Buyers and sellers can now send and receive money online in the U. S. for free with Citibank's c2it person-to-person payment service. When c2it introduced its service in the spring, senders (i. e., buyers) paid a fee for sending money. The fee structure was as follows:

"If buyers send cash from any Citibank credit card, checking or savings account, the fee is 1% of the transaction amount. If buyers send cash from any other credit card, the fee is 2.2% of the transaction amount. (There is a 50-cent minimum fee per transaction.)" Now, however, there is no charge to buyers or sellers for using the payment service, although transaction limits still apply.

AuctionWatch integrates the c2it payment system directly into its auction-management service; sellers can automatically list their items and include c2it as a payment option for their sales on eBay, Yahoo, Amazon and AuctionWatch Storefronts. When a buyer selects c2it for payment through the AuctionWatch winning bidder notification, they can link directly to c2it to enroll and pay for the item right away. In addition, c2it is offering online sellers the opportunity to earn an additional $5 for every new user they refer to c2it.

A comparison of online payment services may be viewed on the AuctionBytes site at: http://www.auctionbytes.com/paymentratings/paymentratings.html