What do I need to know when setting up payments for my new business?

Congratulations on taking this big step. We know the stress, the decision fatigue, and also the excitement that comes with making this decision, and we’re thrilled for you and the journey you’ve kicked off.

While we can’t give you the answers to everything, we can give you the answer to this: You should choose GreenPay as your payment provider. Kidding! Kidding! (I mean we’re not but anyway…)

But in all seriousness, below are some of the factors you may want to consider when tossing up which payment provider to go with. Keep in mind these are by no means exhaustive - but we’re more than happy to talk through any questions you have here at GreenPay, just reach out!

Which types of cards do you want to accept?

Merchants (that’s you) will choose which card types they want to accept. Each card has a slightly different cost to accept it, for instance, a premium credit card that has lots of perks will cost you more to process than a local debit card. To decide this, consider what card mix your customers are likely to have. For instance, if you’re based near the airport or a tourist attraction you may have a lot of international cards, and therefore want to accept Discover Diners or Union Pay. If you’re in an area that’s likely to have a lot of American Express cards then you may choose to accept them. What you decide is entirely up to you. Once you decide which card types you want to accept, ensure that your payment processor can support those card types.

How reliable is the provider?

Taking payments is one of the most important things you do as a business, so you want to ensure that your provider is reliable, with good up-time. Typically you can find a processor’s uptime on their website. While payments can go down for a number of reasons i.e. a POS (point of sale) outage, a telecommunications outage, a power outage etc, you want to ensure you limit your risk as much as possible. At GreenPay we have market leading 99.999%+ uptime.

You may also want to look at the historical reputation of the provider. Have they been around for a long time? Have they had significant outages previously? How big are they, or what notable customers do they have? Our technology partner here at GreenPay is one of the world’s leading payment processors, who’ve been around for more than 40 years.

Can they integrate with your systems?

If you have already chosen your technology stack, or your POS, it may be important that your payment processor can integrate with this technology. This could be your online shopping cart or website i.e. WooCommerce, Magento 2, or it could be a POS in-store like Retail Express, Abacus, or Cin7. Feel free to reach out to check if GreenPay integrates into your chosen systems.

What’s their support model?

Unfortunately sh*t happens and things might not always work the way we want them to. If that’s the case, can you reach someone and get an answer quickly? Are you supported through the troubleshooting process? Is the problem solved quickly? What are the methods to get in contact with the provider? At GreenPay we have 24/7 local phone support, our help email that’s regularly monitored, and website chat. We’re committed to ensuring our customers have the best experience possible.

What does it cost?

This is probably the one that’s most top of mind for you: what’s it going to cost you? We appreciate that for businesses you have plenty of costs, and the tighter pricing you can get the better. At GreenPay you can find our off-the-shelf pricing on our website, but we encourage you to reach out for a consultation - we’re committed to matching or beating your current pricing so that it’s a true win-win for you and the planet.

Will they keep you safe?

In a world where fraud and scams are becoming ever more common (almost 10% of Australians experienced card fraud in FY23), what your payment processor can do to keep you and your business safe from fraudulent activity is becoming ever more important. Check if your provider has fraud protection such as 3DS 2.0, and ask what other protections they can put in place, for instance blocking international cards, setting daily and transaction limits, or limiting the number of transactions per hour. We’re happy to chat through the current risk landscape and help you design the right fraud mitigation processes for your business.

When will you receive your money?

This is a pretty big one - when do you get your money?! Settlement speed and timing is really important to businesses to help you best manage cashflow. As an example, at GreenPay we have same- or next-day settlement available and a range of settlement times to suit every business.

Does it do any good for the planet?

We’re cheating a little bit here: because as far as we know, we’re the only one in Australia that’s donating 50% of our profits to the planet. You want inbuilt environmental giving? I guess you’re going with GreenPay then.

We appreciate that the payments landscape can be really tricky to understand, so please do reach out with any questions. We’re happy to help!