Getting Paid on the Web
While doing e-commerce from your site you will have to determine a method of payment for your customers. If you already have a credit card merchant account it will be easy to use the same account for payment. However, if you do not have a credit card merchant account already you may have difficulty obtaining one particularly if your entire business is done through the Internet.
There are other ways to receive payment through third party payment plans. Some of the most popular are PayPay (www.paypal.com), Yahoo PayDirect (www.paydirect.yahoo.com), Ecount (www.ecount.com) or propay (www.propay.com).
The most convenient is PayPal. As long as your user has an email address and bank accounts they can deposit money in the PayPal account. They can transfer money to your account or use a credit card and pay directly to PayPal. Yahoo Pay Direct is similar to PayPal. A customer can transfer funds to you by following a link from your site to the Yahoo Servers and paying there. To purchase something through your store the customer has to become a Yahoo member which gives them a Yahoo ID and login password. The Yahoo security key for your customer only becomes available once the customers physical address is verified by post.
Ecount is actually a debit card your customer uses on the web to transfer funds from their account to yours. ProPay enables customers to pay you, the merchant, without even having to sign up for a ProPay account. The merchant signs up for an account; then when a customer wants to purchase something from your site, you log into ProPay, enter the customers email address and amount of sale into simple form. The customer receives the email, request for payment, and clicks on the enclosed secure, email link, and submits the credit card info and the money is transferred to your account.
The cost:
| Company | Set up fee | Transaction Fee | Total Sale | Comments |
| PayPay | None | $0.30 | 2.9% | |
| Pay Direct | None | $0.30 | 2.5% | $2.80/$100 |
| E Count | $6.95 | $2.00 | US Only Mastercard accepted | |
| Pro pay | $35 | $0.33 | 3.5% | |
| Merchant accounts | Start $150 |
The downside of these options, aside from the cost, is the present reluctance of MasterCard to allow third party transactions (see http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/invest/2002/04/22/paypal.htm) There has also been some complaints about PayPal when their merchants receive chargeback notices from the credit card companies.