Blog Entries

Eazy Collect Direct Debit Services Sponsor 'Digital By Default' Conference

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:55:44 +0100

'Digital by Default' is a cross-department Public-Sector project aimed at cutting costs without impacting on service delivery.

As a main event Sponsor, Eazy Collect Services Ltd demonstrated how outsourcing direct debit payment processing could make a large savings contribution for a variety of Public Sector departments.

According to the Directgov 2010 and Beyond report, the introduction of digital services will streamline business processes across many departments across the [...]

Direct Debit Set Up Winter Offer

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:31:14 +0100

Here's an added incentive for businesses who think they may benefit from taking direct debit payments from their customers.

If you take regular payments from customers, using direct debit can make a massive improvement to your cash flow as the proportion of your payments arriving on time will significantly increase over those companies relying on cheques, cash, standing order and card payments.

And, if you decide to switch to direct debit with Eazy Collect during October 2011, [...]

Thinking of Using Direct Debit?

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0100

If you're a business that collects regular payments from your customers, then you could be missing a trick if you're not using direct debits to collect payments.

A few stats below may give you some comfort:

87% of Direct Debit users cite that it is a convenient way to pay bills
79% believe that Direct Debit is a hassle-free payment method
82% of Direct Debit users believe they save you time
84% believe that Direct Debit is a safe and reliable way to make bills
73% of Direct [...]

Direct Debit Advance Notice Rules

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Ensure your advance notice letters are Scheme compliant and the formats being used have been approved by your sponsor bank or, if you use an outsourced BACS Approved Bureau, such as Eazy Collect, they will handle this for you.

The bank account holder must receive an advance notice when:

Signing up to pay by Direct Debit,
Changes are made to the amount previously advised, or
Changes are made to the Due Date previously advised.

The Advance Notice allows payers to budge [...]

Payment Automation Reduces Late Payments

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Research by BACS (the UK Clearing House) at the end of 2010 found that half of Britain's SMEs were victims of late payment with £24 billion owed, that's an average amount of £27,000.

Coupled with that, a staggering 158 million working hours were lost to chasing overdue payments.

If your business collects regular payments from customers it could pay you to use electronic payment methods such as direct debit.

You could see a much improved cashflow as payments arrive on [...]

BACS Direct Debit Role

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Bacs is a not-for-profit organisation and is owned by 15 of the leading banks and building societies from UK and Europe. Bacs’ objectives are to ensure that a quality service for collecting direct debits is provided and that rules and regulations are adhered to by both users, banks and bureaus. Bacs' key responsibilities are to:

maintain the integrity of the direct debit scheme
update the scheme rules
act as an ombudsman/ governing body for the service

Eazy Collect Services L [...]

Paperless Direct Debit Introduction

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Paperless Direct Debits were introduced in 1998 to remove the paper instruction from the sign-up process enabling improved sales and payment processes for many businesses.

Paperless Direct Debit enables service users to capture payers’ bank details over the telephone, on-line or any other means approved by your sponsor bank and can be used alongside the traditional paper based signup.

The Paperless Direct Debit process is:

The bank details are entered into the Direct [...]

Direct Debits Have a High Payment Success Rate

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Direct Debit Collection rates are unparalleled with a collection rate of 98%* during 2010.

Are 98% of your customers paying you on time, or do you find yourself chasing late payments every month and sometimes struggling with cash-flow?

If it's the latter, then using direct debits to collect your customer payments may be the solution.

Using direct debit to collect regular payments has many advantages over cheque, card payments and standing orders:

Predictable inc [...]

Versatile Direct Debit Collections

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Direct Debit is probably the most versatile way of collecting regular customer payments.

To start with, processing any customer payment comes at a cost:

Bank charges for processing cheques
Expensive percentage-based transaction charges for handling card payments
Admin o [...]

Save Money on Payment Processing

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Accepting credit cards offers a number of benefits to merchants and consumers alike, and can provide a dramatic boost to your sales and cash flow. But that boost can be diluted somewhat if you don't pay attention to the various factors that influence the fees associated with accepting electronic payments. There are many available options and partners to choose from.

Research into how payments are accepted and processed can literally pay dividends to those merchants wanting to re [...]

Secure Direct Debit Services

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Merchants who accept direct debit and credit card payments understand the need to balance the convenience of electronic payment methods with the security and privacy of their customers’ personal and financial data. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (often abbreviated as PCI) has been developed by the leading credit card companies to help merchants implement systems, procedures and equipment to safely process transactions while protecting customer data. Many of the secur [...]

Secure Direct Debit Collection

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Whatever customer data your business holds, the security of that information is of paramount importance for both parties. And, when it comes to financial data, it becomes even more important.

If you're considering in-house direct debit collection as a payment method in your company, there are some serious considerations over and above the standard payment administration processing.

Role-based Access means restricting access to sensitive information such as bank account details [...]

Paperless Direct Debit Advice for Member and Trade Organisations

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

In December 2010, Memberwise (a best practice advice body to the sector) assembled experts from the UK payment processing industry to present to Member Organisations and Trade Associations on the benefits of adopt [...]

Improve Customer Loyalty with Direct Debits

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100

With most payment options, customers often find excuses not to pay, even happy ones!

For those customers that make regular payments to you, it has been proven that by using direct debit as a payment solution, customers rarely cancel their direct debit if everything is ticking over nicely. And your payments come in like clockwork, much more reliable than waiting for cheques or manual BACS payments.

Customers Paying By Direct Debit Are Therefore Worth More To Your Busin [...]

Market Your Business using Direct Debit

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Offering a range of payment options to your customers will help to convert more of your prospects into paying customers.

The offer can be marketed to encourage your customers to buy, by giving them the option of spreading the cost of the purchase and a choice of payment dates. Incentives such as this can make the difference between winning and losing a customer.

And for businesses that provide an ongoing service, a direct debit is by far the most cost effective and reliable [...]

Trust Your Payment Service Provider

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

The role of a Payment Service Provider is to collect payment from your customers' by either credit and debit cards or direct debits on your behalf and forward the money to you. They provide a secure, practical solution particularly for those businesses who have are struggling to open an internet merchant account (IMA) or to get sponsorship from their own bank to get a service user number (SUN).

The payment service provider can also act as an outsourced payment processor even if you [...]

Online Payment Collection by Direct Debit

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Customers are increasingly comfortable paying for products and services online and in many cases even expect it nowadays.

Offering a payment option via your site can make a big difference to your cash flow as customers are often ready to buy at that moment and not later.

Whilst online card payments are now commonplace, it's now just as easy to implement payment processing using direct debits. This offers payment options for companies that take regular payments from customers [...]

The Beauty of Direct Debits

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

You can get unlimited food in a restaurant, unlimited texts on your mobile phone and unlimited warranties usually for an ongoing monthly payment or one single payment. It is undeniably a risk offering unlimited anything especially if you are a small business but this is increasingly what businesses are doing as a way to regulate cash flow and develop more of a bond with their clients.

A membership scheme would work for most businesses but especially those businesses whereby the dev [...]

Direct Debit Services - A Help Guide

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

You need to be aware that Direct Debit Providers often have a complex range of services and charges that often don’t come to light until it’s too late. There are several good Direct Debit Providers in the UK but it can be difficult to choose the correct one to suit your business needs without understanding all the elements. You will find that the costs can vary hugely and be completely different to your initial perception.

So, to help you make the right decision, us [...]

Outsourcing to a BACS Approved Bureau

sales@eazycollect.co.uk — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

If you wish to collect customer payments by direct debit, there are many pitfalls to getting started and many operational issues to be wary of once up and running.

Pursuing an in-house direct debit solution requires you to get sponsorship from the bank which is a costly and often lengthy application process. As part of the application process, you'll need to submit detailed business plans and have good solid past trading evidence to back this up. In addition to this you ma [...]