Payments Options
There are various options available to customers today for making payments.
Let us understand how all payment methods work. Below are the most commonly used payment modes:
- Pay Online : online payment methods are most used methods in present day scenario because of the security and ease of use. Customer can make online payment for their bills or recharge via :
- Using Credit card
- Using Debit card
- Net banking
- Pay via Electronic Clearing Service(ECS)
Pay Offline : Offline payment methods are now a days very less used due to its high risk and time consuming factors. It also requires a dedicated resource for the payment activity to be completed. Different methods are:
- Using direct Cash/Cheques.
- Transfer via Post office.
Pay Online: Making payment online has helped subscribers to save time and efforts . There are various options by which subscribers can make online payment as:
- Using Credit cards : Credit cards are plastic smart cards issued by a bank institution to the customers with defined bank limit that customer can utilize for purchasing.
- Customer are also given a defined time period to pay the amount back to the financial institution.Over the years credit cards have become one of the most popular and widely used mode for making payments. For ensuring the security and authenticity of subscriber for payment transactions made via Credit or Debit cards there are few measures taken into consideration such as use of CVN(card verification number)
CVN number verification is mandatory when making payment via card type VISA or MasterCard.
Apart from this online merchants are compelled to ensure they follow the agreed protocol or standards to provide security to customers who make online payments via credit or debit cards. - Using Debit cards :Debit cards are smart cards issued by a bank institution to the customers, which is directly linked to the savings account of the customer. Customers can directly use their savings for different purpose without going to bank for money withdrawal.Debit cards are also one of the most popular and widely used mode for making payments. For ensuring the security and authenticity of subscriber for payment transactions made via Credit or Debit cards there are few measures taken into consideration such as use of CVN(card verification number) . Note that CVN number verification is mandatory when making payment via card type VISA or MasterCard.
Apart from this online merchants are compelled to ensure they follow the agreed protocol or standards to provide security to customers who make online payments via credit or debit cards. - Net Banking: Net banking is also a very widely used mode for making payments in recent times. Many service providers are providing their customer to make payment or do a recharge via Net banking option. Service provider CRMs are integrated with Bank institution’s portal via secure connection called Payment gateways and allows customer to make payment after authentication checks.Payment gateways play an important role for enabling a secure connection between a service provider and payment processor. Payment gateway is en e- commerce application service provider which authorizes payments also it protects credit card and other sensitive information by encrypting . Hence Payment gateways ensure that information sharing happens securely between customer and merchants and similarly between merchant portals and payment processors.
Payment via ECS
- ECS (Electronic clearing house) : ECS is an electronic mode of payment useful for transactions that are repetitive in nature. ECS is used by institutions for making bulk payments or bulk collections . Types of ECS:
- ECS Credit : This is also known as “credit push”. ECS credit is mainly used for bulk payments where the receiver account is credited with payment from institution making the payment. Examples being Salaries, dividends or interest distribution.
- ECS Debit: ECS debit is also known as “debit pull” . This method is primarily used for relatively small value payments from individual subscribers/consumers for paying telephone bills, electricity bills etc.
How can customers avail ECS ?
Subscribers/Customers need to inform their bank institution and provide a mandate that will authorize the merchandise institution.
Mandate can include details of subscriber’s bank details as well as account information. Once the required set up has been completed , bank institutes own the responsibility of alerting the customers on each debit/credit transactions.
The alerts can come in form of mobile sms or email communication from banks.
