How to choose a payment processor

You feel your payment processor on every order. It takes a percentage of every sale, holds your money for a few days and answers you, or does not, when something breaks. It is worth ten minutes of comparison before you sign.

1. The pricing model

Flat rate or IC++? A flat rate is easy to read, but it is an average. IC++ shows the real cost of each card and usually comes out cheaper if your customers pay with European consumer cards. The difference is explained in the payments guide.

2. The fees around the percentage

Look at the fixed fee per transaction, the monthly fee, the setup fee, the monthly minimum, the dispute fee and currency conversion. On small baskets the fixed fee can matter more than the percentage.

3. How quickly you get paid

Settlement in 24 - 48 hours and settlement in three business days look the same on paper. In a small shop's cash flow they do not.

4. How long activation takes

Some providers activate within hours, others within days. Ask what happens if a document is missing too: do you start over, or pick up where you left off?

5. Payment methods

Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, instalments, one-click, payment links, subscriptions, local methods. Check what your customers use, not what looks good in the offer.

6. Integration

Is there a plugin for your platform? A test environment? Public documentation? Who helps you if the plugin does not work first time?

7. Security

Look for 3D Secure 2, tokenisation and a PCI DSS certified infrastructure. If card data never passes through your server, your own compliance becomes much simpler.

8. The contract

Read the parts about rolling reserves, minimum term, termination and who invoices you. At RONPAY, for example, processing is invoiced by Rox Pay S.p.A., and the relationship is explained on RONPAY and RoxPay.

Our comparisons

We put RONPAY's public offer side by side with widely used European providers, on public sources and with the date we checked them: RONPAY and Stripe, RONPAY and Mollie, RONPAY and Adyen.