Best payment module for Canada?

Hi,

I'm looking at running a Zencart for a store that is based out of Canada. I was wondering if anyone could reccommend what would be the best choice for a payment gateway that is supported by Zencart? It would need to be Canadian "friendly".

I was looking at Beanstream but I read a post saying the module they provide for Zencart was broken.. is that true?

Anybody have any advice for me?

Hi,

I am setting up a zencart installation and am a bit confused as to what payment gateway I should use.

I was going to use beanstream, but after searching the forums it would seem the module for it is broken..?

I've searched on others (Moneris, worldpay) and it seems there's issues with these modules not working properly as well.

Could someone point me to the most stable payment gateway module to use with Zencart? Only restriction is that it needs to be able to process in Canadian dollars and dump to a Canadian bank account.

The last research I did on this ended up with the customer using 2CO ... but they were unhappy with the need to go off to the 2CO site to enter payment and then be returned back to the store. Esp with the security issues that introduces.

Can one use authorize.net (AIM) with Canadian funds and a Canadian bank account?

There's a skipjack module here somewhere, that with a tiny bit of tweaking may work for current versions. I tried it briefly in something I was testing for a client and it seemed to work. To be honest, I don't have a whole lot of experience with this and didn't really like skipjack, but the client uses them for other things so I thought I would check it out. It might be worth a look.

best luck,

dante2010:

Can one use authorize.net (AIM) with Canadian funds and a Canadian bank account?
Yes and no - as I've jsut discovered and others have noted in this forum. Everything about authorize.net is USA-centric, unfortunately. You can post your transactions from you Canadian store, but you must post USD transaction amounts, which calls for a modification of the standard authorize.net (SIM and AIM) modules to recalculate the transaction amount (kudos to bunyip and DrByte in their contributions to http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37704%29.

The customer's receipt as generated by authorize.net will show the recalculated USD transaction amount. This alone has proved unaccaptable to my (Canadian) client.

In sum: if you don't mind your Canadian customers seeing USD on their credit card receipts/statements for your Canadian store, then (with the mods mentioned above), you can use authorize.net.

I'm currently looking for a better alternative, though, for my client.

Hey DrByte,

You seem to have some connection with the Linkpoint/YourPay module, and you're located in Canada. I notice that the link on the Linkpoint module page that tells you about signing up with Linkpoint (http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=infopages&pages_id=30) has a footnote about Canadian merchant accounts. Have you had/herad of any experience with Canadian merchants using this module/provider?

Ya I'd want everything to stay in CAD.

Man it seems like there's no payment modules that work 100% for Canadian users.

Hmmmm .... I've not seen any contributed modules that outshine others when it comes to Canadian gateways.

However, if someone could do some research to come up with a list of merchants operating for Canadians, perhaps we can put together a solution.

The ideal list would consist of:

• merchant name
• bank(s) they're affiliated with
• online gateway API name (or is it proprietary to "them"?)
• URL and tech phone number
• are they Canadian-only, or do they support other locations and currencies?

I'm new to Zen Cart and am currently determining if I will use OSCommerce (quite familiar with this) or Zen Cart for my next project. The payment module is the biggest sticker for me at this time since I would love to see a Beanstream module.

I've checked out several merchant options in Canada and narrowed it to two main reliable and reasonable providers.

Beanstream is the first, mostly because it provides a lower initial cost (~$100 CAD) with quite reasonable rates. Beanstream does have a working OSCommerce Module, which, in my limited experience with Zen Cart means a translation should be relatively easy. (http://forums.oscommerce.com/index.php?showtopic=220231). Beanstream is backed by TD. You can find the full download under community>contributions>payment

Moneris is the second. It has significantly higher setup costs but very well documented API's and backed by BMO and RBC (www.moneris.ca). Its front end admin panel is quite nice and easier to use - but has setup costs over $300.

Quite interested to see where we can take this folks.
TR

I too am considering Zen Cart for a site based in Canada. I also noticed the footnote about Paradata. I would love to hear if anyone had successfully set this up and what there experience has been.

If it wasn't for the inability to calculate shipping based on weight of items I would just use PayPal for payment.

Paradata was bought out by a US company that wouldn't deal with Canadian clients. CardSolve now uses PSiGate as the gateway for Canadian customers. Too bad there isn't a PSiGate XML module to be found!
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?p=238474

I setup two Zen-Carts for people in Canada and PayPal works very well with ZenCart. I strongly suggest you use it. It's great.

Eric

stevensmedia:

Too bad there isn't a PSiGate XML module to be found!
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?p=238474
Module for ZC v1.2.6
http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=product_contrib_info&products_id=246

InternetSecure is a great option for Canadians and is not a third-party gate. It is owned by the Nova Bank Corp and works fine for 1.3xx

DrByte:

Hmmmm .... I've not seen any contributed modules that outshine others when it comes to Canadian gateways.

However, if someone could do some research to come up with a list of merchants operating for Canadians, perhaps we can put together a solution.

The ideal list would consist of:

• merchant name
• bank(s) they're affiliated with
• online gateway API name (or is it proprietary to "them"?)
• URL and tech phone number
• are they Canadian-only, or do they support other locations and currencies?

Hi,

I've gathered some info from bigger merchants. Feel free to add some! It would be great to see a contribution released for Canadian store owners.

Moneris/Eselect

Bank(s) they're affiliated with: Bank of Montreal, Royal Bank
Online gateway API name: eSelectplus_PHP_API (https://www3.moneris.com/connect/en/process/apis/PHP/index.html)
URL and tech phone number: https://www3.moneris.com/connect/en/process/apis/PHP/index.html - 1 866 562 4354
Supported Currency: CDN, USD

Paymentech

Bank(s) they're affiliated with: Scotiabank
Online gateway API name: Don't Know
URL and tech phone number: http://www.paymentech.ca/paycansolintcom.do - 1-800-265-5158
Supported Currency: CDN, USD

OnlineMart - http://www.onlinemart.ca/EN/PaymentServicesBenefits.asp

Bank(s) they're affiliated with: TD Canada Trust
Online gateway API name: Don't Know
URL and tech phone number: http://www.onlinemart.ca/EN/PaymentServicesFeatures.asp -
Supported Currency: CDN, USD

Global Payment Systems:

Bank(s) they're affiliated with: CIBC
Online gateway API name: Don't Know
URL and tech phone number: http://www.globalpaymentsinc.com/Canada/products/e-com.html - 1-800-263-2970/(416) 644-5959 (Option 1)
Supported Currency: CDN, USD

I don't have any experience programming API's, but eSelect/Moneris was one of the only merchants that actually seemed to have a PHP API, which leads me to believe this would be a better choice for ZenCart users? Any thoughts?

Jeddy:

If it wasn't for the inability to calculate shipping based on weight of items I would just use PayPal for payment.

Use your payment provider for payments. Use you shopping cart to determine shipping. In other words, do that in Zen then pass the total to PP.

I've been struggling with "eCommerce in Canada" issues for a LONG time. in 1998 I worked for Industry Canada developing "eCom in Can" packages for small Canadian businesses... after 18 months, the program was shut down because there just weren't any ideal overall solutions available.

Compromise is around every corner, but the best solution I've personally found is PayPal. I know a lot of people hate PP, but they are the most "canadian friendly" option out there that doesn't cost an arm and a let, and their rates are lower than most merchant services will get you anyway.

Downsides? Sure there are downsides. The single biggest is the name. I know I lose sales each and every week because some percentage of my customers refuse to use PayPal. Most of the rumors are just rumors. I've been using PP for years and have never had my funds held, or ran into any problems at all really. But rumors, true or not, get in people's heads and there are people that will NOT buy from you if you accept only PayPal for credit cards. So far, I've determined that loss does not outweigh the benefits for my business.

It is VERY flexible, especially if you need to accept payments in foreign currencies. Ultimately I think it is the best option for the customer too (for security and features) even though you'll never convince some of them of that.

Biggest reason not to use PayPal: offline sales. There's no way to process a credit card (without technically committing fraud) over the phone or in person. (MODERATOR NOTE: As of Oct 2008, PayPal Website Payments Pro now allows direct processing of credit cards)

That's my 2c. Which, of course, is -$.53c after the paypal fees are applied.

• Steven

You are leaving out Money Bookers, which is the best alternative for international transactions (and there's a module available).

Money bookers charges a relatively INSANE 8% on cc payments... and they still have the exremely crappy problem of forcing their customers to be "money booker" members.

Thank God PayPal stopped going that (sort of). Nothing kills a sale like extra steps signing up for something they've never heard of.

I looked at them a while back, but glancing there now it doesn't look like anything's improved.

What have you liked about them?

• Steven