An independent credit card swipe machine service that began in the medical sector two years ago, is rapidly gaining ground in the small and medium enterprises business sector by charging around half of conventional credit card swipe merchants.
SureSwipe charges around 2,5% to 3,5% on a sliding scale for its services. The greater a client’s turnover in a month, the more commission they receive. Conventional credit card swipe machines, mostly from the big banks, have a fixed rate of around 5% to 6% and no incentives for higher sales.
SureSwipe’s innovative pricing comes at a time when fixed rates for credit card swipes are coming under scrutiny globally. In late January, the State of California’s Assembly Banking and Finance Committee held hearings into how credit card swipe charges impact on revenue collected by the state and in increasing retail costs to consumers. National Retail Federation Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan told the hearing that “swipe” fee collections totaled $48 billion in 2008 in California alone; triple the $16 billion collected when NRF began tracking the fees in 2001.
SureSwipe managing director, Paul Kent said: “SureSwipe’s parent company, Tradebridge is entrepreneurial. We know how hard it is to build a business and the importance of cutting costs while boosting revenue. Small and medium businesses are the backbone of any economy and particularly in South Africa where they employ 75% of the labourforce. Having a product that rewards them for growing their business by giving more competitive rates is not only an important contribution to economic growth in South Africa, it is in line with global trends demanding better fees for financial services.”
The company has grown rapidly from initially providing a service to the healthcare clients of sister company, medical information and billing agency healthbridge. SureSwipe is seeing rapid growth among retailers in particular in Gauteng, the Western Cape, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.
In March, SureSwipe will boost its existing services package to clients with a new client tiering package. A standard contract already offers machines with essential components and training, especially around fraud to clients and a promise of rapid service in the event of a fault. Its new premium package to be launched in the first week of March promises a personal client consultant for subscribers, service within two hours – seven days a week - of a complaint being logged and daily reports which helps clients’ better track cash flow.
By March, the terminals which already accept Visa and MasterCard will accept American Express and by April, they will also allow Diner’s Club. In May it will roll out handheld terminals particularly to restaurants, taxi services and travelling sales consultants.
“We’re helping clients gear up for 450 000 tourists that will come for the 2010 Soccer World Cup by encouraging them to ensure tourists have peace of mind about card security in South Africa. Stores will display anti-fraud stickers and we are increasing training and alerts for our clients. All clients already get booklets that teach them about fraud and those with high turnover get pads with ultra-violet lights to check for fraudulent cards.
“Stores are hoping for a spending bonanza during this time and we are helping them by not only boosting service levels but by ensuring foreign visitors have peace of mind about using their credit cards here.”
By October, SureSwipe will introduce the MasterCard Merchant Category Code, a four-digit number that denotes the type of business providing a service or selling merchandise. MCCs are used by card issuers to categorize, track or restrict certain types of purchases.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Paul Kent, MD SureSwipe
http://www.sureswipe.co.za/
Issued by Charlene Smith Communications www.charlenesmith.net |
