For the banks, online and bill payment customers can be extremely profitable.
After payment, customers place their packages in carts to take them to their cars.
Rather than using cash or card as payment, customers have been encouraged to pay by pulling out a smartphone, opening up Starbucks' payment app and scanning a code at the cash till.
Meanwhile, disclosure and executive compensation rules that emphasize financial results have encouraged firms to ignore external costs and to minimize "expenses" like payroll, tax payments, customer support, pollution abatement, and research and development- expenses" that generate substantial social benefits.
If you are stuck with a pre-payment meter it will still be worth investigating whether you should switch – different providers charge pre-payment customers different tariffs, so you would be wise to check you're on the cheapest one.
To make payments, customers tell the Web service to send a "you've got cash" type e-mail message to the other person, who must sign in, then collect the money by credit card, bank account or paper check.
One firm stated that more than 70% of pre-payment customers who had recently switched to it had been won on the doorstep.
Although the company is in 60 countries, customers in only 24 of those countries can both send and receive payments; customers in all 60 countries can receive payments.
By spelling out and applying consequences (fees, interest) for late payments, customers are more likely to get the message that they need to pay on time.
