I’m writing this based on the fiasco this week around PayPal and Regretsy It’s a reminder of the sort of power that your gateway and merchant account can have – and why having the ability to change quickly might be a good idea.

Getting a gateway and a merchant account can feel like an impediment when thinking about commerce online – especially for a start up. We understand that. Therefore many people do a quick price comparison, scour the web for good or bad comments, and jump in. At Spreedly we believe to write to just one gateway is a risky proposition. Therefore, a guiding principle here is to create gateway independence. We’ve connected to 25+ gateways Now, you still have to pick an initial gateway and merchant account. We focus on making sure we support your choice.

Why is it risky? Let’s say you decide you want to change your gateway. It might be that you’re unhappy with your current choice. Support might not be what you were hoping for or, as you grow, you realize that a few basis points difference is really starting to add up. Or it might be that you’re happy with your current offering but a new gateway comes along that you find very compelling and desire to switch.

If you had written to the Spreedly API – and we support your new gateway – switching is simple. If you have written directly to the gateway you have to now write to a new gateway API. Doable, but a real dampener on change. Secondly, if you’ve written to Spreedly we have retained your customer credit card information. No asking politely and hoping that your gateway will return it to you. Some make it very difficult (impossible?) while others make it easier. Either way it’s their least favorite type of support request and in all fairness, given PCI requirements, is not as straight forward as attaching a spreadsheet on an email. However, you really have no choice but to grit it out and get your customer data back. Otherwise you’re looking at significant churn when, after changing gateways, you require your customers to re-enter their credit card information because you couldn’t bring it over. I’ve heard anecdotal stories of people who went down that route rather than continue to wait for their old gateway to come good.

That’s why we see two types of customers. Those that are new to launching their service and shop gateway’s based on price and word of mouth. Then there is the second group – “not my first time at the rodeo” type . Their eyes light up when they realize they can have their favorite gateway and gateway independence too.