E-Payment-System

An Electronic Payment System, also known as E-Payment System or Online Payment System allows processing any cashless payment through electronic methods.

E-Payment Methods

E-Payment methods include:

1.  Credit Payment System:

  • Credit Card: to collect credit card payments through the internet Merchants require an Internet Merchant Account (IMA) and a Payment Service Provider (PSP).
  • E-Wallet: a prepaid account that stores personal data online such as credit and debit card information in order to facilitate payments. They can be server or client device based.
  • Smart card: is a plastic card similar in size to a credit card, it has an embedded microprocessor that can be loaded with large amounts of data.

2.  Cash Payment System:

Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT): is a computerized system used to do money transfers between bank accounts.

EFT comprises many other concepts:

  • Direct Debit: an instruction given by the account holder to the bank to collect a specific amount of money from his current account.
  • e-Check: an electronic transfer of funds in which the money is taken from a bank account, typically a checking account.
  • Electronic billing: the practice through which companies collect payments over electronic methods.
  • Electronic cash (e-Cash): also known as digital cash, it is the storage of monetary values in moderate amounts on a client device (generally the user’s PC) and is used for internet transactions.
  • E-commerce Loyalty Programs: programs that through rewards aim at encouraging loyal buying behavior. There are many different strategies to increase loyalty such as points cards, raffles, discounts, prizes, upgrades, freebies, etc.
  • Stored-value card: is a card variety that has a fix amount of money encoded into it. It is normally anonymous and has an expiration date. The most common example of stored value cards are gift cards.
  • Automated Clearing House (ACH) networkis the national scheme for electronic transactions in the United States, its distinctiveness is that it process both direct debits and credit card payments in the country.