After being on horizon with long posts which offered detailed explanations etc had been trying ways to look at daily blogging which wouldnt take much time and will also ensure twitter reader friendly posts 
These posts shouldnt require much time and can be pieces of information which were there in mind but just needed penning down or something have been researching.
The first post will be on my favourite space ” Payment Gateways available for your sites in India ” and my 2 cents on same
1 .ICICI Bank Payseal Payment Gateway
Wouldnt recommend to anyone just on the pure customer service and lack of understanding on sensitivity required or processes companies utilizing payment gateway have. Detailed post available
Mix Reaction to their services as offline merchants are not the happy lot but online customers do complain about the time interface provided.
Traditional bank looking at adding traditional merchant clients – looks like not a core-service for them
4. AXIS (UTI Bank) Payment Gateway
After long time enjoying great customer service as their platform partner is good with technology and bank is very active on customer net turnover less than 5 crores through payment gateway
5. ABCPayments
No feedback available but its an Inter mesh corporation the company behind Indiamart.com
6. CC Avenues
Inability to accept Master card and higher transaction fees charges to customer is a detterent.Too many complains to even add on a post though very small merchants <1L Rs every year are very happy.
7. Paypal
International payment gateway not ideal for indian merchants due to lot of charges or fees paid in getting money into own account and loss due to currency fluctuation.
8. Transecute
No feedback available
9. EBS
Reseller model similar to CCAvenues but better they deal with banks and provide easy to use interface for SME’s
10. Had no one worth mentioning so self promotion as one stop consultant for payment gateway solutions
What Rubbish! I have used ICICI, EBS and CCAvenue and trust me CCAvenue beats down any PG in the world. Great number of bank payments options, have got MasterCard, Visa, Amex and other 30+ payment options and on time payments. The rate I have got is about 3% accross most options. Only their Risk Management of transactions is rigid but it help saves us chargeback losses. I dont where you get these feedback. According to my 7 years experience, I can say that Citi, Icici, hdfc, Axis bank gateways dont take on medium to small OR new merchants. Transecute is closed down a couple of years back and now ABC Payments shut down in May 2009. PayPal does not give INR processing and their settlement takes ages. Ebs is a new PG but very limited payment option and high rates. I would give two thumbs up to only ccavenue.com.
Dear Dinesh,
(Siddharth, i request you to send this response to Dinesh as you might be having his email id)
WTF, you talk about ccA. it is one of the most costly (3rd party – non-bank) service and charges very high. All they earn money is by their monopoly. 40K for having 3% TDS is too much. how does a new startup will comeup? they have tight margins.
Can you (or ccA) please tell me what the difference in setting-up Economy and Privilege scheme? Nothing at all (it’s just one parameter you give at the time of creating account). I’m a software developer and business analyst. I understand the system. All this no-refundable fees are like donation (just same as donation given in schools under the table !!!) and ccA is getting this just bcoz of monopoly. let PayPal/G-checkout come for Indian market all their (ccA) business will be gone.
And one more thing why the hell you (ccA) need annual software maintenance charges?
Paypal/Google checkout don’t have any setup or monthly charges. They don;t have any annual fees. Their TDS are fixed (~2.5)and lesser than ccA/EBS or any indian provider (3-7%).
The setup fees are totally illegal. Some one should stand up and appeal in consumer court.
Siddharth, I am looking for your advice for the selecting a cost effective payment gateway that supports both Visa & Master network for online debit card and netbanking. We are a startup and about to launch a website. We have tight margins. Hope you understand.
Ankit
I totally agreed with Ankit, Siddharth can you pl. give your reply on Ankits points? It will help all of us
Manoj
Hi Ankit,
Unfortunately comparing International payment gateways and Indian payment gateways on TDR would not be fair as transaction fees charged by Master card and Visa to them as compared to Indian bank is way different for instance in US they might charge bank some where between 0.5-1% but in India they start 0.9-1.5% so transaction charge ranges are completely different now if you do the same margin maths at which those international provider are providing services then 2-3% charged by them looks justifiable.
Though one need to understand if you intent to use International payment gateway post settlement and loss on currency exchanges etc there can be a net impact of 0.5-1% so be wary of same. Also the money brought in from such payment acceptance systems like paypal etc will run into financial rule violation so do check that with your CA. Personally would advice working with some bank instead of CC avenue etc as payment gateway leads to opening of a merchant account with bank which can be used as collateral to avail lot of other services from bank by showing volume in such account which can help your business(Over draft limit etc).
If you have money upfront invest in HDFC/AXIS Bank payment gateway alternatively go via EBS as service provider and insist on AXIS bank for making merchant bank settlement. Both the alternatively would work best
Are there differences in terms of purchase success ( approve/decline) rates using international Payment Processing vs. Indian Payment Processing?
Post August 1, 2009, is it true that a card issued in India would be approved without SecureCode or VBV if the acquiring bank is not in India whereas the same card used online at a merchant in India with Local Acquirer might be declined/rejected?