One of the biggest benefits of credit and debit card payments for merchants is the automatic deposit of funds directly into the merchant’s bank account. Once the day’s business is tallied and batched, merchants receive an electronic deposit for the funds, many times as fast as the following day. Now Brink’s has announced a new service called BLUbeem that will provide that same convenience and security for a merchant’s cash payments as well. Merchants utilize an app to submit their daily cash total to Brink’s, then place the cash in a secure container provided by Brink’s. At the end of the day, an armored car picks up the cash from the merchant and the merchant receives an electronic deposit for the proceeds.
Brink’s has announced a partnership with Priority Technology Holdings, a leading payment services company with a broad network of independent sales agents and financial institutions, to offer BLUbeem to Priority’s 250,000 merchants.
“Our partnership with Brink’s will allow us to provide merchant customers our current card acceptance platform as well as the Brink’s digital cash payment solution, providing an industry-leading, end-to-end payment solution,” said Tom Priore, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Priority. “Approximately 20% to 25% of our merchants’ payments occur in cash, representing a huge opportunity to provide enhanced services for our customers. Expanding our reach into cash payments will allow Priority to introduce a variety of new solutions into the market, helping improve customer retention and driving growth into new channels.”
“Our strategy is to reach all of the U.S. retail locations that do not have an effective solution for handling cash payments,” said Rohan Pal, chief digital officer of Brink’s. “Our partnership with Priority Technology fits perfectly into our new product brand, BLUbeem by Brink’s. BLUbeem’s digital cash payment solution makes processing cash fast and easy, similar to debit, credit and other digital payment methods. This solution enables us to be a single source for all of our customers’ cash management needs.”
The service is anticipated to cost merchants between 1-3% of their cash sales for the service. We can’t help but wonder if merchants that are offering a discount for cash to offset card processing fees will continue to do so if cash payments cost as much as card payments?
Overview by Don Apgar, Director, Merchant Services Advisory Practice at Mercator Advisory Group
