What does a payment aggregator mean and what are its benefits?

A payment aggregator such as Clip provides the infrastructure and services necessary for you to accept card payments.

Card Payment Network -supervised by the National Commission of Banking and Securities- involves all those individuals who provide the infrastructure, instruments, programs or systems associated with the use of means of payment such as debit cards, credit cards, checks, fund transfer orders, direct debit orders and the devices or interfaces enabling the execution of payments or transfers.

A payment aggregator offers a service that an ordinary business would not be able to implement, since it is not only a matter of creating hardware and software that allows payments to be made, but also of managing transactions among banks, authorization requests and money movement.

What benefits do payment aggregators provide?

Besides the ones mentioned before, Clip is an example, which is a payment aggregator because it allows you to accept card payments, all you have to do is acquire one of the terminals that can be connected to the phone or that are completely autonomous.

As well as facilitating your customers to pay for your products or services without using cash, an aggregator provides you with benefits such as:

Providing the technology necessary to accept cards. This is done through a few very clear steps, the first one starts with the customer paying through a plastic, either with a credit card, debit card or grocery vouchers, although services such as Apple Pay or other similar ones also apply.

Next step is the mobile terminal or here, the aggregator in charge of authenticating the payment, and to do this, the transaction is sent to the customer's corresponding bank, requesting authorization for the transaction and waiting for the bank's response: it accepts or rejects the payment.

Transaction can be rejected for different circumstances, but if it is not, you receive the deposit in your account (the time varies), however in our example with Clip, the deposit can be received within 4 hours. It all depends on the payment aggregator.

High security and availability standards

Payment aggregators must meet strict international standards for card transactions. These standards are set by brands such as American Express, Mastercard and Visa, so that all of them comply with them and can make use of this technology.

This means that in Mexico they must have the endorsement of the National Banking and Securities Commission, the Bank of Mexico and the Association of Banks of Mexico, so that all your transactions will have this security level.

Also, all aggregators have a team trained to monitor suspicious transactions, to understand how money moves and to advise you in case of any inconvenience, just like Clip, where our support team operates 24 hours a day, any day of the week.

Returns and refunds processing

When a customer would like to return an item or cancel a purchase, you can refund to the same card they used. It is also important for your customers to know that the request is processed immediately, but may be reflected a few days later.

That is a simple process, and in Clip's case you can do it at the time of purchase, right before the transaction is completed. In case you have already completed the transaction and wish to cancel the purchase on the same day, you can do it through the application very easily.

Helping to prevent chargebacks and fraud

Payment aggregators monitor transactions and when they detect something "suspicious", the cardholder does not recognize or did not authorize that transaction, when they do not receive what they purchased or when the goods or services do not match what they ordered, transaction is voided and this way you avoid a chargeback or that the cardholder suffers a fraud.

For Clip, we have a tutorial that will help you better understand these processes and the ways in which you can protect yourself when making an important transaction. We also have various entries that talk about chargebacks, explaining what they are and how you can handle them.

Accept different payment methods

Besides credit or debit cards, payment aggregators enable you to accept voucher cards of different brands (depending on your business line of business), as well as payment methods such as contactless, if they have the appropriate technology. This can increase your options for accepting payment methods.

Even though technology is advancing, Clip offers various payment options, ranging from plastic cards to solutions from brands such as Apple and Samsung.

Accepting remote payments

Payment aggregators give you the option to create payment links so that your customers can make a purchase remotely, with no need to go to your store and swipe their card. This way you can use this tool as you see fit.

We have talked in several posts about how to make the most of this solution, but something you should keep in mind is that you do not have to pay extra for this service. Moreover, it is possible to use this payment method without needing the terminals to accept cards, since this works only through software.

Offering more services

There are terminals that, along with all of the above, offer the opportunity to provide other services for your customers, such as telephone recharges, that are an extra income for your business, without needing an investment, as you do not need to buy credit to offer this complement.

Not only do you offer more services, you also receive them with opportunities such as customized loans so you can grow your business and a digital account without commissions that will allow you to receive all your payments.

That is the example of Clip, however there are different solutions to charge with cards and serve as aggregators, either digital or physical, you will decide which ones can help you and always ensure that they are endorsed by the National Banking and Securities Commission, the Bank of Mexico and the Association of Banks of Mexico.