Nochex is quite a novel concept, yet is something that is allowed to work very well, by the very essence and speed of the online world. Whilst Egg are currently claiming to be the first people to offer an email-money facility, Nochex have been doing this very well for some time now, certainly at least since Christmas 2001, which is when I began to use the system.
Essentially Nochex and its whole concept lend itself best to those ever popular online environments that are auction sites. Ad-mags with interactivity really, but are, in my opinion, excellent environments to make a few quid on things you no longer care to own, and of course a superb way to spend all that you earn and more!!
Taking my chosen auction site, Ebay, as an example (but the principles are same across the Internet),
if you win an item, normally you’d have to write a cheque, find an envelope, find a stamp, forget to post the cheque, post it the next day, and so on! Whilst the online world is all about speed, and doing things quicker and easier, the whole idea of snail-mailing a cheque sort of defeats the object!!
Here’s where Nochex comes in, and more and more people on Ebay and the others are starting to accept a Nochex payment. It has to be said at this stage, that Nochex can apply itself to much more than auction sites. With a Nochex account you can literally email an amount of money to anyone with an email address, (they simply redeem the email to their bank account via a supplied link) or you can request money from anyone with an email address – all the recipient needs to do is pay the invoice with a UK Debit card – i.e. Switch, Solo or Delta.
To set up a Nochex account is very simple, with the usual questions, name, shoe size, etc, and then you have to set up your bank details. This is done in a secure environment, and as an additional security feature they then send a payment (free) of between 1 penny and 99 pence to your bank account. Before your Nochex account becomes active you have to find out the amount of this deposit and correctly enter this on your Nochex account page. There is only one chance to get this right, but once it’s done your account is active. When logging in from here on, each time you need your username, password, and last 5 digits of your bank account number. It would be really hard to defraud the system, and this coupled with a 128 bit secure environment, I am confident in the Nochex service.
There are nominal costs involved in using certain aspects of Nochex, but I feel these are reasonable. If you were a shop owner you would incur charges each time a credit or debit card is used at your till, for example!
The charges are as follows.
99 pence to load money from your bank to your Nochex account.
The higher of 99 pence or 1% of the transaction is charged to withdraw money from Nochex to your bank.
I have quickly learned to not use the system for a small transactions of just a few £, but rather I let the sum accumulate to at least £20 before I touch it. Also, as a regular Ebayer, I am finding it useful to keep £20 in the account to enable me to make a super fast payment when I’m buying! Apart from these charges, the rest of Nochex remains free – sending money or sending an invoice to someone is no charge.
If you’re a website owner, and are doing a small amount of selling, it is also possible for you to use Nochex as a method of payment for your customers. I have seen the odd site around displaying the Nochex symbol, as an alternative to the usual cards, so I suspect the system could catch on in areas outside of auctions, and for quick payments to friends and so forth.
All in all, recommended for anyone with a passing interest in Internet auctions sites, and I certainly recommend anyone else at least pay a visit to see the service for themselves.
For anyone still concerned about such a service then it’s worth reading the privacy and security statements – links to which appear at the bottom of the Nochex homepage.
Alflavor, Ciao UK April 2002.
(PS - I would suggest the actual category grouping for this site is wrong - ok - it's about money, but it's not a giveaway site, more a banking style offering - I'll email Ciao, or if the Category Manager reads this - could you fix it?)
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Good OP
I have been a user of NOCHEX for a couple of years now, and have been toying with using PAYPAL as I use auction sites quite often. After reading reviews on both payment methods, I think I will stick with NOCHEX as overall, it is quite a good service.
sdwill 25.07.2002 23:21
A very simple but effective service! Great for all those 'buy now' items on eBay!
SALAMANDA 27.06.2002 01:53
Ive bought a few things thing from online auctions and it would of saved me a few days if I had been with nochex but not sure whether to trust it or not. Very informative and sounds worthwhile - sally
Advantages: easy to use, fast payment direct to debit card, ideal for UK auctions Disadvantages: only for use to UK members, users must have Debit card
flashpointz 11.10.2001 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of nochex.com
Advantages: Slightly less transaction fees Disadvantages: If you have any proble, they will never resolve it and you'll end up giving up and losing money
biznesman 12.05.2009 (13.05.2009)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of nochex.com
Apr 29th, 2002
very helpful by (100%):
