# Online payment questions

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/online-payment-questions/137125>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 9, 2008, 4:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/online-payment-questions/137125 "2008-05-09T04:45:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![chrisolsen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@chrisolsen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chrisolsen)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 4:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/online-payment-questions/137125/1 "2008-05-09T04:45:48Z")

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I am looking for some input from people that setup a payment gateway of  
some sort.

First of I am curious to the advantages/disadvantages of using paypal vs  
other services like braintree gateway offer.

Lastly, I am wondering if anyone has any tips that would help someone  
out on their first time. I have found some material on setting up  
payments, but it is just the basics of a one time payment. In the real  
world you have to deal with cancelled accounts, partial refunds, account  
upgrades and other scenarios which require updates to the payment setup.

If anyone could offer a few tips I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![chrisolsen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@chrisolsen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chrisolsen)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 5:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/online-payment-questions/137125/2 "2008-05-09T17:40:54Z")

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Check out the peepcode pdf on active merchant; it walks through a  
pretty complete implementation of the braintree gateway. It’ll cost  
you $9 but it is well worth it and goes into much more detail than any  
of the free online stuff.  
[http://peepcode.com/products/activemerchant-pdf](http://peepcode.com/products/activemerchant-pdf)

We started with paypal but switched to braintree for several reasons:

- Payment provider brand doesn’t need to be exposed. It just looks  
more professional, and you can provide a smoother experience to to  
your customers.
- Fees can be lower, in some scenarios.
- Ability to do future charges, credits, subscriptions, etc., without  
having to store the credit card info locally, and without having to  
send the customer to the paypal site to do so.

Michael S.  
[www.BuildingWebApps.com](http://www.BuildingWebApps.com)

On May 8, 7:45 pm, Chris O. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

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**Author:** ![chrisolsen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@chrisolsen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chrisolsen)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 7:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/online-payment-questions/137125/3 "2008-05-09T19:00:20Z")

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We use PayPal Website Payments Pro for ease of use and the ability to  
accept money directly from other PayPal accounts (some customers view  
it almost as “free money” that’s really easy to spend - good for the  
merchant!). See this thread for contributions from others:

[http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk/browse\_thread/thread/4408cc97824f4e27/0e0a5d096a82da89?lnk=st&q=#0e0a5d096a82da89](http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk/browse_thread/thread/4408cc97824f4e27/0e0a5d096a82da89?lnk=st&q=#0e0a5d096a82da89)

With regard to partial refunds, etc., we’re able to do those things  
from within the PayPal interface, so I didn’t have to write code for  
it - a definite plus.

That being said, if we didn’t _have_ to accept PayPal as a form of  
payment (as my manager mandates), I’d probably look into Michael’s  
setup above.

-Kyle

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**Author:** ![chrisolsen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@chrisolsen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chrisolsen)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 6:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/online-payment-questions/137125/4 "2008-05-09T18:14:07Z")

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Michael S. wrote:

> Check out the peepcode pdf on active merchant; it walks through a  
> pretty complete implementation of the braintree gateway. It’ll cost  
> you $9 but it is well worth it and goes into much more detail than any  
> of the free online stuff.  
> [http://peepcode.com/products/activemerchant-pdf](http://peepcode.com/products/activemerchant-pdf)

I have read it. It is pretty basic and doesn’t go over any gotchas. It  
is good though.

> We started with paypal but switched to braintree for several reasons:
> 
> - Payment provider brand doesn’t need to be exposed. It just looks  
> more professional, and you can provide a smoother experience to to  
> your customers.

That is what I think. After talking to users of the site it seemed they  
liked paypal’s convenience, ie just login and pay, rather than looking  
for credit card.

> - Ability to do future charges, credits, subscriptions, etc., without  
> having to store the credit card info locally, and without having to  
> send the customer to the paypal site to do so.

Does Paypal require you to store the credit card numbers on your  
database? If so that is a definite con.

Thanks for the input.