Hi,
gilby:
A big advantage of using an offline method is that the fees are nomally less than half what an online processor charges.
I would say that's the primary advantage.. if your merchant account allows you take details online and process them offline (here in the UK I don't think any do).
gilby:
As well you can check each each order for potential fraud before processing the card.
I personally think the reason you're able to do that is a disadvantage rather than an advantage but that's because I like as much of our business as possible to be automated.
gilby:
Here in Oz you get charged another fee again to refund the card
(makes paypal look good in that respect)
That's possibly the only thing ever that makes PayPal look good! It's an awful company! We only use it as we have no choice.. I'm sure most other businesses are the same. It is good that they don't charge for refunds but then they can afford to since they rip you off at every other opportunity!
There's also a fee here to refund with merchant accounts.. thankfully it's rather small but I'm sure you agree with me that it seems unfair to charge a business for a transaction that didn't happen in the end! :(
gilby:
To get the PCI compliance you can use an offline card processor such a e-path(dot)com
Never heard of an offline processor that offers PCI compliance before. PCI compliance is a complete joke and is essentialy card companies skimming money off other hard working copmanies in my opinion but unfortunately it's forced upon us so the card companies can get richer so if there are companies which offer offline processing with compliance that could be a decent alternative to a full payment gateway! I'll check out the link you've given.
All the best..
Conor
ceon
NOTE: We are sorry that Conor is no longer with us.
We are grateful for all his contributions to the Zen Cart community.