How to accept payments on the internet

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There are few ways you can receive payment from your website. They are via:

• Cheque

• Postal order

• Bank-in

• Credit card

Option #1: Cheque

It’s seldom that people usel this method but this could add value to your website. Customers will send their cheque through the mail. The disadvantages of this method is the cheque might be fraud. So it’s advisable to cash the cheque before you send your products or give them your services. This process will take lots of time that’s why not many people offer this service.

Option #2: Postal order

Another method is customers send their postal order via mail ot get products or services from you. If your business is not based in the US, you can ask your customers to send their postal order by using Western Union or their agents worlwide or via online at http://www.westernunio.com

Option #3: Bank-in

This is applicable if your customers are from the same coutry as yours. They could bank-in straight to your bank account. If your customers are from different countries, they could still bank-in to your account via Telegrafi Transfer. It’s safe and practical but you’ll be charged for this service and it’s quit high compare to the transaction with credit cards.

Option #4: Credit card

To be successful in your online business and if you’re planning to sell your services or products, you should be able to receive payment via credit cards. More and more customers are becoming comfortable to pay with credit cards during online transaction. Part of the reasons are payment via credit cards on the internet have become more secure this days and it’s more convenient. People don’t have to worry about waiting in ques for payment, parking and it also cut down their fuel expenses.

Studies shows that if you don’t accept payment with credit cards on your website, you’ll loose 90% of your prospectus customers. As I’ve mentioned earlier it saves time and also most probably they will go to your competitor if you don’t provide credit card payment service. It will also boost your reputation and credibility as a serious organization in regards with the online business.

In order for your customers to be able to pay you with their credit cards, you need to open a merchant account. There are 2 types of merchant account:

• Internet merchant account

• Third party credit card processor

I’ll explain more about merchant account in my next post.

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 11th, 2006 at 11:13 pm and is filed under Merchant Account, How to start?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.