The Top 5 Myths about Accepting Paper Check Payments

Here in Silicon Valley it’s easy to forget that not every business process has been transformed by tech’s magic wand. Case in point: over half of all business-to-business payments still take place by paper check, sent via snail-mail. Even more surprising is that many of the companies we talk to are perfectly satisfied with a process that works exactly the same as it did 75 years ago. Are check payments a perfect example of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?” Or has the gospel of digital payments just not reached the traditional business world yet?

Steve Jobs once said, “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” We’ve found this is especially true when we show businesses how easy it is to take payments online. Here are the Top 5 Reasons we hear most often for why not to take online payments--and why companies are quickly moving from “Not Now” to “Wow!” with eCheck Processing.

1. “Our customers pay us by check, and it works just fine”

With conventional checks, you don’t know when or if you’ll be paid until the check arrives.  With online payments, you know immediately when a payment is made - no more waiting for a check that’s “in the mail."  And you can get your money in just a few days, which significantly improves cash flow.  

2. “Checks are free. We can’t afford to lose a chunk of our payments to processing fees”

Online payments can save you a lot of money.  New payment options like eCheck, which are built upon bank transfers (ACH), cost as little as $0.25 per transaction for small amounts, and a maximum of $2.50 for up to $25,000 - that’s just 0.01%!  Your actual costs for manually handling checks is probably higher (industry and research estimates put the actual cost of processing a paper check between $20 and $31).

3. “Our customers are comfortable paying by check; they won’t use online payments”

We’ve found that when businesses make online payments available, their customers flock to the online option. Paying online is easy and convenient for your customers and actually saves them time.  Paying by eCheck Processing is as simple for your customer as paying by credit card, but costs you much less. And when you set up an Autopay option, your customer can “set and forget” an automatic payment to you every month, so you always get paid on time.

4. “We can’t deal with multiple payment systems for credit cards, ACH, eChecks, etc.”

You don’t have to. With the right payment platform you can accept ACH, eCheck Processing,  and credit cards in a single system and have a consolidated view of payments and settlements in one place.

5. “We don’t have the resources to implement an online payments solution”

Not a problem. You can easily drop a payment gateway into your existing website. You can include payment links in emails and even add a Pay Now button to your invoices. We’ve seen businesses get up and running in a matter of days, without the need for IT services or a Web developer. Of course, with API access you can also build a fully customized payment experience.

Learn more about which online payment options can save you money in the Paystand Guide to eCheck and ACH