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In today's competitive business climate, businesses of all types are searching for ways to increase sales.  One way to do this is to expand the customers' payment options beyond credit cards.  As any businessperson will tell you, next to cash, checks are the most frequently used payment method.  It's no wonder that payment by electronic check is the fastest growing payment method today.

E-commerce is booming - and this is just the beginning!  Most online businesses offer credit card payment options, but many are finding that their inability to accept checks is preventing them from reaching a large segment of the population.

Many Americans prefer to write checks rather than using credit cards.  EFC's Online Electronic Check (OEC) program allows online merchants to easily accept and process online electronic check transactions directly from their existing web site!

The customer simply chooses "Pay by Electronic Check", enters the requested bank and account information, and EFC does the rest.  The interface can be designed to look like a traditional paper check, so that customers will easily identify the information they are required to enter.

The information is then encrypted, and sent to EFC's servers.  It's stored in a secure location, which is not accessible to the internet, and processed at the end of the day.  Funds are electronically withdrawn from the customer's account, and credited to the merchant's.

There are many benefits to accepting electronic checks online:

• It's easy - customers will see a form that looks just like their paper checks.
• It's fast - Most transactions can be settled within 48 hours.  This is much faster than with paper checks.
• It can be easily integrated with other EFC services, such as the automatic redepositing of NSF checks.