by: Jason Schwartz
Internet commerce is an instantaneous purchase medium. A customer sees the product he or she likes; enters credit or debit card details; the product gets shipped. Simple. No messing around with mailing out checks, no waiting for the merchant to cash the check.
For online merchants, too, the process is straightfoward and convenient. There's no waiting for a check to arrive; no worrying about whether the check is good and no delays in shipping the product.
Consequently, it is easy for online merchants to assume that there is no value in offering check payments as a purchase option. Indeed, in competitive industries where margins are tight, the sheer time cost and risk involved in accepting checks makes it an unprofitable choice. And, anyway, everyone uses credit or debit cards these days. Right ? Wrong.
Here's some facts for all you ecommerce entrepreneurs to consider:
The 2004 Federal Reserve Payments Study ( http://www.frbservices.org/Retail/pdf/2004PaymentResearchReport.pdf ) shows that checks are still the most popular non-cash payment method, with a total dollar volume over 20 times that of credit and debit cards added together. Further, a recent publication by the Minnesota Attorney General's office indicates that 11% of Americans have no credit card at all. That figure doesn't even include the millions more people who are maxed out on their cards.
Can you REALLY afford to neglect the 30 million plus Americans that don't have credit cards and the millions more that prefer to use checks over any other form of payment ? After all, these are your potential customers too !
ACCEPTING CHECKS ONLINE
Even being aware of the huge numbers of new potential customers, accepting check payments can still appear problematic to ecommerce based merchants. The possibility of bad checks, the delay in receiving payments, the additional paperwork - all these things increase costs and reduce profits. However, the recent Check 21 legislation and the increased availability of electronic check solutions to businesses of all sizes means that ecommerce merchants can now accept check payments online, by phone and fax easily and virtually risk free.
HOW ELECTRONIC CHECK PROCESSING WORKS
Accepting electronic check payments is a simple process. The merchant simply transmits the customers' check information to a transaction processing company. The processor then moves that information from the customer's bank account and that of the merchant. It's easy, convenient and, most importantly, means that the clearing process is much faster than traditional paper check transactions. Best of all, there is no delay in receiving payment, it's inexpensive and will increase your clicks to sales ratio dramatically.
CHOOSING A CHECK TRANSACTION PROCESSOR
There are a number of transaction processors who will compete aggressively for your business. Many of them offer easy integration into your current shopping cart or a standalone solution. One click export to your current accounts software is also a standard feature. The main points online merchants should consider when selecting a company to handle check payments are as follows:
- No Application Fee - Some payment processors charge a fee just to apply to use their services. For obvious reasons, these are best avoided.
- No Monthly Minimums - Smaller ecommerce companies should be looking for check payment processors that do not have a set monthly minimum number of transactions.
- Flat Fees or Percentage of Check Value - Some payment processing companies charge a percentage of the value of each check processed, while others offer a flat fee per check. While the flat fee option makes it easier to predict costs and is the best choice for many, it is worth doing the math to decide whether this is the best route for your company.
- Check Verification - In order to reduce the risk of bad checks, real time check verification is a must have service. The best of these is the SpeedChex ATMVerify system, which has access to over 170 million accounts. This allows users to determine whether an account is currently overdrawn, frozen or closed thus determining whether a check is likely to be returned.
Offering electronic check payments as a purchase option is the only effective way that online merchants can tap into the consumers preferred payment option and still reduce risk, receive funds fast and ship goods quickly. So, don't neglect the humble check.
About The Author
Jason Schwartz is CEO of Creative CashFlow Solutions ( http://www.ilovechecks.com ). Established 1998, his company offers online check processing, check verification and free electronic check recovery services. You can visit the website at http://www.ilovechecks.com.
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Ten Steps to Reduce Your Risk of Identity Theft
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by: Howard Goff
You've probably heard about identity theft on television or read about it in the newspaper, and you may already be aware of the damage these crimes can cause victims and their families.
What you may not know is how to protect yourself from these attacks.
Below you'll find ten steps that can help you minimize your chances of becoming another identity theft statistic.
1.
Invest in a shredder ? Never throw anything away without shredding it first.
Identity thieves will dig through dumpsters and trash bags looking for credit card receipts, voided checks, paid bills, credit card offers, and other items which provide them with your personal information.
2.
Mail everything from the post office ? Leaving your outgoing mail in or on your mailbox is an invitation to have it stolen by an identity thief.
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America, it?s time to take an aggressive stance in preventing identity theft!
The odds of the average American becoming the victim of such an outrageous crime are greater than you might think.
In fact, with today?s technology and just a little creativity, thieves can quite easily capture your personal identity for the purposes of draining your funds, charging expensive items to your credit cards and recreating their entire lives to virtually become ?you?.
There are effective ways to fight this epidemic ? it?s just a matter of familiarizing yourself with them.
Financial Transactions
Let?s face it, there?s no way to function within society without participating in some type of financial transaction on a regular basis.
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Since I have been using AdSense and getting AdSense Money checks, I have come to learn some useful tips that would help you make money with AdSense. These tips, along with the systems in my e-book, helped me increase my AdSense income by 560%. If you are starting, check out these tips before you start using AdSense. If you?re already using AdSense, incorporate these tips into your AdSense program and see your income soar.
This is part 2 of 3 of these tips. You can get the other parts at my website: http://www.extra-income-ideas.com/articles.html or in my AdSense Money E-Book: http://www.bye925.com/adm
Making Money with AdSense -- Tip #4:
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Without question, fruit has wonderful natural benefits for the human body. Fruit is packed with vitamins and fiber much like vegetables, but comes in a wide variety of sweeter, more palatable flavors.
Adding fruit to your diet is an excellent thing to do, but there are a few things that you need to keep in mind:
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If you're lucky enough to have a lawn with a good topsoil base, much of the hard work of keeping a lawn beautiful is already done for you. But many of us do not have this luxury, and besides, even with a good topsoil base, you still have to work hard to keep a beautiful lawn and garden.
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