What are the benefits of using online payment services?

Here's some benefits of online payments from the merchant's POV. There are more but these are the top 10!

1) you can be greener: no paper invoices or envelopes, no gasoline used by USPS to deliver, no postage (going up by 2 cents in a few months), no garbage
2) get paid faster to your bank account BY CREDIT CARD OR E-CHECK than the old fashioned way
3) no need to endorse a check and go to the bank, no need to process the card yourself-let the payer do the keystrokes on your website
4) you look bigger and more technologically sophisticated than you may really be
5) your customers respect you as a more efficient partner (huge if you are a nonprofit, as donors want to give to well-run organizations)
6) easy to research payments and whose payment is still due for a second follow up
7) each payment can be less expensive to you if you think about the human effort your employees (or you) undertake to manually process a payment
8) your efficiency will increase, allowing you to perform other tasks than payment processing
9) your online payment page should look like your website-reinforces your branding and voice as a savvy business
10) many people prefer to pay online and will do so before they break out the checkbook for the rest of the payments they have to make, so you may get paid earlier!
There's 10 real benefit of accepting online payments and encourage them by making your online payment page clearly marked to navigate to from your website and easy to use.

_____________________________________________
In response to the previous answer, there are some clarifications your readers need to keep in mind:
1. He said: "If you process credit cards by using a merchant account and connect to that using a shopping system, the network must meet a number of regulations for PCI standards.
pcisecuritystandards.org"
Don't let PCI deter you. This implication is that the PCI requirements re too onerous to get started with your own merchant account. This is not so. Choose a PCI-compliant credit card processor and they will work with you to ensure you implement intelligent security aspects in your company or organization. Like everything, there is a learning curve but PCI is not so insurmountable to the extent that you should avoid your own merchant account. If anyone wants to know the advantages of having your own merchant account, contact me.

2. He said: "Using a 3rd party processor like PP or 2CO bypasses the risks as you do not see the credit card numbers as the purchaser is moved to the 3rd party's site."
No PCI-compliant system will EVER let you see the entire credit card number. PERIOD. So this is not a valid point and not a reason to avoid your own processing.

3. He Said: "Some software, CRELoaded is one, makes the move to the credit card collection process transparent. In other systems you know you have been moved to a different site for payment."
I cannot comment on CRELoaded since Ii do not offer it (but I offer others instead), but be sure that if you are moved to a different site for payment, that the URL of the website begins with "https://" signifying a valid secure certificate ensures payment data encryption.

Any questions? Contact at me at ybillc@optonline.net; www.yourbestinterestllc.com