EBS – The best payment gateway in India?

Disclosure : www.mobikwik.com uses E-billing Solutions.There’s been a lot of debate of late over which is the best payment gateway in India. A payment gateway is essentially a 3rd party which creates a merchant account for a business to accept payments on their behalf.

CCAvenue has long been a leader in this space. Back in 2008 when we contacted them, they just refused to even talk to me. I filled in their online form but no response.

We also contacted TimesofMoney ( used by Google Adwords in India) supported by the Times of India Group. Response was prompt, but they refused to accept credit cards on our behalf as we were a startup.

We also contacted abcpayments ( which has since shut shop , I guess) and paysignet but the rates were unsatisfactory and low quality was apparent.

Finally we contacted E-billing solutions and started talking. As a startup, established companies usually take you for granted . However, this was not the case with E-billing solutions from day one. I think I spoke to 2 or 3 of their employees independently and all of them came across as professional and flexible. Remember that mobikwik had not started generating any revenues by then. We finally struck a deal and got the Integration API from them.

1) People and Attitude

Very professional as explained above. Don’t treat fledgling startups as sh*t.

2) Quality of API

We were impressed with the quality of API. Not many merchants give this a second thought but a tightly knit API can save you from many surprises later on. Developers know what I am talking about.

3) Risk Management

Ours is a real time product, which means once product is sold there’s no way to get it back. There’s no shipping delay which means fraud checking need to be immediate. While not 100% accurate, EBS risk management system has been of great help to us by flagging transactions based on various parameters : country/ip mismatch, velocity checks and so on. This is real time flagging which implies a fraudster will not get the product immediately.

4) Commission –

Not the best but decent if you explain your business model + ambition correctly.

5)  Banks and Cards support –

Not the best in coverage but getting there. Except for a few obscure banks/cards and SBI maestro, they support every bank and credit card.

6) Support system –

EBS has a very good customer support system setup. It responds within an hour at worst, accepts their mistakes and corrects them. They are also willing to listen to you to improve their own system.

Ofcourse, we havent used other payment gateways, but as a startup, I would go with EBS just for points 1) and 6). Highly recommended.

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