Lets continue. 

D/A: stands for Documents Against Acceptance.  This can be for 60 ,90 or 120 days. Actually it does not mean anything to have DA for 30 days since that is what it takes for the ship normally to arrive to port and since the whole point of a D/A transaction is to give you payment terms, you can see that it offsets the point. 

Furthermore, it makes more sense to do D/P in the above case since you end up paying less charges. 

D/A in the business circle is commonly known as Death in Advance.In laymans terms, the supplier does the shipment, he sends all original documents to your bank, your bank gives you the documents against the PROMISE that you will pay in the stated time. 

If you don’t pay, the bank cant do anything except for putting you in the black list. Hence your supplier will need to go to the judiciary system to put a case against you. This normally does not happen since it takes too many years. Most probably the seller will end up having to negotiate with you. 

As you can see this is a transaction based on trust. Its as if you were to get payment terms from your supplier but internationally.  

Note that there are heavy charges as well as interest charges involved here. This way of payment is commonly used in south america, africa, and markets where there is a good profit margin to offset the higher costs ( eg africa) or where you need to have a constant rotation of goods and have limited liquidity. 

You can see a flow diagram of the above in the following link: http://www.aibtradefinance.com/tf/ProductDiag2.asp  

The 2 last modes of payment are: 

T/T: stands for telegraphic transfer. Very simple , you send payment thru the bank. Normally the supplier sends you documents after getting the payment. 

Free Documents: as above, but means that the supplier sends you the documents first and then you pay him in the time you both have decided. It is same like D/A but the documents don’t go thru the bank. The supplier sends them directly to your office. Hence there are no charges. 

Of course the latter one is normally done with someone you really trust and I have seen it most in dealings house-to-house, ie where the exporter has sold/sent goods to his own import office in the destination country. 

Hope that helps.

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