I'd suggest Pineapple Payments. They are a new company based upon the CardConnect platform, which was just acquired by FirstData.
FirstData is one of the primary companies in the market, and the rates you get from Pineapple are "interchange optimized". Means you pay 2.9% for AMEX, but ~1.5% for VISA, Discover, etc.
For B2B and even B2C, it's a fantastic savings if you're willing to do just a tiny bit more legwork than Stripe requires.
From the Pineapple website: "We believe in transparent, simple pricing that is always customized to fit your usiness. Refreshing, right?"
But publishes no pricing and you have to click for a quote (fill in form for a call back). Really transparent!
Also when they quote low rates for Visa and MC are they including the rewards cards which carry higher fees and make up a majority of the transactions?
Also, it says about 10 years of experience, but site is seems to be really working only since 2016. And SSL certificate is just "let's encrypt", which is fine for most, but for payment processor I'd expect something more serious.
That's really interesting. Do you have more examples? Thank you for the suggestion. Stripe is only the best known and is well integrated with other systems. When you use something like Paydoo you have to write e.g. your invoice email system yourself (and for stripe there are third party services which can handle that for you). So Stripe has benefits regarding the ecosystem around it.
Edit: Seeing there is also a currency conversion fee (is there something similar on stripe?). I mean with currency conversion+paydoo regular rates you get close to Stripe rates!
Many —I'd perhaps even stretch to "most"— processors have at least the basic functionality like email receipts and, to at least some degree, recurring payments. They're staples of e-commerce.
But yes, there is work involved in implementing each provider. Stripe has some but it is generally nicer to use. £100k of volume and you'll probably pay for that additional development time in Y1.
But also consider that you shouldn't irrevocably tie yourself to a single processor. Don't rely on them to do your business for you. Sometimes they're dicks. I know that applies more when we talk about PayPal and much less in the "real" merchant processing world, but it still happens. Having the ability to switch out processors is objectively useful so (eg) tying your basket UI into Stripe's checkout js lib looks nice, is super easy... But what happens if they start withholding funds? If all your emails are tied into their system, it's weeks of development to stop using them. Do business-critical stuff yourself and you're much more flexible to do sensible things in the future.
Regarding international rates, these are hard to compare because their claims are apples to oranges. Stripe say they go off their "banking partners'" daily rates and that those are approximately 2% above mid-market levels. Paydoo says they're 2.49% fixed above market levels. I suspect they're pretty close in practice. Stripe does let you accept multiple currencies (for free) if you have the bank accounts for it though. Not sure if Paydoo allow the same. Their wording suggests not... But if that's the deal-breaker, talk to them about it.
Edit: Weird that they don't appear to service bricks and mortar retail. They can be much more secure (cardholder present, PIN entered, telephone verified) and therefore lower risk.
