[NA]Online payment acceptance[NA]

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Dave Taylor
I called my bank today about accepting online payments from my customers. Rep says, just give em your account and routing numbers, that's all you have to do.
Does this sound right, bidnez owners?
I said, is there any security concerns about handing over my account numbers, making them public, posting them on a website? (never seen other business owners do this). They seemed to think no problem.
 
Dave it might be better to set up a paypal account. Kevin set one up and it was easy for him. Worked just fine.

Honestly, I don't know about these things but I'd be skeptical about posting personal banking info online. Hackers do fine getting into info even when it's not so easy to find.
 
Dave, ever look at the bottom of one of your checks? All that info is right there. Been doing things this way for years, it's easy to put money in, all you need is the public numbers. To get money out is where you have to provide personal identification.
 
In my practice, medicare mandated direct deposit of payments. I'd be hesitant to hand out my bank numbers to just anyone, though. If you feel you have to, could you get a second account for online payments and remove the money daily or weekly to your primary account? It would be a little hassle but better than having your main account compromised. Your going to have to look at the account regularly anyway in order to record the payments.

Barb
 
I don't see the aversion to telling someone your account number. You've been handing strangers and mailing your account number all over the place for as long as you've been writing checks.

This is no different than handing someone a deposit slip.
 
You're contemplating posting your account numbers on the internet? :no: :no: :no: You don't have to provide identification to get money out of your account.. There's plenty of people who know just how to do it to, the internet is just the place if you want to find them.

When you write a check at the grocery store, your risk is limited to the cashier and whoever takes it to the bank... probably only a few people and a businesses credibility is on the line should an employee take your numbers and do something bad with it. Stick that out on the nets and you just challenged an anonymous world of people with nothing to lose (other than possibly some jail time, but I can't picture an international cooperation with Nigera to arrest one of their citizens to stand trial and get back 500 bucks of your money)

There are third party people out there to accept payment via checking account or credit cards. The easy way is to just dump it all on pay pal.. They charge a hefty amount for what you get in my opinion. There are cheaper more elegant third parties that do a good job too and can make the transactions more seemless, i.e. you don't have to go to PayPal's site then come back (I think PayPal has an API for this too, but I've never used it). You probably don't want to be in online payment processing business... You get to be responsible for it all. I have built plenty of systems for people who want to do their own processing, I never thought it was a great idea, not for the scale they were looking at. You'd want to build out a PIC complaint system and make sure it stays PIC compliant, more trouble and risk than it's worth unless you're doing tons of transactions.
 
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Henning said:
I don't see the aversion to telling someone your account number. You've been handing strangers and mailing your account number all over the place for as long as you've been writing checks.

This is no different than handing someone a deposit slip.
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And people have been victims of identity theft with exposure that small.
There's a huge difference... Exposure. Mailing a check via the post office, you put a little faith in the post office workers and a little faith in the employees of the businesses you do business with. There is risk, it's small, but it happens. Total people with access to your check you mail in for the light bill... Probably 10 and those 10 are employed, most likely in the US, with a job to lose. Put it on the Internet, 6,000,000,000 or so people, some with automated scripts capable of doing the work of thousands, and nothing to lose.
 
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I thought we could pay our utilities etc online without invoking a third party like Paypal. One goes to their bank's site and somehow finds the company they want to pay, does a transfer. All without knowledge of any account numbers. I certainly am not about to post any such thing online.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I thought we could pay our utilities etc online without invoking a third party like Paypal. One goes to their bank's site and somehow finds the company they want to pay, does a transfer. All without knowledge of any account numbers. I certainly am not about to post any such thing online.
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OK, my misunderstanding. You're wanting to use a banks online bill pay system... and get your business "in the system"... I've never setup bill pay for a customer to accept payments, I've used it before to make payments and the local cable company hasn't given me their bank account numbers. It's my understanding that the bank they utilize would need you in their system... If not their bank prints out a check and mails it to you... High Tech.
 
bartmc said:
If not their bank prints out a check and mails it to you... High Tech.
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I pay at least one monthly bill this way using my bank's bill pay system. All they need to know is the recipient's address.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I thought we could pay our utilities etc online without invoking a third party like Paypal. One goes to their bank's site and somehow finds the company they want to pay, does a transfer. All without knowledge of any account numbers. I certainly am not about to post any such thing online.
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Yes, If I want to pay you online using my Wells Fargo account, I can do so on another tab...and Wells Fargo will snail mail you a paper check...for real:mad2:

I still don't understand how you want to do an online money acceptance without telling them where to put the money, I'm not following.

You can set up a merchant account and accept credit cards, or just another specific online account, but how you expect to be anonymous without going through a third party I don't get.
 
If this is business to business and you are dealing with reputable clients that you do regular business with, it is not unusual to setup ACH transfer capabilities. Just contact your bank.

Paypal will charge a fee.
 
John just fingered the proper process - ACH. That's safe; and quick for both payer and payee. However, it'll require a two-step process. Your client will need to set the program in motion with his/her bank; you'll need to do the same at your bank. It might take, depending on the banks involved, a couple days for the two banks to, electronically, "shake-hands." End result: quick and easy, and usually no service fee.

HR
 
This is not biz to biz, and ACH won't work!

I have a business with clients.
They want to pay me for services/products, using online capabilities.
I know from past posts that many people pay many of their bills online.
I want to offer the same service to my clients.
I want to be able to put a notice on my statements, "You can pay me online" by going to www.PayDaveOnline" or maybe to their bank's site; I'm not sure how it works as I have not done it.
I called the bank already.
They seem pretty clueless about it when I described the above.
 
Probably Bill Pay is what you're referring to. But, I think that's between your customers and their bank... There may be a way do setup a bank to bank transfer using Bill Pay, but my gut feeling is, that's going to be largely up to the customers and their bank. I'm not aware of a central database of account numbers, I doubt there is one. Customers can pay you using Bill Pay right now, you don't need to do anything. A check will just arrive in the mail. Basically banks have figured out that people are too lazy to write out a check and put it in an envelope, so they do it for them.
In the past decade of doing eCommerce websites, I've never had a customer ask for that. I'd start with PayPal, look at their fees and see if you can swallow them, Google "PayPal Sucks" and read the stories and see if you want to go into business with them. This is the hands off approach to accept online payments, it's not optimal but will work.
A little bit snazzier is to get a company to process all the transactions but you relay them through your site, likely cheeper, more transparent than sending someone off to pay pal's site. More up front costs (IT) and a contract involved. The third option is to do it yourself, unless you have an in house IT department very very versed in how to handle transactions like that, I'd stay away. Probably anything more than just saying "make a paypal payment to blah@youremail.com" is going to require some level of IT support. I've setup dozens of small sites to work with PayPal or 3rd party handlers like Merchant eSolutions (http://merchante-solutions.com/). You can give me a call if you want, I'll help you set it up too if it's not too much trouble.
 
bartmc said:
Probably Bill Pay is what you're referring to. But, I think that's between your customers and their bank...
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There are two ways that my bank (Wells Fargo) does bill pay. If the company I am paying is in their database the payment is sent electronically and supposedly takes 3 days to arrive. If it is a person or company not in their database they cut a check and mail it. Therefore they say the payment will take 5 days to arrive. I also pay some companies by giving them my bank or credit card information and they pull it out of my account. I don't know their account information, however, and I don't know how they set this up. Is that what you are talking about?
 
Everskyward said:
There are two ways that my bank (Wells Fargo) does bill pay. If the company I am paying is in their database the payment is sent electronically and supposedly takes 3 days to arrive. If it is a person or company not in their database they cut a check and mail it. Therefore they say the payment will take 5 days to arrive. I also pay some companies by giving them my bank or credit card information and they pull it out of my account. I don't know their account information, however, and I don't know how they set this up. Is that what you are talking about?
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If that's the case, I wouldn't know how to tell Dave to get in that Database, my gut feeling is that it would be on a "per bank" basis and he'd probably need to supply Wells Fargo with his bank account information. I can't imagine there's a central database that all banks share. Just a guess.

Paying your DirectTV bill is probably fine with bill pay. Buying a book from Amazon wouldn't be... What does Dave need?
 
Everskyward said:
There are two ways that my bank (Wells Fargo) does bill pay. If the company I am paying is in their database the payment is sent electronically and supposedly takes 3 days to arrive. If it is a person or company not in their database they cut a check and mail it. Therefore they say the payment will take 5 days to arrive. I also pay some companies by giving them my bank or credit card information and they pull it out of my account. I don't know their account information, however, and I don't know how they set this up. Is that what you are talking about?
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P.S. RUN!!!!! I have a Wells Fargo account FEE HAPPY! I canceled my credit card and am moving my savings and checking to a local credit union with MUCH friendlier policies... Why do they even have contracts if they can just change the terms on you whenever they want...SHEESH. I was getting free checking because I setup an automatic transfer to send 75 bucks per pay into my savings, they stopped than AND increased the fee for my checking account. Bye Bye. They called and told me due to the regulations putting the kebash on their "How can we overdraft this customer to cause the most pain" policy that I was getting a new yearly fee with my credit card... Nuh Uhh.
 
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bartmc said:
P.S. RUN!!!!! I have a Wells Fargo account FEE HAPPY! I canceled my credit card and am moving my savings and checking to a local credit union with MUCH friendlier policies... Why do they even have contracts if they can just change the terms on you whenever they want...SHEESH. I was getting free checking because I setup an automatic transfer to send 75 bucks per pay into my savings, they stopped than AND increased the fee for my checking account. Bye Bye.
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Wells Fargo likes me so I don't pay those fees. :)
 
bartmc said:
You want me to pay all the fees so you don't have to...

Just like a lib... nevermind :)

(Sarcasm intended)
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:rofl: With banking it seems to work the other way. You get perks for being a good customer. I'll bet the 1% really gets good perks! :D
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
This is not biz to biz, and ACH won't work!

I have a business with clients.
They want to pay me for services/products, using online capabilities.
I know from past posts that many people pay many of their bills online.
I want to offer the same service to my clients.
I want to be able to put a notice on my statements, "You can pay me online" by going to www.PayDaveOnline" or maybe to their bank's site; I'm not sure how it works as I have not done it.
I called the bank already.
They seem pretty clueless about it when I described the above.
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There are really two ways to do this easily. One is PayPal. The plus side: You don't need to do much at all. Customers can pay from their own PayPal account, or use a credit card, or even an e-check. They don't have to HAVE a PP account. You can "sweep" the money into your own bank account as often as you want, no fees there. The down side: Fees are a little high and some people flatly refuse to do ANY business with PayPal, ever, no matter what, period.

The other way is a little more "grown up", if you will. The country is absolutely thick with merchant payment processors. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting one of them in the eye. Leaders Merchant Services is one I have experience with, they're good. If you have a Sam's Club membership, they will get you set up through First Data at rates somewhat lower than you might get by doing it through your local bank. In fact your local bank is probably the last place you should be talking to. As long as you're not doing a lot of overseas business (like I do) the Sams/First Data fees aren't too terribly bad, but they're not that great either. That's why I switched once my 2 year contract was up. You can set up an online payment gateway, but unless you really know what you're doing I would advise against it. But you will have a "virtual terminal", a web page where you can run cards just by typing in information from the phone.

I've been taking PayPal and credit cards for years now. I do also accept wire transfers, but the ONLY people who ever want to do that are people in the EU, almost always businesses. I've never once had a US customer want to do an ACH transfer directly. Individual customers use plastic or PayPal, businesses send checks. If they did want to do ACH I'd have no problem with it, it's pretty simple -- but check to make sure your bank won't hit you with a fee. My old bank charged $10 for an incoming overseas wire transfer, my new one does not.
 
Lawreston said:
John just fingered the proper process - ACH. That's safe; and quick for both payer and payee. However, it'll require a two-step process. Your client will need to set the program in motion with his/her bank; you'll need to do the same at your bank. It might take, depending on the banks involved, a couple days for the two banks to, electronically, "shake-hands." End result: quick and easy, and usually no service fee.

HR
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Available in very few situations in the US, Aus I could send direct online to any account in the world with a SWIFT or BSB and account #, boom, instant and $1. Non of the big banks here like to do it. Lake City Bank in Shipshewana I could call and on personal voice recognition get funds done through EFT for $1. Wells Fargo allows no such option except between Wells Fargo Accounts. I have to get switched to USAA bank.
 
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I work for a large bank. Yet I do my banking at USAA. ;)

Do NOT put your routing/account numbers online. If you do so, I would not be surprised if your account were empty in an hour. ACH can be initiated as either a credit or a debit, so a person could use the numbers to either send you money or clean you out.

As several have noted, BillPay can be used to send money to pay your bills. As stated, if the payee is in the database, payment can be sent electronically as an ACH. If not, a paper check is mailed. Two nice benefits of this are that you don't pay the postage, and the check that is sent is NOT a check that has YOUR routing/account numbers on it. I use BillPay for ALL of my bills, regardless of whether they are in the system or not. But since you're looking to receive payments, BillPay is NOT the option you're looking for (for this instance).

For other payments, (not regular bills), for either sending or receiving, I use PayPal, and have done so for 14 years IIRC. No, they're not the best deal for their fees, but on the irregular occasions that I sell something on ebay, or make a purchase on ebay, it works for me.

Yes, there are other payment processors to look at, but I am not familiar with them, other than to restate what was already said about Sam's having an option. I think Cosco does, as well.

I hope this helps, but whatever you do, please, please, please, do NOT put your routing/account numbers online. There are hundreds of unscrupulous Nigerians hoping that you ignore this advice.
 
My bank's bill pay paper checks *absolutely* have my routing and account numbers on them. The only difference between the bill pay mailed checks (at my bank) and me writing a check is that the bill pay checks don't have my signature.

My wife and I have been using both paypal and Authorize.net for years with our web sites with no issue. We also started using square (http://squareup.com) for in-person payments.
 
ChrisK said:
My bank's bill pay paper checks *absolutely* have my routing and account numbers on them. The only difference between the bill pay mailed checks (at my bank) and me writing a check is that the bill pay checks don't have my signature.

My wife and I have been using both paypal and Authorize.net for years with our web sites with no issue. We also started using square (http://squareup.com) for in-person payments.
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Interesting. I'm on the receiving end of BillPay checks, and I was always told that they were not the customer's numbers. I'll see if I can find out difinitively.

<EDIT>
I just looked up an image of one of my own BillPay checks, and you are right, it does indeed have my numbers on it. I stand corrected.
*hangs head in shame*
 
My CU won't transfer out via ACH type transactions without authorization.

(I do a bank to bank transfer to pay the monthly airplane LLC bill. It costs me a $1. Heck of a lot simpler for the co-owner who handles the LLC bank account. No me sending him a check and then him having to go deposit it. It just shows up on the statements on both sides.)
 
P.S. pet peeve. Why do you need to enter your PIN at an ATM to make a deposit? ;)
 
denverpilot said:
My CU won't transfer out via ACH type transactions without authorization.

(I do a bank to bank transfer to pay the monthly airplane LLC bill. It costs me a $1. Heck of a lot simpler for the co-owner who handles the LLC bank account. No me sending him a check and then him having to go deposit it. It just shows up on the statements on both sides.)
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I'm in a niche segment of banking, and our customers use ACH to debit their customers.

denverpilot said:
P.S. pet peeve. Why do you need to enter your PIN at an ATM to make a deposit? ;)
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:rofl::rofl:
 
hopmedic said:
Interesting. I'm on the receiving end of BillPay checks, and I was always told that they were not the customer's numbers. I'll see if I can find out difinitively.

<EDIT>
I just looked up an image of one of my own BillPay checks, and you are right, it does indeed have my numbers on it. I stand corrected.
*hangs head in shame*
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Security by obscurity!! ;)


Sent from my brain using my fingers.
 
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