I need to make a list of micropayment systems, and their fees.
; Amazon Honor System: For each payment you receive, we will charge USD 0.30 plus 2.9% of the total transaction amount. Minimum payment is USD 1.00. This is too high for a single comic, for example. Refunds are possible, no questions asked. That’s a plus.
; PayPal: 2.9% + 0.30 USD if you’re getting $3K or less. The percentage goes down to 1.9% if you earn more than USD 100K. Fees are the same as for Amazon for ordinary people like myself. They say “We fight chargebacks on your behalf.” I guess that makes refunds hard to get. There seems to be no minimal fee, but since they are charging at least USD 0.30 I guess the minimum *reasonable* fee is very close to what Amazone asks for.
; BitPass: For very small items, the fee is 15%. This makes very small prices quite feasible. For items priced $0.01-$5.00, the transaction fee is 15%. For items priced $5.00 and higher, the transaction fee is 5% + $0.50. Note, however, the maths: There is some price x at which the PayPal and BitPass fees will be the same.
1. 029 x + 0.30 = 0.15 x → x = 0.30 _ (0.15 - 0.029) = 2.48. As long as the price of an item is USD 2.48 or less, BitPass is cheaper. I think that’s good micropayment. 😄 Refund costs at least USD 5.00. 🙁_
; Moneybookers: Fee is 1% but maximum € 0.50. Withdrawal costs for European countries: €1.80. Assuming your customers pay a total of €20, you’ll pay €0.20 in fees and €1.80 to withdraw the money, so you get €18. That’s only 10%. Looking good! The only problem I can see so far is that it very complicated to get started. You have to prove your identity and all that jazz. 😒
BitPass payout is via ACH or PayPal. So you will need a PayPal account, and will incur additional PayPal fees.
Assume you’re selling items at USD 0.20.
The BitPass transaction fee is 0.20 _ 0.15 = USD 0.03 per item._
Both BitPass and PayPal let you withdraw the money when you have USD 20.
This will be after 20 _ 0.17 = 117.6 ie. 118 transactions._
This will have cost you 118 _ 0.03 = USD 3.54 in BitPass fees._
You got 118 _ 0.17 = USD 20.06 from BitPass._
Your customers paid 3.54 + 20.06 = USD 23.60 in total.
PayPal charges an addition 2.9% and USD 0.30, so you get (20.06 - 0.30) _ (1 - 0.029) = USD 19.19._
In total you paid (23.60 - 19.19) _ 23.60 = 18.7% in fees._
(Please contact me if you want to remove your comment.)
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http://www.moneybookers.com seems interesting.
– PierreGaston 2005-03-10 09:05 UTC
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Nice link, thanks. Added what I found.
– Alex Schroeder 2005-03-10 09:38 UTC