The online trading site, Trade Me, are launching Ping, their new instant payments system, making buying and selling a whole lot easier.

Ping will  replace Pay Now for local sellers by the start of June and Trade Me will migrate local sellers to Ping at the end of May.

Trade Me have tried to make it very simple for both sellers and integrators and listing tool providers. Trade Me's Head of commercial, Jimmy McGee's said:

“Ping is a massive upgrade on how our members pay for items on Trade Me. Not only will they be able to pay by debit and credit cards, as they have for years, but with Ping they’ll be able to make instant bank payments and pay with stored credit too.”

When a seller chooses to accept credit card payments in their listing software, Trade Me enable both Ping and Pay Now, so that their customers will see whatever payment option their Trade Me account supports.

Here's some other info about Ping:

• Ping is a new instant payment system that makes trading even easier, faster, and safer. Ping allows buyers to make instant payments from their bank account, Ping balance, or credit/debit card. 
• All payments made via Ping incur a 1.95% transaction fee (1.65% for Top Sellers) and appear instantly in a seller’s Ping balance. 
• Seller and Buyer Protection applies to most items purchased with Ping. 

“Pay Now has worked really well for us and our members but it’s limited in what it can do and we believe we can provide something bigger and better to our members,” Mr McGee said. “We think our three newest initiatives: Ping, Buyer Protection and Book a Courier will work together to make our members’ experience much faster, easier and even safer.”

For more information go here.