Don’t change providers, and still save money
Through Payment Guru, our parent company, we have relationships with a number of acquirers. Our founder has worked in payment processing for 16+ years, with SMEs and large hospitality groups (up to £500m Card turnover). We are a consultancy, brokerage, and solution providers. We have direct relationships with the major UK and European acquirers. That means we don't push you onto a single processor or even a single pricing model. Most importantly, this allows us to work with most EPOS and PMS solutions, and not be fenced in. Many hospitality businesses have multiple systems, we can help review these and the providers, and often through our knowledge and experience get you a better deal, even if this isn’t running Tip4 directly.
"Smart payment solutions to drive your business forward."
WHY THIS WORKS
Many customers have more than one system, and although we may help you with tipping, you may be doing much more. Take a hotel, your tipping may be concentrated in F&B, but your main processing is FOH, and integrated. We know the industry, what can and can’t work and what we need to do get you a great deal – that’s a mixture of solution and financial benefits.
Most tipping platforms bolt on a single acquirer and call it card processing. We do something different. Because Payment Guru knows the industry, we have relationships with multiple acquirers — and we route your business to the one whose pricing, settlement terms, and risk appetite actually suit you. Alternatively, we have even shown massive savings for customers with no win: no fee model – challenging your incumbent to be benchmarked and we all pocket some of the savings.
Semi-agnostic, by design
We work with several major acquirers — not all of them (we tried and it doesn’t work!) but enough to get you a competitive offer. No broker is fully agnostic, but we do much better than most (many have a single partner and pretend to be consultative). We find the best fit for you through both processing and technology. One-size fits all doesn’t work, we get that, and won’t force you that way.
Slash processing fees
Years of broker experience means we know where the margin sits, and how to get the most from new and existing relationships. Most merchants who run a Payment Guru review save material money on processing — without a need to always changing front end systems (e.g. EPOS and PMS). Or we can help with a full systems review as well, your call.
Independent guidance, not sales
Payment Guru's reputation was built on honest, unbiased advice. We'll tell you when our rate isn't the best option — and we'll tell you when staying with your existing acquirer is the right call. We can work on benchmarking and offer a service to help you based on savings only – sometimes this means switching, sometimes not. It’s your call, and also based on the circumstances of your integrations and willingness to change.
FREE PAYMENT REVIEW
Send us last month's statement. We'll tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Most merchants overpay on card processing because this doesn’t get monitored or the industry has shifted. An original contract was negotiated by someone who has since left, on rates that have since drifted (nearly always pushed up!), with an acquirer whose product fit has since changed. A quick review reads the statement, finds the leakage, and tells you whether a switch is worth doing. As long as we can see an indicative statement, and know what and how you take payments (what integrations you need), we can do the rest, it really is that simple – the benefit of experience!
Free statement review against current market rates — no commitment
Independent recommendation, with reasoning, in writing
Switch only if it's worth the effort — we'll tell you either way
Works with most systems and solutions
"Payment statement review — annotated"
Product scope
Everything a merchant actually needs from a card processor, whether this is on our terminals, solutions, tipping or not. However you process, we want to help.
Face-to-face (F2F)
Card-present processing across your full terminal estate — fixed, portable, mobile, soft POS, integrated, non-integrated, attended/unattended. This can be the terminals themselves, or just the processing.
Online and MOTO
E-commerce gateways, virtual terminals for phone orders, payment links, and recurring billing. Both the processing and the gateways themselves. Tokens can be a huge cost for a business, where other providers do this for free.
Pricing models
Understand and assessing the best pricing models for you blended/tiered/interchange plus (IC+) /interchange plus plus (IC++). Some providers will insist on certain metrics, all have their pros and cons, but some are easier to hide margin (normally tiered and blended), we aim to get into the weeds of this and help you find the best results for your business.
Areas which you should consider for review – never fixate on just one, the devil is both in the detail, and key to view pricing in the round. We see often ‘great deals’ with a massive authorisation charge, making that headline 0.3% cover 1%.
- Headline line Merchant Service Charges (MSC)
- Scheme fees
- eCommerce and Non-Secure / CNP/NQ fees
- International fees
- Dynamic Currency Conversion rates (normally a rebate to you)
- Debit : Credit : Commercial and other card splits and modelling
- Authorisation charges
- Refunds cost and reverse interchange
- Gateway charges
- Tokenisation fees
- 3DS charges
- Other ancillary fees
- PCI and non compliancy fees
- Terminal costs
- Minimum billing
Pricing – all pricing is bespoke depending on your requirements, integrations, processors required, card turnover, ATVs and card blend.
We will review your requirements and can advise on the best approach to drive both savings and value in your solutions. Book a call
REAL TALK
If you've never had your processing statement read by someone who knows the market, you're probably leaving money on the table. We'll do it for free; we'll be honest about what we find. The worst case for you is you learn your current deal is actually good — which is also useful information. Don’t ever assume your current provider has your best interests at heart, nor should loyalty be a given from any business.