April 10, 2009

PayPal - The Best Payment Processor

 Payment Processor are companies which handles the transactions of money over the internet . These are infact primary means of tranferring money through the net . The payer is relieved of the trouble of sending cheques or taking resort to anyother means , all he needs to know is the payee's email id and the rest of the matter is taken care of by the payment processor itself . Such transactions are very secure and hassle free . There are many payment processors available today like Paypal , Alertpay , Liberty Reserve , etc . Each one have their own policies of making a trasaction . They each differ on the the mode of withdrawing money , the it takes for transaction to complete , service charges etc . These are not available on all countries either . So before joining check out if the service is available in your country or not otherwise if you enter wrong country name it will cause issues with your withdrwal of money infact you will not be able to withdraw in such cases . One thing to note it is not possible to transfer money from an account of one payment processor to an another account in another payment processor . Here I am going to discuss about Paypal which I feel is the most widely used payment processor . It will give an idea of other payment processor but few differences are there as stated above .

 Paypay is an e-commerce business which deals with payments and money transfers over the internet . It is similar to a real world bank where your money is deposited but it will you not fetch you any interest on your deposited sum . Paypal takes care of the payments made to you through the internet . The payment reaches the payer almost within seconds in most cases . The payer sends it to your Paypal account , but he must know your email id for that matter . Your email id here works quite similar to your account number in a real bank account but in this case you have to make it public , ie you tell it to your payer . You can also deposit money to your Paypal from your real bank account or credit card . You can use your the Paypal money to shop on the internet in similar sites like ebay.com . You can also send gift cheques to someone instead of money . Another thing you can send money to someone who even doesn't have a Paypal account . The moment you do that the payee will receive an invitation to signup at his email address and accept the payment . Similarly you may receive your payment even if you do not have a Paypal account for an email id . 

 You can withdraw your account balance in Paypal in three ways : 

  • Withdraw via cheque send to your address . (It has 0% service charge but the service available only if you reside in USA .)
  • Withdraw via credit/debit card . (Service available in all aypal supported countries . Service charge is 5$)
  • Tranfer the account balance to your bank account . (Service available in all Paypal supported countries . Service charge is 50 INR for India .)

About Creating an account : 

Paypal offers three kinds of accounts : 

  • Personal (It is free . No service charge is applicable on the money you receive .)
  • Premier (A service charge of 4.5% is levied on all the payments received .) 
  • Business (A service charge of 4.5% is levied on all the payments received .)

NOTE : All service charges are deducted directly from your Paypal balances , so you don't have to pay anything from your pocket . 


There a couple of things on which an user new to Paypal may stumble - 

A>Creating a Paypal account .
B>
Adding a Bank Account .

So I am going to explain the steps for the above two . 

A>
Creating a Paypal account .

  • Go to PayPal.com or click the banner in the blog .
  • Click 'Register a new account' link .
  • Select your country from the drop down menu . (NOTE :Paypalservice is not available in all the countries . If your country is not listed there you should not create an account . )
  • Then you will see three options on the same page - Personal , Premier and Business . (Chose the one according to your need . A very brief discussion on the matter has been made above .)
  • Fill out the form and click submit . (NOTE : The email address you enter here is your Paypal login id .)
  • In the next page you will see that it is asking for your credit/debit card details . If you have one you can always link it to your Paypal account but it is not mandatory . If you want to skip the step then click the button labelled - Go to my Account just below the Link My Credit Card options .

(NOTE : If you don't link your credit card , your account will have an unverified status though there is no harm in it but you will not be able to carryout a monthly transaction of a sum more than $500 using this account until you get it verified .)

  • Now open your email and confirm the registration . 

That is it your Paypal account is ready for use .



B>
Adding a Bank Account .

  • When you login to your account you will find yourself under the "My Account" tab . You will many sub-tabs unedr the "My Account" tabs - 'Overview','Add Funds','Withdraw','History','Resolution Center' and 'Profile' .
  • Place(no need to click) your mouse over the 'Profile' sub tab under "My Account" .
  • A dropdown menu open . Now click 'Add/Edit Bank Account' .
  • A page with a form to add your bank account opens . (NOTE : You don't add a bank account seperately you will be automatically redirected to this page when you will try to Withdraw(By clicking the 'Withdraw' sub-tab under the "My Account" tab) your account balance .
  • Now fill out the form . (NOTE : You have the option to add someone's else's Bank Account , if you don't have have one but the surname has to be same as yours .) 
  • Note that it asks for an IFCS number of the Bank . There are two ways to get it .
     
    i>You can go to your Bank and ask for their IFCS number .
    ii>Click the help(a small Question mark sign in a blue box) and a popup window opens with the instructions which says .
       
    a>Go to http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/neft.aspx .
       
    b>Click 'List of NEFT enabled bank branches' to get full list      of NEFT enabled bank along with IFSC code.
       
    c>Download the file .
       
    d>Open it with MS Excel . Locate your Bank and the branch and      note the corresponding IFCS number .
    [
    NOTE : Be very careful while adding your bank becuase if your bounces for any reason a sum of 250 INR will be deducted from your account balance .] 
  • Click continue and follow the rest of the instructions .


 Now you are done with linking your bank account with Paypal and you can transfer your account balance at any time to your bank now . The transaction time is usually less than a week .


 Paypal has lots of other feature and discussion of all is not possible here . I have only tried to shed light on the basic ones ,the primary services like withdrawing and sending money , which any person who plans to avail of will probably find helpful . Once you begin to use the site more often you will get acquainted with all its features and services quite easily .



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