June 4, 2005

Credit Cards and Internet

Unfortunately I live in a country where credit cards are often misused, so an easy setup of a merchant account is not available. Accepting online payments can not be done without bank accounts in other countries as it seems, so I may ask family one day to set something up for me.

I read some good things about Ikobo, but they cancelled merchant accounts some time ago, and they only accept VISA credit cards. It seems that you can still do transactions on a person to person basis, even when you live in Indonesia. You get an ATM card from Ikobo where you can take money that has been send to you from any suitable ATM. You can even use the card to make payments in stores that use the VISA electron system, quite common nowadays in Indonesia.

Fees for these person to person transactions are reasonable, so people tell, but its still too high too start a competitive online internet business, I think.

I hope that things clear up very soon overhere, and that merchant accounts become easily available for doing online business here, afterall its a big country wit a lot of online export possiblities. Maybe its time for the banks here to start with merchant accounts.

On this site people are begging for merchant accounts:

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/indopaypal

I have to admit PayPal is a necessity in conducting business online. Ebay is one of those site I wish I can use to it’s full extend. The only safe method of paying on Ebay is definitely PayPal. As not all of us (especially we who do not have a steady income yet) can obtain a credit card. Thus Paypal becomes the only media we can use to buy/sell online.

Read here about credit cards in this country:

http://www.expat.or.id/info/creditcardfraudinindonesia.html

Mixed messages abound about the scale of credit card fraud. Some quarter’s claim that using your credit card over the Internet is financial suicide, others quote statistics stating that online transactions are safer than face-to-face transactions. Depending on whom you speak to, anywhere in the world could be ‘fraud central’ for card skimming, and industry losses are reeled off like telephone numbers. Statistics become meaningless, and can be used to support your own argument.

As far as Indonesia, and those who live, work or visit here are concerned there is one pertinent fact about credit card fraud.

Visa International and Mastercard, the two significant service providers around the globe, currently list Indonesia as No.2 on the list of the worst countries in the world for credit card fraud occurrence by total incidents recorded.

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