Nochex

Based in the United Kingdom, Nochex is a private company with twenty four employees that provides online payment services.^[1] Nochex caters primarily to small and medium sized businesses.

Account types

Nochex offers three types of account: personal, seller and merchant. The most common accounts are the seller and merchant accounts, which allow online payments to be processed through a sellers’ website. All payments made via Nochex support the 3D Secure XML standard designed to reduce the risk of fraudulent card holder not present transactions, and are PCI compliant. Nochex does not require the account holder to procure a bank merchant account or payment gateway.

The personal account allows individuals to send money to other Nochex account holders. Money may also be sent to people without an account, although the recipient must register with Nochex before withdrawing funds. The personal account carries a limit on the balance of £90.

A seller account can be used to process payments up to £100^[2] that originate from a UK registered credit or debit card. There is no cost to set up a seller account and no monthly fees, although an initial fee may be charged for verifying the holder’s credit or debit card (up to £1.99). There is a fee for all transactions.^[3]

The merchant account includes additional services such as telephone support from an account manager. Compared to other account services offered by Nochex, with a merchant account a vendor can accept larger payments, and accept payments from registered international credit cards. Merchant account holders are required to maintain a minimum balance in their account to cover for the risk of any chargebacks. This amount can build up from initial trading and is based on account activity. After the account is closed, the retaining balance will be returned in full, providing that no chargebacks occur after the account is closed. There are no monthly fees associated with merchant accounts, although a one time set up fee does apply. Transaction fees are tiered.^[3]

On line shopping carts and auctions

Nochex is integrated into over fifty shopping carts and programmes, including: BigCommerce, osCommerce, EROL, Zen Cart, CubeCart, and Romancart.^[4] Nochex is also integrated into CQout, eBid and other smaller auction sites.

Nochex is an acceptable method of payment on eBay,^[5] although it is not fully integrated into the eBay system.

Controversy

Under section 75 of the United Kingdom's Consumer Credit Act, credit card companies are required to refund payments made by customers who failed to receive goods or services if the purchase was made directly from the retailer. Purchases made through online payment services such as Nochex involve three parties—the consumer pays the online payment service for credits or e-money, and the online payment service makes the purchase for the consumer from the retailer. The online payment service is thus legally only responsible for handling the transaction, and not for resolving disputes or providing refunds.^[6][7][8] Some online payment services do in fact provide refunds in the case of disputes, but Nochex has been cited as a company that does not honor such requests.^[6][7] Nochex, for its part, has asserted that it attempts to verify the credentials of its customers, and instructs consumers to attempt to settle any disputes by contacting the retailer directly^[6] or by reporting the problem to law enforcement.^[7] The Office of Fair Trading has stated that the current law is unclear and they intend to pursue changes that will provide consumers with additional protections.^[7]

For a short period in 2007 Nochex was cited for adding transaction fees to online purchases without notifying customers. Nochex claimed that these charges were the result of either MasterCard or the customer's bank treating these transactions as cash advances. MasterCard asserted that they were not responsible for this coding, and at least one bank in 2007 stated it was their policy to treat online purchase through some online payments services such as Nochex as cash advances.^[9] In 2007 Nochex put a warning on their website notifying customers that some banks will add these fees.^[9] However since 2007 there have been no reported incidents of cash advance fees being levied on consumers using the Nochex service.

In July 2006 eBay announced that Nochex would no longer be allowed as a method of payment on their web site, but reversed their decision less than a week later^[10] and reinstated Nochex as an acceptable form of payment.^[5]

In 2004, Nochex introduced a fee to seller and personal accounts which was levied against accounts that had been inactive for a period greater than twelve months. Inactive customers were not notified of this newly introduced fee. Where the account balance permitted, Nochex applied this charge at the rate of £2.00 per quarter. In 2006, Nochex revised this fee to £5.00 per quarter.^[11][12] When an account has no funds, Nochex does not charge this fee, and inactive accounts can be reactivated again at any time with payment of a dormant account fee.

References

1. ^ "LinkedIn: Nochex Company Profile". http://www.linkedin.com/companies/nochex. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 
2. ^ "WebUser Magazine Review by Mark Wilson". http://www.webuser.co.uk/sites/site_review.php?rev_id=3867. Retrieved 2007-06-21. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Nochex.com". http://nochex.com/. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 
4. ^ "List of Compatible Shopping Carts from Electronic Payments.co.uk". http://www.electronic-payments.co.uk/solutions/Nochex. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 
5. ^ ^{a b} "eBay's Acceptable Payment Methods". http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/accepted-payments-policy.html. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 
6. ^ ^{a b c} Insley, Nell (4 February 2007). "Net payment services that may rob you of a refund". The Observer (guardian.co.uk). http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/feb/04/consumernews.observercashsection2. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 
7. ^ ^{a b c d} Wall, Matthew (2005-10-12). "Why a credit card can't always insure against scams". The Sunday Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/consumer_affairs/article573562.ece. Retrieved 2009-05-27. 
8. ^ "Fee warning for online shoppers". BBC News. 2007-03-27. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/working_lunch/6500581.stm. Retrieved 2009-05-27. 
9. ^ ^{a b} "Viewers get in touch over charges". BBC News. 28 March 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/working_lunch/6503939.stm. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 
10. ^ "The Register 'eBay Restores Nochex' by Andrew Orlowski". http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/13/ebay_oks_nochex/. Retrieved 2006-06-13. 
11. ^ Gosling, Paul (2007-05-07). "Questions Of Cash". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/questions-of-cash-why-hasnt-my-163450-bond-been-returned-448437.html. Retrieved 2009-05-27. 
12. ^ "Nochex Terms of Service". http://help.nochex.com/messages/?Action=Q&ID=278. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

External links

• Nochex Official site