Adding credit card payment options to your website in India
5th January 2010

Click here for the latest updated list of credit card payment gateways

Many years ago we did not have many options for adding credit card payment gateway to our ecommerce sites and we had to rely on COD, Cheque/DD to accept payments. All that changed with the game changing CCAvenues. They made adding a payment gateway easy and smooth to add to any ecommerce of subscription site. They also opened the doors for many more providers to jump into the market. From almost no choice we went to a buffet of choices in just a couple of years.

Lets take a look at some of the Payment Gateway Providers for India based websites:

CCAVENUES (www.ccavenue.com)

They are the grand daddy of credit card gateway providers in India. With one of the largest subscriber base they are the front runners in India.

• Easy to install. You can be up and running in a few hours.
• Lenghty paperwork before approval though and risk management is stringent.
• Huge choice in payment options - credit card, debit card (select banks), bank transfer, EZcash etc.
• Site is sometimes slow and we have experienced service drops many times. Although lately they have upgraded their servers.
• The are secured with Verisign
• They have 3 schemes for Indian Rupee payments, 3% at Rs.40,000/-, 5% at Rs.25,000/- and 7% at Rs.7,500/- .
• They are always adding new payment options and are now offering mobile payment as well.
• Money is credited to your account at the end of every week either directly into your account or via cheque.
• They did have some trouble processing Mastercard payments, so check on that before signing up.
• Biggest advantage is that it supports American Express which is very important for the US market.

ICICI Bank Payment Gateway (www.payseal.com)

Another one of the older payment gateways. Its fast and its reliable.

• Supports only Visa and Mastercard.
• Will require extensive support for integration from your hosting provider. Some providers charge yearly for this so check on that too.
• Very high upfront payment and deposit (over 1 lakh) required.
• Vigorous documentation and risk analysis process.
• Payment credited the next day so quicker turnaround.

Times Of Money DirecPay (www.direcpay.com)

A recent entrant into the field. Very similiar to CCAvenue.

• Supports only Visa & Mastercard and a few bank transfers.
• Easy to install and get going.
• Standard documentation and risk analysis process
• Money is credited on a weekly basis.
• Subscription plans are very simliar to CCAvenues.

Paypal (www.paypal.com)

Recently paypal started remitting money to India via credit card, bank transfer or cheque. This has opened up a huge opportunity for Indian Merchants catering to the west. Its fast and relatively hassle free.

• Simplest possible registration process.
• Integration also very simple.
• Payments accepted in dollars or euros. Rupees not accepted.
• Payments are credited to your account  which can then be withdrawn  whenever convenient.
• Lower percentage fees but withdrawals in some cases do attract fees.
• You could loose money in the exchange rate transfer to Rupees.
• Is widely used so the money accrued in dollars can be used for purchasing other services in dollars without remitting to India.

HDFC Bank - Avoid, service is terrible. Integration can take months. Does not support Linux server based sites well.  Problematic.

The above are the ones I have had direct experience with but there are others like  Axis Bank, ABC Payment etc. Cannot comment on these as I have not had direct experience with them.

Caution: Since the gateways are always upgrading some of the above mentioned facts might not stand true forever. Do visit their sites and get the latest directly from them.

If you have any comments on the above do mail me at ron@miracleworx.com. Would love to hear your experiences with these gateways.

Will keep posting interesting gateway related issues as we experience them.

Cheers,
Ron

Do visit us at http://www.miracleworx.com or check out our portfolio at http://www.miracleworx.com/portfolio.htm