eBay followers will have seen that starting October 2008, eBay has stopped accepting paper (drafts, cheques, etc.) transfer of funds as a means to make payments for eBay purchases. The payment has to be done on an ‘elecronic’ channel such as PayPal, ProPay or through a merchant account.
Is this is a sign of the final goodbye to bank payments and/or hard cash?
True, hard cash still works, but it’s easier to lose cold cash in your wallet than it is to lose a cash figure on an online system. Besides, even online bank fraud is on the rise, according to a recent study. It says an estimate of 7.5 per cent US adults lost money to some kind of financial fraud in 2008.
Moreover, victims of electronic bank account transfer fraud were reported to be nearly five times more likely to change banks because of security issues, as compared with the average consumer. People are more cautious in the last six months about online bank funds transfer than ever before. Online thieves used credit and debit cards 36 per cent more than any other means to avail themselves moneys of unsuspecting victims.
This certainly heralds the introduction of non-bank online payment services. With PayPal having set the trend in online payments (which limits bank intervention to the use of a credit card), I’d expect this payment mechanism and online funds management to grow exponentially in the next two years, at least among small businesses to start with.
Tags: Online payment systems
Tags: Online payment systems