Although I believe that Natwest Fastpay is probably the best value for money online payment service, it could do with some improvement. The ideal user of Natwest Fastpay is someone who has to send their mate a tenner, or even (and I use this quite often) transferring money between different ... Read review
Advantages: Fast, simple, efficient, useful. Disadvantages: Only accepts Internet Explorer, and not widely used.
Although I believe that Natwest Fastpay is probably the best value for money online payment service, it could do with some improvement. The ideal user of Natwest Fastpay is someone who has to send their mate a tenner, or even (and I use this quite often) transferring money between different bank accounts. Transactions are carried out swiftly and with a reassuring amount of checks along the way. A big mistake is the fact that you can only use Internet ... ...need the extra 20p because Fastpay charges for sending payments. Once the money is deposited in your account (immediately for debit/credit cards & 4 working days for bank deposits) you click on the send money section. So if you want to send the £10.00 to your mate you just enter either his email address, or mobile numbers and then send it. In order for your mate to get the money, he will already have to be a member of Fastpay, or he will be taken ... more
Although I believe that Natwest Fastpay is probably the best value for money online payment service, it could do with some improvement. The ideal user of Natwest Fastpay is someone who has to send their mate a tenner, or even (and I use this quite often) transferring money between different bank accounts. Transactions are carried out swiftly and with a reassuring amount of checks along the way. A big mistake is the fact that you can only use Internet Explorer to access their site. Whether this is because of lazy web designers or inexperienced ones, I don’t know, but it is a definite minus point to the many alternative browser users out there.
The basic premise of any online payment system is getting money from A to B without too much hassle. The biggest market is probably online auction payments, but you still may want to send your Aunt Freda a tenner to get the latest Justin Timberlake album. So you go along to www.natwestfastpay.com or www.moneybymouse.com (they are both the same service except slightly different site content) and click to signup. You go through a few signup pages, containing the usual name, address, etc. Then you register a credit/debit card or bank account. They accept Visa, MasterCard, Visa Delta, Switch, Solo, Visa Electron, and any bank account that accept direct debits. As a security measure they debit your chosen payment method with an amount between 1p and 99p and ask you to enter this figure from your bank statement. If you have online banking then you could have this confirmation within a few minutes if you use your debit card.
You don’t have to wait for the confirmation amount to appear on your account before using the service, as you can send up to £100 before you must enter the amount of debit from your account. It’s all quite straight forward and is explained as you go through the process.
Sending money is a breeze. You just log in and click on pay money in. Say you want to send your mate a tenner you owe him. Just enter the amount of £10.20 to put into your account and then ok it. Don’t forget you need the extra 20p because Fastpay charges for sending payments. Once the money is deposited in your account (immediately for debit/credit cards & 4 working days for bank deposits) you click on the send money section. So if you want to send the £10.00 to your mate you just enter either his email address, or mobile numbers and then send it. In order for your mate to get the money, he will already have to be a member of Fastpay, or he will be taken through the registration process when he goes to collect the money.
This is a neat little feature with Fastpay, you can use your mobile number to send and receive payments. Although this feature will only start becoming useful when more people have access to the internet, or can sign up over the telephone in the first place. If you have friends that have no access to the internet, then you are pretty much stuck with cheques and postal orders. If nothing else, its nice to know the feature is there if you ever find a need to use it, as you can use their telephone service to process transactions.
The lacking part of Fastpay, is the non existence of true e-commerce integration. Basic ‘buy now’ buttons are provided for business users, but I haven’t really seen them widely displayed around the internet. It does seem as if Natwest are waiting to see if the service will take off before spending too much money on it.
The feature which can be useful if that you can have multiple payment sources. I have my two main debit card registered so that I can transfer the money between bank accounts faster than normal transfer and only costing 20p. I live in a village and the only bank is the Halifax. My other account is with Natwest in a town 10 miles away. Instead of doing a 20 mile round trip to deposit money, I just put the money in my Halifax account, deposit it into Fastpay and then withdraw it to my Natwest account. The whole operation takes seconds, and the transfer only takes three days if you use debit cards which is one whole day faster than bank transfer. Not bad for 20p.
Withdrawing money is simple enough, by just entering the amount and clicking a couple of buttons you will have your money in three days. Bank deposits take four days both in and out, and really are just a concession to people who have no access to a debit card.
Compared to the other two online payments services more widely used the costs work out as follows for sending £20.
Natwest Fastpay 20p Paypal FREE to send, although if your recipient wants to access your payment they will most probably have to upgrade their account and get charged for the payment which will be approx 88p Nochex £1 for depositing money.
For basic sending of money back and forth, or accepting online auction payments, Natwest Fastpay is definitely a service that you should investigate. It could do with a few minor adjustments like browser acceptance, shopping cart integration, more sponsorship. Currently only CD Wow is the big name to accept Fastpay, but I am sure this will change in time.
I have accounts with many of the payments services, but Natwest Fastpay is the one that I prefer using for payments within the UK.
Advantages: Cheap, fixed price Disadvantages: Initial fee, service now closed (June 2005)
...now, but was wary of FastPay as unlike other IMAs (Internet Merchant Accounts) the sender of the money is charged, not the recipient.
Anyway, I had a customer that wanted me to send me money, advising me that it cost the sender just 20p so I decided to compare.
FastPay
Sender charged : £0.20
PayPal
Recipient charged : £0.20 + 3.4%
Moneybookers
Recipient charged : £1.03
NOCHEX
Recipient charged : 1% (minimum £0.99)
The disadvantage is that ... ...had used a credit card FastPay make a small hidden initial charge to your credit card.
To permit continued use of your credit card you need to click on the confirmation eMail they send, and confirm the additional amount charged to your credit card. Although this is a small amount (1p to 99p) to return this money back to your credit card will cost you £0.20 (the standard transaction fee).
This could be inconvenient if you only intended FastPay for ...
MJKerr 04.05.2003 (04.06.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of FastPay (NatWest)
Advantages: Instant payment for goods, Low fees Disadvantages: Limit to amount you can load and send
...20p!
Natwest backs up Fastpay so you know transactions are secure.
All you have to do is register and then you can send / receive payments via your email address and via a mobile phone.
The following methods can be used to pay money into your account
• Credit cards (Visa, Mastercard)
• Debit cards (Switch, Solo, Visa Delta, Electron)
• UK registered current account
There are limits to the amount you can load and send on your account. The maximum ... ...time of writing.
How Fastpay works
You want to send £10 to your buddy, all you do is log into your account and enter your buddy’s email address. Now you need to send £10.20 because the fee is deducted from the funds you send. Thus being £10 to your buddy and 20p to Natwest. If you only type in £10, then £9.80 is sent to your friend and the 20p to Natwest.
So in summary…
Fastpay is by far the cheapest online payment facility I know of and recommend ...
20solskjaer 30.06.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of FastPay (NatWest)
Advantages: Speed, Exchange Rates & Cost Disadvantages: Only £3000 in a day.
Well, Barclays has also launced an Online Money Transfer service to India and it is pretty good as compared to the other money transfer operators which offer similar service. Here is what I fond out after using the service.
- Fully Online Money transfer
- Best exchange rates in the market - transfer upto £3000 per day
- Funds transfer within 1 working day into the India account (Fantastic!)
- Adding as many Barclays Bank India beneficiaries as ... ...my transaction
- Email alerts to keep on every step of my transaction
- ZERO Fee!!
Now, What I exatly did was that I transfered £300 each via two providers. I landed with INR3000 more and 2 days faster with Barclays Online Money transfer service than the other one. Thats,£42.85 pound better in a £300 pound transfer. ...
RemittanceAdvisor 05.01.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of FastPay (NatWest)
Advantages: Free (at the moment!), efficient, convenient, don't have to be a customer Disadvantages: Will not always be free.
I signed up to fastpay a few weeks ago when the service was just getting off the ground and have to say that it has been very handy for me so far. As someone who uses auction sites a lot it has been very convenient in arranging payment of money. I also use it to pay small bills to people when I go out and haven't got cash on me - I and a group of friends went for a meal which one of us paid for on their debit card and we all e-mailed him the money ... ...to £250 and transfer this money instantly, so it is good for small transactions with people but not large purchases with companies. You also get an SMS message when you have money paid into your account so you can see how things are going. (Although if you already have £250 in your account it won't let people send it to you, so it is a good idea to make sure you've got about a £100 in pretty much all the time.) It was very easy to sign up to and ...
Katiehart 15.08.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of FastPay (NatWest)
Advantages: Free, Secure, Efficient, Fast, comes with some good freebies! Disadvantages: Does not allow very large scale transactions at present
I signed up to the FastPay system when I came across it on a freebie site to get some freebies but soon found myself using it quite often. (£1,000 off food at various restaurants across the UK per person.) It allows you to transfer money to other people on the scheme through their e-mail or mobile phone number as the bank clears all their details and makes sure that everything's OK. You go on line where you have an electronic account, which you pay ... ...of money which you can transfer instantly to other people by logging in and transferring cash electronically. You do this by sending it to their e-mail addresss/mobile number - the bank then credits the account that has that particular address or number registered with it. And of course money can be sent to you by any of your friends. As a student for example the group of friends I am living with are thinking of using it to work out rent between ...
AlexMorton 09.08.2002 (12.08.2002)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of FastPay (NatWest)
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When you decide that you want to register with Natwest online bank they will send you an application form which you must complete. When you return this you will be sent a customer ID number ...
Advantages: Potentially very useful to those without credit cards Disadvantages: OUT OF BUSINESS?
though. I think if the friend in question fitted the target market (i.e. needed this service due to not having a credit card) I would, if they were happy to use a credit card it may not be worth it at the moment (although Paybox do promise special offers for members, I’ve yet to see any interesting incentives since the CD-wow offer ended)
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