Online shopping. It seems daunting to some. Personally I find online CD shopping has done wonders for my music collection (if not my bank account). Before you can start shopping though, you normally need a credit card. Well, for me that’s no problem (I managed to get one despite being a student...) Not everyone, however, has or wants a credit card – and some that do are afraid to give their details online. There are a number of solutions coming onto the market – such as SmartCreds or Splash Plastic and Paybox is another, albeit quite different. Why did I sign up? Well, for me the reasons were quite different – as I said, I already have a credit card. I was lured in by an introductory offer of my first CD from CD-wow for just £3.99 (Unfortunately I later found this offer ended three days before I registered – grrr...)
Anyway, on to Paybox. If you want to register, or find out more, I should begin by giving you the address – www.paybox.co.uk unless your French happens to be particularly good! You don’t need to be British, as long as you're over 18 have a UK bank account and mobile phone.
You may have heard of SmartCreds or other pre-pay cards. Basically the idea
of those is you’re given a pseudo-credit card that you charge up (like a pre-pay phone) with money before you want to use them, then you spend that credit. Paybox is different from these though. Firstly, it operates by mobile phone and secondly it relies on direct debit rather than paying in advance. I’m not so sure about this. Obviously not having to charge a card in advance means less hassle. Also it doesn't tie up some of your money, it only leaves your bank as you spend it. You do have to give them your Direct Debit details, but you should be covered by the Direct Debit guarantee if anything goes wrong (and I’ve been fine). The company are 50% owned by Deutsche Bank, so I guess they have some reputable financial backing by the way!
The principle behind Paybox is very simple. They have your Direct Debit details. When you need to complete a transaction, rather than give out your bank/card details, you just need to give someone your mobile number (if you’re not keen to give this out, apparently you can use an ‘alias’ so only Paybox have your real number – I’m not sure how to set that up though). When someone wants a payment from you, you’ll get an automated call from Paybox, type in your 4-digit PIN (warning – my account got blocked last night after I forgot that three times, so don’t do that!) to confirm. Paybox then take money from your bank account (by DD) and pay the retailer on your behalf.
The process sounds simple, and it really is. The main drawback at the moment is a lack of places that accept Paybox. At the moment, I’m aware that www.cd-wow.com accept it, and so does the Lycos UK mobile service, but I’ve yet to come across anywhere else. Paybox isn’t limited to online transactions – the site has details about how you could use it on the High Street or even to pay for taxis – but again I think you’d find few retailers who knew what Paybox was, let alone accepted it. Getting some major retailers such as Amazon or big supermarkets on board would certainly be helpful in establishing Paybox. One thing that is useful though is you can pay anyone who has a Paybox account – which might be useful for sending/receiving money to people (e.g. my friends in other universities, other Ciao-ers, and I expect it could be very useful for anyone trading on eBay etc (although primarily restricted to the UK) - who knows what else?)
The site itself is reasonably simple too. I’m not keen on orange (and it is very orange), but links are easy enough to find. There are extensive FAQs, and you can even see a demo before registering. Log in is on the top right. On the subject of this though, you need both internet access and your phone to log in, which can be a pain (you type your number in to the site, and they call you, you have to key in your PIN before gaining access to your Paybox details).
When I joined, the service was free, although there was a clause reserving the right to introduce charges after the first year. Now the terms and conditions have been changed, and currently (Feb 2002) the FAQs say:
“1.7 How much does paybox cost? paybox costs £14.99 a year for which you will have free, unlimited use of all paybox services and at least £25.00 worth of benefits. If you feel that you have not benefited from paying with paybox after a year you will receive your money back.
For a limited time only you can sign up to paybox for a reduced annual fee of just £9.99! (This equals about 83p or the price of 6 text messages a month)
There is a charge of £1 for payments made to paybox customers in other countries (Germany, Austria, Sweden and Spain). All paybox numbers are freephone numbers, however you may be charged by your mobile network operator.”
Again, that doesn’t sound too good, but it’s worth noting: a) they call you (so no costs there) and b) many credit cards charge £10 a year too – granted the fee may put you off signing up for the sake of it, but if you actually want to use the service because you don’t have a credit card or don’t want to use it online then I guess it’s worth it.
Signing up is a pretty straightforward process. I had to fill in a couple of details online, then print the DD form to sing and post away. Should you not have a printer, they can send you the form, but it’ll take longer.
The service claims to be the most secure way to pay online. I’m not sure if it’s any better than many alternatives, but it does save giving out your credit card details. When you make transactions, you receive confirmation by text message. You’re also subject to daily and monthly credit limits (which vary according to circumstance) to be sure you can’t overspend.
So far I’ve been reasonably satisfied. As I said earlier, having a credit card I’m not afraid to use means maybe I don’t see the point. I have made a few transactions via Paybox though, and it works satisfactorily. I’ve had reason for occasional contact with their staff (I had a couple of problems when my account got blocked, and they actually phoned me!) and their staff have seemed helpful and polite.
Would I recommend to a friend? Well, at the moment. I’m cautious. Personally as I say I’m not sure if it’s worth it for me. To be a success, Paybox need a lot more retailers to sign up. I guess that’s always the way with innovators 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)
**UPDATE** A while ago, after not using Paybox much and not having reply to email, I cancelled my directdebit (to be safe). On Friday 24/01/03 I received an email informing me of the "provisional discontinuation" of Paybox. Since, I have received another email advertising NatWest FastPay, and no word of Paybox...
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Mar 10th, 2002
(Feb 4th, 2003)
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