PayPal seems to have established itself as the premier method for online payments. I have a paypal account which I use on a regular basis myself, but the process can actually complicate even the simplest of situations. In some cases PayPal seems a bit overkill when something easier could be used. This is where Paystr comes into play.
The online application allows you to set up your own web page for collections purposes. The customization far outweighs the impersonal requests that PayPal creates, with the invoices they allow you to create. Instead Paystr really want you to customize your efforts and your attempts to collect funds for a variety of things. The site declares that its services are great for parties, events, games, gifts or whatever it might be you are collecting for.The focus of Paystr is for the user to focus more on the actual project and less time on the actual collections.
The site is free, creating an account is easy, but standard “PayPal” fees apply. The online site accepts credit cards also, to make it easier for you to collect your funds ahead of time. You can set up multiple payment methods and multiple levels of products or services giving your audience options, ease of use, and safety of knowing their payments are secure.
You can also follow Paystr on Twitter, @Paystr, or connect with them via Facebook.
Over at gHacks they have a great article about how to create an iTunes U.S. account without a credit card.
Here are the basics from the article!
The first thing you do is to download the iTunes software and install it. Once that is done start it and locate the Redeem link in the top right Quick Links menu.
This will load a page with a form that accepts coupons and gift certificates. All you need to is to paste a coupon code into the form and click on Redeem to send it to iTunes. Coupons can be found here or here.
The iTunes software will throw an error message if the gift certificate or coupon is no longer valid. That however is not a problem at all. Return to the homepage by clicking on the home icon in the upper left corner of the iTunes store.
Once the homepage has loaded it is time to create the account. You can do that by clicking on the Sign In button on the upper right corner of the iTunes store. It offers you login possibilities and a button to create a new account. Click on that button.
Click continue on the welcome page and accept the terms and conditions of the iTunes store in the second. This finally leads to the account creation page.
Enter your details on that page and continue to the next and final step of the account creation.
If everything went well you should now see the page where you can select a payment method and enter the address of the account. The payment method has to offer None as one option for this to work. If that is the case choose none. Now you need to enter an US address in the last step to create the account.
The zip code, state and city have to match. Everything else does not. Just select the location of a friend or relative to be on the safe side but it is practically possible to enter any information you like.
The account will be created in the last step and the contents of the US iTunes store are now available.
