Credit card vs EFT as payment method online

[Bondizzo]

Credit Card
1. Potected against fraud
2. No charges for purchases
3. Merchant pays for accepting a credit card

EFT
1. Minimum protection for the person sending the moeny
2. The sender gets charged bank fee's for sending the money
3. Can't be used Internationally (well from internet banking I think)

You can clearly see a credit card is the better option. Virgin money is quite good, no annual/monthly fee's apart from Interest, if your responsible you wouldn't be paying the interest, you can also have a psoistive balance on the card and earn interest at prime.

 

[Crusader]

An example of the hassles to go through with an EFT:

Go to bank to link supplier account to CC to enable me to pay EFT via ATM (I'm not paying ABSA for internet banking on top of their rates!).
Go to ATM and transfer money.
Take slip and fax through to supplier.
Try to confirm with supplier whether they received the money (ABSA employee might mess things up during the linking).
Wait for supplier to get back to me with regards to payment - 24 hours and payment doesn't show for them. Mmmm... off to the bank then.
Go to bank and make enquiries. Supplier must have received the money according to ABSA.
Phone supplier and ask them to check. Finally payment shows (wonder what the delay was since it's an ABSA to ABSA transfer)
Wait for supplier to manually add payment to website interface in order to start processing the order.

So with an EFT I lost around 2 days where my order could have been packaged and send to me. With CC payment the supplier could have started the whole process after the transaction was approved. No hassles for the customer to go through.

Obviously this might not be the typical experience for most customers paying by EFT, but it goes to show the frustration it could cause.

 

[Techrat]

Sorry if I'm derailing the thread here but I want to know, does anyone know if a Virgin card can be used for online payments? I can't see anything on their site about it. Maybe just too tired right now though.

 

[Frankie]

Sorry if I'm derailing the thread here but I want to know, does anyone know if a Virgin card can be used for online payments? I can't see anything on their site about it. Maybe just too tired right now though.

If you post a scanned copy of the front and rear of your card we'll be able to confirm this for you.
Edit: I forgot, we'll need your full name and address.

Best not do that, but if you tell us if it's got the "Visa" or "Mastercard" logo on it, then you will most certainly be able to use it online.

 

[PeterCH]

If you post a scanned copy of the front and rear of your card we'll be able to confirm this for you.
Edit: I forgot, we'll need your full name and address.

Best not do that, but if you tell us if it's got the "Visa" or "Mastercard" logo on it, then you will most certainly be able to use it online.

Yeah, VISA, MC, Diners, Discover, AmEx and JCB can be used at most processors.

 

[Techrat]

Ok then does anyone know if the Virgin cards are Visa, Mastercard or anything? I don't actaully have one, but it seems good as you don't pay for purchases. The only reason I would want a credit card is for online purchases. Are any others reccomended for this purpose?

 

[Crusader]

Ok then does anyone know if the Virgin cards are Visa, Mastercard or anything? I don't actaully have one, but it seems good as you don't pay for purchases. The only reason I would want a credit card is for online purchases. Are any others reccomended for this purpose?

No problem using the Virgin cards for online purchases. They issue Mastercard cards.

 

[Techrat]

Thanks good to know. I presume you have one? Does the R0 charge for purchases also apply to online payments?

 

[Crusader]

Thanks good to know. I presume you have one? Does the R0 charge for purchases also apply to online payments?

I do. Yes, there's no charge for online purchases. I haven't used it on an overseas site, but I assume for those there will be the normal 2% (or thereabouts) surcharge for currency conversions. For local sites there is definitely no charge.

 

[Techrat]

Thanks again, guess I'll find out if I get one, well I'll actually ask them I guess. I want it for overseas payments mainly.

Has anyone used a Virgin card for Steam (games) purchases or any other foreign company?