Published: November 17, 2021
In September, Unity Trust Bank announced a milestone partnership with Elavon Merchant Services to offer business customers a bespoke solution for all their card and merchant payment needs.
It’s the first time Unity has joined forces with a global payment services provider. Doing so strengthens our existing payments offering by introducing customers to a wide variety of integrated services. We can now offer seamless contactless payments, e-commerce and a variety of money movement solutions.
Head of Product, Liam Marshall, who led the launch, explains how this unique relationship will benefit Unity customers:
Merchant services is a complex market and sometimes businesses don’t know where to go.
Our customers trust Unity and we trust Elavon. We share the same core values and focus on ethics which is why we chose to partner with them. With Unity and Elavon working together we can provide the right solutions for all of our customers.
Elavon is rated among the top-five global payment providers in the world. Their technology is tried and tested and they are very forward looking.
Merchant services can be very transaction-based and businesses sometimes feel that they’re just a number. At Unity we ensure that our customers can speak to a person when they need to. Elavon is committed to delivering this same level of first-class personal service too.
They also have Relationship Managers like we do, who will offer personal support to larger clients.
For the first time Unity customers are now able to access and accept card payments by any means they want. Elavon’s card payment acceptance process offers a bespoke, one-stop shop for everything a business needs; whether it’s chip and pin machines, website payments, remote payments over the phone, it’s got everything.
There’s very little in the payment market that Elavon can’t offer. They have a suite of tariffs and products, whether a business has one branch that takes payments in person or 100 branches that take payments over the phone.
At Unity we have a diverse customer base so it’s important that our partner is able to offer various payment solutions. Elavon provide simple propositions for SMEs or more sophisticated ones that cater for larger organisations such as trade unions which have complex structures and hierarchies. Elavon can set up a merchant account that mirrors the structure of any business.
They can also offer integrated services, which will help customers to run their own business. For example, a hand-held terminal that takes payments could also be used for accounting purposes and managing stock control.
By using Elavon Merchant Services, Unity customers will be able to receive funds from their transactions the next working day. This will help with cash flow management and is vital in these post Pandemic times when customers need to get their hands on their own cash quickly and easily.
Access to funds can also be an issue for businesses that only deal with cash and cheques. These include the cost of processing these deposits, the time taken to pay them into a bank, and clearing times.
Using cash and cheques also means that any potential fraud risk typically sits with the business until the money is cleared. Whereas, using merchant services means they are responsible for any fraud element, so businesses are protected.
To find out more about Unity’s partnership with Elavon Merchant Services, and the services this now offers our customers, please visit: www.unity.co.uk/accepting-card-payments/
