A MUST for auction addicts (nochex.com)

Member Name: offy

Product:	nochex.com
Date:	07/01/02 (202 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Simple way of paying/receiving money, reliable, secure website, low charges

Disadvantages: Encourage on-line auction addiction

Nochex is a secure method of sending money to and receiving money from people without leaving the comfort of your PC chair (actually mine isn’t very comfortable, but that’s not the point). This is brilliant if you are an on-line auction addict like me, as you can receive your goods or money quicker. You can also use it to send money as a present, collect money for outings/collections or any other reason that instant money is required. The only rule is that both the receiving and sending party have a UK debit card and e-mail address.

•• SIGNING UP ••
This is very simple. Go to www.nochex.co.uk. The site is very green, but intuitive and quick to load. Most importantly the whole time you are there you will see the little padlock of a secure site. Click on the ‘Click here to register for you free NOCHEX account’ link. You will need to give details such as your name, address, a password (which must include letters and numbers), a security question and your date of birth. Once you have registered, you will receive an e-mail from Nochex enabling you to activate your account. They are currently offering a £20 wine voucher to spend at Virgin Wines as an incentive and entry to a £250 prize draw for every person you refer.

You now need to add a debit card to your account to enable you to load and retrieve money from the account. Unfortunately in my case I keep loading it to buy goods, as I never make as much money from selling my tat (looks around at the rubbish surrounding her and realises why). Follow the simple instructions regarding loading your card. When finished, you will receive an e-mail informing you that Nochex will load an amount of money between £0.01 and £0.99 to your bank account (like a refund via your card) and to complete the set up of your account, you should confirm the amount. I received the grand sum of £0.15, which was enough to cover the additional postage I misjudged on
my last sale (oh dear, another failure). As this can take a few days to sort out, it is worth signing up before you need the account. If you decide never to use it, it will not have cost you a penny up to now. You will be automatically logged out after 10 minutes of inactivity.

•• MANAGING THE ACCOUNT ••
Having a Nochex account is like having a bank account. You load money from your real bank account using you card, and if you ever make any money from auctions (I wish!) you withdraw money from your Nochex account into your bank account. These are the only transactions that Nochex currently charge for. You will be charged £0.99 for every load or withdraw transaction. For example if you want to load £50, you will be debited £50.99. Personally, I load a lump sum at a time (call it auction pocket money if you like), and then my balance slowly depletes with no further charges as I pay for my purchases. Obviously, conversely it is worth waiting until your balance has built up before withdrawing money. However, no interest is paid on any balance. To perform these transactions, sign in the site and then click on ‘load money’ or ‘withdraw money’. Type in the relevant amount and click on the ‘load’ or ‘withdraw’ buttons. The cost of the transaction is clearly displayed, along with the following warning ‘All NOCHEX Card transactions are subject to stringent security and audit checks. Your current IP address (XXXXXXXXX) has been logged and may be used in any investigation resulting from misuse of this account.’

•• PAYING PEOPLE ••
This is the part I am an expert at. Click on ‘send money’, then type the e-mail address of the person you want to send the money to (or pick from the list of previous e-mail addresses) and the amount and then click on ‘send money’. Remember to include details of the auction goods
and your name and address in the ‘optional’ message’ box if you are paying for auction goods. The money is instantly deducted from your account and paid into theirs and you will get a confirmation e-mail. Therefore, if the auction ends one morning and you pay for the goods by Nochex, they could even be in the post to you the same day – good eh? One word of warning, once sent, you cannot reclaim the money, like you could by putting a stop on a cheque. If the recipient does not have a Nochex account, they will receive an e-mail with instructions how to set an account up.

•• REQUESTING MONEY ••
If you need money from someone else (and who doesn’t?), you can also request money, by following similar steps to those detailed above. The person will receive an e-mail allowing them to authorise the payment.

•• VIEW STATEMENTS ••
There are three options under this heading: transaction history, send requests and receive requests. All of them allow you to input the parameters you require, e.g. dates and status.

•• TOOLS ••
Under this heading you can edit your personal details, edit your debit card details, and obtain HTML that gives you banners, logos and payment links for websites, auctions and on-line shops.

•• OTHER ••
There are also links to ‘about us’, ‘terms & conditions’, ‘privacy’, security’ and ‘contact us’, which give the registered address as:

NOCHEX Ltd.
500 Cheswick High Road
LONDON
W1 5RG

•• CONCLUSION ••
I love this service! I have had absolutely no problems using Nochex over the past few months. The site is always reliable, and happily more and more people are using it. I only wish that 1) I could win the £250 prize draw and 2) I could sell more rather than buy more.
I suppose the obvious answer to the second one is to stop using E-Bay, but I just can’t. You see, my name is Ophelia, and I am an E-Bayholic.

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