Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), today announced the launch of Transax Merchant Services - an aggressively priced credit and debit card payment service designed to help businesses improve their margins and quality of service at the point of sale (POS).
Transax Merchant Services is seen as an alternative to credit and debit card services traditionally offered by banks and, more recently, by small Independent Sales Organisations (ISOs) throughout the U.K.
Built on its 22-year track record of helping merchants by making it easier for their customers to pay and alleviating concerns about credit risk, Transax Merchant Services is the next logical step in the development of secure and safe credit and debit card transactions at the point of sale.
"Merchants taking credit cards have traditionally used their own bank, or one of a number of start-up ISOs, to provide them with a Chip and PIN terminal," explained Ian Benn, managing director, FIS' Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Payments division. "In return, the bank levies a monthly charge, takes a percentage of the value of every credit card transaction, and applies a fixed charge per debit card transaction."
"Recently, the U.K. has seen a number of small start-up ISOs offering similar services and positioning themselves as 'buying groups' offering deals on a variety of business services as part of the monthly fee structure," Benn continued. "The problem is that the merchants we speak to see little or no value in these additional services, viewing them as marketing packaging rather than real business benefits."
Transax Merchant Services provides a robust and reliable POS credit and debit payment solution with five distinct benefits to merchants looking to grow revenue and increase profits:
- Lower charges than they are used to paying - every penny saved in interchange fees is an extra penny of profit
- Minimised risk on transactions, whether card-, cheque- or account-based
- Transparent pricing model with none of the hidden miscellaneous or authorisation charges that some other providers levy
- Extra services to make it as easy as possible for the customer to pay, from setting up a trade account to accepting a cheque more securely with an instant payment warranty
- Simple-to-switch-on extras, such as mobile phone top-up, cash-back, VAT refunds and payment in alternative currencies
Transax merchants also have the added comfort of knowing that service teams and call centres are based in the U.K. and Ireland, and therefore available quickly, and at local call rates.
Transax Merchant Services' approach to the market is apparently finding great favour among merchants in the U.K. Throughout a six-week pilot programme, more than 100 businesses switched their payment acquiring to Transax Merchant Services, citing the lower charges and the range of payment options available from their new payment terminal as their main considerations. Benn predicts this trend will continue, estimating the number of Transax Merchant Services clients will approach 1,000 by the end of 2008.