South African payment gateways

Could anyone please help with highlighting which is the best SA payment gateway one could implement. Am currently looking at MyGate.

Tags: e-commerce, gateways, payment

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Permalink Reply by Rory Magee on November 19, 2010 at 7:40

Hey Tatenda,

Here's some other local payment gateways:
www.payfast.co.za
www.vcs.co.za
www.monsterpay.co.za
www.setcom.co.za
www.netcash.co.za

As far as 'best' goes, that will all depend on your needs and what integration exists with the current ecommerce platform that you're using.

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Permalink Reply by Tatenda Muregi on November 19, 2010 at 12:22

Thanks Rory. I am working on a site that will integrate a third-party service with its own e-commerce platform. I have managed to get Paypal Standard set up, which they easily allow. That basically does it for a wide pool of users. However, I still feel I need an added option for local users to be able to transact on my site. I do not need an extensive gateway just an extra option for SA users, especially those with no credit card e.t.c. Let me just take a look at these other local gateways you have provided. MyGate seems a bit too extensive to what I really need.

Rory Magee said:

Hey Tatenda,

Here's some other local payment gateways:
www.payfast.co.za
www.vcs.co.za
www.monsterpay.co.za
www.setcom.co.za
www.netcash.co.za

As far as 'best' goes, that will all depend on your needs and what integration exists with the current ecommerce platform that you're using.

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Permalink Reply by Derek du Preez on November 20, 2010 at 0:33

Have a look at http://www.iveri.com/
It a South African company (based in Jhb) and they have done this since the late nineties. They also have a footprint within Africa. If i'm not mistaken, I think they were the first to offer these services in SA.

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Permalink Reply by Tatenda Muregi on November 20, 2010 at 7:42

Hi Derek, thanks I had a look at the website. I must say though i got kinda fatigued by their site. Too much reading required there. I'm comparing all the sites I got now. Any ideas on prepaid credit cards here in SA? That would be an easier way to just get people using Paypal. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-prepaid-credit-cards.htm

Derek du Preez said:

Have a look at http://www.iveri.com/
It a South African company (based in Jhb) and they have done this since the late nineties. They also have a footprint within Africa. If i'm not mistaken, I think they were the first to offer these services in SA.

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Smit on November 29, 2010 at 12:20

Hi Tatenda,

As Rory said, which gateway is "best" is what suits you and your situation best (Thanks for the punt though ;-) ).

If you're looking for a similar system to PayPal's, then I would recommend my company, PayFast (www.payfast.co.za) which provides a similar service but we transact in ZAR which is vital when servicing a South African market. You can also bank with any SA bank to make use of PayFast as opposed to being required to use any particular bank.

MyGate, VCS, PayGate, iVeri etc. are credit card switches which are distinct from services such as PayFast's and Paypal's and using any of the aforementioned companies you will need to apply for a merchant account from your bank and there are significant monthly fixed costs to cover as well as far greater integration complexity.

PayFast charges no monthly or setup costs and we provide eCommerce modules for a number of popular shopping cart systems so you can be up and running in no time!

If you have any questions, please feel free to give us a call or an email and we'd be happy to answer any queries you may have (https://www.payfast.co.za/c/std/contact-us).

Regards
Jonathan Smit
MD and Co-Founder - PayFast
http://www.payfast.co.za

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Permalink Reply by Tatenda Muregi on June 28, 2011 at 14:09

Successfully integrated Payfast into my magento store but seems to be a bug and being a non-techie I'm stuck. On checkout, when you click on Place Order instead of redirecting to Payfast payment page, you are taken back to Shopping Cart page.

Any help available?

Regards

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Smit on June 28, 2011 at 14:55

Sorry to hear that, Tatenda!

Drop an email to our helpdesk at support@payfast.co.za and I'm sure they'll be able to help you resolve the problem!

If not, they'll forward it onto me to have a look at too ;-)

Jonathan

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Permalink Reply by Richard Rubenstein on February 1, 2012 at 16:05

Hi Jonathan

Im trying to see if yours or any of the online payment gateway systems allow for holding a payment in reserve for up to 3 months at a time. Similar to how the car rental companies hold your deposit until you return your car.

Do you have any advice or know of companies I can speak to?

Thanks

Rich

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Smit on February 1, 2012 at 16:19

Hi Richard,

In order to separate the "auth" and "settle" for a payment, you would need to have a merchant account with your bank directly and solicit the services of a pure credit card gateway. This means non-insignificant setup and monthly costs as well as existing business track record.

I also don't believe you would be able to do this for a period as long as 3 months. I think 30 days would probably be about the longest you could do this, but I'm not sure about this.

Also, bear in mind that in an emerging market such as ours, payment methods are a bit different and such a concept of "auth" and "settle" is unique to credit cards. Something like an EFT has no such concept and if you don't accept payment via EFT, you are marginalising half your market.

My advice would be to not require this functionality but rather change your financial processes such that it is not needed eg. by having a good "returns" or "credit" procedure whether the payment be by credit card, EFT or otherwise.

I hope that helps!

Cheers

Jonathan

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Permalink Reply by Tatenda Muregi on December 1, 2010 at 16:08

Jonathan,

Thanks for that. Have been on the site and there are a few questions I have. Let me drop an email and hopefully you can clarify all that.

Regards

Jonathan Smit said:

Hi Tatenda,

As Rory said, which gateway is "best" is what suits you and your situation best (Thanks for the punt though ;-) ).

If you're looking for a similar system to PayPal's, then I would recommend my company, PayFast (www.payfast.co.za) which provides a similar service but we transact in ZAR which is vital when servicing a South African market. You can also bank with any SA bank to make use of PayFast as opposed to being required to use any particular bank.

MyGate, VCS, PayGate, iVeri etc. are credit card switches which are distinct from services such as PayFast's and Paypal's and using any of the aforementioned companies you will need to apply for a merchant account from your bank and there are significant monthly fixed costs to cover as well as far greater integration complexity.

PayFast charges no monthly or setup costs and we provide eCommerce modules for a number of popular shopping cart systems so you can be up and running in no time!

If you have any questions, please feel free to give us a call or an email and we'd be happy to answer any queries you may have (https://www.payfast.co.za/c/std/contact-us).

Regards
Jonathan Smit
MD and Co-Founder - PayFast
http://www.payfast.co.za