The United States Patent and Trademark Office is in the process of examining the patent application for our Mitigation Monitor™. Payment21® has invented a mitigation process that estimates the risk of a real-time payment defaulting or not. Our proprietary Mitigation Monitor™ can be adjusted to industry specific preferences reflecting specific business rules and customers’ check-writing habits. This state-of-the-art fraud prevention solution monitors and rejects transactions from suspicious or abusive users before the Instant eCheck™ reaches the payment system thereby saving merchants money in processing and returned transaction costs.

In addition, Payment21® has developed a Verification Loop™ which works in conjunction with the proprietary Mitigation Monitor™. This customizable verification system applies security settings and velocity limits that mitigate abuse and fraud. Recent customers have experienced a reduction in return rates, taking the figure to below 0.5%. Our Verification Loop™ automatically scrubs each Instant eCheck™ entered into the system and passes the submitted transaction through a range of filters. We use over ten different scrubbing services with more than 150 million records combined in their databases. As a result, our verification and mitigation process proactively fights fraud and prevents users from entering false banking information.Payment21®’s fraud prevention services can tailor business rule settings to set limits for number of wait days on the first check, minimum and maximum deposit amount for a check, and maximum increase on amount from last check. For velocity limits, Payment21® can adjust the number of checks that a customer can submit to the system in the intervals of 8 hours, 16 hours, 24 hours, 48 hours, 3 days, 7 days, 30 days and 90 days. For each time interval option, the proprietary Mitigation Monitor™ (pat. pending) allows merchants to set the maximum total allowable amount on all submitted checks.
Transaction security is a priority at Payment21®. The issue of risk precaution is equally important to us. With Payment21®, merchants can accept ACH or Check 21 transactions safely.
Find out more on http://www.payment21.com/merchants/98/Fraud%20Prevention

Whether you’re a landlord, tired of trips to the bank to deposit paper checks, or a property manager, renting out to residents and vacationers you’re likely looking for an easier way to process check payments. With Payment21®’s Instant eCheck™ feature, you’ll be able to collect payments securely and conveniently over the Web while you continue the business of managing your property.

Online check payments reduce the cost of processing resident payments 

As safe as a conventional check, Instant eCheck™ enable merchants to collect funds electronically from a consumer’s checking account. A growing number of landlords, property managers and real estate investors are moving towards collecting rent electronically. Our solution reduces the costs involved in processing resident payments by up to 80% compared to credit card payments. Using Payment21.com, customers can login and pay monthly rent or vacation rental fees. Payment21®’s recurring payment feature allows renters to enter banking account information to pay rent at a specific date each month. Fees for items such as parking and neighborhood associations can also be set up through Payment21®. Our recurring billing application is specifically designed for periodic payments like rent and monthly dues such as utility costs, parking and storage fees.

More info: http://www.payment21.com/merchants/81/Recurring%20Billing.

Industry-specific solution caters to landlords, property managers and residents

One of the major benefits of this system is that you won’t need a website to take payments electronically. Using the Payment21® portal, your tenants can pay you by setting up a free account and entering bank information. Payment21® will also make your job easier by sending e-mail reminders and electronic receipts from Payment21.com. Unlike traditional credit card payments, there is no need for any special equipment to allow Payment21® to begin accepting payments from tenants. As long as your renters have bank accounts and Internet access, they’ll be able to use Instant eCheck™. Once you’ve set up a merchant account, you’ll be able to login, view and manage your payments. Payment21®’s report feature will allow you to track payments and discover ongoing issues. Merchants will also be able to communicate with tenants via the Payment21® billing support area.

Residents save money by avoiding credit card interest 

Some customers are uncomfortable using credit cards to pay rental fees. Payment21®’s Instant eCheck™ feature works like a real check, allowing your renters to have money removed from their account without racking up credit card interest. An electronic check, or Instant eCheck™ (also referred to as an ACH transaction or Check 21 payment) is an electronic or digital version of a paper check, used to process a payment online.

If you’re using a software product for your business accounting, Payment21® can work with that as well. By implementing data from your existing databases, you’ll avoid spending countless hours entering data. Benefits of Instant eCheck™ include:

• Enables you to offer a unique amenity, to stay competitive in the apartment and home rental markets.
• Residents can pay conveniently without having to deliver or mail a paper check to their landlord.
• Landlords save up to 80% on processing fees.
• Tenants avoid paying credit card interest.
• Enables you to reduce your collections/delinquencies and increase on-time rent payments.
• Enables you to see all electronic payments over your entire portfolio through our easy to use real-time reporting platform.
• Enables you to save time and eliminate data entry errors.

Virtual terminal enables payments to be taken over the phone

Payment21® has a solution for Call Centers as well, allowing large-scale property management companies to take payment information from tenants over the phone, entering the information directly into Payment21®’s virtual terminal.

More info: http://www.payment21.com/merchants/53/Virtual%20Terminal.

Vacation rental payments made easy

For vacation rental property owners, Payment21®’s web portal makes it easy to accept payments from renters, providing the added security you need when dealing with short-term occupants. You’ll also be able to accept security deposits and pet fees using the system. Lodging companies and travel agencies can access our virtual terminal to take vacation payments over the phone or over the counter.

Payment21.com offers flexible rental payment options for your residents. Improve your cash flow with more on time payments and allow your business to grow by accepting Instant eCheck™. Your business’s bottom line will be improved because you’ll spend less time and money dealing with late payments and collections procedures. With more landlords and property owners accepting online payments, savvy property owners know they need to stay on top of the technology. Payment21® allows you to retain your tenants by making payment easy and convenient for them. Landlords, tenants, and the lodging industry can all benefit from the convenience and ease of using our online payment system.

We have developed our API module using Magento, making the Community Edition available for quick integration with Payment21®’s payment method: Instant eCheck™.

The Magento Community Edition is available as a free download under the open source OSL 3.0 license and is recommended for expert developers and highly technical enthusiasts and hobbyists in non-mission critical environments. As this edition is unsupported, it is intended for use by those happy to spend time and resource solving issues independently.

This payment module was developed with Magento Version 1.6.1.0

Find out more about Magento payment solutions:

More details about Magento ecommerce with Payment21®.

Visit our Demo Store and test Magento Instant eCheck™.

We have developed our API module using CS Cart, making the shopping cart available for quick integration with Payment21®’s payment method: Instant eCheck™.

Right out of the box, CS Cart shopping cart software is fully integrated with Payment21®, thus enabling any business to start accepting Instant eCheck™ immediately. To begin, you will need to create an account using our 5 Step Sign up and enter your merchant details into the payment method settings in the CS-Cart admin panel. As soon as this step is completed, real-time payment processing will be enabled.

This payment module was developed with CS Cart Version 3.0.

Find out more about CS-Cart: http://www.cs-cart.com/payment-systems.html

More details: http://www.payment21.com/developers.php?id=206

Demo Store: http://www.e-check21.com/cscart/

Payment21® has developed our API module using osCommerce, making the online store solution available for integration with Instant eCheck™.

osCommerce Online Merchant is a complete online store solution that contains both a catalog frontend and an administration tool backend which can be easily installed and configured through a web-based installation procedure.

After installation/setup of the new payment method, you will need to configure your security access details within osCommerce. These details are provided during the 5 Step Sign up on the Payment21® website.

This payment module was developed for osCommerce Version 3.0.2. Any previous version is not guaranteed to be supported.

• Download the installation instructions at http://www.payment21.com/pdf/osCommerce_Payment_Module_Setup_Payment21.pdf
• Download the Payment Module as ZIP file at http://www.payment21.com/download/UNZIPFIRST_osc3-payment21-moduleV1.0.zip
• Demo Store: http://www.e-check21.com/oscommerce/
• Instructions: http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,8180

OpenCart has been designed as a feature-rich, easy-to-use shopping cart solution with a visually appealing interface.

Payment21® Instant eCheck™ has developed a payment module for OpenCart V1.5.x which allows merchants to accept US checks online.
Since nearly every consumer in the U.S. has a checking account, Payment21®’s Instant eCheck™ provides merchants with access to more consumers and businesses than any other alternative payment method in the United States of America.

The module can be found on the OpenCart website:

http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=extension/extension/info&extension_id=3754&filter_search=payment21&sort=e.date_modified&order=DESC

Further instructions on how to integrate Payment21® to OpenCart can be found at: http://www.payment21.com/developers.php?id=216

We have developed our API module using VirtueMart, making the shopping cart available for quick integration with Payment21®’s payment method: Instant eCheck™.

Joomla is the world’s most popular open source CMS (Content Management System). With 2.7% of the Web running on Joomla, this software is used by individuals, small & medium-sized businesses, and large organizations worldwide to easily create & build a variety of websites & web-enabled applications.

VirtueMart is an Open Source E-Commerce solution to be used together with a CMS called Joomla. Joomla and VirtueMart are written in PHP and can be used in typical PHP/MySQL environments. 

Find more info about Payment21® Instant eCheck™ on VirtueMart: http://extensions.virtuemart.net/index.php?option=com_sobi2&sobi2Task=sobi2Details&sobi2Id=744&Itemid=2

Download the installation instructions here: http://www.payment21.com/developers.php?id=204

Use of Payment21®

Once you have integrated Payment21®’s payment processing solution into your website, your customers can pay by Instant eCheck™ very easily. Our real-time customizable Verification Loop™ works in conjunction with our proprietary Mitigation Monitor™ (patent pending) to reduce your bad debt and limit your return costs.

Implementation of Payment21® API

Payment21® offers you several easy-to-integrate options for sending and receiving payment data with or without leaving your web page. You can choose the method which best fits your business and integrate it very easily into your existing system. You can access the API by implementing the POST-parameters from the API form and send the API call with them. You can display your logo, define colors and add a customized text block to the cashier pages and payment confirmation page.

Screenshots

Payment21®’s back office is easy to use. View more than 20 real-time, customized reports - all that you need for your reconciliation and accounting. The following screenshots illustrate what our back office can do for you:

Most online merchants accept debit and credit card payments, but many do not offer an e-check option for their customers. E-check acceptance is easy to implement, and studies show that offering additional payment options can increase transaction completions significantly.
Recent research by CyberSource indicates that merchants who support payment types above and beyond just credit cards (gift certificates, e-checks, etc.) typically see significant increases in online sales. On average, they have lower shopping cart abandonment rates and up to 20% higher order conversion. Since general purpose credit cards like Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, etc. account for up to 90% of online consumer purchases in North America, virtually every e-commerce merchant needs to support them. There are significant merchant fees associated with the business these cards bring, so it makes sense to actively manage those costs. Merchants often focus on finding competitive bids for card processing in order to minimize costs, but there are some other tactics that are just as important. Adding Instant eCheck as an alternative payment method enables you to spread out payments and overhead expenses, and minimize costs.

The Missing Online Payment Method

A consumer survey by JupiterResearch found that 14 percent of web users lacked a consistent method of payment for online purchases.
Online consumers who are most likely to embrace the e-check option at checkout can be divided into two primary categories: the cardless and the cardholders.
The Cardless: Forrester Research recently studied online consumers who have never purchased goods or services online. This group, Forrester found, resists e-commerce for several basic reasons. The third most popular reason, mentioned by 22 percent of respondents, was, “I don’t have a credit or debit card.” In fact, 27 percent of U.S. households do not have credit cards, according to a study conducted by the Federal Reserve (and this number may be rising due to regulatory changes and tightening credit). Recent research carried out by Javelin and PULSE indicated that the penetration rate of debit cards is roughly equivalent. That’s a significant percentage of U.S. consumers who cannot check out at many e-commerce websites. Meanwhile, nearly 90 percent of households do possess a checking account, indicating that there are a considerable number of consumers for whom an alternative form of payment — such as e-checks — is potentially the only convenient way they can make purchases via the Internet.
The Cardholders: While the majority of online consumers do have credit or debit cards, some periodically or habitually refrain from using them for online purchases. The reasons can be many. For example the consumer is near his credit limit or the consumer is concerned about his credit card information being stolen, etc.

Reasons why consumers do not use credit cards online:

Gallup Research indicates 20% of households do not have credit cards

• The consumer has a credit or debit card but is near his or her credit limit
• The consumer has a credit card but prefers a “pay as you go” approach
• The consumer is distrustful of providing his or her credit or debit card information (the consumer is concerned about his credit card information being stolen)
• Teenagers do not have easy access to credit cards

Consequently, these consumes do not supply this data online. All of these people still represent a viable online customer base.
By adding other payment alternatives to the standard credit and debit card payment options, online merchants can potentially avoid turning away prospective customers. The e-check option gives these shoppers an alternative means of payment, with the same convenience and immediacy as credit or debit cards. Furthermore, accepting e-checks can potentially prove less expensive to the merchant than other alternative payment methods such as PayPal or Google Checkout.
Consumers will always need to have a means of payment from their demand deposit accounts: what is changing is how they execute the payment.
An Instant eCheck™ performs the same function as a traditional paper check — transferring funds from one party to another — but the payment is made electronically instead of by physically routing a paper check.

Payment21® Fraud Prevention which consists of the Verification Loop™ and Mitigation Monitor™ takes additional steps to evaluate the purchaser’s history and to divert higher-risk transactions to processes tailored for full risk management. This is especially important given the pervasive nature of identity theft and fraud in today’s e-commerce environment.
Whether it is over the phone or via the Internet, it is extraordinarily easy and safe for your customers to pay via Instant eCheck™. Either way it will typically be less expensive than credit card processing and you will receive funds quickly.

Sources:
CyberSource, Firstdata, Optimalpayments, Federal Reserve Research, Gallup Research, Jupiter Research, Forrester Research, Javelin and Pulse