Q: How do I make online payment and receive payments online?-Solomon

A: There is no doubt about the fact that the Internet is the greatest marketplace ever. Anybody connected to the Internet can buy and sell,irrespective of race,religion,education,language,etc.That brings up a problem,how do you pay for goods and services you want to buy and how do you collect your money,in case you are selling online?

How to Make Payments on the Internet

To make payments on the net,you can use a Visa card,Mastercard or Paypal.Most banks in Nigeria now issue Mastercards but be sure they are being accepted online before applying for it. I hear all you need to get a Mastercard is the sum of $100 but check with your local bank for more information on this.As at now,GTBank issues Mastercards same as Zenith Bank which calls it’s own the Websurfer.Access bank also issues Visa Cards.Check with them for more information.

2 Types of Visa Cards

There is the electronic(virtual) visa cards as well as the Plastic.I successfully use the virtual visa cards on the net and you can get it from http://graphcard.com.

Of these 2 types,there are the loadable and non-reloadable visa cards.The reloadable ones mean you can add funds to it but the non-reloadable ones mean you use and dispose and each time you need a visa card,you order another one.

You can also use your paypal account,graphcard account,alertpay account,moneybookers account,etc to buy stuffs online,depending on the means of payment accepted by the site.

How to Receive Payments Online

There are several ways through which you can receive payments for your goods and services online.You can collect your money through Egold,Paypal,Worldpay,etc.I will analyse a few below.

Paypal-They do not accept Nigerians but the truth is,you make a lot of sales when you use this payment processor.Why? Most people have a paypal account and it makes checking out easy.To sign up for paypal,if your country is not accepted,just adopt another country which they do business with and use an address there to sign up.

WorldPay-This is essentially for people facing problems to get a merchant account due to the factor that they are not located in the US. WorldPay is a one-stop solution for your merchant account, payment gateway and store front. The payment option comes with fraud protection and risk management applications to safeguard your business. Based in England, WorldPay is a division of Royal Bank of Scotland.

If you compare with PayPal, WorldPay’s fees are pretty stiff. 50 US$ monthly fee. 400 US$ setup fee. Transaction Fees are 3.25% + $0.40 US$. The charge for multicurrency processing is 5.25% per transaction.

2Checkout-This works as an online distribution center. When customer buys a product from your website through 2checkout, you actually make your sale to 2checkout for immediate resale to your customer. Customers are billed by 2checkout not you. 2checkout accepts vendors from virtually all over the world. You can also set up recurring billing through 2checkout.All you pay is a one-time set-up fee of  49 US$. There is no monthly fee.Transaction Fee: 5.5% + $0.30 US$.

ClickBank-This payment processor is excellent for selling e-books, reports and other similar digital products. The great thing about ClickBank is that it has over 100 thousand affiliates promoting products available on the ClickBank marketplace. By listing your product with ClickBank, you automatically tap into a huge potential market. ClickBank accepts all major credit cards and PayPal.To set-up your account,you need 50 US$ set up fee. Depending on the percentage of the commission you pay to your affiliates, transaction fee varies from 2.5% plus 0.33 US$ to 7.5% plus 1 US$.

There are several other options such as Alertpay,Moneybookers,etc but you just need to compare their rates to decide which one to go for.

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