Checks and money orders

Some of our local customers pay by check. I don't mind accepting for local customers, it's pretty easy to handle. I would personally be leery of accepting checks from online signup however.
 
I find that I get paid about 50% checks, 25% credit cards, and 25% Paypal. Haven't had any checks bounce on me for the past 5 years of business.
 
I do

I accept it. I think it's gives a better service and a customer more options to pay. It's not something I heavily advertise to avoid fraud. Service is only ordered once payments are cleared. Bounced checks have fee`s to cover the cost and when they are two of them. the user is banned from ever paying that way.
 
We no longer accept Cheques, Money Orders or Bank Drafts. A few prospects may position that you don't value their money or business. That's certainly not the case however, should the client make a decision to pay by cheque on a annual or semi-annual basis it would make sense. If you end up devoting a lot of time doing AR (Account Receivables) for $2.95, $5.95 etc/mth and then have the cheque bounce your bank would smack you with a $20 - $50 NSF fee depending on the institution and you’re now at a loss.

As for Money Orders and Bank Drafts these payment methods would be considered more secure since it is established that the money is available and tentatively taken out the account until deposited by the vendor. Also, there have been quite a few cases of fake money orders these days. The information provided is simply our feedback and personal preference and it’s not to say that this business model wouldn’t work for all web hosts. At the end of the day, the more automated you can make your services the easier it will be for both parties the consumer and merchant. Of course, there are individuals who don’t feel safe providing their personal credit information online even if the page is secured/encrypted.

We even stopped accepting cheques for our collocation services for anything billing over $500.00/mo unless it was a certified cheque or bank draft/money order. By the way, I think this is a great thread topic and its nice to read the diverse assessments.

Cheers,
 
You are right...

I love this topic also, it gives me the insight in other buisiness models.

You are correct about the overdraft. Being I am a very small company, it's people I know that pay me. Maybe that is why I was so fast in accepting that payment method in my billing software. But being in over draft by 50 dollars is not a good idea if your smallest plan per year is 12 bucks.

So I think the important thing to set up first, before accepting that payment method, is to find a provider that would not charge this amount. I am thinking if ING right now. Their THRIVE account gives you a Woops protection of up to 250 dollars. If you refund within 30 days you are not fined. If not, it's 2,50$ per month. This will enable you time to charge your client the overdraft. I mean, this is just off the top of my head, but there are surely other banking providers that can understand the occassional bounced checks.

I don't like to advertise any one company, but Paypal so far as been great. It's easy, simple, cheap.
 
I have some people who pay by cheque, but I don't accept it through the website, as often people buy domains at the same time and I don't want the hassle of explaining that their tardiness has lost them their domain!
 
something to think about

You have all given me things to consider.

I am reviewing my TOS' and money handling procedures. After all, we need to protect ourselves.

Thanks again all of you :)
 
These days checks are to risky to accept with all the fraud out there. Atleast with money orders they can be tracked back to postal outlet that processed it. However in any regards I like electronic all the way.
 
Check Billing

I remember when I had my first web hosting company in 1998 people who paid by check always took forever to pay. Also the time it took for billing was astronomical. In today's hosting industry if an account is not paid within 10 days of the billing due date the site is suspended. I am not sure how to get people to pay on time,but if they don't want they're site to be down this may be some incentive. Although the customer always gets mad if they're site is down. What do we do?

I was talking to someone at Bank of America. They have a business service where when customer pay a recurring bill by check bank of america will send out billing for you for about $25 a month. I figure this could save a lotof time and money for billing.
 
At my previous work place, we accepted checks, and rarely had any bounce. The problem was getting the client to send them on time. The monthly payment option was auto cc, whereas the check option required quarterly payments. If you are barely starting out, however, some clients might be hesitant to release their cc info and would prefer to mail it in until you've gained their trust.
 
Anyone who's hosting a website knows how to use internet banking for direct transfers, or has a credit card / paypal account. We offer bank transfer for larger companies we deal with, though everything else is paypal/credit card. No pay, no service.
 
web3k said:
Anyone who's hosting a website knows how to use internet banking for direct transfers, or has a credit card / paypal account. We offer bank transfer for larger companies we deal with, though everything else is paypal/credit card. No pay, no service.
Click to expand...

Not everybody can have a paypal account. Just google "PayPal problems", or your favorite bad word, and that's about it. If you're froma 3rd world country, and can't access a cradit card, you'll thank hosts for these payment options.
 
luis123456789 said:
Not everybody can have a paypal account. Just google "PayPal problems", or your favorite bad word, and that's about it. If you're froma 3rd world country, and can't access a cradit card, you'll thank hosts for these payment options.
Click to expand...

Be my guest and offer those payment methods to those countries.

Though I suggest taking a look at the list of countries that make part of NATO's Least Developed Countries (LDC) list. You might find some countries in that list which are a high fraud origination countries.

We as a business choose not to deal with countries like these, as they'll only push our overheads up. This is our choice and I don't expect others to follow. We're simply looking at the risk associated with dealing outside of paypal and credit cards, and have decided that as a business, we wont accept those other payment methods. Our customers are happy with the payment options we offer, no one has asked for any different, and our customers pay on time. Everyone wins.

If you wish to service that market with alternative payment methods, be my guest. I might even see my fraudulent order rate drop if you do.
 
web3k said:
Be my guest and offer those payment methods to those countries.

Though I suggest taking a look at the list of countries that make part of NATO's Least Developed Countries (LDC) list. You might find some countries in that list which are a high fraud origination countries.

We as a business choose not to deal with countries like these, as they'll only push our overheads up. This is our choice and I don't expect others to follow. We're simply looking at the risk associated with dealing outside of paypal and credit cards, and have decided that as a business, we wont accept those other payment methods. Our customers are happy with the payment options we offer, no one has asked for any different, and our customers pay on time. Everyone wins.

If you wish to service that market with alternative payment methods, be my guest. I might even see my fraudulent order rate drop if you do.
Click to expand...

I don't talk about you solely, Whomever I deal with has to be contected prior of anything.

I've seen no fraud comes from my country AFAIK, to most hosts. Yes, from some China and some Asian countries, but thinking like yours is what make me unable to find the perfect host (but yeah, I like the ones that bill you directly)
 
luis123456789 said:
I don't talk about you solely, Whomever I deal with has to be contected prior of anything.

I've seen no fraud comes from my country AFAIK, to most hosts. Yes, from some China and some Asian countries, but thinking like yours is what make me unable to find the perfect host (but yeah, I like the ones that bill you directly)
Click to expand...

Hence the saying 'horses for courses'.

As as for perfect host's, the perfect host is different for each and everyone - there is no one perfect host!
 
Although the use of cheques is in decline (largely because banks dont like the paper), not a working day goes by without us receiving some payments by Cheque or Postal-Order
 
I find that if you accept mail in payments or bank transfers you've got to give a little leeway when it comes to suspension, maybe increase the grace periods on clients that use those forms of payments?
 
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