption as everyone else, but it doesn't cary a brand name that is well trusted. I use mine mainly for some internal applications that I want to keep secure.

If you need a "trusted" certificate, GeoTrust (www.geotrust.com) are the cheapest ones I've seen, starting at about $170. I think I may even be able to get you a discounted rate through one of my partners. If you are interested, PM me, or use the contact link on my site (www.interbrite.com/contact) to email me and I'll look into it.

--Jason

[gerilya]

Actually, you can get a GeoTrust certificate for about $50/year, but you will have to generate Certificate Signing Request (CSR) on your own, which might be a real challenge for non-technical person.
Here is the direct link:
http://www.ev1servers.net/english/quickssldetails.asp