PayPal’s Business Payments may be the answer.
Business Payments was introduced in 2010 as a pilot program for a new low cost method of sending and receiving payments. Unlike the normal transaction fees there is a flat fee of just $0.50 (Yes just 50 cents). It is oriented toward a specific set of business payments operations and has specific requirements:
- The sender of the payment must have a PayPal account and have their account linked to their bank account.
- Payments must be funded by the PayPal balance or eCheck.
- Only available to US customers receiving payments domestically
- Use must meet certain criteria (see list below) and be approved by PayPal.
Under the hood Business Payments uses the Adaptive Payments API. (see that section for details). The criteria for this payment system is:
- Accounts payables, Affiliate Payments, Payroll, Expense Reimbursements, Rebates, Refunds, Payouts, B2B Payments.
- Other use cases under consideration are– Invoicing, Child Care, Entertainment, Government, Medical, Rents, Utilities, Tuition
To take advantage of this low cost system you either need to program it into your existing website or utilize one of several bill payments vendors that are integrating this into their offerings. Which method is best for you depends on a lot of conditions that can’t be covered here. As of this writing the following vendors are supporting Business Payments:
- Get Harvest – http://www.getharvest.com/
- Bill.com – http://www.bill.com/
- Fresh Books – http://www.freshbooks.com/
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