Choosing a payment gateway feels like comparing percentages. In practice, the fee is rarely what decides whether payments work well for you. Here’s what we look at when helping clients choose.
Start with how your customers pay
A travel agency taking large deposits has different needs from a college taking course fees in instalments or a shop selling small items. List how people pay you today:
- Cards online, by phone, or in person?
- One-off payments, deposits, instalments or subscriptions?
- Which currencies, and which countries?
Security and compliance
Any business that takes card payments must follow the PCI DSS security standard. The simplest way to reduce your workload is to use hosted payment fields, so card numbers never touch your servers. Check that the gateway supports Strong Customer Authentication (3-D Secure) without adding friction for low-risk payments.
If card numbers never reach your systems, most of your security headache goes with them.
The checkout experience
A gateway that adds a slow redirect or a confusing extra page will cost you sales. Look for:
- Payment fields that sit inside your own checkout
- Apple Pay and Google Pay on phones
- Clear error messages when a card is declined
Fees, payouts and refunds
Compare the full cost: transaction fees, currency conversion, chargeback fees and monthly charges. Then check how quickly money reaches your bank, and how refunds and partial refunds work, especially if you take deposits.
Connecting it to your systems
The best gateway is the one that fits your booking, records or accounting software. Ask about webhooks, reporting exports and test accounts before you sign. We’ve connected many gateways to client systems, and we’re happy to share what we’ve learned.
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