Why You Should Still Accept and Process Checks

Paying by check is not yet obsolete. In fact, many people continue to prefer paying by check. Once upon a time there was a high degree of risk involved in accepting checks with many businesses losing hundreds of dollars, month after month, due to overdrafts and insufficient funds.

Today, there is a better way to process checks than was available a mere 15 or even 10 years ago. Your decision to accept checks can help your business in more ways than you may realize. Especially if you are wise about the process by which you choose to accept and process these checks.

These are a few key details you want to keep in mind as you mull over whether you want to accept checks for your business or not.

Today’s Electronic Check Processing Services Can Help Your Business

It might sound like a bold statement, but it’s true. The new processing system for checks helps to do all the following:

• Reduces fraud risks

• Decreases losses related to returned checks and returned check fees

• Reduces occurrences of NSF (non-sufficient funds) notifications

As you can see, these are fairly substantial improvements over the days of check processing past. Ultimately, though, they have little to do with how electronic check processing helps your business. What does, though, is the fact that companies who accept electronic checks enjoy greater productivity and profits over those who accept paper checks the old-fashioned way or do not accept them at all.

Benefits of Accepting and Processing Checks

You may be wondering what’s in it for you. The promise of productivity and profits are great, but only if you can get a few specific details in the mix. These are a few benefits that directly affect your bottom line and the productivity of your business in general.

• Lower processing fees. Online check processing fees are lower than credit and debit card processing fees, saving you money that goes directly back into your business. Instantly more profitable than accepting credit card payments and debit card payments.

• Increased Security. eChecks have security features paper checks do not. These help to reduce fraud and NSF notifications.

• Widens customer reach. Perhaps the most important benefit for many business owners is the fact that you’re able to reach customers who continue to prefer checks as their method of payment. When you accept checks and your competitors do not, you win their business by default.

Don’t think checks are big business in today’s high-tech society? Think again. According to the Federal Reserve’s 2017 payment’s study, commercial checks accounted for 17.8 billion transactions totaling $28.8 trillion in sales for the year. When you accept checks while so many of your competitors are opting out of check processing altogether, you remain poised to enjoy a nice big slice of that pie.

Many businesses have been burned by accepting checks in the past. While there is no foolproof method that guarantees every transaction will be a successful one when processing checks, the odds are in your favor that your electronic check transactions will be more successful and cost less than many credit card transactions.

Don’t let the opportunity get away from you for bigger profits, added productivity, and the opportunity to reach out to new consumers by dismissing the idea of accepting checks for your business out of hand.

Still have questions? Contact BankCard Services today and let us work with you to explore the possibilities processing electronic checks represent for your business. Our goal is to help you get your piece of a really big pie by making this service less painful and more profitable for you with free equipment and month-to-month agreements without any long-term contracts.