What would you do if you wanted to develop hosting and website design in a country where they have internet access but not many people use credit cards - so how would we bill? Any ideas would be appreciated!

any other payment method? likes Paypal, moneybookers etc.

problem with paypal is you still need a credit card! I was considoring setting up an office so people could pay in cash but that is less than perfect.

We have also considored using trialpay (which we use in the UK for our budget hosting) but not sure if that would cover the countries we want

You can always use trialpay for your local costumers but have pay pal as option for international sales. You can give your costumers the option to wire transfer the money as well

Wire transfer
Western union
But it might be n=ot sutable in terms.

I'd stick with paypal mate, its the most widely accepted form of moneys right now. Google Checkout & Paypal

Paypal is very secure, and you have a lot of people who has trouble
because they pay something and has gotten bad service, and placed
a "paypal dispute" for that payment...

I think that in international payments there are very few methods
to protect yourself as a client

I lost about $100 with a provider just because there TOS tells no "no money back", but I never get to use the server...

so, I stay with paypal

Wire transfer
Western union
But it might be n=ot sutable in terms.
How couldn't it work?

You could bill your customers for 3 or 6 months using such payment methods.

How do customers in that country currrently pay bills, like their telephone bill, etc? For example, if it's by check, maybe you should open a local bank account and be prepared to accept checks, if entering that market is really important to you.

I have seen countries where credit cards are not that popular (they use debit cards instead, like Visa Electron) but people pay their bills by bank transfer. So, all e-commerce sites have bank transfer payment options.

We've had a lot of non-US customers ask if we accept MoneyBookers as a payment method. MoneyBookers allows people to sign up from just about every country in the world.

Wire transfers / bank to bank transfers / cheques / demand drafts <--- Trusted methods

You can appoint resellers in every city or in major cities and have them collect money on behalf of you. Have them deduct their cut and send the rest using bank to bank or any other way mentioned above!