I've been using paypal for 5 years I think. My sales increased when I started using it. They increased again when I offered an alternative to paypal, too.

Paypal has had problems in the past. You'll find lots of complaints on it. When I have a complaint I call right away. So far, so good. I'm able to download the paypal files and then upload them into Quickbooks Pro. Makes a check register of the items. Then I have to fix the income/expense fields, add customer info.


2Co is the alternative I currently use (I'm researching regular merchant accounts, too) Been using that for 3 or 4 years. They upgraded it and did something to the way the accounting was done. IMO it's a pain in the rear to balance and it does cost more to use. However, there are many -- including companies who will not use paypal. So it's an alternative.

Depending on the amount of sales you have, paypal and 2co are good alternatives to use. My shopping cart allows people to decide which way they want to pay me.

I'm pretty sure that on www.TheResourceQueen.com I have a bunch of merchant account recomendations, too.