Frequently Asked Questions

We use the payment services provided by PayPal to handle online payments.

PayPal has been chosen because it best meets our key requirements which are:

1. High level of security.
2. Cost-effective way of handling a small volume of transactions.
3. Inexpensive way of handling small amounts.
4. Provides the customer with a choice of payment methods (PayPal account, funds transfer from linked bank account, credit card, debit card).
5. Enables the Society to accept credit card and debit card payments without the need to become a credit card merchant thus avoiding the costs that this entails.
6. Easy to integrate with our own web site to make it easier for the user.
7. Simple to use.
8. Ability to handle multiple currencies.

PayPal offers you 4 payment choices:

1. Payment from your PayPal account.
2. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) from your bank account.
3. Credit Card.
4. Debit Card.

Payment from your PayPal Account

In this case, you need to have a PayPal account.  If you already have a PayPal account, you can submit your payment simply by entering your PayPal account name (email address) and PayPal password when prompted to do so.  If you wish to open a PayPal account, you can do so free of charge here: https://www.paypal.com/au/webapps/mpp/account-selection

EFT from your Bank Account

In this case, you need to have a PayPal account and you need to link your bank account to your PayPal account.

Credit Card Payment

In this case, you don’t need to have a PayPal account and you can submit your payment using your credit card.  When you submit your payment, PayPal will invite you to open a PayPal account but this is optional.

Debit Card Payment

In this case, you don’t need to have a PayPal account and you can submit your payment using your debit card.  When you submit your payment, PayPal will invite you to open a PayPal account but this is optional.

If there is no currency exchange involved with your payment, e.g. the item you are purchasing is priced in British Pounds and you are paying in British Pounds, there is no extra cost to you, the purchaser, for using PayPal (even if you choose to pay by credit card).

However, if your payment involves a foreign currency, e.g. the item you are purchasing is priced in British Pounds and you are paying in Australian dollars, then you will be charged a foreign currency fee by PayPal.

You have the option of creating your own personal PayPal account.

You need to do this if you wish to:

• Use your PayPal account as your source of funds.
• Use your bank account as your source of funds.

You can choose not to do so if you wish to:

• Pay using your credit card.
• Pay using your debit card.

If you do decide to create your own PayPal account, there are no establishment fees or annual or monthly fees or any other fees.

Please note that although there no fees charged by PayPal, your bank or credit card provider may charge you a fee.

There is no cost to the Stedman Cousins for the establishment of the Stedman Cousins PayPal merchant account and there are no annual or monthly fees.

However, the Stedman Cousins does have to pay a small transaction fee for each PayPal transaction.  This is similar to the merchant fee that would apply for any credit card transaction.

If the Stedman Cousins were to become a credit card merchant, there would be many other fees in addition to a transaction fee for each transaction such as establishment fees, joining fees, annual administration fees, monthly access fees, minimum merchant service fees, credit card authorisation fees.

On the other hand, as a PayPal merchant, the Stedman Cousins only has to pay a small transaction fee for each PayPal transaction.  This is similar to the merchant fee that would apply for any credit card transaction.

Experience shows that there are 3 drawbacks with the EFT approach:

1. It’s not user-friendly.
2. It’s easy for errors to occur.
3. It’s extremely difficult to obtain an accurate record of who has made a payment and what the payment is for.

Not User Friendly

It’s not user-friendly because you first have to access the Society’s web site to submit your application and take a note of how much is owing.  You then switch across to your bank’s Internet banking web site and login to your Internet banking service.  You enter the payment details including the amount previously noted – hopefully you enter the amount owing without making a transcription error.  You enter your name in the very limited space that is available (if you have a very short name, no problem but if you have a longer name, you will have to abbreviate).  You also enter the reason for the payment.  You have a very limited amount of space for this so you will need to get creative when you try and explain what the payment is for.

However, when the payment is handled via PayPal, you only enter the data once because your order and your payment are handled together.

Error Prone

It’s easy for errors to occur because you have to make sure that you enter the Society’s BSB number and bank account number correctly.  You might enter the account number incorrectly but that number may represent a valid bank account.  In this case, the money is transferred into the wrong bank account.  This causes problems where you insist you have paid but the Society insists it never got the money.

However, when the payment is handled via PayPal, the payment is sent to the Society’s PayPal account automatically and you do not have to enter any account identifiers.

Difficult to Work Out Who has Paid for What

When you use your Internet banking service, there is limited space available for you to enter your name.  There is also a limited amount of space for you to enter the reason for the payment.

When the Society gets the bank statement, we then have to try and decipher the shorthand entries on the statement so that the payments can be properly accounted for.

However, when the payment is handled via PayPal, the Society receives an email with the full details of your payment including your name, your address, your email address, the amount of the payment and the reason for the payment.  You also receive an email with this same information.

Yes, there a number of other ways of handling online payments but none of these are suitable for our needs which are:

1. High level of security.
2. Cost-effective way of handling a small volume of transactions.
3. Inexpensive way of handling small amounts.
4. Provides the customer with a choice of payment methods (PayPal account, funds transfer from linked bank account, credit card, debit card).
5. Enables the Society to accept credit card and debit card payments without the need to become a credit card merchant thus avoiding the costs that this entails.
6. Easy to integrate with our own web site to make it easier for the user.
7. Simple to use.
8. Ability to handle multiple currencies.

NOTE: Online payments are processed by PayPal.  PayPal offers you 4 payment choices:

1. Payment from your PayPal account.
2. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) from your bank account.
3. Credit Card.
4. Debit Card.

Yes.  You can make an online payment using your credit card or your debit card.

We use the payment services provided by PayPal to handle online payments.

PayPal offers you 4 payment choices:

1. Payment from your PayPal account.
2. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) from your bank account.
3. Credit Card.
4. Debit Card.

If you choose to use your credit card or your debit card, you don’t need to have a PayPal account and you can submit your payment using your credit card/debit card.  When you submit your payment, PayPal will invite you to open a PayPal account but this is optional.

Yes.  You can make an online payment using your PayPal account.

We use the payment services provided by PayPal to handle online payments.

PayPal offers you 4 payment choices:

1. Payment from your PayPal account.
2. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) from your bank account.
3. Credit Card.
4. Debit Card.

If you choose to use your PayPal account as your source of funds, you will need to have a PayPal account.  If you already have a PayPal account, you can submit your payment simply by entering your PayPal account name (email address) and PayPal password when prompted to do so.  If you wish to open a PayPal account, you can do so free of charge here: https://www.paypal.com/au/webapps/mpp/account-selection

Yes.  You can make an online payment using funds in your bank account.

We use the payment services provided by PayPal to handle online payments.

PayPal offers you 4 payment choices:

1. Payment from your PayPal account.
2. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) from your bank account.
3. Credit Card.
4. Debit Card.

If you choose to use your bank account as your source of funds, you will you need to have a PayPal account and you will need to link your bank account to your PayPal account.

No.  There is no need to supply a mobile phone number when you make an online payment.  However, if you wish to pay using a credit card or debit card, there is a need to supply a phone number which could be a mobile number, a home number or a work number.

Not really.  It’s more of a small step into the 20^th century.  Although the use of online payments may be seen as a radical, new-fangled idea we need to consider this from an historical perspective:

1. The World Wide Web has been with us for 25+ years.  Sir Timothy John “Tim” Berners-Lee, OM, KBE, FRS, FREng, FRSA, DFBCS, a British engineer and computer scientist and MIT professor is credited with inventing the World Wide Web, making the first proposal for it in March 1989.
2. Electronic commerce over the Web (including online payments) has been around for over 20 years, the most famous example being amazon.com which has been in business since 1994.
3. Online auctions have been around for 20+ years, the most famous example being eBay which was founded in 1995.
4. PayPal has been in business since 1998.  As of 2014, PayPal operates in 203 markets and has 152 million active, registered accounts.  PayPal allows customers to send, receive, and hold funds in 26 currencies worldwide.

PayPal is a secure electronic payments service that makes it easy to transfer funds using the Internet.

If you are a buyer, you can:

1. Send money to anyone with an email address or mobile phone number.
2. Buy items on eBay and at millions of sites that accept PayPal.
3. Shop without sharing your financial information.
4. Select from a list of currencies when making a payment.

If you are a seller, you can:

1. Accept payments from Credit Cards, Debit Cards and Bank Accounts.
2. Accept Credit Cards and Debit Cards without the need to become a credit card merchant.
3. Integrate your web site with PayPal to provide a seamless experience for the user.
4. Allow the buyer to select from a list of currencies when making a payment but have the payment credited to your account in a currency of your choice, e.g. British Pounds.

If you are using your credit card or debit card you don’t need to have a PayPal account to use PayPal.

If you wish to pay by transferring funds from your PayPal account or your bank account, you will need to open a PayPal account.

To open a PayPal account you simply register with PayPal using your preferred email address — your email address is your PayPal account name: https://www.paypal.com/au/webapps/mpp/account-selection

You will be asked to supply your name and address details and you will need to confirm your identity with PayPal.

• You can send money to anyone who has an email address or mobile phone.
• You can do so using your computer by logging on to your PayPal account and selecting the Send Money option or by logging on to your PayPal account using your mobile phone.
• You simply enter the recipient’s email address or mobile phone number, the amount, the currency you wish to use and press Submit.
• After you send money, the recipient receives an email notification of your payment.
• After clicking on the link included in the email, the recipient can log in to PayPal or sign up for a new account, and the money will immediately appear in his/her account balance.

• Payments are sent to you using your email address or mobile phone number.
• When a payment is sent to you, you will receive an email notification saying you received a payment.
• If you have a PayPal account, log in to your account to view the details of your payment.
• If you don’t have a PayPal account, you can quickly sign up for one and confirm your email address to receive the payment.
• As soon as you receive the payment, it goes into your PayPal balance.
• When you have a PayPal balance, you can either use those funds to send a payment or you can withdraw the funds.

Yes.  You can request a payment from anyone with an email address, even if they do not have a PayPal account.

You can do this by going to the PayPal web site and selecting “Request Money”.  You simply enter the recipient’s email address, the amount, the currency you wish to use and details of the request.

After you submit the request, the recipient will receive an email with instructions on how to pay you using PayPal.

Once you have funds in your PayPal account you can:

1. Use the funds to send money to anyone with an email address or mobile phone number.
2. Use the funds to pay for goods or services supplied by anyone who accepts PayPal.
3. Transfer some or all of the funds to your linked bank account.

Yes.  The PayPal site is highly secure.  They use industry-leading technology (such as SSL) to keep your information safe.

PayPal automatically encrypts your confidential information in transit from your computer to theirs using the Secure Sockets Layer protocol (SSL) with an encryption key length of 128-bits (the highest level commercially available).  Before you even register or log in to the PayPal site, their server checks that you’re using an approved browser – one that uses SSL 3.0 or higher.

Once your information reaches the PayPal site, it resides on a server that is heavily guarded both physically and electronically.  PayPal servers sit behind an electronic firewall and are not directly connected to the internet, so your private information is available only to authorised computers.

• Technology
  Their state-of-the-art fraud models and proprietary fraud engine work together to help stop fraudulent transactions before they happen.  In addition, PayPal stays at the forefront of security, developing many anti-fraud technologies every year.
• Experience
  With PayPal, you’ve got the industry’s most experienced fraud team on your side.  PayPal processes billions of dollars in payments each year, allowing us to continually perfect our anti-fraud protections.  As a result, PayPal’s loss rate is significantly lower than the industry average.  We also work with federal law enforcement to catch criminals.
• Privacy
  PayPal is committed to protecting the privacy of our users.  When you send or request money using PayPal, recipients never see your bank account numbers or credit card numbers.  They only see your email address, date of sign-up, and whether or not you have completed PayPal’s Verification process.

If you have any further questions about Online Payments, please contact the Webmaster: Contact the Webmaster

Yes.  If you join the Stedman Cousins part way through the membership year, you need to pay the full subscription.

However, if you join during the last 3 months of the membership year, you membership will start from the 1^st of July that year.

• The membership year for the Stedman Cousins is for 12 months from 1 July to 30 June.
• If you join during the first 9 months of the membership year, i.e. between 1 July and 31 March, your membership term starts as at 1 July of that membership year.
• If you join during the last 3 months of the membership year, i.e. between 1 April and 30 June, your membership term starts as at 1 July of the next membership year.

Once you are logged in to the web site, you can change your password by:

1. Clicking on the User Profile menu item at the top of the page on the right hand side.
2. Selecting the Change Password option.

Alternatively, you can click on this link: https://stedman-uk.com/user-profile/?a=pwdchange

If you’ve forgotten your password, you can reset it by:

1. Clicking on the Login menu item at the top of the page on the right hand side.
2. Selecting the Click here to reset option.

Alternatively, you can click on this link: https://stedman-uk.com/wp-login.php?action=lostpassword

If you need help, please contact the Webmaster: Contact the Webmaster

If you’ve forgotten your password, you can reset it by selecting the Lost Password menu item in the menu at the top of the page on the right hand side.

Alternatively, you can click on this link: https://stedman-uk.com/wp-login.php?action=lostpassword

Please note: You do NOT need to enter your web site Username to reset your password – you can reset your password by simply entering your email address.

If you need help, please contact the Webmaster: Contact the Webmaster

You can update your user profile, including your email address by:

1. Clicking on the User Profile menu item at the top of the page on the right hand side.
2. Selecting the Edit My Information option.

Alternatively, you can click on this link: https://stedman-uk.com/user-profile/?a=edit

You should also let the Treasurer know so that the membership register can be updated: Contact the Treasurer

If you need help, please contact the Webmaster: Contact the Webmaster

You only need to login to this web site with your web site username and password when you need to:

1. Access a members-only section of the site.
2. Post a comment about an item on the site.
3. Publish a new item on the site, e.g. an Advertisement.
4. Upload a photo in the Photo Gallery.

There is no need to login to the web site with your web site username and password to submit a membership application or renewal.

If you need help, please contact the Webmaster: Contact the Webmaster

• If you have logged in to this web site with your web site username and  password, you do not have to logout from the site.
• If you do wish to logout, you can do so by clicking on the Logout menu item at the top of the page on the right hand side.
• If you wish, you can simply close your browser window.
• When you close your browser window, your session will be terminated and you will need to login again with your web site username and  password.
• However, if you selected the Remember Me option when you logged in, the system will resume your session and you will not have to login again with with your web site username and password.

If you need help, please contact the Webmaster: Contact the Webmaster