What is Hyperwallet?


I had the privilege of participating in the Hyperwallet* testing here at Suite 101 while this program was in its' infancy stage. It was very easy to transfer money from my bank account into my Hyperwallet and pay for merchandise. Although we only had a small number of Canadian retailers who accepted Hyperwallet, I bought some sweatshirts at a great price. I beamed cash over to my friends, even when they didn't have a Hyperwallet. To beam cash, all the recipient needs is a valid email account.

I decided to go back to the Hyperwallet site today to see if they have expanded their services. To my delight, Canadians can now transact in US funds in order to pay for merchandise at the auction sites and more retailers have signed up for the etailing program.

The best feature of Hyperwallet is a no credit card requirement! This has to be attractive to people who do not have a credit card and still want to make electronic transactions. With other electronic payment programs, Canadians cannot make cash transactions. Canadians can use cash transactions through Hyperwallet. You can transfer funds to your own wallet in the same way you pay your bills at your financial institution - online, by phone or in person. To transfer funds back to your bank account, you sign on to the Hyperwallet site, same with beaming cash.

For Canadian merchants, they can accept credit card payments from US buyers through a system called Beanstream*. They can also accept US cash purchases from Canadian buyers.

Here is the service fee chart:

Cash Transactions

  • Cash out to CDN bank account-CDN Funds
    1 Free per month, $0.75 subsequent
  • Cash out to US bank account-US Funds
    $.075 each
  • Beam Cash
    $0.25 each
  • Receive Cash Payment for Auction Invoice (seller)
    2.9% to a $5.00 max

Credit Card Transactions (registered eBay users)
Beanstream fees

  • Receive Credit Card Payment for an Auction Invoice
    3.95 % + $0.40 (standard seller)
    3.25 % + $0.40 (high volume seller)
  • International Credit Card Payment
    1% surcharge (standard seller)
    1% surcharge (high volume seller)

I think this is a good product for Canadians because of the low fees and the ability to make cash transactions. The agreement with Beanstream has enabled US buyers to transact with Canadian sellers at a lower cost to the vendor. (Based on the fees charged by other electronic payment services). I also like the idea of beaming cash to others (or maybe receiving cash once in a while)!

*Registered products

The copyright of the article What is Hyperwallet? in Internet Communication is owned by Maureen Fleury. Permission to republish What is Hyperwallet? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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