By Rich Eichacker
Vibrance Technology Corporation
As a consultant or small business without an e-commerce site, you may find it convenient for your clients and customers to pay you electronically. With today's technology, it's easier than ever.
Credit Cards
If your clients are interested in paying by credit card, the traditional method is to sign up with a credit card service. A number of vendors provide this service, including: Charge.Com, VeriSign, which has merged with CyberCash, and IntelliPay.
Rates typically range from 1.5% - 5% of each transaction, plus a transaction fee of around $0.25. There may also be an application fee of a few hundred dollars or more.
Each of these services provide a number of different ways to accept credit card payments: web-site integration, stand-alone PC or Mac software packages, and credit card swipe terminals. A caveat, you may have to enable your web site for e-commerce to use some of these services.
Another option for credit card processing is your ISP. At the very least, they may be able to help you set up the service. The benefit here is that ISPs already have relationships with payment services and the whole process may be much smoother because of it. Their fees and service offerings will probably be similar to those of credit card transaction vendors.
E-Cash
An alternative to credit cards is e-cash, especially if you plan on infrequent transactions or low volume. E-cash grew from the on-line auction phenomenon as a way to facilitate payments, but it is now finding its way into more general use. E-cash systems are inexpensive and secure, but in some cases limit the dollar amount you may receive per day or per month. Fees for using e-cash vary, but they are typically less than credit cards. Also, e-cash systems don't require a setup fee or special software or hardware.
PayPal is one of the most popular e-cash systems and sending cash is as easy as sending an email. After registering, you can send a payment request to your client. They in turn go to the PayPal web site and make a payment to you using a bank account or credit card. For this transaction, you would be charged 2.9% + $.30 at the Business Standard Rate. Once you've received the payment, you can either obtain a paper check or have the funds transferred to a bank account.
Most e-cash systems work similarly to PayPal, however, terms and fees vary greatly, so do your homework!
Other e-cash sites: Billpoint, Citibank's c2it, Yahoo! PayDirect, and BankOne's eMoneyMail.
Fall 2001 -Volume 11, Number 4