How to compare payment gateways

Choose a payment gateway for a small Singapore business by pricing the transactions you actually take and testing the path from customer payment to reconciliation and refund. A low advertised percentage can be outweighed by fixed charges, delayed settlement, extra payment methods or support work when a transaction fails. Request written provider terms for the same transaction mix before integrating anything.

What should the comparison sheet contain?

Take one recent or forecast month and record transaction count, average amount, online or in-person share, payment methods, refunds and cross-border payments. Make the assumptions explicit. For an illustrative shop, 100 online transactions average S$80, five are refunded and ten involve cards issued outside Singapore. Those numbers are fictional; they exist so two providers can price the same workload. Ask each for the percentage and fixed fee per successful transaction, refund fee, chargeback handling, monthly minimum, setup, hardware if relevant, tax on fees and settlement schedule.

Ask what “settled” means: when the gateway marks a payment successful, when money reaches the bank and what happens to funds during a dispute. Test whether a failed payment appears in the order system and whether staff can distinguish paid, pending, refunded and reversed orders. Do not count a checkout screen as the whole product. A daily payout report that cannot be reconciled with invoices may create a manual month-end problem.

IRAS's GST invoicing guidance is relevant when the business is GST-registered and needs its sale and refund records to support correct documents. The actual tax position depends on the business; ask its accountant what information must flow from checkout into the accounting system. The PDPC obligations overview is the starting point for customer data; ask the gateway what data it collects, stores and shares, and how the merchant can handle access or deletion requests. A vendor's compliance logo is not a substitute for current contract and security review.

What should a live trial prove?

Use a small authorised test environment or low-value real transaction after the provider and business approve the setup. Attempt a successful payment, a declined payment, a customer-abandoned checkout, a full refund and a partial refund if your business uses one. Check the customer message, internal order status, payout report and accounting entry for each. Name who can issue refunds and how they are approved. Do not use real customer card details in a casual demo. IMDA's SMEs Go Digital pathway is a route for exploring digital solutions, but it does not decide which gateway or contract is best for this shop.

How do you decide between two quotes?

Calculate the expected fees for the sample month, then add support, integration and exit costs. Ask for the renewal price and how notice works if the service no longer fits. A provider with a slightly higher transaction fee may be preferable if reconciliation and refunds need less staff time, but measure that time during the trial rather than guessing. Keep a short risk list: settlement delay, outage support, chargebacks, data export and merchant-account termination. No article can promise approval, fee savings or uninterrupted processing.

For month-end closing, begin with the process-writing guide, customer-enquiry approval rules for refund messages, and operations guides. You may send Methodology a payment-flow question as an editorial enquiry; we do not select, sell or integrate a gateway for you.

Common questions