Top 3 Advantages of Paying Your Business Debts by Card

Libby James, Director of midlands based firm Merchant Advice Service, talks to Taurus Collections about the importance of accepting card payments within Debt Recovery industries.

Libby is a co-founder of the non-biased advice based website, formed to help business owners find suitable card processing solutions and save costs in the process. In more recent years, she has coupled with Voice Connect to provide automated IVR telephone payment operations to Debt Collection firms nationwide.

Here we look at Libby’s three top tips when accepting repayments from customers.

Security

First and foremost, ensuring that the methods in which companies accept credit and debit card payments are secure not only builds trust between you and the debtor, but also the clients themselves. Using companies which are PCI-DSS compliant will reassure people paying through your service that their card details are safe and secure, no matter which way they choose to make repayments.

Annually, you will also need to submit PCI paper work to confirm the way in which payment data is handled meets standard requirements.

Accessibility

Providing ways for debtors to make repayments at their convenience is paramount to ensuring that payments are received on time. With varying accessibility to the internet across age and location demographics, it’s important to use more than one solution to make repayments of debts simple and accessible to all.

Coupled with online transactions, IVR payment facilities are commonly used within debt recovery and similar industries. This system works by customers keying their card details directly into the telephone keypad, prior to the transaction being approved by the merchant bank. Available 24/7 365 days a year, this allows customers with little, or no internet access, to make payments with ease at a time to suit them.

From experience, having more than one option for debtors to make repayments results in an increase of prompt payments, coupled with time saved in chasing late credits to the account.

Reliability

My third tip for finding suitable card processing for debt collection companies, is making sure that you provide debtors with a reliable payment service. It sounds simple, however most companies do not appreciate this until it’s too late. When accepting payments within industries seen by Merchant Banks as high risk, it’s important to have a backup option if you were to be served notice by your existing provider. This happens regularly within industry as banks constantly assess their attitude to risk and balance their portfolios accordingly. If you are accepting high value, or high volume card payments, having two merchant accounts to support your business is paramount in proving a reliable repayments service to debtors.