limited choices for virtuemart 2.0 gateway

[krbart]

I am using j1.7 with Virtuemart 2.0, and both will be upgraded to 2.5 prior to being published as new Ecommerce webpage for local Art Gallery.
I have heard authorize.net fee policies as a gateway provider to be expensive and terms of use to be riddled with hidden fees, and even more horrifying stories for paypal, therefore am not convinced either is my best choice for my payment gateway.
1) Can anyone shed some light on reliable gateways available for VM2 today, since I need to select a provider ASAP? 
2)Sagepay seems to be the best I have found for VM2 that has competitive fee structure, any comments on sagepay experiences.
3)Any comments on pros and cons from those using Auth.net and paypal, since these seem to be most popular for early development?
4)I expect many more providers to be available in near future to shop around for best fee structure on VM2 as in VM1.  My thinking is get a provider now that will have no long term contract of usage and most importantly, SECURE and reliable, and can easily change providers if necessary in future as more gateways are developed for VM2.  I have searched the forum with limited info on these topics directly and would like to avoid any pitfalls in my gateway's decision process...any comments or links to other providers in the pipeline converting VM1 gateways to VM2 in the near future....any target dates?

 

[jenkinhill]

You don't say what country you are in, but here in the UK Sagepay rates are competitive at £20 a month plus your merchant card service providers fee, say a couple of hundred pounds to set up and up to 5% on each transaction, depending on your business trading history. Since they are based in the UK support is pretty good and near instant.

For most startups (and possibly with initial cash flow problems) Paypal provides an good solution and is much more acceptable to customers these days, especially as with a Premium account the customer sees the option to pay using card or their Paypal account if the have one. Card handling fee is about 4% with no monthly charge. In some countries you would need a business account to get card facilities available to the shopper, that costs £20 a month plus about 4%.

[krbart]

Thanks Kelvyn, I am in USA and expect most of my business to be from this side of the pond, is sagepay supported in USA.   
My webmaster has warned me against Auth.net and paypal thru past clients negative experiences.  I assume you mention paypal pro b/c its more stable than Auth.net for VM2 at this date and that these are simplest gateways to implement for a newbie. 

[jenkinhill]

Paypal is the easiest to implement and whenever I have used them, reliable. There was bad press once - but that was a long time ago. Don't know about Authorize as I can't use it in the UK. I don't think Sage can be used in US - but I have never tried......

[peekaweb]

I also would like some information about payment gateways, I just started a thread in regards to this new paypal product https://www.x.com/developers/paypal/products/paypal-payments-advanced also google checkout might be a good option, and I believe there is already a plugin (commercial) out there OSE Google Checkout for VirtueMart http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/extension-specific/virtuemart-extensions/virtuemart-payment-systems/8045 let me know what you find out. Thank you.