Jan 30, 2006 3:40 pm US/Eastern
'Bill Me Later' Making Online Shopping Easier
by Sara Underwood
(CBS4)
If you love to shop online, but cringe every time you punch in your credit card number, listen up. There is a new service that allows you to buy now and pay later, no credit card necessary.
"I use it almost every time that it's available," says online shopping junkie Renee Frustaci. She is talking about Bill Me Later, a new system that approves Web or phone shoppers with instant credit and bills them later.
She says it's fast and secure.
You don't have to punch in your credit card number to make a purchase. Simply shop at a merchant that uses the service, click on the "Bill Me Later" icon at checkout, provide your name and billing address along with your birth date and last 4 digits of your social security number
There's no lengthy application to fill out and no account number to steal. Vince Talbert is with the company behind this new technology. He says you simply get a bill in the mail that you can pay off at once or set up a payment plan
More than 200 retailers are on board including Petco, Continental Airlines and Walmart.
E-tail expert Lauren Freedman says while security is important, choice is also critical for shoppers, "The whole notion of alternative payments is really growing as an industry."
In fact, research by 1-4 commerce show sixty four percent of shoppers say they'd be willing to buy online if they could avoid using their credit card numbers.
Now Renee says she'll use the service to make all her online purchases whenever possible. "Anybody can use it and you don't have to have your purse available. It really is what it says, bill me later."
Bill me later uses your birthdate and last four digits of your social security number to run an instant credit check on you before your first purchase. It will store and remember your information after that.
The service is free, unless of course you don't pay off your bill in full. Then financing charges apply.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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