usecash.net - Is there a demand to buy online with cash?

[lostie]

Got a call today from Welcome to UseCash - Now everyone can shop online! telling me about their service, have to say its a clever enough idea, but I have my doubts about its success, these days everyone either has a credit card or knows someone with one. Basically their idea is that when you want to buy something you print out a barcode, take it to your nearest payzone centre, and pay them in cash. Usecash then contact the company, and the product is then shipped. thoughts?

 

[jhegarty]

I think there could be a market, but only for things you can't buy off line...

 

[EdenWeb]

Are they serious? So when I buy something online (the whole point being I don't have to leave the house etc...) I then have to tootle down to the nearest payzone afterprinting out the bar code and pay cash?
Hmmmm....

 

[figment]

How is this better then pay as you go credit cards like 3v.ie ?

 

[lostie]

Well it has an advantage over 3v in that you dont have to buy a set voucher and end up with the hassle of having credit left on your voucher, its a little more hassle-free. But edenweb thats a point, who wants to go to the bother of leaving your house if your buying online. I suppose the only advantage is for maybe products aimed at younger people who dont have a credit card.

 

[mneylon]

I can't see the point.

Most online businesses take other methods of payment apart from Credit Cards, so what's the advantage?

If you don't have a credit card you'd probably go for http://www.3v.ie

 

[julescal]

UseCash

Hi. I’m the MD of UseCash. EdenWeb, yes we are serious! I’m sure you go to the local shop every now and then to buy a newspaper, milk etc. So you pay your bill then. The bill is valid for a set period determined by the merchant e.g. 1 hour, 1 day etc. So, no great hardship there.
Lostie, not everyone has a credit card. Adult 18+ pop. Ireland 2.85m. Credit Cards in issue 2.2m, Debit Cards 1.6m. Penetration of credit cards/adult pop. c35% (lots of people out there have more than 1 credit card). So, 1.8m adults don’t have a credit card and 1.2m adults don’t have debit cards. 1.6m internet users of which c500k are shoppers. 25-30% of users will not shop online because of security concerns (real or perceived the net result is the same) so that’s c4-500k. You can always use someone else’s credit or debit card as long as they aren’t maxed out, or aren’t security concerned, or haven’t got fed up being asked…
Blacknight – yes there are other payment options including cheques and money orders but they delay orders because of reliance on post for delivery, manual processing and clearance at the merchant end. Also exposes merchant to cheque/money order fraud. 3V is a very good system but you have to tie-up your money and if there’s a surplus (called ‘breakage’) you have to pay to get a refund…in the form of a cheque (cost and time for you to lodge refund cheque). It’s also quite expensive to load at €5 per top-up.
We look at it this way: Internet shopping is no more than mail order home shopping and the payment options available present a barrier to a lot of people. A cash option completes the options available. If you had a high street shop you’d be mad if you didn’t take cash. Same is now true for websites.

 

[mneylon]

So how will a merchant treat the payment? As a credit card payment or what?

The advantage of 3V is that it's just another credit card payment as far as we are concerned, so we don't need to go messing about with payment gateways etc.,

(and please don't use such a large font when replying - it's really hard on my eyes)

 

[julescal]

UseCash

The merchant gets paid directly into their bank account - EMTS. Straightforward enough. As easy to integrate as any other PSP e.g. PayPal. About messing about...this is all about making internet shopping available to everyone. Use 3V if you like, UseCash if you like. But let everyone shop online. BTW Kombini payments for internet shopping - ie. barcoded bills for offline payment - are the 3rd most popular payment method in Japan and 2nd most popular in Taiwan. So they have a track record. Also, we will be rolling this out into Europe where cc usage for internet shopping in Western and CEE is low. Sorry about your eyes.

 

[louie]

hi julescal - i wish you good luck with it and hope it will work out for you, but as we evolved, people are getting lazy and the type of bill paying as u mentioned above are mostly used by pensioners, who doesn't even know how to turn a computer on, never-mind shopping on-line.

In Ireland users are even afraid of using CC on-line, afraid of cloning, due to what they heard which in turn is a lot safer then handing your cc over the counter into a restaurant - all this due to lack of education from the CC issuers.

I dealt and still dealing with on-line payments since the early stages of Internet in Ireland (2000 to be more exact) and I think I have seen it all - there are user that are even afraid of their shadow.

Anyhow, we'll keep an eye on your success and once again good luck with it.

 

[d-tour]

Hi Jule,

Hope it works out for you, i think in ireland anyway you have an uphill struggle.
Like you said yourself, if you dont have a ceditcard, you borrow someone elses'....

 

[mneylon]

The merchant gets paid directly into their bank account - EMTS. Straightforward enough. As easy to integrate as any other PSP e.g. PayPal. About messing about...this is all about making internet shopping available to everyone. .

So how is a merchant meant to integrate with you?

How quick is the payment made?

It may seem simple to you, but if you expect merchants to add your payment option to their shopping carts it would have to be extremely simple or they won't do it.

 

[EdenWeb]

Hi. I’m the MD of UseCash. EdenWeb, yes we are serious! I’m sure you go to the local shop every now and then to buy a newspaper, milk etc. So you pay your bill then. The bill is valid for a set period determined by the merchant e.g. 1 hour, 1 day etc. So, no great hardship there.

Well that changes things for the better but didn't see that info on your web site. Good luck with the business and well done on coming to the forums.
I presume you were looking at your referrers and that led you here or are you using Google Alerts?

 

[robfahy]

UseCash Vs 3V

I like the sound of the UseCash system. I went to Monte Carlo a few years back, was meant to stay for one week, ended up staying for three, thanks to my flexible friend. Since then I seem to set of alarms every time I enter a bank!
I was delighted when 3V entered the scene, as I like to shop on eBay and got embarassed annoying friends to let me use their credit cards each time I wanted to buy something. If you see something for 12 euro online, you have to get a 15 euro 3V top-up, which costs 20 euro, so it kinda defeats the purpose of going to sites like cdwow to get music cheaper than in the shops here.
I found two other big problems with 3V... recently I went onto Ryanair to book a flight. I saw the price was 80 euro including taxes, so went down to my nearest 3V shop, which there aren't many off in Galway, and paid 85 euro for a top up, went online and the flight had gone up by 20 quid, so I had to borrow someones credit card again to complete the transaction and spend the 80 euro voucher on eBay junk.
The other problem is that PayPal don't seem to like Visa, which is what 3V uses and you are limited to 700 euro Visa spend in the lifetime of your account before you have to go and create a new account, which is a pain in the neck. No restrictions apply by using a Mastercard.

Rob.

 

[mneylon]

The other problem is that PayPal don't seem to like Visa, which is what 3V uses and you are limited to 700 euro Visa spend in the lifetime of your account before you have to go and create a new account, which is a pain in the neck. No restrictions apply by using a Mastercard.

That's absolutely untrue

I spend thousands of euro on our paypal account using Visa every year

 

[robfahy]

It was definately the case for me last year. I remember thinking it was such a hastle. I'll have to root through my emails, but I know I have one from them somewhere. I was asked to register a Mastercard.

 

[louie]

when you are asked to register your CC, it usually means the website is using 3D secure payment system.

 

[mcs]

We're adding usecash to our sites. Primarily because we have quite a few customers who prefer to pay cash for whatever reason. (we won't mention black economy) We have a few customers who just don't like using cards over the net and then also teenagers who may wish to buy stuff but don't have a card and then UK customers (service is being launched there in november I believe) who only have debit cards which cannot be used on non-uk sites due to banking restrictions.

Regular CC's will still be the bulk of turnover but since adding a paypal option our paypal turnover is approx. 15% of totals - is usecash can generate 15% extra too, I'll be very happy.

 

[mee]

I think Usecash is a great idea and think it could work very well, but owning a retail outlet myself and dealing with the network who will be handling the payments in shops, I fear this may fall flat on its face.
I think they have made the wrong decision. I Alphyra in my store for over a year and found they could never deliver on these kind of bill payment schemes.
However after some research, I decided to go with their competitor who had a lot more experience in bill payments, and brought a lot more footfall into my store (around 18,000 extra people a year).