taking payments

[-Anti-]

A friend of mine has an idea for a niche tourism service to earn a little extra cash:

Many individuals currently visit our island several times per year for
events/training in a certain sport. You'd be surprised how many people
travel to other countries to participate in this sport.

The idea is to use a website to create a centralised community of such people.
We could then organise groups of people to visit at the same time; they'd come
over, do some training, and then participate in a local event.

The advantages from their perspective would be:

· they'd spend time with people interested in the same sport. Further, it would
be with people who they'd probably have already 'met' in the online community.

· block booking (hotels, buses, restaurants, etc) would be cheaper for them.

· they'd have a translator/guide to assist with accommodation, transport,
the training itself, and assistance with entering the sporting events.

We imagine that we could get about 50 people per year to come over. When
booking, they'd have to pay us for the accommodation and our service charge
in advance. This would be about 300€ and 100€ respectively.
All the other costs could be paid after they arrive.

As you can see, we need to accept 20,000€ (400€x50) in payment, yet only
5000€ of this is our own earnings (15000€ goes to the hotel/bungalow).

The options for payment seem to be:

- bank transfer/wire
- paypal pro or similar service (credit card)
- merchant internet account (credit card)

Any other viable options I've missed?
Can anyone advise of the best way to collect this payment?

Bank transfer seems to be the safest/cheapest?
I've not done one in years - can most people perform a transfer using
internet banking these days, or do you need to physically go into a bank?

Thanks for any experienced thoughts.

[eUKhost.com]

Hi,

You should consider Bank Transfer, Googlecheckout and Paypal for online payments. People don't prefer Bank transfers for small payments as it takes long time to complete online banking payments. Paying through paypal or credit card is the most suitable option for many online users.

[-Anti-]

I've just noticed google checkout: 3% is similar to paypal, but no monthly fee (paypal is 30€ pm).
Eg. For a 500€ payment, the customer would have to be charged 15€ for using their credit card.
For a bank transfer it would be about 6€-10€.

Thanks for the confirmation that I'm on the right track at least.

[eUKhost.com]

I've just noticed google checkout: 3% is similar to paypal, but no monthly fee (paypal is 30€ pm).
Eg. For a 500€ payment, the customer would have to be charged 15€ for using their credit card.
For a bank transfer it would be about 6€-10€.

Thanks for the confirmation that I'm on the right track at least.

5 out of 10 customers won't prefer to pay via bank transfer or they may not have online banking facility. You will need to consider Googlecheckout / Paypal / Worldpay / Moneybookers or something like Protx.