Here’s something that blows my mind. 20 years ago, people had three ways of paying for things. There was cash of course, which didn’t work online. There were checks, which had to be mailed. And there were credit cards.
Let’s dig down deeper for a second. Cash is untraceable and if it’s stolen you have no way of getting it back. Checks? Yep, let’s put all your personal information including your bank accounts on a piece of paper, stick that in the mail, and oh, give someone your signature to forge too. And credit cards weren’t much better, since anyone could see your number and name and steal that info pretty much instantly.
I’m glad we thought of better ideas
Paying over the internet required a whole new way of thinking of things. Transactions had to be safe, reliable, and the information had to be accessible to computers without being accessible to humans. One of the first systems to crack this problem was PayPal of course. PayPal was created by a group that included Peter Thiel (google him if you don’t know who he is, you’ll be amazed) and Elon Musk (yes that Elon Musk.) Later bought by eBay, it was the first online payment system to become really popular. Later, systems like Amazon Pay, Venmo, and Zelle built on PayPal’s success by making it easier for people to send money quickly though apps.
Really though, the breakthrough in payments came with Apple Pay and similar apps like that. When you combine biometrics and secure transfers with the ability to pay through your phone, it’s a killer app to be sure. I will admit that I didn’t trust the technology at first. But when you compare its multiple levels of protection with the idea of handing a plastic card with a visible number to a person, it wins hands down.
What do you use?
If you’re shopping at Solid Signal, you have choices. You can feed in your credit card and it will be handled by our PCI-compliant processing system. Or, you can choose PayPal, Amazon Pay, or Apple Pay. We make it easy to work with whatever payment system works best for you. Personally, whenever I shop at web sites, I always make sure they use one of these payment processors. I know that any time you pay online there is some risk, no matter how small. I think working with companies like Apple, Amazon, and PayPal offer you about as little risk as possible.
It’s up to you to decide, though. I’m curious, though, what’s your favorite? Leave us a comment below!
There’s one more way to pay if you’re old-school, and that’s to call us. We offer full service over the phone at 888-233-7563. We can set up orders for you and take credit card information over the phone. All of our staff are fully trained on credit card handling procedures and immediately feed those numbers into secure systems. You can trust Solid Signal. Call during East Coast business hours and we’ll take care of you!
