Thanks to an LJ friend I have just signed up for a new Internet payments system. It is called Revolution and it is run by First Bank of South Dakota. As Danjite points out, doing financial business with a real bank is rather safer than doing it with PayPal. And from my point of view the fact that Revolution doesn’t charge you to receive money is very attractive indeed. Besides, as an economist, I thoroughly approve of competition.
Now of course it will take quite an effort to break PayPal’s stranglehold on the market, but Revolution has come up with a good gimmick to get started. They are offering everyone who opens an account $25. Yes, $25 for free. Unfortunately you have to have a US address and social security number to sign up, but nothing’s perfect. And if you go to their site via the button below, they pay me a $10 referral fee too. (Or you could click through to Danjite’s LJ and get him the $10.) Sadly the offer is only valid today, but it is only just gone lunch time on the west coast, so California folks have plenty of time, right?
Update: Someone who tried to sign up tells me that they demanded faxes of his driving license and a utility bill. It sounds like the site may be doing background checks on applicants. I figured I’d better warn you.
Have to admit, having this spoken of well by someone I have professional respect for goes a long way toward getting my attention :>.
And it’s just past lunch in Washington too ;>
Obviously I haven’t used the service yet, so it is hard to vouch for them, but they did give me my free $25, which is a definite plus. Also there didn’t seem to be any downside to signing up, in that you are not committing yourself to anything.