Nochex, No Cheques Needed....Get it? Haha (nochex.com)

Member Name: Deru

Product:	nochex.com
Date:	01/02/08 (332 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheaper than PayPal, No account required for customers, Quick and easy, Safe from charge backs

Disadvantages: People still choose to use PayPal, Fees used to be lower, No Shopping cart, limits, Account closures

Nochex.com is an online payments processor that lets you send and receive money for goods and services. Payments can be sent to companies or individuals just by using their email address. If you've ever used eBay, then you will probably be familiar with PayPal. Nochex is a similar service but only available to UK residents.

THE SITE

The site has a blue, white and green colour scheme, after switching over from their previous green and white theme. It now looks more professional, in my opinion. The site is easy to register with, but like many sites dealing with money, it requires verification of email accounts, bank accounts, cards, etc, which is a bit annoying to begin with but necessary and quite standard with such services.

When I log in using my registered email and password, it asks me for the last six digits of my bank account number on the next page, which I've not seen any other site do but seems good for added security. When logged in, the pages are secure (address 'https', padlock in the status bar, etc). When logged in, I'm presented with a nice clean layout with links to the core functions such as Send, Request, Load, Withdraw as well as Help at the very end of the row for peace of mind.

Whenever you fail to log in by entering your password or last 6 debit/credit card digits incorrectly, you are sent an email to let you know of an unsuccessful login attempt. I think this is excellent and not commonly seen. You get an email for everything else that's changed in your account as well such as the password, email, etc, which is good for security.

The verification process for bank accounts, debit and credit cards are done by debiting your card with a small random amount between £0.01 and £1.99, which you tell them how much they took out when it shows up on your bank statement/credit card bill. This can be checked more quickly if you've got access to your bank account or credit card online rather than waiting for your statement. The transaction usually shows up in 2 or 3 working days. The site session times out after about 5 minutes of inactivity, which is also a standard security feature for secure sites in case you forget to log out at a public computer.

SENDING MONEY

I can send a payment by simply logging in and clicking the 'Send' link. All I need is the recipients email, the amount and I can choose where the funds should come from (debit card, credit card or Nochex account). I can also enter optional message to the recipient so they know why you're sending them money! By default, your address is sent with the 'Money Received Notification' the recipient receives so (s)he knows where to send the goods, but you can uncheck this if you're paying for a service or just paying someone back what you borrowed. When you've sent a payment, you are sent a confirmation email to confirm the transaction. You can also check your transactions by going into your Transaction History inside your account. If you send money to an email that is not associated to a Nochex account, you can cancel the payment unless it is claimed. Main problem I have with using Nochex to send payments is that I can't send money to anyone who lives outside of the UK and doesn't have a UK bank account / card. There's also a sending limit of £300 for Nochex account holders and £100 for non-account holders, which I think is a bit low.

RECEIVING MONEY

Seller accounts can receive up to £300 a day from Nochex members and £100 from those without member accounts. Nochex are flexible and if you are a business seller with a website then you can drop them an email to discuss your requirements but I'm not too keen on the limits as the amounts are a bit on the low side. I think they should increase the limits without you having to contact them so long as you've verified your details. These low limits have prevented me from offering Nochex for some higher value eBay items where I would have liked to take advantage of the lower fees should the buyer choose not to use PayPal.

A number of online stores accept Nochex as a payment option so you can just go through check out on the online store's website and then log into Nochex to send the payment. This means you do not need to enter your card details as card details are stored within your Nochex account. It is also possible to pay someone without having your own Nochex account if they have a Buy Now button on their site. They just need their credit/debit card details ready. Speaking of Buy Now buttons, you can also generate these to use on your website. A limitation seems to be that you can have these buttons but you are unable to create a Shopping cart facility like PayPal lets you do.

Just like PayPal, I am able to generate payment buttons to put on my websites. This enables people to pay for goods or services directly from your website or web page. Unfortunately, there's no way to generate a shopping cart / basket like PayPal can.

Something that you are unable to do is to do is register more than one email address. This would be useful for me since I use more than one email address for organisation purposes and I have had people send to the wrong address.

Overall, it's just as easy as PayPal to receive money but more limited since Nochex is UK only and somewhat limited in terms of transaction amounts unless you happen to have a successful online business. Seems PayPal is better in this respect as they also have more features such as the DIY shopping cart.

WITHDRAWING

You can withdraw your Nochex balance to your bank account. The process takes 3-4 days for the money to show up in your bank account. The withdrawal fee is 25p but free for withdrawing £50 or above, and this is exactly the same as PayPal. PayPal takes 7-10 days from my experience so I'm very impressed with the Nochex withdrawal time, which seems to be around 3 working days. The withdrawal time is one of the things I like most about Nochex as PayPal takes so long I sometimes worry if my got lost.

LOADNG MONEY

It used to be necessary to load money before sending money so you could send money from your Nochex account, so that you wouldn't be charged 99p every time you send money from a card but not any more. Why use this feature now? Let's say, you sell something on eBay but you are not a regular seller. You end up with £49.99 in your Nochex account but you want to withdraw that money. It'll cost you 25p because you're a penny under the £50 mark. Now, you can load a bit more money into your account so long as you have a registered debit/credit card and have verified it. Minimum amount is £1.00 but once you load £1.00, it'll make your total £51.99 and free to withdraw to your bank account. When loading money to my PayPal account, it takes 5-12 days but because Nochex are UK-based and is done instantly.

FEES

Receiving payments incur a charge of 2.9% + 20p for the amount received. It used to be free to receive and 99p (or 1%, whichever is higher) to send from Card funds and 99p to load but it is now free to send and load so all fees have been passed to the seller (recipient). It used to be cheaper for sellers but Nochex have copied the fee structure of PayPal. It's not all bad though as PayPal still charge 3.4% + 20p for their Premier accounts. The 20p can still be quite expensive for lower value transactions.

OTHER

You can also 'Request' money from someone. The button is easy to find but you can also create Nochex payment links and buttons so people can simply click on a link in their email to send you the requested amount of money.

Nochex have a Feedback system just like the one in eBay. You can rate each transaction positive, neutral or negative. Once the rating is left, you cannot change it, but the comment can be edited. A problem is I find that a lot of people don't bother with this.

SUPPORT

Answers to common questions such as how to do things, what the fees are, etc is easily found. I just click on the 'Help' button, then click on then find the appropriate category. They also have a forum for you to ask questions and to participate in discussions. Forum regulars may answer your questions as well as Nochex staff.

Customer Support seems pretty good. I have only had one experience with them. Their system does not let you register the same card twice on their system and you are unable to re-add the card after you've removed it within the same account. I had removed my dad's debit card from his account but I needed to re-register it because I was unable to withdraw money without it. I contacted Nochex, but they were unable to do anything about the card. However, they let me transfer the money to my own account with a few verification questions. i.e. Last digits of my card number.

SUMMARY

THE GOOD

- Cheaper than PayPal.
- Secure website and has been around for years.
- 100% Guaranteed payments for sellers.
- Easy to use
- Email notifications for when you receive money, and when you send, withdraw and do anything in the account for that matter.
- No sign up fees or fixed annual fees to pay.
- You can make Nochex payment buttons for your website
- Flexible limits
- Buy Now / Pay Now buttons for your website
- No need for a Nochex account for payments up to £100

THE BAD

- The 20p charge is expensive for receiving small amounts.
- Most buyers on eBay use PayPal as the norm.
- They are UK only so cannot be used for overseas transactions.
- Payment button features are limited. i.e. No shipping/postage options (Merchants have ways around this though)
- Sending / Receiving Limits
No shopping cart

VERDICT

I really like Nochex as doing things like loading, withdrawing money are much quicker than PayPal. They are also a more ethical company. Their site is easy to use and is secure. I'm not keen on the receiving limits or how I can't receive or send money internationally but it's a good service all the same with lower fees. It's definitely safer to use than PayPal so I do recommend them even if it's more difficult to get buyers using it on eBay, I've not personally had any problems with the company or site.

**** UPDATE **** 06/01/2009

If you don't make any transactions within 180 days, they started closing accounts and charging £5.00 per quarter (only from your balance in your Nochex account). Re-activating involves posting a form and copies of ID to their office. Annoyingly, this account closing happens without prior notice despite them saying they will give you notice. As I don't get any payments through them, I've not bothered to re-activate. Also read that posts in their forum regarding this issue gets removed. A shame about their practices.

Thanks for reading!

Summary: UK's answer to PayPal