I wonder if there are any successful online B2C businesses that work with with basic bank transfers and do not accept online payments through payment cards?<p>The fast/instant bank transfers are on the rise in Europe and so I am thinking how much it will change the landscape of e-commerce.<p>I guess it will vary by area/continent and it will be different for north america, europe, asia.. I'm still curious though.
I have made purchases online through bank transfers but it is exceedingly rare that I do that. I have to have a very high level of trust with the company and I have to have a very high level of confidence in their products. Because the problem with the bank transfer is that I have no consumer protections beyond what the merchant is willing to provide me.<p>As obnoxious as credit cards are for merchants to accept they offer a massive level of protection for the consumer. I understand that this protection can vary based upon country but I'm speaking as from the USA. If there's a problem and the merchant refuses to make it right the credit card company can intervene. When you're purchasing blindly online that is critical in my mind. Unless I'm able to have some other equal form of purchase protection generally I won't do business with emergent who doesn't accept credit cards. This includes things like PayPal and other payment services I will refuse to do unless I have a high level of confidence in what I'm buying. Because the consumer protection's there suck next to credit cards.<p>Like I said there is the rare exception and generally those are very high cost items. For example one item that I purchased online was a gun that cost over $16,000. That was done through a bank transfer. Considering the item and the fact that these are federally tracked during the transfer process and the reputation of the seller also being a federally licensed firearm dealer I felt very confident in the sale. Purchasing other high ticket items like automobiles from dealerships and so forth I would also feel a level of confidence from that. Purchasing trivial items, I would not.