Cardsave

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Processing transactions seamlessly for a children’s charity: case study

Profile:

This children’s charity case study looks at a multi-site national charity collecting donations via a GPRS Chip & PIN machine. With five regional locations and numerous regional and national donor events, they needed a system that would encompass all their requirements.

The issues:

The charity needed to use Chip & PIN machines to collect donor data from regional events in a secure and compliant environment.

Previously they had suffered admin and reconciliation issues with managing donations, which lead to potential risks around PCI-DSS compliance . In addition, the charity had become frustrated with the lack of consistent service delivery from the GPRS Chip & PIN unit they had been using.

In fact, it was not uncommon to witness the charity’s staff hanging out of windows in an attempt to get a mobile signal to process transactions!

The Cardsave Community solution:

1. A portable Chip & PIN machine to collect donations safely and securely
With planning prior to an event, phone line access can be used to facilitate a seamless acquisition of credit and debit card donations.

2. A Virtual Terminal (VT) to process donations at regional level
The Cardsave Community VT allows multi user access via login and password. Essentially this means that the charity’s regional sites can process their own transactions, saving time and reducing risk in relation to PCI-DSS compliance.

The unique nature of the Cardsave Community VT permits a free text field when processing transactions, allowing each location to identify themselves with internal coding.

3. Bespoke Management Information Software (MI)
With the Cardsave Community MI system, the charity benefits from a ‘real-time’ on-line analysis tool – this helps them monitor transactions and solve previous issues over lengthy and frustrating reconciliation.

As with all charity, not for profit and NGO clients, Cardsave Community also took care of the paperwork, making it a simple, as well as effective solution for this children’s charity.

Conclusion:
This children’s charity case study is typical of Cardsave Community clients who have multiple and complex requirements. By listening to their specific problems, we were able to implement a multi-faceted solution that met their brief, delivering convenience, security and management information that had previously been unattainable from other suppliers.

Second-hand furniture shop: a community case study

Profile:

This community case study, describes a second-hand furniture shop and registered charity in East Anglia. They wanted to improve their customer service by taking debit and credit cards, but couldn’t decide how best to go about it.

The issues:

The shop’s bank wouldn’t provide them with a Chip & PIN terminal unless they agreed to at least a five-year contract and on deeper investigation, it appeared that the terminal (and the associated transaction costs) mighty be prohibitively expensive.

The Cardsave Community solution:

Like many second-hand furniture shops, this one had recently seen an increase in demand for quality second-hand furniture and electrical appliances. However, the shop knew they were losing sales by not being able to offer credit and debit card facilities.

Cardsave Community’s Relationship Manager visited and talked through the options. The customer was delighted to find out that Cardsave Community offers a contract for a minimum of only 12 months, so they were not tied into a lengthy contract. Cardsave Community’s extremely competitive rates, designed especially for third sector, not-for-profit organisations and NGOs was also attractive.

Conclusion:
Having decided it was the right solution, Cardsave Community took care of the administration and the community furniture store was up and running in days. The store has now found that the majority of their customers prefer to pay by card – and sales are up significantly.

Card processing for a care charity: case study

Profile:

A local care charity wanted to trial online services in their shop, but their bank wouldn’t provide them with a Chip & PIN terminal unless they agreed to a three-year contract. The charges for the terminal (and the associated transaction costs) were very expensive.

The issues:

With the average member of the charity being 67 years old, they were unsure whether the terminals would be effective, and as a result they continued to only accept cash and cheques.

The Cardsave Community solution:

Cardsave Community understands that care organisations, like the one in this charity case study, don’t want to tie themselves into lengthy card processing contracts, and can’t take on excessive costs.

By providing contracts for a minimum of just 12 months, the care charity didn’t need to sign up for a lengthy period. Extremely competitive rates designed especially for charities, NGOs, not-for-profit and third sector organisations keep costs down.

Cardsave Community solutions are also PCI-DSS compliant, meeting the highest industry security standards. And, perhaps most importantly to the charity’s CEO, they were able to talk to us face to face. Cardsave Community experts visited and explained how it all worked. We also took care of all the set-up and the CEO now has a named contact who understands their concerns, should anything need to change in the future.

Conclusion:
Since working with Cardsave Community, this care charity has started to see a significant increase in income – with the majority paid for by credit or debit card. The online solution has also helped to cut back on administrative processing, freeing valuable time for volunteers to work in other areas.