Just removed check option from my sites
 

I got sick and tired of all the chargebacks, was at 30%... ccbill said it was normal. Anyway, gonna see how my sites do without them. So far, so good

good luck

have you seen any drops on cc? i've thought of dropping them from time to time...

:thumbsup - The days of bouncing their pussy bill is over!

I'm having the same problems with checks through Glo-Bill

no checks

good for you. we quit taking them almsot two years ago, and definitely no regrets... reading the returned check figure every day was painful as hell..

GL with that, hope it works out for the better for ya :thumbsup

It's only been a few hrs or so, was at my highest day today, $132... from 4 sites. It's obvious it was fraud... fake email address, names and physical address. Fuck that, don't need the headache any more... I'll let everyone know by Sat if my income suffers.

all my sites have about 35%, oh well, i see money..

You know what really sucks is they have systems available for brick and mortar stores that debit your checking account as soon as they run your check through at the store. It prints void or cleared on your check right there and they hand it back to you. They should have that for online purchases. Wouldn't help stolen checks but would stop actual bounced checks from hitting you ever.

I've never accepted checks or ACH or whatever the term is, but from what I understand wouldn't the problem with all the fraud lie in they get instant access without waiting for the payment to actually clear? Users are getting smarter, if they figure they can fuck you, they're going to fuck you.

Wish there was delayed access until it cleared....

At least.. Glo bill gives you the option of dont allowing them to get in 'till the check clears! =)

Yea, it seems like a simple solution to hold access till checks clear

Only $132 from 4 sites? The other day I saw $700+ from just one of my sites. I'm still accepting checks though. Too much cash still coming in from them on a daily basis just to say bye-bye to them completely.

But I've been thinking of "phasing" them out somehow.

:glugglug

one plus about checks - once you have the rebills built up, i find checks do very nicely. better than cc on recurs.

Agreed.

I spoke with him earlier... just testing to see what happens

Yea, the one I am talking about clears the check instantly. You don't walk out of the store with your shit if you don't have any money. Seems one of the big billers could easily add it to their system and would get a ton of webmasters that wanted to accept checks safely. Oh well.

what she said

30% Normal ???

Shit Thats alot of money thats gone

ahahaha

*blushing like a little girl*

I hated having a check option. There is absolutely zero security on that method... If you have *seen* someone's check, you can charge to them online. Something like 1/4 - 1/3 of checks are fraud.

That means all those people get in for free... and most of the people who sign up with a check legitimately could have used a credit card. Getting rid of checks made me money.

Is it possible to give the people signing up by online check the id/password only after and if the check clears. i.e. even 10 days after?

Here Too.... :thumbsup

yes with globill

it takes 5-7 days for checks to clear, with this in mind, surfers won't wait a week to access the site..

i get about 30% chargebacks too :-( and it ruins my nice clean figures, i have had one credit card chargeback in the past 3 months, and get a couple check chargebacks a day :-(

i wonder what to do.. if i stop taking checks.. will i lose money hmm

i dont like ppl getting in for free tho.. i might do it.

check chargebacks are perhaps a function of the demographics of your buyers.

we take checks and see only about 3-5% chargeback, but our content is for a slightly older crowd or more high-brow market (arty porn)

i think bangbus type content will see a higher % of check chargeback.

just my guess.

female named buyers are the worst though for chargeback ratios for us.

amen. this holds true on our sites for creditcards as well, and applied back when we took checks too..

Fitz @ Electracash here,

Guys if you are seeing 30% fraud doesn't that mean you collect 70%? The average webmaster is pulling down 10% to 20% of their sales in checks, can you afford to loose that % by taking off the option. Are you going to leave that money on the table at the end of the day?

With Paypal out of the picture soon, what other options will you use?

Recurring and long term retention are substantially better with Checks over Credit cards, simply because people have to pay their credit cards every month and review their statements.

Electracash merchants have clients that have re-billed for over 3 years. How many credit card sign ups do you have worth $1600? That?s right one sign up that goes 40 months at 39.95.

As to "collected at the register transactions" well everything is different at the register, where they can look at your DL and get your address right off of it. Point of sale at this point always works better than web based non-pin based transactions. Banks won't talk directly to the web, it's not secure and they know it.

As to companies offering instant web based transactions, they ask for a lot of information from the client, (you will suffer from increased walk a ways) then take the chance on it being a good transaction when they give you the cash right up front. THEY HAVE NOT DONE A TRUE INSTANT WITHDRAWL FROM THE ACCOUNT. What they are counting on is that their collection efforts will float their bottom line when the item bounces.

The bottom line is all about verified identity, not about verified funds. The fraud issues you see in ACH will be resolved in the coming months when Electracash launches our new Identity Service.

I will be happy to discuss this with anyone. 901-866-2185 or [email protected]

Good for you, we just dropped checks a few days ago and so far we have noticed a slight improvement in the # of transactions. Next we are going to drop trials and just keep monthly, 3 ,6 and 12 month memberships. I would rather have less $ coming in than have our stuff out there for free.

Cindy xx
:thumbsup :thumbsup

now this is an important move... trials suck, period. broadband makes trials unviable in my eyes..

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Cindyff
Good for you, we just dropped checks a few days ago and so far we have noticed a slight improvement in the # of transactions. Next we are going to drop trials and just keep monthly, 3 ,6 and 12 month memberships. I would rather have less $ coming in than have our stuff out there for free.

Cindy, sounds like a great biz plan. We did the same last month -- stopped all trials (a scary tactic at first, but, after watching numbers over the last 30 days, it didn't impact us at all -- I was amazed, thinking we'd see a drop in signups).

We also stopped taking checks months ago, just on principal (sure it was only like 30% fraud, but it just burned my ass that people were so blatant, taking advantage of the delay time for verfication, slurping up bandwidth and then blowing us off after the check bounded -- fuckwads). Everyone has either a credit card OR a check debit card nowadays, let them use those.

New dictum: NO TRIALS. NO CHECKS. Rock on. :Graucho

What a bunch of complete arse. So what, you collect 70%... You also pay the biller fees on the 30%. That takes it down a notch. Plus, who says the legit 70% people wouldn't sign up with a credit card, if that was the only option? My sales did *not* go down one iota when I killed "online fraud" payments. It cost me more to have them than I ever gained from them.

Globill has a delayed access until the check clears. I use it and never have a problem. The ones that bounce do it in the grace period therefore, there is no access or chargebacks..:)

us too, mostly due to the heavy bandwidth the thieves would burn on our movie sites before their checks came back returned... fuck checks in their little tight paper asses..

http://twash.com/temp/angry.gif

This would be a great opportunity from billers. Here's what I would like to see from mine (you listening, CCBill?)...

- A check signup form, that warns people that they don't get access until the check clears, or if they guarantee it with a credit card that will *only* be charged if something happens to the check.

- A system that scrubs 100x harder for checks. Female names rejected, instant blacklisting of name, account number, email address, and IP for any funny business at all, including bounces, cancelled checks, chargebacks on associated credit card, etc.

- Check signup forms that try to upsell to the credit-card form instead, touting the difference in price as part of the standard format.

- Not offering any plain-vanilla check options on the system at all, to let the fraudsters in. Make sure they know it is futile.

ian, that is easily the best proposition i have seen in quite a while for taming the check arena in this industry..

LOTS OF PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE CREDIT CARDS!

frys food and drug clears checks electronically so why can't ccbill?

Took the words right out of my mouth -- it's okay I just brushed with Monsters Inc toothpaste :)

I don't see why checks would be particularly worse for chargebacks than credit cards. Globill of course, as a bunch of folks mentioned, does let webmasters delay access until the check clears.

Yes, even one chargeback makes me see red, but if your site makes people happy, there just should not be that much of a chargeback problem. I think you've got to weigh the irritation vs. the $$.

--Amelia G

It's got nothing to do with if they like my site or not, they found a way to beat the system and they have. Before they even sign up, their mindset is on cheating the site owner/billing co

If you have the time, you can keep track of these fools. Ive noticed similar IP's and user/pass patterns with some of them. Whenever I see a check chargeback, I look at their stats, some are the same people come back, in essence making off the site on a regular basis. I then contact ccbill fraud, and have them block these idiots. As long as the chargeback ratio is under 30%, we are making money off the check system, so its ok.

Love to know who these regular bastards are who use this loophole trick to get away with paying for anything. I bet there are a select few who do this on a regular basis, with as many sites as they can.

Yea, I emailed fraud and they blocked the user ip's... I'll prob add checks back this Sat on 2 of my sites.... 70% is to much $$ to leave on the table

WTS has been a great checking solution for us, very versatile and we do not end up losing money other than few bucks worth of bandwidth tops on our subscriptions. www.achbill.com for those of you who haven't heard of them.

- Titus

I have been off checks for a month now on four of my five sites. My sales and bottom line has increased since dropping checks.

Keep in mind... people with legit checking accounts have debit visa or mastercards. If they are legit, they will use one of those and not a check.

I'm just glad I get ride of them.

Last year I set up a company that took phone orders and accepted checks. Same deal with fraud etc. But Verisign had a deal where they would guarentee the check if you went through their scrubbing process. Not sure how it worked as now I do porn and quit the day job but I know we had several options as to who to use. Maybe one of the processors can hook you guys up with that.