Could your club benefit from direct debit?

Accepting membership payments through a combination of standing orders, cash, cheques and BACS payments weekly, monthly, bi-annually or annually takes an awful lot of time and effort to manage. The amount of admin hassle and inconvenience alone can create a great deal of frustration.

From chasing members who have neglected to pay their subscriptions to identifying declined card payments, insufficient processes will likely become mightily tedious, affect your cash flow, compromise your service and damage member loyalty. Fortunately, there is a simple solution for membership organisations big and small: Direct Debit.

What is Direct Debit?

Direct Debit is a straightforward and reliable way to electronically transfer funds between UK banks. Operated by BACS, payments are fully automated, with transfers being made between different bank accounts. BACS is used to pay 90% of the UK workforce, and is an essential service for employers, employees, bill payers – even charities and donors.

When compared to other payment methods, BACS’ payment method has unrivalled efficiency and security. Every transaction is covered by the Direct Debit Guarantee which offers the reassurance of an automatic refund from banks if an error is made.

Interested in learning the benefits membership organisations can enjoy by introducing Direct Debit payment solutions? Keep reading.

Direct Debit reduces membership and payment admin

Collecting payments by standing order, cash or cheque can be a huge administrative burden – especially for membership organisations without the staff to manage the number of members or an automated reporting system.

Interbacs offers bespoke payment solutions that help membership organisations of all sizes to efficiently manage their day-to-day finances. With our Direct Debit Management System (DDMS), membership organisations can easily edit, cancel and create new Direct Debits, removing manual application.

Moreover, our software produces straightforward and easy to read reports, allowing organisations to keep track of payments and make more informed solutions.

Direct Debit allows you to easily increase or reduce membership fees

Should the running cost of an organisation be put under strain, organisations can increase fees. Alternatively, should organisations want to entice more members or be faced with an unforeseen eventuality, they can choose to reduce membership fees.

Organisations who accept standing orders, direct transfers, cash or cheques do not have the autonomy to seamlessly implement any change in membership fees, without this having a significant impact on administrative processes or member satisfaction.

However, Direct Debit allows membership organisations to effortless change membership payment details without needing member authorisation. Moreover, all payments can be tracked on a weekly or monthly basis. This can reduce the burden placed on the financial employees of membership organisations with transparent data that informs the organisation of any outstanding subscriptions.

Interbacs allows users to make changes to payment data easily. Moreover, our Direct Debit Management System reporting will automatically log all increases and reduces in membership fees and provide users with an easy to navigate dashboard that allows them to track membership payments and to ensure that fiscal requirements are met.

Direct Debit improves membership retention

One of the more common problems faced by membership organisations is the failure of recurring payments. It’s estimated that roughly 5-10% of all recurring payments fail every month.

There can be a few reasons for this. Bank cards can expire without account holders realising or be cancelled at the bank’s discretion. There can also be occasions when reoccurring payments fail due to glitches in electronic banking.

The problem with this is that it creates a poor membership experience, something that organisations certainly do not want to happen. Members will face the hassle of having to resolve any issue themselves, update their payment details and, worst of all, should they forget to update their details, their membership could be cancelled.

Direct Debit payments use a customer’s bank details. These rarely change or expire. This drastically reduces the chances of recurring payments being cancelled and creates a better overall experience for members.

Interbacs’ Direct Debit Management Software is available in three tired packages, allowing membership organisations to choose the payment solution that best suits them. Moreover, we offer a Direct Debit web service where customers can integrate their data, reduce the opportunity for errors, allowing membership organisations to provide a consistently lauded payment service.

Membership organisations need to have reliable direct debit payment solutions. This is exactly what Interbacs delivers. Interested in learning how your membership organisation can get our Direct Debit payment solution?

Get in touch with us today to find out more.