Scott On Money

I had been seeing the little blue checkmark on many websites. Then I saw a comment from on of my readers on it so I decided to check it out. The blue check is a service called Bill Me Later.

Bill Me Later is a credit card alternative for online purchases. It requires you to enter less information with the merchant, just the last four digits of your social security number and your birth date along with your name.

The Advantages
- The system is very easy to sign up for.
- It is very easy to use.
- It is more secure against merchant database security disclosures.

The Disadvantages
- Worse terms than the best credit card offers. The account does not charge interest during the grace period but there are no rewards and the interest rate is 17.99%.
- No pre-approved credit limit. Every transaction is checked and can be approved or denied unlike a credit card when you know in advance how much you’ll be allowed to buy.
- The potential for more frequent credit checks. There is no data on this but only time will tell how often they review their customers credit records.

Ease of payment is not the only hurdle in the path to internet shopping growth, but making payment easier and more secure is certain to help boost sales.

The service also boasts a merchant fee of only 1.5%. This can be significant as I’ve seen other cards charge merchants over 3% in some cases. For merchants with a large volume this can be a huge benefit and if Bill Me Later gets big enough there will be some good competitive pressure on Visa, Mastercard and friends to lower their rates a bit.

Bill Me Later still has a limited number of merchants and I haven’t been through a full service cycle with them yet but they certainly look like they add value.