Instead of redirecting users to PayPal and requiring them to have PayPal accounts with credit cards linked to them, I can directly ask for their credit card information. This is how it should look after the Recurly integration is complete: http://imgur.com/SHC0a
I am now paying PayPal $339 / month.
Recurly charges 1.25% + $0.10 / transaction + $69 / month. WireCard charges 2.75% + $0.19 / transaction + $24 / month. My total cost from these would then be about $473 / month. If I can get ~20 new customers because of this more convenient payment method, then it was worthwhile.
I'm also expecting some increased life happiness from having to deal less with PayPal (the interface is sloooow).
I think some customers (like myself) would be more hesitant to use a non-PayPal option on your site. With PayPal, I can easily cancel at any time. I would be worried that by directly providing you with my credit card number, it would be harder to cancel.
I might have direct credit card input as the big default button and a smaller PayPal link for those that prefer that. I will have to continue supporting PayPal indefinitely in any case since I have all subscribers there now.
And how are you going to handle SSL encryption for your checkout/cc page? Going to use a separate hosting service for that part?
I see that you're running on App Engine, hence the question...
HTTPS works for appspot domains, so I thought I'd redirect them to bemmu1.appspot.com for the checkout. That wouldn't exactly inspire confidence in the service, but just until App Engine gets around to adding proper support.
This interests me the most. Could you shad some light as of why you switching knowing the cost will go up. You say it will improve conversions, but #1 isnt PayPal still the most well known payment system over the web, and #2 dont they offer payment via regular credit cards?
What you trying to do here, is replace better option with narrower one for all customers. If anything, you should add Google Checkout, as I got used to using it over PayPal (and sometimes wont convert) because PayPal got me real mad couple times in the past.