Visa Launches PayPal Alternative

An anonymous reader writes "Visa has entered the micropayment processing space with payclick, a pre-paid hosted service that will compete with the likes of PayPal. Payclick is aimed at teenagers purchasing online content like music and games where the value of the transaction is likely to be less than $20. Like PayPal, payclick is an online money repository that people can pay into with a bank account or credit card (Visa or MasterCard) and then use the funds to purchase products online. The service was developed and launched in Australia with a view for global markets. PayPal integration is not there yet, but parents can monitor the amount of funds their under-18 children have to spend online. For e-commerce sites, an SDK is available for payclick integration."

Comments

Careful not to load it up too much

[jaymz2k4]

Seems once your money is in the system its there for good

The amount of money held in a payclick account must be between $20 to $1000 and withdrawals to a bank account are not allowed. Payclick also supports recurring transactions

Of course you can just keep spending it online but I'm sure there'll come a point where little Jimmy wants some cold cash in his hands.

Re:Careful not to load it up too much

[Twinbee]

Er excuse me, but I thought micropayments were something like $0.05 or less?

Re:Careful not to load it up too much

[xtracto]

Er excuse me, but I thought micropayments were something like $0.05 or less?

No, that would be centi-payments. Micro-payments is more along the lines of $0.000005
You also have milli-payments $0.001 and nano-payments $0.000000005 or, if you feel like buying RIAA products you also have mega-payments of $5,000,000.00

Re:Careful not to load it up too much

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

The only reason that $2-$5 is called a "micropayment" is that nobody ever figured out how to deliver on the original target(fractions of a penny up to a dollar or so) in any way that wasn't swamped by transaction costs or some other failure mechanism.

Some years ago, there was a lot of quasi-utopian fluff about them floating around. Then all the companies in the field went out of business.

Re:Careful not to load it up too much

[nacturation]

Nah, $2-$5 is micropayments. [...] I have no idea where you got $0.05 from.

Get off my lawn:

http://web.archive.org/web/19970601153143/http://www.millicent.digital.com/ (as low as 1/10th cent)
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20011223.html ("In addition to true micro-payments, some sites might have midi-payments ranging from 20 cents to a dollar, and perhaps even maxi-payments of several dollars.")

Sorry, but I regularly purchase $2 to $5 items on my credit card. Calling that a micropayment is ridiculous.

Re:Bloat

[acer8930]

You mean those radio option boxes are too hard for you?

Alternative?

[Aladrin]

For something that's supposed to compete with PayPal, it's amazingly limited.

You can't withdraw your own funds.
You can't transfer funds to anyone who isn't a family member unless they are a business, and Payclick gets a cut of the transfer to a business. (Note that I'm not faulting them for making money here, just stating facts.)
You can't pull right from a bank or credit card. You must pre-deposit funds.

Combine that with the fact that almost no services use it yet and it's not a very good offering.

Re:Alternative?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Given how often accounts get frozen "for security reasons" without any form of useful recourse, I'd say that Paypal encourages you to take cash out of your account as fast as possible...

Competition

[Wowsers]

How will Visa compete with shady business practices; keeping money from users, putting a stop on user accounts because there's a solar flare, not giving a damn about client data confidentiality, not being regulated as a bank. These things make it a tough act to follow for Visa.

Re:Competition

[1s44c]

You honestly ask this? Of a CREDIT CARD COMPANY!? PayPal is a piker compared to Visa.

Visa are honest and trustworthy compared to paypal..

Anything is better than Paypal...

[Anonymous Coward]

No matter how limited or simple it is at the moment, I'd rather wire money through my friend the ex-Nigerian prince, before using Paypal again.

They aren't thieves, or crooks, but they are a company with HORRIBLE BUSINESS PRACTICES, and go completely unregulated, thanks to lack of oversight from any meaningful government agency.

So yea, any competition in this space is a welcome idea.

Re:Bloat

[FuckingNickName]

Stop using your credit card as a credit line, and start using it as a way to get up to 56 days extra interest on your money plus (often statutory) protections on purchases.

Re:THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM !!

[mitgib]

How long before eBay marks it as a non-trusted form of payment?

Re:THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM !!

[jbssm]

Exactly. I wonder how Google checkout is still a non trusted form of Payment for an eBay auction. Are they afraid Google steals our 10$ ?

Re:THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM !!

[VGPowerlord]

How long before eBay marks it as a non-trusted form of payment?

How long after that would Visa start declining charges made through PayPal?

Unlike Google, Visa can cause problems for eBay.

Re:Bloat

[TooMuchToDo]

Most cards' grace period is now only 25 days. And the interest starts accruing from the purchase date, not the end of the grace period. Avoid credit cards if possible, as all their benefits are wiped out if you slip up once.

Re:Bloat

[FuckingNickName]

Most cards' grace period is now only 25 days.

Really? My statement date for my Visa+Mastercard account, for example, is 15th of the month. So, if I buy something on 15th, I get until the statement on the following 15th plus 25 days. 56 days.

And the interest starts accruing from the purchase date, not the end of the grace period.

If your card isn't fully paid off every month, yes.

Avoid credit cards if possible, as all their benefits are wiped out if you slip up once.

If I don't remember - which I do - then my calendaring software reminds me. And, as a last resort, I have a Direct Debit set up to automatically pay the minimum amount - this is managd by the same bank which issues my card. I could make it the whole payment amount, but because I have a secondary card holder the funds come from multiple places.

But yes, if you are terribly disorganised, you might want to get a credit card anyway while your salary+credit's good, then just not use it until you've learnt to organise your life better.

Excepting where you wish to remain anonymous - then cash wins, as always.

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