General
What is The Open Payment System?
The Open Payment System is an easy to use method of allowing your customers to settle their invoices with you using a credit card or debit card via a customised website designed to look and feel like your existing corporate website. In addition, The Open Payment System provides call centre tools to allow you to accept telephone payments from your customers, as well as mobile/tablet/PDA payment solutions.
How safe are Internet payments?
In our view, payments made via the Internet are extremely safe. Card details are entered by the card holder, they are automatically verified with no user interference – the opportunity for fraudulent activities is greatly reduced from similar 'offline' systems such as paying the bill in a restaurant or handing your card over at a trade counter.
We feel that Internet payments and in particular those taken through The Open Payment System are much safer than PDQ machines because our systems are certified to the highest level available by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) as well as Visa Merchant Agent. When you use our system there is no need for card details to be written down, stored and then kept for potential misuse at a later date. The Open Payment System clears card details as payment is taken while the card holder is on the phone – which is far more secure than a PDQ.
How does it compare to my current PDQ machine?
The Open Payment System is much more secure than a PDQ machine thanks to our certification and compliance with PCI DSS standards. Because of these certifications, call centre employees do not need to manually input data to a PDQ machine down the hallway, instead, when they use our system they can reduce the company's PCI burden as none of the data input into OPS is stored locally.
Secondly, PDQ machines do not provide the rich reporting environment of The Open Payment System. Not only that, but integrating a PDQ machine with existing systems can be difficult.
Finally, PDQ machines are tied to your bank, so if you decide to move away, you will need to terminate a hardware rental agreement, possibly change telecoms provider and enter into a new agreement with a new bank. The Open Payment System is bank neutral, so switching banks is easy and gives you greater control over your bank relationship.
What is a Payment Service Provider?
A Payment Service Provider (PSP) is a company such as DataCash who provide payment clearing services to merchants like you. Instead of going direct to your bank and being tied to their systems and also charges, using a PSP can give you independence from your bank and give you the choice to identify the best deal for your business.
What is a MOTO account?
A Mail Order/Telephone Order (MOTO) account is a specific type of merchant account. It is designed for use in call centres where an operator is speaking directly to the card holder over the telephone to take a payment.
How do you support the Open Payment System and how much does support cost?
Your subscription includes access to our client support team through our customer support portal. There is no additional cost associated with the support of the system unless you require customisation of the system or addition bespoke training.
How much does OPS cost?
Depending on your requirements The Online Payment System costs from £50 to £350 per month plus transaction fees.
Are there any set up fees?
The standard Online Payment System has no set up fees, if you require customisations to your payment system these will be quoted for at our standard hourly rate. Your bank may charge you for setting up merchant facilities and these charges will vary depending on which bank you choose.
Are there any charges to us other than yours?
Your bank will charge you for settling ecommerce transactions into your bank account and they may charge a minimum monthly fee, as well as an annual handling fee. In most cases these fees can be reduced significantly through negotiations with your bank. We can also provide a competitive quote through an alternative bank.
What do I get for my money with the Open Payment System?
You'll get reduced costs in handling credit control, improved customer service, a new way for people to pay you and you'll get a real time report on the cash position of your business at any time day or night.
How quickly does the system go live if I say yes today?
Depending on how quickly your bank can provide merchant services facilities to you it is possible to be live within four weeks.
Some customers have signed up in less than a week whilst others have taken up to six weeks. It depends on the speed your bank moves at and how quickly you can roll out The Online Payment System in your business.
Who will install and set up the system?
The Online Payment System does not need to be installed on your network. It is a web based system, so all you need to do to access it is an Internet connection, any web browser and the appropriate credentials to access the system.
Our Payments Integrations Team will work with you to train appropriate staff and deploy the system with you online or by agreement at your office(s).
Is the system bespoke/customisable?
The Online Payment System provides you with a fully customised website based on the design of your main corporate website or any other website you want us to replicate the look and feel of (subject to you owning the copyright). It can be further customised at additional charge if you require customisation outside of our standard offering.
Can my managers have more access to reporting than my call centre employees?
The Online Payment System supports multiple / customisable permissions which means that you can authorise any users to have access to any part of The Online Payment System and conversely restrict access as appropriate. This makes managing users and groups of users very easy indeed.
Can I customise the reports from The Open Payment System?
The Open Payment System outputs its reports in CSV format. This means you can open them in Excel and other reporting software easily and produce charts, comparisons and any other report format you require. Custom reports and output formats are available on request.
Is there a limit to how many operators can use the system at anyone time?
The Online Payment System is built on a mature ecommerce processing system which runs some of the busiest ecommerce websites on the web today. The system can support any number of users spread across a wide geographic area which is very suitable for call centres in the UK with out of hours business based elsewhere in world.
How should I promote my Open Payment System?
How you choose to promote The Open Payment System is a business decision for you. All of our clients print the payment details on all invoices as well as carrying a link from their main website to their Open Payment System payment website.
How do I upload the invoices into The Open Payment System?
Uploading invoices and credit notes is simple. You need to supply us with a CSV file (like an Excel spreadsheet) listing each invoice or credit note. In addition you also provide us with the corresponding invoice or credit note as a PDF file. This means your customers can view their invoices or credit notes and download them easily from The Open Payment System – saving your credit control department the hassle of sending copy invoices.