Two new online payment system; eWise and POLi were launched in March 2008. Apart from arriving on the market at the same time, another similarity between the two is the fact that they both try to do away with the need for shoppers to provide credit card information when paying for goods or services online, payment is taken directly from the shopper’s bank and credited directly to the retailer’s bank account. The way eWise and POLi works it that when a shopper gets to checkout page of a retailer that supports eWeb or POLi, shoppers are taken to the login page of their bank, they login to their bank account manually, a page from the retailer’s checkout appear appears, pre-populate with amount, retailers bank account and other necessary payment information. One the shopper confirm that the payment amount and other information are correct, the consumer’s account is debited, the retailers account credited, successful payment conformation message is sent to the retailer so that goods can be shipped to the consumer. As of today, no online payment processing provider provides this kind of direct payment from buyer’s bank to seller’s bank, payment is usually taken from consumer’s credit card, credited into the retailers credit card account held with a clearing bank, the bank then contacts the retailer when a payment has been processed, a fee and percentage of the transaction value are changed for this service by the credit card processing bank, eWise and POLi do away with this complicated and expensive processing method because payment is debited directly into to the consumers bank account and credited to the retailers bank account.
Cheaper than credit card but is it safer?
It is clear that eWise and POLi payment system are cheaper than paying by credit card because payment goes directly into the retailers bank account, this eliminates handling charges of up to 5% charged by banks processing credit cards for retailers. For the smaller retailer, there is even more savings, some credit card processing company keep the proceeds of credit card cleared on behalf of customer for 30 days, sometimes longer, before the retailers account is credited.
Downside of eWise and POL, mostly from the consumers viewpoint includes the fact that the 30 days free credit consumers gets from their credit card company is absent, protections offered by credit cards should things go wrong with a purchase is also absent. There is also the added risk of your bank account details being stolen, at the moment, neither eWise nor POLi offers to give users of their system any compensation should things go wrong.
