We are a children’s nursery in Devon, and before we had direct debit we took cash and cheques. This we found a bind, as cheques sometimes do not get honoured and handling cash has its own drawbacks. Our insurance, for instance, would only allow us to carry so much cash on site, which meant I had to do the banking every week. We looked at a number of payment options, and this included bank transfers, card payments and PayPal. But after a lot of deliberation we decided to go for Direct Debits.
Now that we had decided to go for Direct Debits, we had to decide how and what would be the costs involved. We looked at various companies, but decided to go to FastPay, and we are glad we did.
FastPay from the start were friendly and obliging, even when I kept emailing them with questions. Nothing was too much trouble for them.
We set up the Direct Debits mandate with FastPay, which didn’t take long at all. We received literature that we could adapt and print off, which told parents what Direct Debits was all about and the benefits it has.
We have now got about 30% of our clients on Direct Debit, and every month I send FastPay my submission, and I have the security of knowing that those 30% have paid. The money is deposited into my bank account within 14 days, and we always get an invoice that tells us how much the cost is that month. It wasn’t easy to transfer our customers over to Direct Debit, but over time as new customers arrive they tend to sign up straightaway. I would recommend FastPay to all small and medium sized businesses that would like to do Direct Debits. It’s easy, and it’s quick, without the hassle of setting up your own Direct Debit system with a bank. As with all bank transitions there is a cost, but this is a minor cost if it benefits your business and your cash flow.
