Payment service provider Clik2pay has launched flexible and scheduled payment options, offering Canadian businesses more options when requesting payments from their customers.
The two new features make it easier to request direct-from-account payments – making Clik2pay more usable for billers who are looking to collect funds from their customers.
“Getting paid is a fundamental part of any business, so why not make it easy?” said Mike Bradley, Founder and CEO of Clik2pay, which is based in Toronto but with staff across the country. “We are giving businesses what they need to provide their customers with the best payment experience possible – hassle-free, direct-from-account payments.
“Businesses are looking for easier, more convenient and lower cost ways to collect funds from their customers. Credit cards have been around for many, many years of course. They work well for many consumers but not all. We know that over 40 per cent of Canadians would prefer to pay from their chequing or savings account and often these customers are unserved by businesses, particularly online.
“So you think of people who are new to Canada or maybe are credit challenged or just prefer the immediacy of being able to make a payment from their bank account and not having to get a bill 20 days later, an unpleasant surprise with that bill. For all those reasons, nearly half of Canadians would prefer to pay from their bank account or don’t have an option for a credit card. And when you think of online payments specifically, it’s typically credit card or nothing. For retailers that means you’re missing out on a big portion of your potential customers. We often say that retailers who aren’t taking payments from bank accounts are abandoning their customers.”
The company launched just over a year ago at the Payments Canada conference.
“We make Interac e-transfer, we built it for businesses, to enable businesses to be able to receive payments seamlessly via e-transfer. Lower cost. Available to all Canadians who have a deposit account, which of course is almost all Canadians,” said Bradley.
“I’ve been in payments for nearly 30 years, worked with major banks and VISA and Interac directly, but have always kind of wanted to continue to improve the options that Canadian businesses and consumers have to complete payments. And paying from an account has never been as easy as paying by card and we set out to change that with Clik2pay.
“These direct from account payment methods are emerging not just in Canada but around the world. Every Canadian knows how to use Interac e-transfer. It’s very familiar for people. It uses bank grade security which is a real positive but it hasn’t been built in a way that made payments easy for businesses and for consumers to pay businesses. What we did is we set up a whole series of interfaces, timeout buttons, QR codes,messaging, and all of the services and features that back it up and make e-transfer a way that any Canadian can easily pay a business.”
Bradley said Clik2pay is a much lower cost than credit cards which typically can cost two to three per cent of sales or sometimes even more. Clik2pay comes in at about half that cost, he added.
With Clik2pay Flexible Payments, a business may embed a direct-from-account payment link in a communication to its customer, such as a bill or collection notice. The customer can pay the amount of the bill, or edit the payment amount within a custom range (minimum and/or maximum) chosen by the business. This feature can be used where the business is willing to accept only part of the total amount due.
“Think for example a $200 bill that a biller may decide or a Clik2pay customer could decide that it is willing to accept any payment over just for example $50 and allow the customer to be able to choose how much they want to pay of the bill. I’m sure we’ve all had times where we get a credit card bill but you’re only able to make the minimum payment or able to pay half of it. This flexible amount really allows the business to offer that as an option to their customer,” said Bradley.
With Clik2pay Scheduled Payments, a business may set up a payment request for a specific future date, or set up a series of recurring payment requests. This feature can be used for payment plans where amounts are set in installments, or to plan payment requests for recurring bills, such as a monthly utility bill or rent collection.
“An example would be a collection agreement with a customer. You’ve got a couple of hundred dollars owing and you don’t get paid until next Thursday. Rather than having to call back next Thursday to initiate the payment, the business can just schedule a payment for pay day. It just makes it more convenient,” explained Bradley.
“Another way a business might use this is a landlord or some sort of recurring payment application where there’s 12 payments of a fixed amount over the next year they can just schedule all those payments at the same time.”
