Hi All We're in the process of setting up with NAB and yes, it's extremely difficult. With regards to not getting call backs, I had to go into the branch and refuse to leave to actually arrange a meeting with a business banker. When I met him he basically outlined that even without the expensive (1200 setup fee) multi currency facility, NAB is the most difficult to get a merch account with because they got burned so badly by Ansett. Basically from the time that a payment is made, to the time that the product or service is delivered, the bank is liable for that payment. If your business goes down, the bank has to refund the customers. So, even with NAB depending on your delivery times there may be strong resistance to giving you an account.
In the context of an online service, where we provide permanent online archiving, this time period is both immediate (they pay and receive the listing immediately) and forever (we're expected to maintain that information online as long as we're in business). I have yet to hear the outcome of how their merch approval board is going to deal with this scenario. I'd like to know did others who have succeeded getting a merch facility with NAB, to get the PCI Security compliance for your online payments did you just do a self-assessment or did you have to get a third-party scan done? I spoke to a security expert who said NAB shouldn't expect us to get full compliance, but the nab website approval form seems to think we do have to. We'll be using it with Eway who can handle subscriptions easily (in response to a comment above). We've been using Eway for a while and found them to be excellent. I don't recommend any entrepreneurs try and develop a solution for this as one would expect Google Checkout and Paypal Pro to offer direct services to Australians ahead of anyone else. It's incredibly annoying that it can't be done easily, we've got an immense number of startup online businesses here getting international customers. It's weird actually selling in AUD to European and American customers, but we're doing it. However it's painful to know that for every dollar we achieve in AUD sales, we could have had a few thousand in USD or EUR. Someone mentioned setting it up in Hong Kong, any more advice there? Thanks for the info provided above. I'll be exploring CBA as an option in the meantime. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Guidelines on discussion: http://tr.im/ujKF No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself: http://tr.im/ujMm To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en
