Payments by Telephone/Online Banking

[vistamaster]

Good evening everyone,

I am thinking to allow more people pay by online/telephone banking or at the bank by providing our s/c and a/c on the receipt page, and wanted to know what you guys think of this, with current Faster Payment Scheme the money would show up on account pretty quickly, and it would save a lot of time doing accounts as all payments would go straight to bank account and without any PSP deductions. Which means we could reduce our prices accordingly.

However can you think of any security issues with this payment type? I've seen "ebillme" they enable US shoppers to pay merchants via online banking. And merchant doesn't need to give out his bank account details to the shopper.

Wondering if there is something similar to this in UK?

I personally think that there shouldn't be anything unsecure to give out the s/c and a/c to shopper, as most companies print their bank details on the reverse of the invoice (and we do so aswell).

the only thing that "bad" people could do is to set up a direct debit to charity as no signed confirmation is needed for charity. like Clarkson from TopGear published his bank details to public to prove that no one can do anything harmful to his account if they only knew his s/c and a/c

So what is your oppinion on this?

[Mike Hughes]

My thoughts?

People like paying by credit card because it gives them security in case something goes wrong and up to 45 days of free credit.

Having said that there might be people who'd use a direct transfer method if you offered them a 2% discount. I doubt it would be many though as 2% isn't likely to look very significant and you can't offer more or you'd end up losing money.

But if it interests you then why not give it a go? As long as it's not something that can bring down the company then a trial is far better than listening to peoples opinions.

Mike

PS. Regarding security, the people I'd ask is the bank. As far as I know, if they transfer money out of your account without your permission then they are liable as long as you've done nothing outside of their guidelines.

[Duncan Rounding]

...our s/c and a/c on the receipt page, and wanted to know what you guys think of this,...

I think this may involve quite a lot of additional admin - my guess is most people would probably forget to include a reference and reconning could become a nightmare.

[Darren B]

Hmmm i like the idea not sure how many people would take you up on it (dont mention it to feemish he might flip)

Alot of people dont realise that they have no security with a debit card either, well not as much as your credit card anyway.

as said though, what have you got to loose by trying it, if you do i would be interested on the results

[HowardW]

Hi
We have been accepting direct bank transfers for about 4 years. We have both Sterling and Euro accounts and the details are on all our web sites.
We do not offer discounts on transactions using this method, and have made sure that we indicate that all costs are to the customer's account.
It works very well, and we have found that most of the users, use the Euro account. This is probably related to costs of using credit cards in European countries.
We also have a dollar account - which is now being used extensively, again probably due to the costs of using credit cards in the US
Regards
Howard

[parklifeclothes]

Although not sure of the take up I really like this idea and plan to use it for a month to see if its worth doing.
My one change would be to send the bank details in the order confirmation email so only those that need the details get them rather than publishing them for all to see

[Mark H]

How about setting up another account to accept these payments, then move money from this account to the main account regularly so that there's never much in it, then publish the details of that account on the website?

[parklifeclothes]

Have now set this up and gone with my idea of only sending the bank details to those that have ordered using this payment method, will see how it goes, not expecting a lot of take up but anythings worth a punt.

[Mike Hughes]

So did you set it up with instructions to enter the order number as the transfer reference? I'll be interested to hear how this goes. Particularly with checking and identifying payments.

Mike

[parklifeclothes]

So did you set it up with instructions to enter the order number as the transfer reference? I'll be interested to hear how this goes. Particularly with checking and identifying payments.

Mike

This message is displayed at the payment method option:

When selecting to pay via Manual Bank Transfer you will receive an email within 12 hours of receipt of your order containing our account details and instructions on how to pay. *

and once we receive their order we send this email:

Thankyou for shopping at Parklife (Whitby) Limited today.

Your order indicates you wish to pay via Manual Bank Transfer so we hereby give our details to make it possible. Please note that in order to complete your order we must receive cleared funds for the total amount of your order (as shown below) with 48 hours of this email. Failure to pay within this time may result in the products being re-sold and the order being cancelled.

Our Bank details:
Account Name: Parklife (Whitby) Limited
Bank: National Westminster Bank PLC
Sort Code: 98-97-96
Account No: 98765432

IBAN: GB35 NWBK 98765432198765

Please use the last 4 (four) digits from the long order number shown in the subject line of this email as the reference for your payment.

As I said it might or might not work but worth the little effort

[vistamaster]

This message is displayed at the payment method option:

When selecting to pay via Manual Bank Transfer you will receive an email within 12 hours of receipt of your order containing our account details and instructions on how to pay. *

and once we receive their order we send this email:

Thankyou for shopping at Parklife (Whitby) Limited today.

Your order indicates you wish to pay via Manual Bank Transfer so we hereby give our details to make it possible. Please note that in order to complete your order we must receive cleared funds for the total amount of your order (as shown below) with 48 hours of this email. Failure to pay within this time may result in the products being re-sold and the order being cancelled.

Our Bank details:
Account Name: Parklife (Whitby) Limited
Bank: National Westminster Bank PLC
Sort Code: 98-97-96
Account No: 98765432

IBAN: GB35 NWBK 98765432198765

Please use the last 4 (four) digits from the long order number shown in the subject line of this email as the reference for your payment.

As I said it might or might not work but worth the little effort

I like the idea to show bank details in email and only to those who have ordered something.

However I think that 12 hours limit for them to receive an email with bank details is too much wait, if customer selects next day delivery, we not gonna be able to do it, as we only gonna be able to see the payment at the begining of the next business day.

Maybe it would be possible to create some sort of javascript or variables to make instructions available on the receipt page (only to those customers who selects to pay by Bank Transfer), or maybe it's possible to include the payment intructions to automatic order acknowledgement email or to automate the payment intructions email so when the cusomer selects this payment method, 2 emails are sent out, 1 - order acknowledgement, and 2 - payment intructions?

Using order numbers as payment reference numbers... I don't think that would be fine for returning customers, as once you created the payment with your bank with one reference, you cannot ammend it, which means you must create a new one for every order. So I think using Invoice Name (as it appears on the bank statement) is sufficient enought to allocate the payment to order for unregistered customers, and payment can be made using the same reference as many times as needed. (The Invoice Name will never change)

Also, if its high value order, you can also see on your statement who is an account holder, and if needed confirm the payment directly with the bank. Ofcourse it doesn't mean that you can relax as you're still not 100% sure that that particular account is genuine. However its easier to get the credit card on someone elses name, than an overdraft on a simple bank account. So I think this type of payment should reduce the charge backs to minimum.

Any other oppinions?

[tdw]

As a new small business start up with no trading history I am considering Paypal and Bank transfer as two payment options. For bank transfer is there a need to create a new payment method or amend an existing payment method?

I think e-mailing customers who make a bank transfer order the bank details is the best option.

[Darren B]

change and existing one for bank transfer.

Dont forget if your using V10 google checkout is another option and this will also get you free ratings

[completerookie]

we ONLY accept wire transfer (BACS) from foreign countries, we find that if people really want the goods, then they pay direct to the bank.
for us, if they don't want to wire us the money, then its their loss, not ours.
so far this month, 5k to russia, 4k to kuwait, 1k to spain

one other point,
ages ago, Jeremy Clarkson said "there is absolutely nothing wrong with publishing my bank account details in the newspapers" and promptly published his bank/account details in the Times (I think)
next week, he had to apologise, seems some wag had set up a large direct debit with a charity on a yearly repeat and used Jeremy's account details.