Choosing the Most Secure Cross Border Payment Provider for Your Business

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Christopher Jan Benetiz

For businesses, the Internet serves as the gateway to reaching new markets. You have access to localization services, geo-targeted advertising, worldwide shipping, and all the other services that make international marketing possible. There are also online tools and resources you can use to study foreign markets before you dive in.

However, the availability of these services does not make running an international business any simpler. Cross-border payments, for example, present several challenges that business owners must face such as the added cost of international transfers, the complexity of managing several foreign accounts at once, and the security risks involved with holding money internationally as opposed to maintaining a single domestic account.

As a startup or entrepreneur, you want to ensure that receiving money from clients and customers is as seamless and secure as possible to ensure that you can get your hands on their payment without any troubles.

To help you choose the best cross-border payment service for your business, here are some of the critical factors you should consider:

1. Cost

Here’s the deal – cross-border payments can be expensive. Payment service providers can be manageable and somewhat sustainable, but they may result in substantial losses in the long-term.

As a business, you should always prioritize cost-effectiveness when considering services you would like to avail. Aside from the cost of setting up, also look at other charges such as transaction fees, conversion fees, withdrawal fees, and so on. Keep in mind that these charges vary greatly depending on the company you choose.

When it comes to cost, one of the most economical options would be Payoneer – a cross border payments solution which offers global receiving accounts, and allows you to get paid from online marketplaces and direct clients with their billing service solution. Payoneer is much more affordable than the more well-known PayPal option. That said, it is a good idea to check out capabilities of Payoneer to see if it is a good fit for your business.

2. Time to Receive

                                                      Image by Foto-Rabe at Pixabay

Reliability is critical when it comes to payment systems. After all, you are basically putting your company's finances in the hands of another company. Even the slightest delays may cause administrative problems in your business or tarnish your brand's reputation if a customer waits too long for a transaction.

That is why it is important to check for any policies that involve holding periods and other expected delays with fund transfers. For example, PayPal has a policy of holding the funds of new accounts for 60 days while further withdrawals take 3-5 business days. You may instantly transfer the money to your bank account, but you will incur additional charges in doing so.

Aside from existing policies, also check if a service is prone to crashing and unexpected delays. These are far worse since they could come at the most inconvenient times. Moreover, for this, your best bet is to check around for customer feedback and reviews. As a rule of thumb, don't trust too much on new companies with little to no feedback, reviews, and testimonials.

3. Security

Of course, safety is a big issue when it comes to online payments. Make sure the payment service provider of your choice complies with the PCI DSS or Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, which ensures security for credit card transactions. There are also payment companies that offer additional protection against fraud for both sellers and buyers.

Bear in mind that it is entirely possible to encounter dubious claims and chargebacks from shady customers that aim to scam businesses. Although there are refund policies that help protect the buyer, it should not be such a fast and easy process that the business cannot react to counter fraudulent claims.

Additionally, the payment service provider should commit to investigating each claim and allow the seller to offer evidence of a completed transaction. This includes proof of shipment or proof of delivery. To acquire these documents, make sure you use a shipping service that offers online delivery tracking. Once you have proof, there should be an extremely low chance for the fraudulent claim to pull through.

4. Ways to Access the Funds

                                                            Image by TBIT at Pixabay

When choosing a payment platform, make sure it is easy for you to access your funds through the payment company's site. Consider checking a site's interface first in reviews or with a free account to see if the interface suits your preferences. Also, check how online transfers work and see if they support wire transfers, credit cards, e-wallets, checks, or any other payout solution you might use.

Some payment service providers also include additional accessibility features such as multilingual support, third-party app integration, and simplified currency conversions. Also, check if a company has a mobile app so you can manage your funds from anywhere.

5. Platform Compatibility

Last but not least, you should ensure the payment service provider is completely compatible with any external software, platform, or service you are using.

For example, Shopify as your e-commerce platform support multiple international payment gateways, allowing your customers to complete transactions with just a few clicks of a button. For online shops that are run using a different platform, you need to make sure that you choose a payment gateway that it supports to avoid getting problems with receiving payments from customers. Worst case scenario is that your chosen payment gateway is not supported by your platform. If this occurs, you may have to choose a different payment gateway because transitioning from an e-commerce platfom to another is much more inconvenient.

To check the compatibility of payment services with a given platform, only test the platform's main website or contact their customer support. Take note that this is also an opportunity for you to test the dependability of their customer service, which is crucial if you need help managing your money on the internet.

Conclusion (and what you need to do)

In the age of globalization, it is important for businesses to establish a reliable system for making cross-border payments. This is a component of providing a seamless experience for you and your clients. Lastly, remember that it is a critical business decision that can affect how you run your company from this point moving forward.

To make it much easier for your end, search for comparison charts like this one from FormStack that pit different payment gateways to the test. The payment gateways are tested by referring to the criteria mentioned above and more to provide you a glimpse on how they work. Determining the factors from the chart that you prioritize the most as a business owner will help you find the best payment gateway for you. Also, it helps that you test out the service provider first to see if it does live up to its reputation as explained in the comparison chart.

If you feel comparison charts are not as comprehensive, then in-depth reviews of the payment gateway ought to do the trick. Once you have found a payment gateway to your liking, you can search for full-blown reviews of its services to help you further weigh if it is worth you time to use it. Aggregate review sites like TrustPilot and G2 Crowd are great places to start because they collect objective and unbiased reviews from different users to supply you with all the information you need to make your decision.

Ultimately, you will have to get your hands on your payment gateway of choice to truly see if it does the things as advertised for your business. Most of the time, assuming that you have done your research, you will be able to use your chosen payment gateway without problems. If you were not able to research hard enough for your chosen service provider, then expect problems to pop up while using it.

Choosing your payment gateway is serious business, especially if you are truly serious about yours. By following the guidelines and tips mentioned in this post, you should be able to run your business with a secure and convenience payment gateway for you and your clients.

Retirement Planning: Simple, deep and fundamental guide towards peace of mind

This is a guest post by Grace

Do you know that 8 out of 10 retirees will be dependent on their children for financial support? This statement was released from the Philippine National Statistics Office in 2003.

We are already in 2015, and yet I still see a lot of families who have their parents living with their children. It is happening and I am not even surprised because it has been in the culture of many Filipinos. I have been a Financial Advisor for almost 5 years now and witnessed many single young professionals stayed single for a long time without saving a penny because they spend quickly on gadgets; travel a lot, big purchases or constantly providing for their family (Mom, Dad and nephews). I have nothing against the latter but I still believe that making them financially secure through total dependency on you makes you a greedy person rather than a generous person. Why? Because you are holding them of their talents to earn a living by providing for themselves, In short, passing the legacy to them, so that even when you are not around they know what to do.

There are only 3 easy steps that I want to share to young people who do not yet know how to save for their future:

Step 1:

 The moment that we start working, we can already set aside 10% of our salary. What is the 10% for?  The 10% goes directly to God’s hand. How do we give to God? The head of the church is Jesus Christ and we are the parts of the body, the church should allow you to practice this willingly. We are in God-believing country and yes, it is a command in the book of Deuteronomy 14:22. The Bible talks about tithe which means a tenth of your first crop. 2 Corinthians 9:7 gives us an insight of the attitude of our hearts when we give to God. And how do we do this? We start a relationship with him through believing in Him. What is 10%, when what we all have is His. The gospel truly changes our values inside out which are truly critical in managing our finances.

Step 2:

This may vary on your needs and salary: at least 20% goes to savings and investments. Let’s say you have a P15,000 salary. What you can do is send 10% of 15,000 to your retirement fund and another 10% in your savings account. In this way you will have the discipline of making your money work for you and another for emergency funds.

Step 3:

What about the 70%? Our favorite part of our work is when we finally enjoy the fruits of our labor. This is the part where we spend for our basic needs and take a vacation. This is when we work around with the 10,500 or 70% of the 15,000. We budget around with this because we still need to be disciplined when it comes to our expenses.

In summary, this is the classic example of putting your money in order:

Salary = Tithe + Savings & Investments & Protection + Expenses

How we see our future is how we save for it.  Are we among those 8% of the retirees who will be asking their children for money because of sickness and old age that we cannot work anymore? I know some parents who felt ashamed already because they knew that their children wanted to provide for their own family. Or are we among those 2% who are financially secured?

A grandmother who planned her retirement 40 years ago, have been living an abundant retirement now. Because the time she spent with her family is when they visited her in her house while having a sumptuous meals together or even travelling abroad. She’s now 80 years old and never did I see her ask for financial support except when playing with her grandchildren.

We too can experience this kind of retirement in the future if we start now while we are still healthy and earning a living. Let us increase the 2% of the retired population and make more people aware of their discipline. The way we can do this is to start with ourselves and pass it on.

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. – 2 Corinthians 9:6

Grace Panugayan is a Registered Financial Planner and working with one of the leading Insurance Company in the Philippines, Pru Life UK for 5 years.

Photo Credits to the following

north.cofc.edu

www.huffingtonpost.com

beatthe9to5.com

A Single Yuppie’s Guide to Saving

Payday is not until next week but your wallet is now empty. You scratch your head and ask, “Where did all my money go?” This scenario is not uncommon for the working class specially the Pinoy young professionals. The truth is, most of us single yuppies live from paycheck to paycheck. We are the generation that demands “work-life balance” that is why we like to work hard and party harder. We live like kings on a payday weekend and end up virtually broke on the next weekend. There is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying the fruit of your hard work. Let’s all live and enjoy. Carpe diem! However, if you are one of those people who seriously want to solve the problem of running short on cash a few days before payday, don’t you think it’s time to ask how  you spend your money? The first step toward financial stability is reflecting on your finances. 

Create Your List of Expenses.

Take some time to sit down and list all your expenses for the month. You can do this on your day off or even on your coffee break. Now, what you will need is to create several lists of expenses on a piece of paper or you may use an Excel spreadsheet. Identify the average amount of your pay slips for the past 3 months. You may be earning a total of twenty four thousand a month from your call center job - make a mental note of this figure or jot it down.

The first thing you need to identify is the total amount of your monthly bills. This is really easy and anyone can do this. Heck, some people may already be doing this! Your monthly bills may include, rent, mobile phone, internet service provider, credit cards, cable TV, and other stuff like electricity and water bill. You may include your average spending on groceries under this list.

The second list of expenses you need to create is the cost of your fare allowance from your home getting to your workplace. Do you take the MRT or you prefer taking a cab? You should include your lunch money on this list as well. These will all be part of your “daily operational expenses” and you will need to multiply this into the number of working days in a month. Keep in mind that on average, there are a total of 22 working days in a month. 

The third list would be your “lifestyle expense”. Do you usually drop by Starbucks for a cup of coffee before heading to your office? Do you buy snacks at the office vending machine? How about your weekend activities? How often do you go to the movies? How much do you spend when you go to clubs and how often you visit a spa massage? Anything that is on this list are all variables but, pretty much flexible because you can live without them or you can replace one activity with a cheaper alternative. 

 Now, you were able to identify your total monthly expenses, how much was left? If what was left turned to negative balance, then make adjustments in your “lifestyle expenses”. If there’s more money left, congratulations! 

How much money do you really need to save? 

The responsible thing to do is to keep 10% of your income in a long term savings account or investment. If you are earning 24k monthly, you must keep 2,400 pesos in your “life savings”. This 10% is non-negotiable and part of your income which you could invest, while doing so that money will get a compounding interest in 10 to 15 years for VUL, growth stock mutual funds or the stock market. Most of the commercial banks offer investment banking options which could help you attains your financial goals.

Start a short term savings account or open another savings account. Your short term savings must be versatile. This pot of money will pay for that new gadget you really want to purchase or use it as your travel funds if you take trips every 4 months or so. If you are considering a home renovation project or simply need cash for a “rainy day” use your short term savings account as your emergency fund, never withdraw from your “life savings”. Truth is, you’ll never know when you will finally decide to settle down and start having your own family, and your expenses will definitely change and will multiply. When that time comes, you will be grateful for yourself   having the discipline in keeping that “life savings” untouched. 

At the end of the day, the value of determination will be the only thing you need in order to build a savings account. Nelson Mandela once said "It always seems impossible until it’s done." You have to start somewhere and the sooner you start your savings account, the better. Don’t be careless with your money but don’t be a scrooge either. Live and enjoy your youth but make sure to create a balance.

Photo sources

www.free-power-point-templates.com
Forbes.com
www.themoneyways.com
www.carltonhouse.ca

Mahj graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Economics at Dela Salle University Dasmariñas Cavite. Currently, she’s a freelancer and studying graphic design.

She was also a former fraud specialist of a Trillion Dollar bank .

Security Tips for Small Businesses

Operating a small business is a difficult endeavor. Keeping that business safe can be even more challenging. There are two main areas of concern that need to be monitored in order to ensure that a business remains secure. The first is protecting the physical assets of the business. The second is assuring that computer technology and use of the internet by the business is always done securely. In short, two questions arise:

• How are my physical assets protected?
• How is virtual data protected? 

Thoughmany businesses now function purely online, the small business still survives within the world of sweat, blood, and tears. Protecting these establishments is important. Inside the storefrontis property to be sold, liquid assets, financial data, and other information that could harm the business if it got into the wrong hands. The first question you must ask yourself when securing your small business is:What have I done to protect my storefront from burglars? What more can I do?
Here a few suggestions to help you determine if your physical assets are truly protected. Do these few things, and you will increase the safety of your business:

• Install a security system. Place cameras along the perimeter and interior of the building, and place a well-lit sign near the front door, ensuring visitors that the building is protected and that they are safe. 
• Replace the locks as soon as the building is purchased. You don’t know how many copies of those keys the former owner made and to whom he gave them. Install new locks as part of the new security system for added benefits. 
• Minimize liquid assets being kept within the store. If money is procured in a single day, take it to the bank immediately if possible. If this is not possible, it should be stored in a safe in which only a few people have access. If there was not a safe installed into the building when it was purchased, you should consider purchasing one now.
• Shred and burn all financial documents. As soon as financial data has been used, shred it. Then, at a scheduled time, burn all of the shredded paper. Leave no trace of your information in any form ever.

Computers and the Internet: Creating and Protecting an Internet Entity

Marketing for a small business benefits from e-mail and social media. Costs are reduced when computer technology is used to automate parts of the business. There are many benefits to owning an online business or at least bringing your traditional business to the virtual market. Here you can transform your business into a living, breathing internet entity. It will speak in tweets and likes, move money from one account to another before you can blink your eyes, and make your life a whole lot easier.
But if you fail to keep this child safe, then, like any parent, you’re going to be dealing with a sick child. And that’s always miserable.

So you need to ask yourself:How does the company protect important business information on its own systems and when shared on the internet? How is virtual data protected?

Luckily, there are many ways to protect your virtual assets just as you have protected your physical ones. Follow these directions,and you’ll be one step closer to securing your small business:

• Use 2-step verification for accessing company computers. This requires a traditional password be entered into the computer followed by a second mode of verification. Google’s 2-Step Verification gives you two options. You can receive a code through text or phone call to be entered into the system, or you can use a security key that plugs into the USB port of the computer.
• Join InfraGard. InfraGard is a partnership between private institutions and the FBI.Institutions that participate are given opportunities to attend regular meetings in which local FBI agents address cyber-threats and mitigation techniques. This allows small businesses to stay up-to-date with modern cybersecurity techniques and become familiar with local agents who are valuable assets in securing your small business and its assets, both physical and virtual.
• Secure your network from intrusion. Encrypt your wireless data using a WPA2+AES encryption standard. Become knowledgeable about what different standards are available to you by reading from the experts at HowtoGeek.
• Use a virtual private network to encrypt your data after it leaves your wireless networkand enters the unsecure networks of the world wide web. A virtual private network is essentially a tunnel into the internet in which your small business can roam invisibly to hackers and other cyberthreats. By linking to a third party server, none of your private information is ever revealed.

There are many ways to protect your small business in addition to those listed here. Accessing the FCC’s “Ten Cybersecurity Tips for Small Businesses” is a worthwhile place to consider analyzing further options, but if you take into consideration both your storefront and internet presence, then you are in a good position. Follow these tips, and you will be safe. But always remember: stay up-to-date and be smart.

This is a guestpost