Accepting a check by phone, fax or web is a great way to
increase revenues, decrease collection headaches and offer
new payment options BUT there are several essential “things”
that you MUST know.

First let’s talk about all the great benefits:
1) You don’t have to wait for a customer to mail in payment.
2) It’s a LOT less expensive than a credit card. A credit card transaction always involves a discount rate. Typically around 2.3% it means that you pay that percentage of the transaction dollar amount as a processing fee.
3) You find out about NSF or rejected transactions must more quickly than a paper check-typically within 2-3 days.
4) You can call a late payer and tell them “no you don’t have to send out a check we will take your check right now”
5) It’s safe for the business and the customer.
6) You offer an alternative to credit card payments for those who are at or over their limit OR do not have a credit card (there are LOTS of people)

Now what you MUST know:
1) The funds transfer is not “guaranteed”. With a credit card the funds for your transactions are “booked” for you when you perform a transaction. A check by phone (an ACH transaction-more info at www.ach-payments.com) is a request that funds be transferred. The money may or may not be in the customer’s account. The collection of NSF funds can be automated to ease this burden as well as the availability of front end checking account verification tools.
2) The governing body of electronic transactions, NACHA (www.nacha.org), states that a check by phone transaction be accompanied by notification (or a recording of the transaction that can be accessed) of the transaction to the customer. This notification can be done by sending a postcard or email confirmation of the transaction.
3) The customer has a 60 day revocation window to dispute the electronic debit to their account. They may “charge back” the monies debited (hence the NACHA rule that you have proof of their assent to the debit).
4) You may not accept a business check by phone. This rule is under review by NACHA. The issue NACHA has is that the person on the phone for the business may or may not have the authority to authorize an electronic debit. You can obtain written permission from an authorized person at that business to debit their account via the ACH network and in that manner accept the check by phone.
5) Recurring debits to the customer’s account are not allowed (NACHA again) based upon voice obtained permission. Their must be some kind of written permission from the consumer although a web based permission for recurring debits would be acceptable.

So your business absolutely should consider implementing check by phone payment functionality but keep these 5 things in mind to make your business life easier.

Welcome to the world of VoIP communications. So, finally you have decided to upgrade your communication system. VoIP technology comes in two forms, VoIP hardware based and VoIP software based configurations. If you are using a VoIP software based configuration then the next step is to choose calling cards for your VoIP systems. There are wide varieties of calling cards available with VoIP services provider. So, naturally it becomes confusing for consumers to choose a calling card. However there are certain points which are worth pondering before choosing a calling card.

Access fees - This is a common fees charged every time you place a call and most customers probably know about it already. However, at times when the user makes a call the connection fee is charged without customer uttering a single word. This happens when the call is routed to answering machine and voicemail box. Therefore, to avoid this charge user should simply choose a calling card which has no access fee.

Maintenance fees - This is a fee charged by calling card companies either on a weekly or monthly basis. Before choosing any calling card, you should read the fine print to find out the maintenance fees. Users should look for a card with low maintenance fees.

Service fees - This fee is charged on a usage basis with reference to the call charges. It is typically in the range of 5 to15 per cent.

Billing system - If the company says it uses per minute pulse, a call of 40 seconds will be charged the same as one minute and four minutes and thirty seconds will be charged the same as five minutes. So higher the rounding time the more calling costs you have to pay. Therefore take a card as per your needs.

Extra talking fees - A few calling card providers charge an extended fee if a call goes beyond a specified duration. Check whether the VoIP calling card you buy has such a fee.

Expiry date - Prepaid calling cards generally have an expiry date. Expiry dates are of two types: The date from which the card is being used and a general expiry date. After the expiry date you will not be able to use the calling card even if you have talk time. So, before buying a calling card always check its expiry date.

Before buying any card, find out the average rate per minute after calculating all the costs involved. Explore in the market for the best deal on calling cards and then purchase a card which suits best your needs.

Alen
VoIP Phone Service
voip-traffic.com

Overall customer satisfaction in the American cell phone market has increased significantly since this time last year, with most customers reacting well to new services, and aggressive pricing on bundled offerings.

The annual report from J.D. Power and Associates measures customer satisfaction with their wireless carriers, based on 42 specific measures, grouped into six key performance factors.

In order of importance, these factors include call performance and reliability (26%), customer service (17%), service plan options (17%), brand image (14%), cost of services (14%), and billing procedures (12%).

Over the past three years, satisfaction has fluctuated significantly as recent mergers and other industry changes have affected the experience of customers. And in the past year, the changes have apparently been for the better, with overall satisfaction climbing by 3%.

The largest factors influencing this improvement have been service plan options and cost, according to the report.

“It’s encouraging to see that industry-wide service improvements, especially expanded service offerings and aggressive service plan pricing have resulted in more positive overall wireless service experiences,” commented Kirk Parsons, who is the senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates. “However, consumer expectations will continue to rise as cell phone users increasingly rely on the communication functions of their cell phones beyond voice calling.”

T-Mobile ranks highest overall, with #1 performance across all six U.S. geographical regions. Five of these #1 rankings, however, were ties with Verizon Wireless, which is a close second place nationwide.

(Originally published by TeleClick.ca on April 24, 2006)

About the Author:

Jeremy Maddock is a well-known technology blogger who writes about cell phone carriers and the telecommunications industry in general.

Most people find it difficult to make a call to their relatives and friends from other countries. One of the main reasons is the high cost of the calls and several communications hurdles.

But through the innovation of VoIP, the world has become a smaller place and those hurdles aren’t nearly as high.

When it comes to VoIP telecommunication services, there are lots of benefits that can be used as an asset by the user.

VoIP has many services like unlimited local and long distance calling. Not only that, there are also features that makes VoIP even more useful, like caller ID, Find Me, Call Waiting and many more.

There is some talk, and rumors circulating that the quality of VoIP service is not clear compared to traditional phone service. There are also some claims that the quality of calls is not much better than cellular services. But apparently the companies that are making these claims about VoIP admitted that there is no communication delay when speaking on a VoIP phone.

How does VoIP services work?

To make things simple, a VoIP service enables the caller to use high speed internet connection. This connection is also known as broadband. The broadband connects the caller to the designated recipient by using the Internet.

VoIP services can call anyone provided that the designated location has a phone. The person that the users wants to talk with does need to have a VoIP phone of their own. As long as they have a phone and a phone number of course, they can be contacted by the VoIP services.

The VoIP provider will reduce voice and convert it digitally in order to pass through several channels. The digitized voice, as it passes through the channel, will be sent over the Internet.

The digitized voice will then be put back together to get through the receiving end. It would be the time that the receiver will hear and understand the digitized voice and finally start their conversation.

By this way, the VoIP user can minimize the long distance call rate because of the use of Internet. Taxes and other extra rates are deductable. As a matter of fact, it cuts out the rate carriers totally.

The quality of voice transmission is actually outstanding, clear and deliberate. It surpasses traditional phone services in quality and most importantly in affordability.

What are the tools to make use of VoIP Services?

• One of the most vital equipment is the internet connection. The internet connection should be fast and accurate.

• Another tool is a broadband cable router that will permit the user to transmit the voice to the internet. It is also responsible for splitting the internet connection.

• A VoIP applicable telephone set.

• A phone transmitter device. Normally the VoIP supplier provides it.

The tools will be constructed this way: The Internet connection from the computer will gather the voice from the user. After that, the voice will hook up to the router which connects to the provided phone converter. The routers will connect the voice to the regular phone.

As you can see, the mechanical aspect of the VoIP can be somewhat complex, but because of further innovations, the VoIP system providers have made it simple and effortless.

Nowadays, VoIP service can be set up in 5 minutes. VoIP is certainly the key for fast, accurate and cheap long distance calls.

Bob Hett has extensively covered the VoIP Service Provider industry as an analyst and has researched the various companies for factors based on price, reliability, support and overall quality. Learn more at VOIP Services

It wasn’t that long ago, that your mobile phone was not that mobile. Carrying a brick around comes to mind, with an antenna longer than the normal radio and in any colour you wanted so long as it was black. You also needed to make sure you had a power supply because you were not going to get much talk time before it needed charging up. Not that we could afford to spend much time on the phone, with astronomical charges per minute, providing you were in a good reception area of course

Well how things changed in an amazing short period of time. First the phones got smaller, then they lasted longer between charges, they then took away the extendable aerials. We thought we in the modern age of technology, until one day someone decided to make the mobile phone a fashion accessory too.

Almost overnight, phones changed colour, patterns with removable cases that you could change to suit your outfit or mood. It was no longer only business professionals that wanted a mobile phone, but everyone from your granny to 9-year-old kids.

It wasn’t enough for your phone to look good; it now had to sound good too. So mono ring tones went to polyphonic which then went to MP3 playback. If you are going to look at your screen why look at in black and white? Why not colour? So now the colour screen was born, and with that came wallpapers and photos.

The digital camera had also been advancing, so it wasn’t long before just about every phone would also have an integrated digital camera, to take photos and even video footage to compliment what was now your mobile entertainment centre.

It has been a common trend for mobile phones to become smaller, but different styles have also evolved. You have your standard, facia and keys style, but you also have a clam style (a rounded flip phone) and more recently the slide mobile phone, where you cant see the keys until the facia is slid open. Of course each style represents you as a person as every feature has been added, there is now more choice than ever and in some cases can be overwhelming.

But this year I found a difference when I came to renew my mobile phone contract. I found that my old phone was still one of the main players and in fact more expensive that the previous year. It was true the phone had just been released only one year ago, but it is also true that even other models did not have features beyond my old phone. Yes there were newer models that looked good, but when looking though the list of features, there did not seem to be any advances in technology just a new design.

Of course we will always move on with technology, but has the speed of the development of the mobile phone now slowed down in that we may consider having a phone longer than 12 months now, and not feel out of date if we don’t? This was the first year, where I felt it had. There is technology of integrating TV into your mobile phone, but is it going to be cheap enough and do I really want o watch a minute screen when the trend at home is to have largest TV you can squeeze into your living room. The idea sounds good, but I don’t think it will be as popular as the designers think.
Times are going to be harder for the mobile phone manufacturers, trying to inspire us hard to please, always looking for offers, mobile phone, buying public.

Mark is webmaster for Mobile Phone Offers and Breakdown Cover Deals and Shopping