Aug 6, 2007

Online payment services



As more and more people shop and engage with one another over the internet, the options and availability of online payment services are becoming more prevalent. Besides just the regular payment services in your local currency, there are also several "online currencies" available as well. Which one of the service should you be using?

For those of you that have been reading my blog, you would know that I am not a very big fan of online currencies in general. A short explanation to those of you who has not read my post in the past, I'm simply not a big fan of anything that's not established or recognized globally. Because online currencies have yet to be recognized by countries globally, therefore any unethical actions taken by the online currency company itself is hard to be seriously examined or regulated. I'm not saying they are not legitimized companies, however the risks are there and I will not take it nor recommend my readers to take it. Look at it as monopoly money, would you seriously use it as real money? Probably not.

Moving forth to general online payment services, including big names like Paypal are great ways for buyers to purchase goods in a secure manner. Especially with Ebay products, Paypal has inplaced with a program of buyer's protection which is great for buyers like you and I. For general payment services where you deal directly with a company, they are definitely a great company to use.

Now, here comes the tricky part. How do you pay someone within the internet? There has been a growing number of forums out there today. Many of them provide users a platform to exchange, buy, or sell services and goods within one another. Which payment services should you use? Many of the online payment companies out there do not provide protection to these types of transactions. Why you ask? The reason is because that it's really difficult to discern who's right and wrong. Not online is there a lack of evidence, most of these transactions are verbal. Not only is it only difficult for these online payment companies to discern, it also takes a lot of time involvement as well. There can be numerous exchanges without much results and to read them in a thorough manner, it can take hours at times depending on the amount of exchange and the dispute.

So, what service should you use in these types of exchanges when you deal with someone over the internet in any number of exchanges? I would personally recommend checking out Escrow.com. Escrow.com helps both buyers and sellers deal with that exact problem that I've just mentioned. They provide a platform acting as the third party bank which both parties are involved. After a certain agreements have been set and completed, Escrow.com then releases the correct funds to the right party. The service fee is not cheap, however when the amount of money gets involved are higher I definitely believe its significance and role becomes huge. I have actually used Escrow.com a few times and I would highly recommend it to everyone out there. -Swapw



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