E-Commerce Tools: Electronic Payment Options

There are also other alternatives like Paypal and Propay that let you set up accounts to accept payment from customers without having to have a merchant account. There are still charges and limitations, but these may also fit your needs and are worth investigating.

One thing to keep in mind too is that in order to accept American Express or Discover you have to go directly through them.

Electronic checks can also be accepted with the right printing software and validation programs. Your customers would input their checking account and other identification information and you would print the check on blank check stock and deposit it as you would a written check Yes, this is legal. According to Uniform Commercial Code, Title 3, a customer can authorize you to endorse a check on their behalf. You'll also need to authorize the check using national databases that look for bad payment histories, bad checks, stolen checks, etc. Vendors usually offer features that will help you collect for non-sufficient fund (NSF) checks as well. PayByCheck offers these features, as well as several other vendors.