Way to pay on the cards

UPU, the union of postal services, is developing a payment system for B2C e-commerce for use in countries that do not use credit cards or whose residents will not give credit card numbers over the Internet.
The service will involve delivery personnel collecting payment on delivery – either in cash, by cheque or credit card – or pre-payment at a post office counter.

In the case of pre-payment, the consumer will pay the post office before receiving the goods, but the payment will not be passed on to the merchant until the goods are accepted by the consumer.

Trials of the service are due to take place this summer, after the proof of concept testing has been completed.

Postal services in Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, France, Austria, the US, Australia, New Zealand and Japan are in discussions with UPU about implementing its payment system.

Posted: 11/06/2001

IFW