Although FREE is still available, it may takes weeks to months to get a website indexed. Paying a fee to have your site reviewed does not guarantee that it will be listed. It only assures a prompt review and in some cases, assistance with professionally written search listings to help drive targeted traffic to your site. Meta tags must still be placed on pages that are reviewed including strategic titles, keywords and descriptions. This involves bidding on keywords with ranking based on the highest bid.
Money is deposited in an account and the site is pulled when and if the money runs out.
Also, a higher bidder will automatically change your ranking order so careful monitoring is important. The decision to pay or submit for free remains a choice for some of the major search engines. It often means however, a long delay of many weeks to see any results. Express service eliminates that wait and perhaps provides some additional service in some cases. It's probably just around the corner.