Abbreviation for Cash On Delivery. Originally the term meant Collect on Delivery. However, “Collect” has been basterdized to Cash.
Collect on delivery or COD is a financial transaction where the payment of products and/or services received is done at the time of actual delivery rather than paid-for in advance. The term is mainly applied to consumer products purchased from a third party, where payment is made to or collected by the deliverer from the recipient rather than the sender, in the way that a collect call is also charged to the recipient instead of the caller. The delivery company in turn remits the charge for the item itself to the company which shipped it, keeping only the portion which it charged for the shipping service.
This type of transaction is better known as cash on delivery. However, as other forms of payment became more common, the word 'cash' was replaced with the word 'collect' to incorporate transactions with checks, credit cards or debit cards. Even with this, COD has become much less common now, and most companies will not ship this way.
Originally, COD delivery was made when a company owns its own transportation means. ...