Micropayments

[danielle v2.1b]

I've recently been asked if I could implement a system 4 a company 2 sell reports online. These would b of a hi-volume, lo-cost nature and so making a customer pay the minimum amount required and deal with all the form filling required by conventional credit card processing, such as WorldPay, was deemed 2 unweildy.

I read recently about a UK company who had begun offering a similar service using SMS as a means 2 pay. Customers send a txt message 2 a specified number which replied back with an access code to log in to the site and retrive the report. At the same time the cost was billed 2 the users mobile phone with a fraction of the cost going 2 the mobile operator and the rest passing 2 the website owners. Since most credit cards have a minimum order, it seemed a plausible avenue to explore.

Does anyone out there have experience with such a service, or have any other ideas worth exploring on how to take low priced orders, typically in the region of 50p to £3 (i.e. too small 4 cost effective credit card processing). If you do, I would so love to hear your ideas and experiences as I'm yet 2 find someone other than those sites selling mobile phone ring tones who've managed 2 set up a successful micropayment process... sure amongst the many entrepreneurs n rocket scientists we get in here, there must b one!

Hugs,

Dani xxx

[7thDsites]

Hi Danielle,

have you thought about Paypal? though you probably would have to comp for their fees somewhere in the equation.

just a thought!?

Best,
john

[mkoshors]

Hi,

I read recently about a UK company who had begun offering a similar service using SMS as a means 2 pay.

We had a system like that here in Germany called "PayBox" but they stopped operations end of 2003 due to very low acceptance.

Because I have to solve the same problem, I try to find a system for micro payment, too.

The problem is, that PayPal is based on CC only and people here in Germany don't have so many CCs like in the USA.

German Telekom tries to build a system "T-pay" where the payment is added to your phone bill. They also offer a system to pay by dialing to a 0900-number.

Another system I heard about is click&buy from Firstgate. Does anybody know details about that?

The problem seems to be, that the only widely accepted system at the moment is paypal.

I would like to hear other opinions.

[danielle v2.1b]

Hi Meinolf,

BT have been sounding the trumpet for click and buy here, with some big sites like friendsreunited.com getting behind it already.

According to BT:

The Firstgate system has been used in Germany for the past two years and already has more than 2,000 e-businesses and content suppliers signed up, serving 500,000 registered users. Based on the German experience, it is anticipated that most demand will be for payments between 50 pence and £5.

Do you have any experience of those sites Meinolf?

Click and Buy details are at http://www.btclickandbuy.com/ if anyone wants to learn more.

Regards,

Dani x

[redcircle]

It's a myth that you need a CC to use paypal. You can electronically xfer money into a paypal account from any checking or savings account.

[Istar]

I use this service which is really great :

http://www.allopass.com (mod edit: no affiliate links, please)

Istar

[mkoshors]

I use this service which is really great :

http://www.allopass.com (mod edit: no affiliate links, please)

Istar

Thank's for the hint. I visited the allopass website but I don't think that it meets my needs. I'm selling goods (trading cards). That means I have variable costs with each transaction and a small margin. When allopass offers me to receive 0.75 EUR for 1.86 EUR of sales that makes no sense when there is only a 20% margin with my typical articles.

I guess this service is meant for online-services without variable costs like the download of a cooking recipe or something else.

[mkoshors]

Hi Meinolf,

Click and Buy details are at http://www.btclickandbuy.com/ if anyone wants to learn more.

Dani x

Hi Dani,

sorry, it took some time to get detailled Information about Firstgate. This service seems to make sense if you sell online content rather than goods. For small payments they expect 35-40% of the account total as provision. As mentioned in my reply to Istar, that's too much if you sell "hardware". So I decided to use paypal. One reason is that they operate under European law now. Another reason is the close integration into eBay.