Yes I think the banks in AU could certainly get MORE business if they ramp up their online payment offerings to start-ups.

One offshore payment processor that were recommended which seem to be helpful and good are http://www.globalcollect.com/ .

There is also a local company that have been very helpful with advice
http://www.pure-commerce.com/

Kevin

Thanks for the detailed response.

Re CBA - yeah I tried to get on to their beta product to do multi-currency. Turns out they have about 5 customers and the “trial” isn’t going well. They told me that they have to revise their approach and won’t be able to get anything out there at least this financial year.

Re NAB - I can’t believe with the advancement of ecommerce, Australia is effectively still in the dark ages. How can we foster a startup community ala Silicon Beach and Technation etc when we don’t have the basic infrastructure here like payment processing to support things?

I also find the lack of knowledge about doing internet payments from the bank’s support staff an eye opener. At one point someone ask when a technician can come to install my terminal… Doh!

May I ask which payment gateway you ended up with? PayPal or something else? What has your experience been like? I tried eWay but their service offering is half baked - they don’t even have instant payment notification or anything I can call to see if the payment has actually gone through successfully or not.

dave

Yes NAB is the only bank in AU that has a multicurrency option compatible with online payment gateways. I believe that CBA is looking into creating a similar product.

Furthermore the NAB multicurrency only works with VISA and Mastercard. With respect to AMEX a separate solution needs to be found.

There really isn’t anything in Australia geared up towards a fast moving start-up. The banks tend to deal with timelines in weeks and months as opposed to us start-ups that like to deal in days. They also tend to be more used to working with large start-ups.

I believe Google has registered for a financial license of sorts in Australia and there are rumours it will be putting together a payment platform here. This is very much needed and will help create much needed competition.

NAB have been doing what they can to help us so if you need any further advice email me at admin@spellr.us and I will try to help.

Kevin

I’ve got the exact same issues. Realised after setting up with CBA and eWay that NAB is the *only* bank in Australia that deals with USD. Now, I’m going through the paperwork associated with NAB and trying to get setup with PayPal.

Is that what you ended up doing also?

thanks,
dave