When you buy something online, you want it to be a safe and effortless process. Using paper can stall that process. As of this year, eBay is no longer accepting checks and money orders as payment for items bought on their site.

Did you see the commercial where there are tons of customers in the coffee shop? It is running like a well-oiled machine because everyone is swiping a credit card for their purchases. The machine slowed to a messy and screeching halt when one person pulls out a couple of bills to pay for their purchase. It is the same when paying for items when you are the highest bidder on eBay. Paper slows things down.

EBay made the jump to an all electronic system to streamline the checkout process. When everything is electronic, the checkout can be done completely through eBay’s website. Sellers will no longer have to wait for checks to be mailed to them or deal with fraudulent ones. For customers, buyers won’t have to wait so long to receive their goods.

The majority of eBay shoppers already use electronic forms of payment for their transactions. According to the eBay website, the number is over ninety percent. The new changes will bring the last few holdouts around to using electronic payments.

Why run to the store to get a money order or sit down to write a check and mail it out when you can have your item bought and paid for in a matter of minutes? PayPal and credit cards offer many advantages over paper methods. For one, PayPal offers protection on purchases bought using an account set up on their website. For credit cards, most credit card companies offer theft and purchase protection.

If you don’t have a credit card, apply for one. Some people don’t want to go that route, though. In that case, get a debit card from your bank. The Visa or MasterCard logo will be accepted everywhere that an actual Visa or MasterCard credit card is. That means eBay also.

Checks and money orders are a big hassle for eBay users. This goes both for sellers and for buyers. Going paperless is a step in the right direction for everyone who uses the site.

Its simple and easy to integrate a payment system into your website where you can accept credit cards and checks.