building a credit card page

[gib65]

Wow, I've never had this many replies to a question in my life--at least, not in one day.

Thanks to everyone for their advice. I'll definitely be using PayPal as my first approach.

[traq]

Wow, I've never had this many replies to a question in my life
...
Thanks to everyone for their advice

no problem.

if you try to do anything more complex than static "Buy Now" (or whatever) buttons, I'd recommend signing up with one of their developer accounts. They have a "sandbox" where you have full access to do live testing without risking any real money.

[Beverleyh]

Right. Paypal takes a percentage of the money (the others do too, right?), but it's widely known and trusted so it's probably worth it; secondly, many people already have accounts so it's fast and easy for them. I know that if someone ends up too complicated for me I just give up.
And I'm always happy when a website has paypal. A good example is American Airlines. Most airlines have their own complicated billing system, AA included. But then they also offer Paypal as an option and it makes things so much easier.

Yes, that's correct, and the percentage that Google takes is on a par with PayPal - I suppose that other new payment service competitors would undercut that rate initially (while establishing a firmer footing in the market) but Google payments has the attraction of being an extension to Webmaster Tools so I guess they're riding on that convenience, since its a reduced hassle for existing webmasters to use more of their in-house systems as a bundle. Its still a learning curve though and their website info seems to be a bit scatty - for me anyway - I found myself filling in blanks based on my knowledge of how PayPal works. Not the best approach I know and for that reason I'll recommend PayPal over Google payments until Google tidy up the delivery of their information. It probably IS all there but I personally struggled to put all the pieces together easily

I also agree with what Dan says about the convenience and comfort of seeing those blue "P" badges/buttons - As a buyer, its much easier to finalise a transaction through a familiar system, especially via mobile devices. Who wants to faff around setting up an account and re-entering card numbers and delivery addresses on a 'new' website, when through PayPal you can just type in your password, click one button to confirm your usual delivery address and job done!

Its a huge plus as far as visitor convenience, familiarity and usability goes - making things easy-to-use plays a big part in visitors choosing to buy from you over a competitor, as well as encouraging them to come back, and that alone is well worth that small percentage that PayPal take from you (the website/business owner) while using their service