Hard facts on software -Instant EFT

There is very good news for those of us who are wary of using our credit cards when shopping online.
Most of us use Internet banking and we have come to trust our Internet banking platform. If you are like me, then Internet banking was one of the first things you wanted to do online, to jump the queues and always have access to the latest account balances.
It is said that the average user takes five years to get comfortable shopping online, but for most of us I believe it takes only a year or so to get comfortable doing internet banking.
Due to this, many online merchants in the past offered both Credit card payments as well as traditional EFT.
So we had EFT payments all along, what is different now?
Well, with traditional EFT, the online store would take your order, send you the payment details by e-mail or via a screen printout, and you then had to log into your bank, create a new recipient, type in the payment details, ensure you don’t get the reference number wrong, and make the payment. Then…. you wait… and you wait… for the online store company to reconcile their bank account the next day, ensure that your payment was made correctly, and only then authorize your purchase and ship it. If you got something wrong, you wait a little longer and have huge hassle sorting things out.
So eventually you would have stopped buying in the first place, or you would resort to your untrusted Credit Card.
Now the difference with instant EFT is that you can make a trusted EFT payment, but the process is just as quick and pain-free as a credit card payment.
How does it work?
Imagine you are making a purchase online, you enter items to your shopping basket, you checkout and you choose your payment method, in this case Instant EFT. The page then asks you to select your bank (as it only works with participating banks) and the Internet banking homepage opens automatically in a different window. You now login to your Internet banking profile as usual, and you are directed to a “Once off Payment” page. This page is already filled in with all the details of the recipient, amounts and correct reference numbers. You can change your personal reference if you like, but that is all you can change. Then you confirm the EFT payment, and ..voila.. you are taken back to the store where you are shown a confirmation that your payment was accepted.
It’s as easy as that
You might wonder how the bank knows what payment you made without you logging in first? Well, the Instant EFT system is connected directly to the banks. Once you choose your bank in the payment screen, information gets sent to the bank that this purchase is happening. Then once you log in the bank can show you this information immediately. Very clever!
Instant EFT is PayFast’s patented, revolutionary method of completing online purchases by making an Internet banking transfer (EFT) which gets instantly verified. There is no two day wait, you don’t need to send in proof of payment and it can be used with South Africa’s four biggest banks: ABSA, FNB, Nedbank and Standard Bank.
So what’s the catch? For one, it’s only available in South Africa with the four biggest banks. If you are from outside SA or bank with another bank you still need to use your credit card. Also, not all shops offer this yet, and if you purchase from outside SA you also need your Credit Card. So don’t dump it just yet…
Remember last week I mentioned the long tail.
Until next time then – Keep it (A)fresh.