UniPay Gateway Payment Advice

Open Source Payment Gateway: Fees and Savings
Some businesses that use the services of third-party gateway providers often wonder if it would be more beneficial for them to license an open source payment gateway product or develop a payment gateway of their own. Will such a transition allow them save on credit card processing fees? For each particular business model case the answer might be different. Credit card merchant fees include different cost items. There are credit card...
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Virtual Payment Facilitator Model
Virtual payment facilitator model is a handy option for software platform providers that want to increase their revenues by providing merchant services to their clients. If a SaaS or POS platform provider wants to become a payment facilitator but is not ready for significant upfront costs and for assuming the whole set of PayFac-specific responsibilities, then virtual payment facilitator model is a good “try it before buy it” in-between solution....
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On the way to Payment Facilitator Model
Payment facilitator model implementation is a beneficial option for many SaaS and POS platform providers. A software platform provider, that is, usually, acting as an ordinary ISO, already has a certain degree of control over its customers, but is unable to influence the crucial processes, involved in merchant lifecycle, such as merchant onboarding, funding, remittance, reconciliation, etc. By assuming responsibility for part or all of these processes, a software platform...
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Smart Processing Cost Reduction Strategies
Processing cost reduction is one of the major challenges faced by merchants and payment facilitators worldwide. Typical credit card processing cost reduction strategies, usually, involve search for a new processor or negotiating better terms with the existing one. However, these strategies are beneficial only if they are applied in a smart way. Ironically enough, transaction cost itself is not the only component you should be trying to reduce. Beside transaction...
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Transaction Processing Cost Reduction through Negotiations
Cost reduction is a common problem for many merchants and payment facilitators. Credit card processing cost as percentage of revenues sometimes seems too high, especially if you add gateway and tokenization fees. Most companies use one of the two approaches to reduce transaction cost. They either try to negotiate lower cost of credit card processing with their current service provider or look for a new processor to offer cheaper services....
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Acquirer, Processor, Gateway: Who is who?
People often tend to confuse the concepts of acquirer, payment processor, and payment gateway. A merchant acquirer or an acquiring bank is a bank that underwrites (and later funds) a merchant and (what is important) assumes the liability and risk, associated with credit card fraud and chargebacks. A payment processor handles the technical aspects of transaction processing and is connected to the banking system through the respective acquiring partner. A...
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Credit Card Processing without a Merchant Account
A merchant account is an essential part of credit card processing, although some people mistakenly think that they can successfully accept credit card payments without opening one. The truth is that merchant services entail serious risks and financial obligations associated with consumer and merchant fraud, credit card chargeback handling, and, potentially, ACH returns (if ACH payments are involved). Some business has to assume these risks and obligations in order to...
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ISO versus Payment Facilitator: Who Survives?
In recent years payment facilitator concept has been rapidly gaining popularity. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is that many companies (including former independent sales organizations (ISO)) find it more profitable to combine the functions of an online gateway provider and a merchant service provider (MSP). Implementation of the payment facilitator model is an especially profitable and promising step if you are an ISO, a Saas platform provider, an...
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Finding an Optimal Acquiring Partner for Your Business
Search for an acquiring partner is a common problem for many present-day companies, including merchants, ISOs, and payment facilitators. In essence, the acquirer is your business partner that assumes liability for you as your merchant bank. While many acquiring banks are happy to offer you merchant services, you should carefully consider all the factors that define your choice. These factors can be divided into two sub-groups: technical and business issues. Technical...
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Payment Gateway Integration for E-commerce Websites
More and more products today are sold and purchased through e-commerce websites. An e-commerce website is not only a place to share information, but, in a way, an online store, where products and services are offered to customers. So, how can you accept payments if you are selling products and services through a web-site? Incorporation of payment processing mechanisms into an e-commerce website is a crucial task, involving technical and...
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Becoming a Payment Facilitator for a Saas Platform
Many providers of Saas platforms do not realize that they are already on the way to becoming full-fledged payment facilitators. If you are a Saas platform provider, you can actually be only “a few steps away” from enjoying the benefits of PayFac model. A payment facilitator is a concept that is gaining popularity at the market, sometimes replacing payment service provider and aggregator concepts. If you are a Saas platform provider,...
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Processor-specific Platforms for PayFacs: Vantiv
If you are a payment facilitator, you have special requirements to your potential processing partner. Naturally, a payment platform you choose to integrate with should have a payfac program, that suits your needs. One of the largest payment processors at today’s market is Vantiv. It offers two payment platforms to its payment facilitator customers. They are Vantiv Tandem and Vantiv Lowell. Vantiv Tandem is a legacy platform, while Vantiv Lowell is...
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The Benefits of Becoming a Payment Facilitator for Franchisors
Many present-day businesses decide to follow payment facilitator model in order to ensure the high level of service for their sub-merchants. Several categories of businesses can adapt payment facilitator model relatively smoothly and enjoy considerable benefits it offers. While the most typical example of such a business is a software platform provider, franchise companies can also considerably benefit from payfac model adaption. If you are a franchisor, you already have a...
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Flavors of White-label Payment Gateway
The concept of white-label payment gateway is rapidly gaining popularity among merchant services industry players, looking for the most suitable payment gateway solutions. Some businesses are searching for payment gateway solution they could use to connect them to processing partners, while others are deciding on the best option to replace their already existing legacy payment systems. A white-label solution is a good option in both these situations. We should note that...
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Mobile and In-App Payment Handling
With fast development of mobile devices and respective software collection of in-app payments becomes an extremely relevant issue for many businesses. Development of mobile POS systems (MPOS systems) and handling of in-app purchases represent important aspects within the activity of companies that operate online and have to handle card-not-present payments. If you want to be able to accept mobile payments, you can follow one of several approaches. The first and the...
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