Payment Processors

There are various payment processors which you may need to conduct your online business activities.  Below are links to some of the most commonly used.  If you sign up for each of these, then you will be equipped to participate in most online offers out there.  I have intentionally left off Paypal, because of some VERY bad experiences I have had with them.  There may be some programs or activities which you wish to participate in, which will only accept Paypal.  I personally simply avoid those offers.  If you wish to get a Paypal account, just google them, or find a friend who can give you a referral link, as I refuse to promote them in any way.

One word of caution, is that whenever using any of these online payment processors, you will most likely need to provide some type of banking and/or credit card info with them in order to get "verified."  The problems I had with Paypal, which have made me so strongly opposed to using them, involved some attempts to debit my bank account repeatedly for a transaction which I did not approve, and them providing me with no recourse to reverse the charges associated with their attempts to withdraw these funds.  The same scenario is possible whenever you give your primary bank account/credit card information to ANY of the payment processors.  Therefore, I recommend one of the first things anyone do before getting seriously involved in online activities, is to get a "virtual bank account."  There are several versions out there, but I personally feel that the BEST option, is through Netspend.  

The main reason I like this card over the others I've reviewed is the option to have additional "virtual" accounts from within your main account.  You will receive a MC/Visa debit card with your name on it, which can be funded in a number of ways, which is true of most of these types of cards.  In order to also use this as your bank account for purposes of getting verified with the online payment processors, you simply look under the funding options, and under Bank wire, or Automatic deposit, links, and you will see bank account and routing number information, which you can provide to the online payment processor for their "test spends" which are used to verify your account. This option is also available at many of the competitors sites.  What really sets Netspend apart from my perspective, is that you can create "temporary virtual accounts" within your main account.  

These virtual accounts give you another account number, complete with new expiration date and security code (the 3 digit number on the back of the card used for verification).  This comes in particularly handy when dealing with a site which accepts credit cards directly, but with which you are not familiar.  It is unwise to give out your primary bank account or debit card information in such instances.  The Netspend "virtual accounts within an account" give you the perfect solution, because these temporary accounts can be created and deleted at will.  You never receive an actual card for these secondary virtual accounts.  They merely exist "virtually."  So, if you start to have problems with an online entity charging the account against your wishes, or you want to cancel a subscription, etc., you can simply delete the virtual account, without it affecting your primary Netspend card account.  

This is the ultimate in flexibility in terms of these types of accounts.   You always want to create a buffer between your rent/grocery money, and the potential for problems.  This is one of the BEST ways I've found to do that.  You can use the coupon below to get a $5 credit to your account once you purchase your card.

To redeem:

1. Visit www.mynetspendcard.com to purchase your card online or search for a nearby retailer at netspend.com
2. Once you purchase a card, activate it online and enter the referral code provided for a $5 credit to your Account

REFERRAL CODE:       8951065903