American Express Company
Automatic Bill Payment With American Express American Express Company is a diversified worldwide travel, financial, and network services company founded in 1850. It is a world leader in charge and credit cards, travelers checks, travel, financial planning, business services, insurance, and international banking.
With increasing competition in the utility industry, maintaining customer loyalty is key to building your business. Automatic Bill Payment with American Express is a solution that can help you achieve this goal by increasing customer satisfaction while adding convenience and efficiency to your own business. It helps save your customer’s time and money with one less bill to remember, and it can help save you the time, trouble, and expense of repeat billing. Automatic Bill Payment with American Express is the ideal way to bill for ongoing services. Automatic Bill Payment allows your customers to automatically bill recurring charges (on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis) on their American Express® Card so that your invoices are always paid on time.
Improve Your Bottom Line Automatically Whatever the size of the utility company you manage, Automatic Bill Payment with American Express will help you save money and manage your receivables. Automatic Bill Payment helps eliminate the potential for lost revenue due to late and unpaid bills and saves you the expense of repeat billing.
Smart for Your Business, Good for Your Customers Automatic Bill Payment with American Express is a convenient option that you can offer to make customers even more loyal to your company. Plus, card members have an opportunity to earn Membership Rewards® when they pay you with an eligibly enrolled card. Automatic Bill Payment with American Express makes your business more efficient by: • Increasing speed of payment • Reducing credit collections • Lowering operational costs • Providing one-pass processing • Decreasing customer servicing costs
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Guaranteed on-time payments. Reduced accounts receivable. No late notices to send or phone call reminders. No collection charges. Just timely payments, automatically, giving you more time to run your business. Improved cash flow. Getting your invoices paid on time can give you more consistent payment schedules, greater financial flexibility, a lower cost of capital, and better business planning. Help your business move forward today. Lower operating costs. Reduce costly and inefficient processes associated with nonpayment and late payment of invoices and insufficient funds. Automatic customer updates. As the only major card company having a direct relationship with both you and your customers, American Express can continually update your customer files to keep them current. This way you won’t need to worry about changes made to card members’ account numbers, expiration dates, or addresses due to customer renewals and product upgrades – it all happens automatically. Marketing exposure. You can take advantage of heightened marketing exposure by being listed on the American Express card member automatic bill payment Web site. Visit http://americanexpress.com/automaticbill to view the opportunity to participate in this exciting program. Marketing reporting and business services. As a card-accepting merchant, you will have access to the following tools: • Merchant Profile® – A customized report for viewing aggregated information about your American Express customers. • Merchant Edge® – An online tool that allows for highly sophisticated analysis of your customers on an aggregated basis. • Online Merchant Services – Put the power, convenience, and speed of the Internet to work for you with American Express Online Merchant Services. View payments and submissions and receive and respond to customer disputes.
services that can help you improve your transaction processing and increase the security of your business operations. Use Your PC to Process Transactions Get our easy-to-install PurchaseExpress software for your business and start authorizing and setting American Express Card and bankcard transactions right from your personal computer. PurchaseExpress can save you time and money by: • Processing recurring bills automatically • Eliminating paper submissions • Reducing operational fees • Improving cash flow For more information on PurchaseExpress, visit americanexpress.com/purchaseexpress. Reduce Fraud-Related Expenses At American Express, we can help you learn how to minimize fraudulent activity at your business. Card identification digit. Reduces counterfeit card fraud by requiring sales representatives or customers to key in the four-digit CID number printed on all American Express Cards as part of the authorization process. Automatic address verification. This free service verifies that information provided by card members matches the billing address on file with American Express. Name and ZIP code verification. Designed for Card Not Present environments, this process verifies that card member names and ZIP codes match those on the American Express database. Charge verification. Allows merchants to investigate and halt fraudulent charges. For mail and phone order transactions over $250, a toll-free verification call can be placed to American Express. When you contact your client manager about enrolling in Automatic Bill Payment, you can also ask for more information on how these and other American Express products can help improve your business.
Automatic Bill Payment Business Solutions – Save Your Company Money
Easy to Implement, Easy to Use
Here are a few American Express Automatic Bill Payment optional companion products and
Get peace of mind knowing that your bills will be paid on time, every time. Automatic Bill
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Payment enables you to charge your customers on a recurring basis – quickly and easily. Enroll today, and start enjoying the money and time-saving benefits of having your invoices paid automatically. Follow these easy steps to participate: System check: Determine if your existing billing system can bill your customers automatically using the American Express card. Participation/awareness: After reviewing and submitting the required program participation agreement (your American Express representative will provide this document to you), American Express will provide awareness through various channels to our card members that your company is a participating Automatic Bill Payment merchant. Processing: When your customers request to have their bill charged to their American Express card on a recurring basis, they provide their billing information and authorization for recurring charges directly to your business. When you submit these charges to American Express, we flag them as recurring charges so that we can continuously update the card numbers and expiration dates as they change. As a result, you can minimize charge declines and service disruptions while maximizing your revenue stream. Your money in the bank: Your customer payments are directly deposited into your bank account by American Express. Transaction completion: American Express will complete the billing transaction by billing card members in full on their American Express monthly statement.
Automatic Bill Payment FAQ Q: How do I participate in ABP? A: Visit americanexpress.com/autopay and fill in the online contact information form and an American Express representative will work directly with you on program participation. Q: How do I qualify for the program? A: You qualify for the program if you: • Accept the American Express Card • Bill customers on a regular or recurring (weekly, monthly, etc.) basis • Comply with the terms of the American Express ABP Marketing Participation Agreement (your American Express representative will work with you on what this agreement entails). Q: What does it cost me to participate in ABP with American Express? A: This program is offered at no charge to merchants as long as they accept the American
Express Card and are set up to accept automatic payments from their customers using their credit cards. Q: Will American Express market the ABP program using my company’s name? A: Yes. American Express may promote your participation in the ABP program through various print and electronic channels that may include direct mail, newsletters, statement inserts, statement messaging, banner ads, the American Express ABP Web site, newspapers, magazines, and radio.
Solution Provider
www.americanexpress.com
CONTACT INFORMATION
Q: What information do I need to provide to American Express in order to participate? A: Just provide us with a toll-free customer service number that a card member can call to enroll in ABP. If your company has a Web site where customers can enroll online for automatic billing to their credit card, simply provide us with the URL in addition to a tollfree customer service number. Q: How do my customers enroll their American Express Card in the ABP program? A: American Express card members can call the toll-free customer service numbers you provide. If your Web site can already support online enrollment, just provide us with your URL. After you accept the terms and conditions of the American Express Participation Agreement, we will post a live link on the American Express ABP Web site directing card members to your site for enrollment. To find out more about the benefits of accepting the American Express card, please visit us online at www.americanexpress.com/merchants.
Kenneth I. Chennault Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David C House Group President, Global Network and Establishment Services and Travelers Cheque Group American Express Corporate Affairs and Communications 200 Vesey Street New York, NY 10285-4814 Phone 212.640.2000 BUSINESS CONTACT
Sheraz S. Shere Director, New Industry Development
[email protected] Phone 212.640.1878
About American Express With over 150 years of outstanding customer service, American Express is positioned to enhance your utility business. We are committed to our vision “to become the world’s most respected service brand,” and one of our key strengths lies in our customer base – a diverse group with over 34 million cards in the United States. By partnering with American Express you can utilize our experience and expertise, and you may be eligible to reach out to card members through direct mail marketing. Accepting the American Express® Card provides your customers with greater flexibility when purchasing from your business. And giving your customers more options is a great way to enhance your level of customer service and sales. ■
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