I am thinking of adding Google Checkout to my site to allow people to pay for their sessions up front.
Does anyone here use Google Checkout already?
If so how do you like it?
How much will it cost me?
I also became more interested in this recently because smugmug is now offering Holiday Cards and as of now only members can make them. Google Checkout could make it easier for people to buy them from me.
Free credit card processing until 2008 When you sell with Google Checkout, you can process all of your Checkout sales for free until 2008. And there are no monthly, setup or gateway fees.
Fee savings in 2008 and beyond Beginning January 1, 2008, when you use Google Checkout™ to process your sales, you'll only be charged a low 2% + $0.20 per transaction. If you're an AdWords advertiser, you will also be eligible for free credit card processing for some or all of your Google Checkout sales.
they also offer an api for integrating into custom built websites. this looks like something worth looking into. thanks for raising the question.
no idea why they want your credit card...but i'm sure if you ask them, they'll give you a good reason ;-)
i imagine they pay by direct deposit to your bank; just a question of whether it is immediate, or monthly.
haven't seen the cards (or andy's site) because i haven't really done anything over there in a long time. (my stuff is at smug just because i haven't had time to move it all over to exposure manager, where people who buy my prints are actually my customers and not they online service's (when i got a sales order notice, i get the buyer's name, address, phone number, as well as their email address...). em is not the be-all-end-all, but it's a lot closer, especially with only a 10% commission and the ability to self-fulfill, offer packages, discounts, coupons, and to be able to offer items other than prints that i produce (like dvds, cds, customer posters, etc)--all that, without having to set up something like google checkout...)
I'd never even heard of them before this thread. It sounds like they're trying to take business from Paypal.
The main disadvantage I can see is that a lot more people have Paypal accounts than Google Checkout accounts. It's so much easier just to enter your Paypal username/password when you're buying something online rather than go through yet another registration process.
I just signed up 2 weeks ago and sold a lens through it. No problems, and NO fees until February I think. When I registered I had to supply my bank account number to have funds deposited there. It works alot like paypal. The person pays with their credit card/bank account, it goes into your google checkout account, you log in, retrieve the money and in a couple of days it is posted to your account. After Feb, I think the fees are $0.20per transaction plus 2%. I had read good things about it and can say I'm not disappointed.
