What is a Cash Discount Program?
Incentivize Cash and ACH Bank Transfer Payments
Businesses can lose anywhere from 2-4% per transaction in credit card processing fees. A cash discount program allows the merchant to recover the cost of card acceptance by including that cost in the listed price of the merchant’s goods and services. The merchant may then offer a discount as an incentive to customers to pay with cash or by ACH transfer as an alternative payment method.
Customers can pay for goods and services and receive this discount through a variety of channels with ICG’s payment platform, including in online transactions, on mobile devices, and through IVR systems.
- Keep 100% of revenue
- Eliminate merchant processing fees
- Incentivize Cash and ACH payments
- Next day funding
- Won’t disrupt flow of business
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Product Benefits
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Why Implement the Cash Discount Program?
Recover virtually all of your credit card and ACH merchant processing fees with a cash discount program, allowing you to keep 100% of your revenue for the sale of goods and services. This benefits businesses that are especially impacted by high processing costs, such as utilities and municipalities that have lower average transaction amounts and typically high transaction volumes. Bottom line, a cash discount program offers your customers an alternative payment method which saves both you and the customer money.
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How Does a Cash Discount Program Work?
Credit Card, ACH Payment, and Cash Payment Sample Cases
The listed pricing for your goods and services would be increased to recover credit card and ACH processing costs of goods and services sold. The listed price of a product or service, which would otherwise be sold at a price of $100, would be adjusted to $103.50 to allow recovery of the credit card processing fee allocable to that product if purchased using a credit card. If a customer wants to buy that product or service using a credit card, the customer would pay $103.50. . However, if the customer pays with cash they receive a cash discount, which in this case is a savings of $3.50 for their purchase, making their transaction $100. ACH is another payment method alternative available for the customer selection. The ACH price in this case could be a discounted cost of $101.
By adjusting the price of the product to account for the credit card processing fee, the merchant recovers that cost within the price of the product. The same is true where the customer pays by an ACH payment. The $1 amount is automatically deducted from their payment and given directly to ICG for managing the processing. In all three examples, the full $100 payment settles directly to the merchant net of processing fees. Depending on the payment method selected, the receipt will indicate the discount received if applicable.
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Is Cash Discounting Legal?
Absolutely, when done correctly. Although there is some confusion between cash discount programs and surcharges. A cash discount is when you post prices that account for the cost of credit card processing fees and offer discounts to those paying with ACH or cash; a surcharge is when you post cash prices and charge an additional fee on top of the cash price for those paying with credit card.
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Eliminate Your Average Fees for Credit Card Processing
The average fees for most credit card companies are between 2-4%, which differs on each transaction. They are determined by card types, with merchant fees added on top of the cost to process the card. Other factors that determine a merchant’s rate include card volume and average ticket amount. Mobile and virtual terminal payments have a different structure, depending on whether the card is present or not. A cash discount program can allow a merchant to recover fees for credit card processing by considering the cost of goods sold while setting the pricing for goods and services and offering a discount for those who pay with ACH or Cash.
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Utilize All of the ICG Payment Technologies
MICG’s automated payment solutions allow you to implement a cash discount program online while easily staying within the guidelines of processor regulations, and without disrupting the flow of business. With our solutions, eliminate fees on your merchant services account for the life of your business, while accepting multiple payment methods and leveraging all the robust automated omnichannel solutions provided by ICG.