European Show Tour

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

The Difference Between Credit Cards and Charge Cards

To many a “charge card” and “credit card” are the same thing and the terms are used interchangeably, however there are distinct differences in these types of cards that clearly set them apart. These unique features can determine customer availability as well as impact credit scores.

What is a charge card?

A charge card is a payment card that requires the balance of purchases to be paid off in full each and every month. There is generally not a preset limit on charge cards, instead spending habits, payment history, credit record and financial resources determine for how much a purchaser will be approved. These factors are continually monitored to adjust spending limit. This means that charge card customers will not incur over-limit fees and do not need to apply for larger limits as with credit cards.

Since all balances are to be paid off in full each month, there are no interest rates or minimums associated with charge cards. Payments are also usually required within 40 to 50 days from the close of billing cycles as opposed to 25 to 30 days with most credit cards. If full payment is not made on a charge card, there are penalties and late fees that are incurred.

Just as with credit cards, there is an annual fee that is determined by the type of card you have. For example the annual fees for Amex vary widely depending on spending habits and your spending limits. Annual fees include membership in rewards programs and additional perks.

How do I know if I qualify?

Since charge cards do not have preset spending limits and require to be paid off in full, the qualification requirements are generally higher than credit cards. If you have less than stellar credit, you may still qualify for a low limit credit card, or can even get a secured card where you deposit money to cover your limit. To qualify for a charge card, one must usually have a strong credit background.

Affecting credit score

Credit cards and credit cards can also widely vary in the way they impact your credit score. Since charge cards do not allow the user to carry over a balance, they are a way to build credit history without the risk of racking up expensive debt. The other area that charge cards vary greatly from credit cards in terms of credit is in credit utilization. Credit utilization is a highly weighted factor in credit scores that is based off a user’s credit balance versus available credit. Since charge cards do not carry a set limit and cannot carry a revolving balance, they are excluded from credit utilization in credit score factoring.

What does this mean for merchants?While credit cards are king in the US, charge cards are a growing alternative that are becoming more widely accepted every year. Opting not to allow charge cards as a payment method, among other alternative payment methods, could cause you to lose business to other merchants based on your customers’ preferred payment methods. To add charge cards and other alternative payment methods to your checkout with ease, check out 2000Charge’s list of options for the US and foreign markets. 

How Can Alternative Payment Solution Help You?

The online market growth is no secret and continues to surpass previous years in sales for every industry that primarily sells a service or item on the internet. While the day to day operations continuously function and bring in revenue from your already established and trusted traffic source provider (online advertising, SEO, forum and blog postings or through social marketing) what alternative options have you explored to further increase and surpass your goals?

While the majority of online services have opted to primarily use credit card processing such as Visa and Mastercard, there is still a market that does not own a credit card as they are simply not economical it a lot of countries and are not forced upon the consumer market.

Most European countries & citizens have sworn off the use of credit cards there for making your online service offering obsolete to them because there is no “Alternative” solution in which for them to make a purchase.By implementing an alternative option for payment such as the processing provided by 2000Charge, you are potentially opening a whole new world to your product.

While exact statistics vary between companies that provide alternative payment solutions, data has been collected and has displayed an average increase of 10-15% in sales. So sources have reported increase percentages higher than that but as stated, as a whole the average has come to be 10-15%.

So when asking one’s self “How Can Alternative PaymentSolutions Help Me?” stop and look at your monthly or annual sales from the year before and add an additional 10% to that figure and then think about what that 10% could do for you? You may want to use the additional revenue to take a much needed vacation or maybe hire additional staff to further expand your existing business? 

Regardless what you’d spend the additional revenue on; there is nothing but positive attributes that can be derived from implementing such a tool.

To implement 2000Charge’s “1 Click” button that offers all solutions that are pulled via the consumer’s geographical location it’s as easy as dropping an email to sales@2000Charge.com and further inquiring.You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to act upon this feature nor do you need money for start up costs, it really is as simple as emailing sales and they will walk your through the rest.

2000Charge Races to The Qwebec Expo

Award winning alternative payment solution provider 2000Charge will be in force at this year’s Qwebec Expo and are looking forward to meeting anyone interested in expanding their current revenue base by implementing the 2000Charge “one click” button which enables consumers the ability to select from a vast array of payment options with ease.

In addition to 2000Charge attending the Qwebec Expo in Montreal with events kicking off early on August 7th, 2000Charge is also co-sponsoring the Ynot Grand Prix being held on Thursday August 8th from 6pm till 9:30pm at Kart-O-Mania.

“We encourage everyone to let their hair down and have some fun, competitive, action with your industry peers” states Ines K, COO of 2000Charge.

This high octane event does require you to RSVP so to all those interested in participating, you need to get your name on the list to race.

To participate in the Ynot Grand Prix or to schedule a meeting with one of the 2000Charge team members during the Qwebec Expo, drop an email to sales@2000charge.com

DirectPay EU - How Does It Work?

DirectPay EU allows your customers to pay via their bank's web site directly from their checking or savings account.

When a customer selects DirectPay EU during checkout, they will receive an email with an electronic bill that they can pay at their own bank’s website from their checking or savings account. Each transaction is initiated and carried out by the customer, so there is NO RISK of costly charge backs and the funds are guaranteed.

As an industry leader in global alternative Internet payments, 2000Charge has developed DirectPay EU, an innovative billing product providing merchants with payment access to 36 countries with over 700 million European consumers which in plain English translates to a vast number of Europeans that your product would more likely appeal too as you’d be offering a trusted payment source that they are familiar with. 

And if that fact isn’t enough to persuade you then maybe the fact that you WILL see an increase in sales if implementing this solution is more of a deciding factor that will appeal to you?

DirectPay EU is the smart payment solution to offer your European traffic and implementing it on your website is a piece of cake!

Contact 2000Charge now via email for more info via sales@2000Charge.com and question them about DirectPay EU and their many other solutions that you could implement to broaden your target audience reach.