Webmaster Q & A... Myths and realitys of accepting on-line checks.

[Ben.Z]

It always amazes me how many paysite owners don't offer online ACH as a payment option. There are millions of Americans who either don't have credit cards, or will not use them on the internet. You can tap into this entirely new revenue stream just by offering ACH as a payment option. It is safe to assume that you could add 25%-35% in additional revenues on your existing traffic!

Now tell me, why are you leaving money on the table?!

Let's get some Q & A going on here... I'm sure many of you have concerns and reservations about online checks... Let's hear them!

[Giorgio_Xo]

Why is it that very large sponsors only pay $15 PPS on a check sign up if it is a myth?

[DukeSkywalker]

35-50% of checks are fruad... That means my content is getting robbed and by bandwidth consumed, so your 30% claimed profit numbers are more likley down to 5% after all the fruad.
Duke

[Ben.Z]

Originally posted by Giorgio_Xo
Why is it that very large sponsors only pay $15 PPS on a check sign up if it is a myth?

...because they're paying $15 per check "pre-auth" they don't even know if the check wil settle or not.

[Ben.Z]

Originally posted by DukeSkywalker
35-50% of checks are fruad... That means my content is getting robbed and by bandwidth consumed, so your 30% claimed profit numbers are more likley down to 5% after all the fruad.
Duke

so what! you lose a little bandwidth!
the amount of EXTRA income you make by offering checks more than makes up for it!

you think all of the biggest programs on the Net have been offering checks for YEARS, for just 5% additional profilt??? LOL!

[market4s]

It seems that i pay more in processing fees, than the amount of checks that actually clear, with my existing processor! How does WTS differ???

[Giorgio_Xo]

Originally posted by WTS - Ben
...because they're paying $15 per check "pre-auth" they don't even know if the check wil settle or not.

How long does it take to authorize? If it is more than a few minutes the surfer will want his money back.

[Ben.Z]

Originally posted by Giorgio_Xo
How long does it take to authorize? If it is more than a few minutes the surfer will want his money back.

no wiat, the surfer gets instant real-time access!

[Ben.Z]

Originally posted by market4s
It seems that i pay more in processing fees, than the amount of checks that actually clear, with my existing processor! How does WTS differ???

We hear this quite often, so i'm sure you're another webmaster who's processor is charging their fees on pre-auth's (gross) and only collecting half of them! lol

We do not charge any fee for returned checks and only assess our processing fee on checks that have cleared. As a result, we have a well-balanced strategy to eliminate as many of the bad checks as possible without sacrificing any throughput.

Our interests are in line. If you get paid..... we get paid! It's a beautiful thing! ;-)

We also have an in-house collections dep't that goes after nsf returns, resulting in MORE collected funds!

Opening an ACH account with WTS is FREE, so you can easily get set up and do a comparison for yourself. The math will speak for itself!

[Sexy Rex]

We've been offering online ACH to surfers for years and removed it 18 months ago because of the fraud (over 35%).

Some of the biggest programs around told us to give it another try with WTS because they saw a difference and WTs allows cross selling. We're seting it up right now.

My

[masterE]

Okay Ben, what's the setup process for password management on a site? What kind of tools do you offer? Is there sub id tracking available? I use CCBill as my CC processor, and their affiliate tracking for my webmasters, so I'd like to be able to credit my webmasters with sales made with a secondary processor (i.e. you). So, sub id or custom fields would be beneficial.

I'm still teetering on the edge here, so sell me on this

[JesseD]

We've been using WTS for a long time... they run a great business!

[wiggitywack]

I have to agree with Ben on this.

Of course, credit cards are going to be the primary billing option at the moment. But offering secondary options only nets you more money in the end, whether it be check, subscription 900, dialer - even pay by mail. So long as these secondary options do not eat into credit card sales, it's all extra candy right?

The more options you give your surfers the better. Even if you net less as a % of the total cost of the charge with secondary mechanisms - they still certainly ad value. It's all about incremental revenue ....

btw - we have an excellent subscription 900 product (among a few other telephone billing optiions) over at gxbill.com so take a peek

[Ben.Z]

Originally posted by masterE
Okay Ben, what's the setup process for password management on a site? What kind of tools do you offer? Is there sub id tracking available? I use CCBill as my CC processor, and their affiliate tracking for my webmasters, so I'd like to be able to credit my webmasters with sales made with a secondary processor (i.e. you). So, sub id or custom fields would be beneficial.

I'm still teetering on the edge here, so sell me on this

masterE,

This is no problem at all. We accommodate some of the largest programs on the net. What ever you need, we'll do it for you. How's that for a sale?

What's your email? I'll get some documents over and we'll get you hooked up!

[imageman]

Ben
Do you have a service like the old Globill check system ?

It worked very well for us with Zero void checks.

They would hold access to the site for 4-7 days allowing the check to clear and then automatically allow access . It dissuaded the guys who wanted to fraudulently access your content and all serious surfers got access.

I know that adult sites are supposed to be instant gratification and we lost a few genuine people due to the wait but better that than access by freeloaders spewing exclusive content all over the place ?



.

[Ben.Z]

Originally posted by imageman
Ben
Do you have a service like the old Globill check system ?

It worked very well for us with Zero void checks.

They would hold access to the site for 4-7 days allowing the check to clear and then automatically allow access . It dissuaded the guys who wanted to fraudulently access your content and all serious surfers got access.

I know that adult sites are supposed to be instant gratification and we lost a few genuine people due to the wait but better that than access by freeloaders spewing exclusive content all over the place ?



.

We sure do.

However, our fraud department is top-noch!

...because we have been processing checks longer than anybody on the Adult Net, we have:

- the largest negative check database in the industry
- propriety fraud controls on the front-end
- a "pre-note" process which helps eliminate bad account info from ever being presented to the bank
- we "re-present" all NSF transactions on your behalf
- we have an in-house collections dep't that recovers money on bad checks

... AND we only charge our processing fees on COLLECTED monies! (unlike our competition)

There are NO set up fees, so there is no reason not to set up an account and COMPARE! ;-)

Contact me, or click through my sig to get started!

[imageman]

Sounds just right i sent you guys an e-mail
Thanks !

[market4s]

Originally posted by WTS - Ben
We hear this quite often, so i'm sure you're another webmaster who's processor is charging their fees on pre-auth's (gross) and only collecting half of them! lol

We do not charge any fee for returned checks and only assess our processing fee on checks that have cleared. As a result, we have a well-balanced strategy to eliminate as many of the bad checks as possible without sacrificing any throughput.

Our interests are in line. If you get paid..... we get paid! It's a beautiful thing! ;-)

We also have an in-house collections dep't that goes after nsf returns, resulting in MORE collected funds!

Opening an ACH account with WTS is FREE, so you can easily get set up and do a comparison for yourself. The math will speak for itself!

signing up now!

[Ben.Z]

glad to hear it guys. i'll be around the boards tonight if anyone has any more questions.

[notjoe]

What % do you take?

[pornguy]

Yes what is you cut?

Also set up time etc??

We used to take checks through ccbill, but stopped because the high fraud.

[Snake Doctor]

It amazes me how many webmasters are deathly afraid of a surfer getting a "FREE RIDE" and don't take check signups because of it.

Even if the fraud or nsf rate is 35%....the other 65% is money you wouldn't have had in the first place....and there's no possible way the 35% of checks that didn't clear used up enough bandwidth to eat your profit off the other 65%.

If you run your business "not to lose" instead of running it "to win" you've got the wrong strategy and you'll never realize your full potential.

Notice that all the people who complain about check fraud tend to be smaller webmasters with smaller paysites.....none of the big boys have stopped taking checks and you should think about why that's the case.

[Snake Doctor]

Another thing to add is that check signups tend to recur alot longer than credit card signups so that helps make up for the amount of checks that don't clear.

Also you don't have to worry about VISA fines or any shit like that if your check customers get disgruntled with you.

[webgurl]

Originally posted by Lenny2
It amazes me how many webmasters are deathly afraid of a surfer getting a "FREE RIDE" and don't take check signups because of it.

Even if the fraud or nsf rate is 35%....the other 65% is money you wouldn't have had in the first place....and there's no possible way the 35% of checks that didn't clear used up enough bandwidth to eat your profit off the other 65%.

If you run your business "not to lose" instead of running it "to win" you've got the wrong strategy and you'll never realize your full potential.

Notice that all the people who complain about check fraud tend to be smaller webmasters with smaller paysites.....none of the big boys have stopped taking checks and you should think about why that's the case.

valid point
This is a great thread we currently are using WTS as well

[SmokeyTheBear]

The check industry is dying

the future of online billing is www.duocash.com

[Ben.Z]

Originally posted by SmokeyTheBear
The check industry is dying

Thanks, I needed a laugh this morning!

---

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back with you guys. I had something come up last night. Anyway, to answer your questions...

Originally posted by notjoe
What % do you take?

notjoe,

Fee's vary from client to client, depending on numerous factors such as type of product, volume, average ticket price, etc...

Typically, for recurring membership sites it runs from 12%-15% of COLLECTED funds.

Originally posted by pornguy
Yes what is you cut?

Also set up time etc??

We used to take checks through ccbill, but stopped because the high fraud.

pornguy,

We already process for adult.com, is this in regards to a personal venture?