Five Ways to Accept International Payments Online

Online sellers can choose between CCNow, 2CheckOut, Paypal, AlertPay, and TrialPay to accept payments online. It is best to have more than one option for back-up.

• CCNow is one of the pioneers in online payment. It is currently limited to the selling of tangible items and has tools like coupons and cross-selling of products. I started using this service in 2000 to sell my books and research reports online.
  
  
• 2CheckOut is one of the most comprehensive online payment solution today that accepts all forms of payment from electronic check drafts, credit card, to Paypal. It has its own debit card, as an option, that merchants can use to transfer their payment.
  
  
• Paypal is a popular option especially when it added more countries to send and receive payments from. The primary challenge in using Paypal is its multiple layers of fees from transaction rate, transaction fee, withdrawal fee, and currency conversion. However, most merchants I know use their Paypal collection to pay their contractors and buy products online that lessens the need to withdraw that much and be subjected to the multiple fees.
  
  
• AlertPay is new to me (mentioned in a CNN article). It intends to serve as a Paypal alternative. It is the only payment system I've seen so far that accepts e-gold as well. Its verification process requires submission of a valid id and proof of billing.
  
  
• TrialPay is also new to me (mentioned in a CNN article). What makes this one unique is that it profits and give fees for the products it cross-sells. In my case, I decided to give a one-year individual membership in the DigitalFilipino.com Club for free to TrialPay users.
  
  When my product was accepted, a special checkout page was made and Trialpay matches an offer to the product or service. If the customer accepts the offer, I get a commission and the amount should no less than the fee I indicated which I like to receive. However, if the buyer did not avail of the offer, they will be routed to my existing individual club membership payment page.
  
  However, your collection should reach US$100 before receiving any form of payout. So you can consider this more of a complimentary add-on rather than a payment system stand-alone.
  

A growing number of payment providers today do not ask for a sign-up fee and this encouraged more merchants to have more than one payment solution alternative. Healthy competition should be encouraged to avoid monopoly by any single player in the market.

Related:

• Download the International Payment Gateway Comparison Guide