Top Alternative Payment Methods When Your Bank Transactions Are Not Working
With the growth in online shopping and payments, more and more businesses are understanding the urgent need to introduce alternative payment methods to make it convenient for their buyers to purchase from them. At first, the focus was on replacing cash as it was thought to be troubling to carry as well as unsafe. However, now companies are moving forward to provide alternatives to even mainstream payment tools such as debit cards and credit cards.
Bank transfers are quite safe. They are quick and you are mostly protected by different state laws against identity thefts, unauthorized transactions, and similar scams. This might make you wonder why alternative payment methods like PayPal or Apple Pay are even useful.
Regardless of how smooth the operation is, banks do experience downtimes once in a while. This is what makes it a good idea to have a backup payment method just in case. Even when you are using banks to fund a transaction such as with a Venmo app or Zelle app, it can lose connection due to various reasons. Instead of letting the purchase go by or waiting for hours for the servers to resolve the matter, you can simply use an alternative payment tool to clear the bills.
The most famous options are Google Pay, Apple Pay, Klarna, PayPal, Stripe, etc. All of these have become quite popular in recent years especially because the consumers’ payment habits are changing and an increasing number of people now rely on online payments. Similarly, the checkout technology at ecommerce and online shopping sites has become sophisticated making it possible for merchants to accept multiple payment modes instead of just relying on traditional ones.
Everything You Need To Know About Alternative Payment Methods
When we talk about online payments other than bank transfers, digital wallets are perhaps the first thing that comes to our mind. These are online prepaid accounts that you can use to store money and then pay with it whenever needed. These can be used are alternative small bank accounts as well although many companies do not recommend it for various reasons that are out of the scope for this article to cover.
Anyways, digital wallets are quite famous especially when you consider leading companies like PayPal, Neteller, Paysafe, etc. Additionally, they would pretty much like mobile payment tools such as Apple Pay or Google Pay that most of us are already using.The best part is that almost all major retail stores and gas stations now take payments via mobile wallets such as Apple Pay or others.
Another recent addition to the list of alternative payment methods is that of cryptocurrencies. Although their use is not yet widespread, countries like the US are definitely in the forefront of accepting it as an eligible payment method in many leading stores and for multiple types of payments. Nonetheless, there is some instability around the use of cryptocurrencies in the market for the time being. Maybe when it becomes less volatile, we will see a boost in its use for payments in the future.
Do Alternative Payment Methods Have a Bright Future?
An important point of consideration here is that most alternative payment methods like mobile payments apps or digital wallets are not backed up by security layers like a bank account is. Perhaps that is the reason why there has been an increase in the number of scams and online frauds reported over these platforms in the past few years. Many states are now introducing laws and enforcing strict penalties on parties or individuals found involved in such activities. Some states like NY, Carolina, and Kentucky have jail times for privacy breaches, identity thefts, and cyber-crimes.
With that being said, the payment market is rapidly expanding and many financial analysts believe that alternative payment methods will have a bright future nonetheless. In fact, their use is expected to outnumber bank account holders in coming years. Credit cards and debit cards will obviously remain popular in many countries as their use is still more preferred over traditional payments via cash.