There are various ways to accept online payment for your website:

A merchant account through a major bank is best for larger companies but a bit pricey for small businesses. PaySeal (www.payseal.com) is the payment gateway for ICICI Bank. Citibank India (www.citibank.com/india/) and HDFC Bank (www.hdfcbank.com/wholesale/sme/Payment_Gateway_Services.htm) also offer a payment gateway and merchant account, but details aren’t on their websites.

A second approach is to use third parties that take credit cards for your sales. CCAvenue (www.ccavenue.com/indianrupees.jsp), an Indian company, provides direct debiting for customers in India with accounts at: HDFC, Citibank, ICICI, IDBI, UTI, Global Trust Bank, Centurion Bank, and the Federal Bank Ltd. In addition, credit cards can be received from customers outside India. Typical costs are a Rs. 7,500/- set-up fee, Rs. 1,200/- annual fee, and 7% to receive credit cards, 4% for net banking transfers. Transecute (www.transecute.com) includes fraud detection and risk mitigation. They charge a Rs. 30,000/- set-up fee and 5% per transaction. Also consider companies mentioned in “E-Commerce When You Can’t Get a Merchant Account,” Web Marketing Today, Feb 15, 2006. (http://www.wilsonweb.com/art/ecomm/3rd-world-ecomm.htm)

A third approach is to set up a PayPal account (available to residents of India) and use PayPal’s merchant tools to accept credit cards and sell online. The downside is that you can’t directly withdraw PayPal funds to a bank in India (though you can request a check). But you can transfer US dollars in a PayPal account to Remit2India (www.remit2india.com), a service of the Times of India. They convert it into Indian Rupees and deliver it to your designated recipient. Costs are the PayPal recipient fee of 2.95% plus 3% to 5% fees for Remit2India. See details in their FAQ. (www.timesofmoney.com/remittance/jsp/toi_faq.jsp?uiId=TOI&partnerId=TOML&faq=paypal)

As with many online transaction companies, most of the companies mentioned above have received some complaints that can be found by searching on the Internet. Let the buyer beware!

This posting is from http://www.wilsonweb.com/transactions/ecomm-india.htm