subject: It's good to change your payment processor [print this page] It's good to change your payment processor
We've learned that SMEs who analyse and evaluate their expenditure do much better. Now this may not come as any surprise to you, but it is surprising how many companies fail to examine these things on a frequent basis. Many businesses get larger and workloads become greater, and this is all great news, but if you actually stop for a second and check just what your company is paying out you could boost your profits a lot more.
Check your payment processor
An area you want to look into is payment processing. This is too often a factor in almost every company that merely gets sidestepped as it's considered unimportant; as long as the payments are arriving and they're on time with no difficulties, most businesses are happy.
However, if you stop to inspect what you're really paying in merchant fees and also analyse and evaluate the degree of customer service you receive you might find there are improvements that could be made. Everybody is paying for goods and services with their debit cards nowadays and this implies that essentially every retailer is using a bank or payment processor to take care of these payments. It's vital not to get too complacent as payment processing becomes a standard component of organisation practice; it is as vital to check this as it is to check anything that sustains the easy running of your company.
Bank charges compared to independent company rates
Banks may be the ones that take the highest merchant fees from you given that they have a tendency to increase their rates more frequently than the smaller independent payment processing companies. These independent companies can offer better rates because they specialise in SMEs, maintain a closer working relationship with them, and are able to offer better rates just through supplying the banks with a huge amount of business.
These independent companies know that smaller enterprises can often get lost with the banks, which tend to increase their fees across the board regardless of the size of company; what the larger businesses and corporations can afford in payment processing is not necessarily what the smaller ones can.
Checklist
Here is a handy little checklist designed to provide you with a good indication of what you could get from a payment processor.
Capped merchant fees for the duration of your contract.
24hr customer service from UK call centres
Emergency replacement of faulty or otherwise irreparable card terminals
Consistently low merchant fees
If you're getting all this and a good rate then you have got it all sorted out, but if you are not receiving any of the above then you seriously could do with searching for a better provider. It is definitely worth the time to make a few phone calls to several providers just to determine if they can better the deal you are already getting.
How simple is it to switch?
It is very simple indeed if you get the right payment processor, and in many cases they are able to have you up and running in a matter of days. Most of them will also allow you to keep the same business bank account and send your payments directly there. There is very little to change really. The best course of action is to call an independent payment provider directly and give them an outline of your organisation and what you are paying at the moment. It does not take long to call and you could save a lot of money in the long run.
