A small business can be big on ambition. But have you considered how payments can support your ambition? For many businesses, card machines are the first choice in payment methods. However, they’re not the only way customers can pay for your goods and services. Our payment gateway opens up new ways for you to accept payments, and helps reduce your chances of missing a sale. Paying by card is forecast to keep growing, across all payment methods. They include:
- Online (adding e-commerce functionality to your website)
- By phone (also called a Virtual Terminal),
- Pay-by-link (you email a link to a customer that takes them to a secure payment page).
The benefits of a Payment Gateway
Get off to a flying start.
A Payment gateway is by far the fastest way for you to start taking card payments. Within 24 hours, we’ll have you ready to accept payments from your website, your phone and by email (Pay-by-Link).
Open all hours.
When you shut up shop for the day, a Payment Gateway ensures your website remains open. Online spending via card is growing rapidly, and is set to keep on growing. It lets you make sales and take payment even while you sleep, and that helps many business owners rest easy.
Makes your phone and your till ring.
A Payment Gateway also lets you take payment by phone, which is handy for people who aren’t comfortable paying for goods online. Using our Virtual Terminal (link to description), you can take payments from customers quickly and securely over the phone.
Security. Beefed up and wrapped up.
We’re not referring to bodyguards or bouncers, but a secure environment. With a Payment Gateway, all transactions are wrapped in layers of encryption to protect data. Further industry standard security features – Screening and 3D Authentication – help reduce fraud, adding even more layers of protection to every transaction.
A Payment Gateway doesn’t just open your business to more transactions, it also protects each transaction. Think of it as an online version of a card machine – a secure meeting place, where your site can connect safely and privately to customers’ bank accounts allowing funds to be transferred to your Merchant Account. (All transactions go through this security procedure, whether they’re made by card machine, online, phone or email.)
The Payment Gateway checks and encrypts each transaction, in the blink of an eye. This helps reassure customers and build confidence in your brand. So, that’s how a Payment Gateway works. But what are the benefits to your business? Let’s take a closer look.
Easy set-up.
All you have to do is sign. We take care of the rest, and ensure you’re ready to accept payment in 24 hours. It takes banks much longer – but as we’re entrusted with card processing of over 70,000 UK small businesses, we’ve got set-up down to a fine (and fast) art.
Easy-peasy PCI.
In order to take any form of card payment, you need to be certified as PCI compliant. It’s another industry security standard and we’ve developed a way to go through PCI compliance with you over the phone. It saves you time, and can also prevent costly mistakes.
Sold on the idea of a Payment Gateway? Then why not let us open one up for you?
Setting up a Payment Gateway
With Paymentsense, it’s quick and easy to add extra payment methods to your business.
You’ll first need to open a Merchant Account. (You need a Merchant Account to take any form of card payment – they’re used to process card payments and deliver funds to your business bank account.)
Once your Merchant Account is in place, we’ll send you instructions on how to add the Payment Gateway to your website to enable e-commerce, and how to set up a Virtual Terminal for phone-based payment. We promise not to keep either you or your customers waiting.
For more information, get a free online quote today.