Payment Observer spotlight company. See more details here about one of the up and coming service providers in the financial services for small business.

$1 million in transactions per week milestone and is now processing more than $1 million per day. The company raised a $5 million Series B round of financing led by Union Square Ventures in February this year and most recently won Ashton Kutcher as investor.

The name Dwolla is a conjunction of “Dollar” and “web”; a good description of what Dwolla is: an online, cash-based payment method.

How does it work?

Dwolla is not a bank or credit card processor. The company provides a digital wallet and payment network much like PayPal. Transactions are made directly and instantaneous between Dwolla accounts, without using the credit card or ACH (=Automated Clearing House, the electronic network for financial transactions in the U.S.) infrastructure. Dwolla is partnering with U.S. bank Veridian Credit Union to securely deposit the funds of their users.

social media contacts (non-Dwolla users have to sign up to claim the money).

Fees

Unlike credit cards and PayPal, which usually charge 3%-5% for each transaction, Dwolla charges a flat fee of just $0.25. Micro-transactions less than $10 are free. By default the recipient is responsible for paying the fee, but there is also the option that the sender takes over the fee (e.g. for charity donations). There are no additional fees, even for merchant accounts.

Merchant Features

Business can sign up for a merchant account to accept payments through the Dwolla network based on their Dwolla ID or email address. Dwolla provides innovative solutions for retail merchants as well as for online shops. Users can locate nearby retail stores that accept Dwolla via Dwolla Spots or Proxi. To verify the incoming transactions Dwolla provides a web-based Dwolla Kiosk App. Check out the embedded video to see how Dwolla Spots work:

For online merchants Dwolla offers plugins for all main e-commerce shopping platforms and an API to their payment gateway.

The downside is that Dwolla is only available within the U.S. The company is focusing on national expansion and has currently no plans to expand internationally.

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Credit cards are the most popular payment method across the globe. This is also true for online payments; most online transactions are made using credit cards. Over the last few years a number of alternatives to credit card payments, especially designed for e-commerce (e.g. PayPal) have emerged. But there are also successful local online payment methods.

One of the most successful ones is the

How does it work?

With iDEAL customers can pay for online purchases directly from their bank account. All major banks in the Netherlands, such as ABN AMRO, Rabobank and ING Bank support iDEAL. The iDEAL service is operated by Currence, a bank association that coordinates the payment systems in the Netherlands. To accept iDEAL payments a merchant can sign up at a certified bank or payment service provider.

This is how iDEAL works:

• The customer selects that he wants to pay with iDEAL and selects his bank during the checkout.
• He is then redirected to his banks login page to authorize the payment using a TAN.
• The bank verifies the transaction and initiates the transfer to the merchant’s bank account.
• The customer is then redirected back to website and the shop will get a conformation of the payment.
• The merchant will receive the payment within 1-2 working days on his bank account.

Advantages

Compared to other payment methods iDEAL offers some advantages for merchants and customers. Millions of customers already use online banking and can use iDEAL without signing up or registering for third-party services. Also customers don’t have to share personal information such as account number with the online merchant. Merchants benefit from the real-time confirmed, guaranteed (by the customers bank) payments that cannot be reversed (no chargebacks).

The transaction fees depend on the size and sales volume of the merchant but are usually much lower (especially for larger transactions) than the fees for accepting credit card payments.

Limited to the Netherlands

iDEAL is based on the Dutch domestic transfer and is only available to customers of the participating banks in the Netherlands. There are planes to adapt iDEAL to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) standard so it can be used also for cross border payments within the E.U. There are similar local direct online banking services in other countries such as Secure Vault Payments in the U.S.