Five considerations when partnering with a card issuer

The opportunities and benefits for businesses to launch their own pre-paid card programme are both growing and becoming more apparent.

Use cases for issuing pre-paid cards to customers in specific markets include an effective and efficient account pay out function, issuing reloadable cards, and even managing incentive and reward schemes. In addition, businesses are also discovering the benefits of issuing cards internally as corporate cards, either for payment of expenses or managing pay roll.

Whilst awareness of these use cases and benefits is increasing, it is imperative for businesses to understand the differentiators in the market when it comes to pre-paid card issuers.

Here are five key questions businesses should ask when determining whether to partner with an issuer.

Does the issuer have the required experience and a strong record of reliability? 

For businesses in search of the appropriate issuer to partner with, the first question to be asked is whether the issuer has a history of reliability and delivering an excellent user experience. Stability is of paramount importance in pre-paid card issuing, payment service providers with a longstanding and established history of operating in space provide the greatest guarantee of this.

In addition to offering payments solutions to thousands of businesses around the globe including pre-paid card issuing, Paysafe has a wealth of experience in large pre-paid card issuing programmes. This experiences begins with operating card issuing schemes for three of our brands, the Skrill pre-paid Mastercard, the NETELLER Net+ pre-paid Mastercard, and the paysafecard pre-paid Mastercard, so not only do we understand and have experience of the issuing operation from the perspective of the issuer, we also have full visibility of the process from the perspective of the client. This enables us to tailor our product offering and service specifically to ever-changing needs of the industry. 

Does the issuer offer both consumer and corporate programmes?

For many businesses there are strong incentives to offer pre-paid cards internally to employees, such as corporate cards for expenses or employee rewards, and also pre-paid cards externally to consumers. This could be in the form of a single load product, such as a cashback function or a vehicle to offer a one-time promotion, or a reloadable card to execute payments or to enable instant withdrawal from an online source of funds such as a gaming account.

For businesses that would benefit from offering pre-paid cards to its employees and its customers, managing these processes is most efficiently carried out through a single issuer.

Does the issuer also provide acquiring?

Similarly, reducing the number of payment service provider relationships simplifies payments management for businesses, maximising efficiency across the business. For businesses implementing pre-paid debit card schemes, either via corporate or consumer programmes, partnering with a payments solution provider that is also an acquirer offers support and streamlines the process.

Even more preferable for businesses is to partner with an all-in one payment service provider that also offers alternative payment solutions in addition to payment processing, in order that merchants can increase the number of payment methods they accept at the checkout. With a fractured payments ecosystem and consumer payment preferences continuing to diversify, there is pressure on merchants to offer multiple payment options; having an all-in-one payment service provider such as Paysafe that can easily integrate digital wallets such as Skrill and NETELLER, and cash replacement systems such as paysafecard into a payments solution in addition to payment processing and pre-paid card issuing is preferable.

Does the issuer have strong scheme relationships?

Central to the quality of experience when partnering with a pre-paid issuer is the existing relationship between the issuer and its card schemes. Successful issuers have dependable relationships with card schemes that underpin their product offering and ensure a safe and reliable service; investigating this relationship should be a high priority for potential partners.

Through Paysafe’s longstanding partnership with Mastercard our issuing offering continues to flourish, for the benefit of our issuing clients.

Does the issuer operate in multiple markets?

The trend of businesses and their customer base expanding across borders continues to be prevalent; with cheaper operational and marketing costs to overseas customers, global online business is thriving.

So for both commercial and consumer pre-paid card issuing programmes, it is imperative that the card issuer operates in a wide selection of markets. For businesses holding operating accounts for customers in multiple countries, a pre-paid card programme partnering with an issuer capable of supplying multiple markets is the only effective way to service these customers.

Paysafe is licensed to issue cards across the entire European Economic Area, and the programme also supports settlements in multiple currencies.

To discover more about Paysafe’s card issuing solutions visit our website.