Net savvy small businesses and consumers are turning to a unique on-line service for simplifying their busy lives - e-payment programs. What was once thought to be a risky, unsecured endeavor, e-payment has become a way of life for the web-at-heart. Don't confuse e-payment systems with on-line auctions, and credit card purchases. E-payment has evolved into a full blown service for on-line bill management and the capacity to send cash through an ordinary email. Here are a few programs worth visiting.
Paytrust.com offers a complete bill management service, boasting the highest levels of password security and extreme privacy. You can receive all your bills on-line, get an email when they're posted, and authorize payment. All of this can be done anywhere, anytime.
Here's how it works:
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You select which bills you want to receive on-line.
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Paytrust notifies the accounts to send bills electronically (or by mail) to their Processing Center.
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When your bill arrives, you get an email from Paytrust indicating the bill has been posted and ready for your review and payment authorization from your on-line bank account.
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You access the bill center, review the billed details if necessary, and click to authorize payment.
Paytrust also offers a checkbook-balancing program called SmartBalance™ to give you the most up to date immediate information on your account. The cost of the Paytrust program is a meager $8.25 per month for 25 transactions. Additional cost over 25 is $.50 per transaction. Plus, the monthly fee covers the SmartBalance™ service.
Another e-payment system currently in pre-launch is Paybills.com. They exhibit similar features as the Paytrust service, and include a color-coded payment center showing which bills are due within three days, and which are overdue. The overdue bills are red, of course!
PayPal.com offers a different twist to e-payment programs. PayPal allows the business owner, small office entrepreneur, or consumer to send money via an email. Sounds a bit impossible, right?
Here's how PayPal works:
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The individual wanting to send money logs into Paypal.
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He/she registers a credit card, enters the amount to be sent, the recipients email address, and sends the money.
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The recipient receives the email and enters the PayPal web site to access the cash.
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The recipient must register with PayPal, and either elect to receive a check directly from PayPal or direct deposit into the recipient's registered account.
The PayPal service is free and protected with secured firewalls. This is a convenient service for businesses electing to quickly send cash to their satellite offices, vendors, or associates in the field. On the consumer side, parents with college students can quickly transfer money for books, tuition, and sundry items (pizza and beer) into the student's account.
The major advantages of e-payment systems are the reduction of paperwork, mailing cost, ease of on-line data and financial information storage, and the ability to access the web at any time for accurate real time information.