You don’t have to look hard to find adult entertainment material on the Internet. In fact, it often appears when you least expect it. The proliferation is in part due the interest of the public at large. That interest has led entrepreneurial individuals to produce content for consumption. Although you can get a lot of material for free, there are many websites that offer specialized adult content for those willing to pay for it. This is where billing and billing practices come into play. If you are going to hand over your credit card for anything on the Net, it is good to know the issues you face.

Ecommerce is alive and well on the Internet. US consumers spent over $65-billion in 2004 in online transactions. Companies are willing to take your money in various forms including checks, SMS, debit accounts, 900-numbers and direct phone line billing, generally known as dialer charges. Each of these various methods has advantages and disadvantages so you should be familiar with all of them.

The most common method of payment, by far, is credit card. Credit cards are widely accepted, allow for instant access to material and you’ll never see the name of the site you’ve joined appear on your credit card bill so that your anonymity is protected.

The name on the credit card bill will either be of the third party billing company (ex. Ccbill, Epoch, Verotell, etc.) or the name of the company that owns the website (these are always discreet).

However, Ccbill lately has been adding truncated site names on the bill, so beware! One of the most basic methods of payment for service on the Net is by check. A user sends the check to a paysite and access is granted once the check is received. The drawbacks are that checks do not allow for immediate gratification. On the plus side, it provides a relatively low-risk way of accessing online content.

SMS billing is important for mobile users. Advancements in cellular technology allow access to websites from your mobile phone. Users can connect to various adult sites and download pictures and video, just as you would from your computer. Access charges are then billed to your cellular account. Depending on your service area and mobile billing plan, charges could be quite substantial so it is important to do your research before buying through SMS.

Debit accounts are also a new way of paying for items online. Companies such as Epassporte and PayPal allow you to transfer money to an online account. You can then control how much money is sent to a party and how often it is sent. It is a much safer way to deal with money online but the downside is that there are fewer sites that accept this form of payment.

1-900 billing is also known is IVR. It allows users to place a call to a 1-900 number and charges are billed directly to your phone line. Typically, a user could call and receive a password to site that would allow access for a given amount of time. It’s important to know how much you’re being charged before you call but it has the benefit of ensuring that there is only a one-time charge.

Dialers are used in many countries around the world. They allow companies to charge users when their computers connect to sites through their phone line. Billing appears on the phone line account and costs is generally calculated by how many minutes are used.

The vast majority of companies are ethical and follow strict guidelines to ensure the consumer is protected. However, payment for anything over the Internet or otherwise has a certain element of risk. The big problems come into play with services that disguise certain aspects of the billing process but there are ways to protect yourself.

The most important thing you can do to protect yourself is to read the fine print.

It is easy to get caught up in the moment when making a purchase and skip over things you’ve seen many times before, but this can be very dangerous. For example, most sites that require membership have recurring billing. This means that they will continue to charge you even if you aren’t using the site. One of the more serious dangers come when sites “cross sell” other products. An example may consist of a site including a box on its signup form that offers a membership to another site. Some sites may pre-check the box, so instead of getting one site, you may be billed for two or more sites that you hadn’t originally intended. Another big issue comes with dialer charges. Dialers are commonly used in countries where credit cards aren’t the norm. Certain companies have abused this system by making it difficult for surfers to disconnect or including software that automatically connected to a site whenever a computer was online. One solution to the dialer problem is IVR billing, which allows for an easier way to monitor the charges made to a phone line.

Educating yourself is the key to combating any of the problems associated with billing. The vast majority of business on the Internet is done with ethical companies that want to stay in business but there are and will always be a few bad apples. Keep reading the fine print and you’ll be a much smarter and happier consumer.

References:

1. “Online Consumer Spending by Product, 2002 – 2004” Infoplease: All the Knowledge you Need, infoplease.com, Dec 13 2005.
2. “IVR Billing and Beyond” Xbiz: The Industry Source, xbiz.com, Dec 13 2005.
3. “Reverse SMS Billing” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, wikipedia.com, Dec 13, 2005.