Auction Articles

Electronic Payment Services: Money Still Exchanges Hands, it

By: Merle

Buying and selling products or services online just
got a whole lot easier. Using only a person's e-mail
address, you can pay for purchases and receive money
owed to you without ever touching an actual green
dollar bill. Of course, not touching it might take
some of the fun out of getting paid, but it's still
your money just the same. It's virtual money.

So, you're saying to yourself right about now,
"How is this magical feat performed?" A variety
of online payment services have sprung up
to make virtual payment a
reality (no pun intended).

If you need to pay someone or someone needs to
pay you all you need to know is their e-mail
address and which service they are using. If someone
sends you money through a service you're not
currently a member of, no problem. You simply
register (which is most always free) and collect
your hard earned cash.

Payments are made either by tapping into your offline
bank account or using your card. Of course,
once enough people start using this option,
your electronic service account balance will enable
you to pay your debts without tapping into
your card or bank
account. Converting your virtual money to the real thing
is as simple as requesting a check for an amount
not exceeding what's
in your account, and a "real" check will show
up at your "real" house in less than a week.

Let's take a look at some of the more popular
services and how they work.

PAYPAL: https://secure.paypal.x.com/refer/pal=merle%40mcpromotions.com

PayPal, a part of online bank X.com, has
got to be the largest online payment service today.
They claim over 3 million customers to date. Free
to register, but business accounts are charged 1.9%
to receive funds.

Payments can be made using Mastercard, Visa or
your offline bank account. They also pay a 5.00
referral bonus for every friend you get to sign
up with them. At this time PayPal does not take
International payments but does have plans to
expand into that arena shortly.

eCOUNT: http://www.ecount.com

Free to register and use. eCount payments can be
made with Discover, Mastercard or Visa. Transactions
are limited to $1,000.00 a day at this time.

YAHOO PAY DIRECT: http://www.paydirect.yahoo.com

Free to register and use, Yahoo allows you to accept
payments with American Express, Discover, Mastercard,
or bank transactions from your existing offline
account. They do have a monthly transaction limit
of $1,000.00 for all transactions.

EMONEY MAIL: http://www.emoneymail.com

Boosting over 20,000 users Emoney Mail's service is
not free to use. They charge $1.00 to send money
and transactions are limited to $500.00 a day.
The only way to send money is using your Visa.
No Visa, no money for you....that reminds me of an
old Seinfeld episode, but that's another story.

PROPAY: http://www.propay.com

This service charges 3.5% of total, plus .35 to
move funds to your bank account. Transactions are
limited to $250.00 a day. Only two ways to send
money with this one; Mastercard or Visa. One nice
perk of this service is they'll pay you $10.00
for every person you send to them who registers.
Not a bad referral program, if I do say so
myself.

BILLPOINT: http://www.billpoint.com

This is E-Bay's service and is the preferred method
to use if buying or selling on their auction site.
No registration is needed for auction buyers to
use this service, but sellers must register and
pay .35 per transaction for amounts up to $10.00,
and .35 and 3.5% for transactions over $10.00.

Transactions can be paid using Visa, Mastercard,
Discover, or online check.

As you can see, buying and selling online no longer
requires you to have a merchant account, which levels
the playing field for home based businesses to accept
online payments. Many electronic shopping carts are
starting to implement PayPal as a payment option when
checking out of online stores.

Now there's no excuse for not paying your debts on
time. You may not be able to touch it, but believe me, "virtual
money" is just as good as the real thing. Being paid
electronically might not feel the same as someone
placing "cold hard cash" in the palm of your hand,
but it's still there: you just won't have to wash
your hands as often.

About the Author

Merle
http://www.ezineadauction.com
"Where the Best Deals in Ezine Advertising are Made"
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