Once you’re interested in offering walk-in bill payment services to your customers , you need to go through the process of choosing a provider. (See Bill Payment: Getting Started if you want to know more.) There’s no universal right and wrong here, but remember to think about the following when you select a vendor.
1. Buy-rate / commissions
You will want to know how much the provider is going to charge for the service; also referred to as your buy-rate. The buy-rate determines what commissions you receive each month. If your buy-rate is 70 cents on a $1.50 payment, you make 80 cents
2. Biller List
Make sure the program you select includes some of the key utility billers in your area. In addition, having lots of different billers in your program offering will encourage loyal customers and ultimately grow your walk-in bill payment business. The more bills they can pay, the more likely they will return.
3. Consumer fees
Consumers don’t have to pay bills at your store. They choose to do it there because it’s convenient and/or you have good pricing. Look for programs that offer competitive consumer pricing — if you offer bill payment for $2 and store down the street has the same service for $1.50; guess where those people are going to pay their bills.
4. Timing
- Post-times – if you are an authorized bill pay location (see description below), the payment will post immediately to the biller. Most other non-authorized payments post in 1-2 days; but could take longer depending on the biller.
- Cut-off times – this is the time when the bill pay provider stops accepting payments for that particular day. For example if the cut-off time was 5pm EST; and a customer came to your store at 5:10pm on Wednesday to pay a bill that had a post time of 1-day; the payment will not post until Friday, as the cut-off time already passed for the day.
5. POS Materials and Customer Service
Most bill pay providers offer free point-of-sale signage to promote your bill pay services; just ask for it. Also, make sure you have some ability to escalate problems directly to the bill pay provider via a Customer Service contact or number.
6. Additional Services that Differentiate Your Store
- Prepaid wireless reloads – most bill pay services include prepaid wireless minutes. Commissions vary greatly among these reload programs, so be sure to check out the rates and participating programs.
- Cross-border bill payment – allow your customers to pay bills for family still in their home country. Some international billers are available for payment from the US; so immigrants can pay international bills directly at your retail store. Predominantly available for Latin American countries; international billers in other regions are being added regularly.
- Authorized bill payment – while commissions for merchants that participate in authorized bill pay programs are minimal; there are two advantages: (1) Utility company lists your store as authorized bill pay location (driving traffic to your location), and (2) Customers are likely to pay more than one bill when they come to your store, ensuring you get some revenue.
For more about offering bill payment services or to learn about the AllTrust Bill Pay program, visit us online or speak to sales representative today by calling 1-866-280-1679.
- Post-times – if you are an authorized bill pay location (see description below), the payment will post immediately to the biller. Most other non-authorized payments post in 1-2 days; but could take longer depending on the biller.
- Cut-off times – this is the time when the bill pay provider stops accepting payments for that particular day. For example if the cut-off time was 5pm EST; and a customer came to your store at 5:10pm on Wednesday to pay a bill that had a post time of 1-day; the payment will not post until Friday, as the cut-off time already passed for the day.
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