Online payment services have become an increasing necessity in the modern world in order to facilitate cashless transactions beyond the working hours of a bank. These online payment services range from credit cards, e-wallets, net banking and many other digital payment systems available to users and merchants all around the clock.

These online payment services can be broadly categorized into three most basic transaction models such as the cash based, post-paid and pre-paid models.

The cash based model is the exchange of cash without any central processing fee or additional cost for the transaction. While the post-paid model gives a user transaction privileges like a bank at some minimal additional cost, the pre-paid model allows the purchase of pre-paid tokens for future use without incurring any charges. Although all these systems contain minimum security, the issue of fraud or liability on a phishing scam would be the user’s responsibility as the online payment service providers would vouch only for their payment transactions and not for the third-party vendors.

An online payment service medium is not just a tool for an individual to make online purchases from different intreat sites but also a medium for traditional shop sellers to expand their business online without the fear of delay on payments for their goods as these portals provide an instant credit or debit to the bank accounts of the holder in real time. Corporate giants including banks like the American Express and smartphone developers from iPhone to Samsung have launched their own online payment service portals and integrated them with the technological gadgets like laptops to smartphones in order to facilitate easy transactions for their end users. While there may be a small charge for certain transactions, most transaction are offered for free with high end encrypted security to secure the user’s bank details and identity.

Some of the leading online payment service providers include Square, Google Wallet, Amazon Payments, PayPal, V.me by VISA, and 2Checkout. All these providers have their own online portals as well as customized applications for smartphones and other technological gadgets. These providers are not just for transactions on the web, but also provide the feasibility to use their services to make payments at restaurants, movie theaters, malls, supermarkets, grocery shops, airports, metro stations, hospitals, pharmacies, etc, by tying up with local vendors and business to provide connected services to its individual user and enhanced opportunities for small businesses and vendors. The future of these service providers is in the successful integration of biometrics to enable personalized transactions and avoid ID theft.