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ELECTRONIC PAYMENTS
The term “Electronic
Payment” is used for all kinds of
payments that are processed without the
involvement of paper checks or cash.
Some of the electronic payment modes are
credit cards, debit cards, direct debit,
e – checks and Automated Clearing House
or ACH.
Electronic Payment
Transactions Types
At one time these
electronic payments were commonly used
only by e – commerce websites such as
eBay. It provides a very convenient mode
of payment where the customer has to
only enter his credit card details to
pay for the goods that he has ordered
from that site. That website will verify
the details given by you and send an
email to you about the transaction and
the verification process. A few of the
websites also accept electronic checks.
With this form of payment the customer
has to enter the check and the routing
details together with his account number
to make payments.
In contrast, recurring
payments are payments that are made for
the long term or repeated financial
payments such as electric bills, phone
bills, loans, insurance payments and
many others. Some services like in gyms
also require this for accepting payments
from their customers.
Some Benefits that you
get by using Electronic Payments
1)
Convenience: The most obvious and direct
benefit is the convenience that it
offers your customers. With the
electronic payments, your customers only
have to enter their credit card details
and the sale can be completed. There is
no need for your customers to write a
check and mail it.
2)
Lower Costs: Because the enter process
is automated the cost of accepting
payments from customers has drastically
reduced. There are no postage fees, very
less paper and personnel involved and
minimum requirement of other resources
making this mode of payment highly cost
effective.
Security for Electronic
Payments
There are several
questions raised about the security
issues of this mode of payment. The
primary reason for such an out roar is
the fear that the customers have of
their private and confidential data
being compromised. The issue of Identity
theft is one of the biggest concerns and
has cast a shadow over electronic
payments.
But, there are a few
basic measures that should be taken to
minimize the security risks which are
involved. Some of the measures are
installing the best anti – spyware and
anti – virus program available in the
market and keeping is updated.
Installing firewalls, being aware of new
and more sophisticated online threats
will help take the right counter
measures and additional knowledge of how
these threats will affect your business
will be of great help to protect your
business and customers from these
threats.
All the online
transactions done by your company should
be done through a secured server. No
matter how serious the security issues
and risks are, these electronic payments
will not go away. In fact, they are
becoming more and more popular.
Moreover, those businesses which provide
electronic payments to their customers
have seen an increase in their turnover
due to customers purchasing more than
planned and new customers. |
