When you make sales online, it's easy to get your payment estimates wrong. And when you look at your bottom-line numbers, it's possible you might spot a leak in the budget somewhere: credit card fees.
Merchant fees might only clip off a small piece of every sale, but those small clips add up. There are over one billion credit cards in the United States, and people like to pay with them. And while the average business spends about 1.5%-3.99% on credit card fees, it is possible to remove a major portion of this expense. Here's how.
How Figure Pay Works
For starters, you can't turn to credit card companies if you want a way to save money on merchant fees. That's how credit cards get their money. You need to turn to an alternative if you're going to reduce your merchant fee burden.
Enter Figure Pay. Figure Pay is a banking and payments app designed to connect merchants and customers more directly. After all, if customers and merchants are the people last benefiting from the financial industry, doesn't it make sense if they pair up more directly?
To get clear about Figure Pay, here's what you'll need to know:
Figure Pay is not a credit card company. It is a digital app for the underbanked, which means that people without a lot of great credit history or an experienced financial background can still have access to the payments and funding they need
By offering secure, mobile payment options, Figure Pay makes it possible for consumers to quickly access all sorts of benefits
But we have to get clear about what it is that Figure Pay does, especially as it relates to both consumers and businesses.
Figure Pay lets customers, including some with thin credit histories, to seek "buy now, pay later" loans (up to $2,500) that come with short repayment installment plans
Consumers can access a line of credit immediately at the point of sale, greatly improving the speed at which they can access financing when they need it
Figure Pay provides an alternative to banking, which is especially important for people without much credit history, such as those new to the United States
Consumers can get cash with $0 ATM fees at over 55,000 in-network ATMs across the nation
Short-term loans help consumers bridge the gap with specific financial decisions without having to go to traditional banks
Consumers can also earn rewards by shopping with Figure Pay at hundreds of retailers
For Merchants:
Through Figure Pay, merchants can save as much as 80% on traditional merchant fees and begin saving this money on transactions immediately
Figure Pay can configure to an existing point-of-sale (POS) terminal to integrate these savings quickly
Instant settlement for payments keeps consumers and merchants more directly connected and improves the speed at which merchants can access their money
In other words, Figure Pay helps consumers avoid the pitfalls that come with working with traditional banks. And merchants are incentivized through saving money on the transactions they make with consumers.
For merchants, the immediate savings that comes through Figure Pay is an obvious incentive. For consumers, the possibilities present when using a financial app that doesn't rely on traditional banks provides new access. The goal is to connect consumers more directly with merchants and reduce the fees that come between them.
Using Figure Pay in Your Business
For merchants, accepting Figure Pay comes with immediate benefits: it reduces the burden of transaction fees and adds speed to the settlement days on each payment.
If you decide to use Figure Pay in your business, accessing these benefits is a straightforward process:
Get your business on Figure Pay! This can be as simple as signing up for the app and creating your business profile, with the appropriate information fed into the app.
When a customer initiates a purchase, you can simply open the Figure Pay app and click on "Start Transaction." This will generate a QR code that the customer can scan.
From your side, you can create a merchant request for the money involved. For example, you might create a merchant request for $25. Why this step? It's a very simple process because it makes it possible for you to sell a wide variety of products for which you might not have created specific details through an app. For a farmer's market, for example, this is a fast way to ring someone up without taking hours to get set up.
Show the customer the QR code. At this point, the customer can scan the QR code. They will then be prompted on their own Figure Pay app to make the payment. From their perspective, the transaction has been as simple as scanning and paying—all within the same application.
When you view it this way, it's not hard to see why merchants might gravitate to Figure Pay. If you don't have a conventional store, for example, you can instantly create sales as soon as a customer comes up to you without much preparation. And given that merchant fees can be as much as 80% less than with credit card payments, the incentive for doing it this way is obvious. It's fast, it's affordable, and it's convenient.
Why bother using Figure Pay in a business like this? The savings on the transaction fees, the instant settlement for the payments, and the ability to make contactless payments provide three clear reasons to adapt Figure Pay to the modern world.
Contactless payments are even more important these days. Given CDC guidelines for social distancing, it's important to have a payment system that anyone can access simply through an application in their phone. This keeps transactions safe, distanced, and modern.
Blockchain Technology and Security
If the benefits are so obvious, why wouldn't everyone use Figure Pay? In addition to being a new offering, Figure Pay is also helping embrace a new level of security technology in the world of payments. That comes through blockchain technology and enhanced security features that provide both merchants and consumers with the confidence they need to begin.
Blockchain technology is creating a digital revolution in the way people see payments. Essentially, blockchain technology comes down to this: the blockchain can verify the validity of a transaction without exposing the owner of that money to further risk by identifying them. The "blockchain" essentially tracks the money to a T; however, it's not the user being tracked.
In essence, this creates a world in which it's easy to verify the validity of the money being exchanged—all while keeping the person who holds that money private.
With a phone pay system like Figure Pay, both merchants and consumers can take advantage of the digital payment revolution. But it only happens when you get started and get onboard. From there, it's easy for merchants to start selling, just as it's easy for consumers to have a banking alternative that works for them.
Want to know more about how it works? Interested in signing up? Sign up today for a safe, secure, and easy mobile payment system from Figure Pay.
