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Hi Joakim;
Over the years, I have used a few and learned a few things along the way, too.
In the early 2000s, I was using a company called Cl*ckp*y. I used them for over a year, perhaps 2 and was quite happy with them. When they went out of business, I lost over $2,000 in funds that were never paid to me when they shut their doors.
After that, I went to P*ysyst*ms. I liked that they had a Canadian and USA offices. When their IBS (internet billing) was shut down, I lost about $500 in fees that were never paid to me.
P*ysyst*ms contacted all the merchants and said "they" aren't holding the money, their provider is. They are spearheading a class action suit to try get our money back. I'm not holding my breath.
At that time, I sent an email to 2checkout asking them what provisions they have in place to ensure that the same thing that happened to P*ysyst*ms will not happen with them. They did not reply. So, I sent it again. Again, they did not reply. I went with Paypal.
Today, I personally recommend only three merchant billing companies. Authorize.net, paypal and clickbank if you sell downloads, services or non-tangible products.
-- Paypal is owned by ebay. Thus, they have more muscle with the banking and credit card organizations than a smaller company would.
--Authorize.net is the institution most banks recommend.
--Clickbank has been around for so long that their muscle isn't far behind paypal. However, due to their higher fees (compared to paypal) I'd only recommend them if you want the built in affiliate program.
I am not saying 2co isn't good. I'm sure they are. Lots of people are happy with their service. But then, lots of people were happy with the companies that went belly up, too. The only thing that bothered me was that when I asked what provisions they had to avoid the situation that shut down P*ysyst*ms IBS, they didn't even bother to reply. Not once, but twice.
If you do a lot of billing, enough to support monthly user fees, Authorize.net is probably the best route. Otherwise, look at paypal or clickbank.
That's just my personal opinion, of course, but having lost money twice when supposedly "stable" services went belly up, I'm banking on the giants in the industry from here on in.
: )
Linda
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