Who Needs Cash When There's Electronic Money!

By Merle
Posted Friday, July 16, 2004

How to accept electronic payments online

It's a new world. Gone are the days of writing paper checks and entering credit card numbers. Now with the click of a mouse you can pay anyone anywhere, anytime, or you can receive payments yourself without a merchant account. All you need is the right service and an email address.

There are so many "electronic payment" services on the Net today, if you're not taking advantage of them you're missing out on a fast, simple way to move money around. If you're selling products or services online, adding one or more of these payment processes to your site will give your visitors more options and possibly result in more sales for you.

Let's examine some of the Top Players a little more closely:

1) PayPal (http://www.PayPal.com)

PayPal has to be the most popular of the payment services available by far. They offer three different account types: Personal, which has a limit of 100.00 per month in credit card payments; Premier, for those in need of high transactions (which means you need to accept a large number of credit card payments); and Business accounts, which are intended for business use only. A business account includes the ability to accept payment from your website and use of PayPal's shopping cart along with your own ATM/Debit card which allows you to access your funds at any local bank or use the debit card like a credit card at any store.

Fees: For Premier accounts these are 2.2% of each transaction plus $.30. Business users pay 2.9% per transaction plus $.30. There are no transaction fees for personal accounts. They do allow International payments for some countries; check the site for details.

2) BidPay: (http://www.BidPay.com)

Owned by Western Union and devised to make paying for online auctions easier. Basically, when you open an account with them you purchase money orders that they send out to pay for any auctions you may have won. Cannot handle transactions over 00.00. The money orders are mailed out within 24 hours. Emails are sent to the buyer and seller once payment is on its way. All payments under 00.00 are charged a .00 flat fee. Money orders between 00.01 and 00.00 are charged .00 +2.25% of the face value of the money order. International access allowed but limited to certain areas.

3) Yahoo Pay Direct (http://PayDirect.yahoo.com)

Send and receive money anywhere in the US with only an email address. You can transfer money to and from your online account with a credit card or from your offline bank. U.S. accounts only with no fees of any kind to use the service. The minimum amount of money you can send is .00 and the max is 00.00 -- that is, until you respond to a special verification mailing from them, after which they up your limit to ,000.00

4) C2IT : (http://www.C2It.com)

This service is a part of Citibank, and when you register with them you'll receive a 0.00 sign up bonus. This one can be used to send cash to anyone in the U.S. with only an e mail address. Funds can be drawn from a credit card or your offline bank as well. Fees range depending on the type of transaction. Sending cash from your C2it account will cost you 1.00% of the transaction amount with a minimum. of .50. To transfer funds from your linked bank account to any linked account 1.60% of transaction with a .50 minimum. Requesting a check will run you .00. You must be a resident of the United States to use this service.

As you can see, there are many options available to you for moving cash around the Net quickly and easily. Personally, I use PayPal and have found the majority of people I encounter on the Internet have a PayPal account. You'll want to take into account a service's popularity before deciding on which one is just right for you.

Moving money electronically is a beautiful thing! And that you can take to the bank -- literally!

About the Author
Merle is an internet marketer, promotion consultant and ezine publisher. Visit her sites at (http://www.mcpromotions.com/), (http://www.merlesworld.com/) and (http://www.ezineadauction.com/).