POS Bill Payment

At a retail store, besides bill payment by cash, merchants should also consider offering other payment methods for customers.

Credit card payment is an option that many customers find useful as it reduces the need to carry much cash on hand.  Card issuing banks provide credit terms for payment at a later time and offer accumulation of reward benefits for the holder.  Some credit cards even provide interest free instalments for customers to purchase big ticket items. Research shows that accepting credit cards (Visa®, MasterCard®, etc.) can increase revenue by as much as 23%.  Hence offering more payment options helps the merchant avail his products and services to a broader client base.

The Credit Card payment process involves 4 key parties : the merchant receiving the payment (“merchant”), the bank that the merchant uses to provide processing services (“acquiring bank”), the bank that issued the card to the customer (“issuing bank”) and the customer (“customer”).

Fees are deducted by both the issuing bank and the acquiring bank, so that the final amount of money that ends up in the merchant’s account is less than the amount charged the customer.

The issuing bank’s fee is called the interchange fee. The acquiring bank’s fee is called the discount rate, and it might be added with other fees.  Both the interchange fees and the discount fees are expressed as percentages of the transaction.  These fees charged may be different for merchants in different industries, affected by how the banks view the risk of chargeback from customer payment disputes.

Merchants may apply for Credit Card payment acceptance with their local banks.  Banks may provide the POS Credit Card Reader on rental basis.