Four Ways to Receive Payments From Customers

Ensuring your company offers flexible payment options could improve your profits. Here's how you can make that happen.

There's a large variety of payment options in regular use today. While that's excellent news, it can become a source of frustration when the service a business uses doesn't match with that of the customer's.

Not offering one of the essential payment options could decrease sales for both large and smaller companies alike. That's why you should ensure that your business can receive payments in as many ways as possible.

Here are the four payment options your company should keep readily available.

Option #1. Credit and Debit Cards

The number of cash-only businesses has diminished, to the point of them becoming rather exotic. It’s a fact that cash has been widely replaced by credit and debit cards.

Besides the usual way of accepting payments through a card reader, you can also make online payments available. To do this, you can launch an e-commerce site and include a payment gateway.

Bear in mind that customer information security in online payments is your responsibility, so you may only want to use industry-approved services.

Option #2. BACS, CHAPS, and Faster Payments

BACS is a way of pulling funds off an account or pushing them into one. These kinds of money transfers are respectively called direct debit and direct credit. However, the process takes three days to complete, making it less convenient for payments.

CHAPS was introduced to address the issue. It functions much the same as BACS, with the main difference being that transfers are instantaneous. While the system's fast and secure, it comes with a relatively costly transfer fee. This makes it better suited for substantial payments.

Faster Payments is the latest variant of the BACS system that’s ideal for smaller payments. It doesn't come with a three-day waiting time of BACS, nor the pricey fees charged through CHAPS. But the limitation with Faster Payments is in terms of the maximum amount of money you can send.

Remember that to ensure you can receive payments via these systems, you'll need to get the FCA's appropriate license as a Payment or E-Money Institution. Note that the process is somewhat complicated and many requirements are involved.

Option #3. Mobile Payments

Mobile payment apps are becoming the norm for a large number of online purchases. The convenience of this method is understandably appealing - once the payment app is set up correctly, the process is quite straightforward.

This option could be as convenient for the business as it is for the customer. The most important thing you need to do is ensure that your payment acceptance method is secure since privacy and personal information issues are an unavoidable part of online payments.

Option #4. Online Payment Gateway

Payment gateways serve to enable payments directly on your site. They can secure your customer's information as well as handle customer accounts.

While most payment gateway providers focus on credit or debit cards, making online purchases available instantly from your website makes it a unique option.

More Flexibility Means More Sales

Covering the most frequently used payment options will make your product or service ready for purchase in an instant. Additionally, your customers will be satisfied to know they have a range of payment methods at their disposal.