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Why Accept Cards?
More and more customers now expect to pay for their purchases using a card when they are out shopping; or to pay for goods and services when they are online.
Think about your own experience and apply it to your business. When you go to the shops do you pay by cash, use a cheque or get out a card?
To help decide whether to take cards or not, here are some reasons why accepting cards could improve business:
- Customers increasingly expect to be able to pay by card.
- Payment at the time of the sale - no more “the cheque is in the post” - and the money is in the merchant’s bank account, typically, within four working days.
- Potential cost savings from holding less cash - saving on the security required to look after this money and trips to the bank to pay in takings.
- Improved cash flow with less reliance on financing such as using an overdraft or loan.
- Easier to make a sale, if the customer does not have enough cash on them at the time, they could use a card instead.
- Now that the UK has chip and PIN, it is usually quicker to accept card payments than a cheque.
- In most cases, where a customer uses a chip and PIN card in a shop, this will be a guaranteed payment for the merchant as the customer cannot claim they did not initiate the transaction.
- When a merchant takes a card payment, they know exactly how much the transaction will cost to process that can help when putting together a business plan.
An acquiring bank, who processes card transactions for a merchant, is always there to help a merchant when accepting a card payment. They can provide a range of card payment solutions that can be matched to a business’s growth aspirations.
