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E-mail payment
 Many
online banking sites now feature a service that private vendors
have offered for years: the ability to use e-mail to initiate payments
between individuals.
E-mail payments developed as a fast and easy
alternative to checks and money orders for small transactions between
individuals. When online auctions exploded on the Internet, e-mail
payments offered sellers a way to accept credit card or account
debit payments without the hassle and expense of opening a costly
merchant account.
Private e-payment providers require both sides to
sign up. Because buyers register their account number only with
the e-payment service, they can rest assured their account information
won't fall into the unscrupulous hands of an auction scam artist.
Strictly speaking, cash does not actually flow via
e-mail in an e-mail payment, but travels via the usual electronic
routes, the same as a check or credit card transaction. The e-mail
portion of an e-mail payment is used primarily to verify the identity
of the recipient, notify them that a payment is forthcoming and
when it has cleared, and if necessary, deliver instructions on how
to receive a payment.
To initiate an e-mail payment through your private
banking site, you will need to know at a minimum the e-mail address
of the recipient, and depending on the e-payment provider, you may
need the bank account number into which they want the money deposited.
Once that information is entered, you select the account you wish
to use, the amount you wish to send and the date you wish to send
it, just as you would paying bills online.
-- Updated: March 28, 2003
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