A Day Without Payment Processing

What would happen if E-Complish and all other payment processing services came to a halt for one day? This would have major repercussions for most business owners and their customers. It could lead to a “domino effect” as various companies fail to receive funds. Without debit and credit card processing, banks might also face a range of financial difficulties.

People would find themselves unable to make purchases with their credit, debit, gift, and benefit cards. This would have a major impact on sales. Customers in the United States use electronic payment cards for more than half of their purchases, according to ABC News. Most Internet and telephone sales are accomplished with the help of payment processing services.

Businesses could still accept other payment options, such as checks, money orders, and cash. However, this would likely result in a greater number of bounced checks. Also, people tend to buy fewer products when they use cash. Most Internet companies would have to suspend all sales for the day; relatively few online retailers have established systems to accept paper checks or money orders. Some firms might delay payments to their suppliers.

Many customers wouldn’t have the cash or checks needed to complete their purchases; retailers would have to cancel the sales or send bills to their clients by mail. This could lead to various problems with unpaid bills, legal action, and additional bounced checks. At a minimum, businesses would wait longer to receive and deposit customer payments.

Meanwhile, banks would become crowded with people seeking to withdraw cash. The lack of payment processing services might even lead to a run on the bank. Banks wouldn’t be able to lend money through credit cards, perhaps to the benefit of payday lenders. The inconvenience of withdrawing cash and paying ATM fees would cause people to purchase fewer items from retailers.

Some individual payment processing services have experienced brief outages in the past. For example, a PayPal outage in 2009 lasted about 60 minutes and persisted sporadically for another three to four hours. This probably prevented thousands of sales from reaching completion. The website monitoring service Pingdom.com estimates that the outage caused business operators to lose at least $7 million dollars.

Life would go on without debit and credit card processing, but many businesses would incur significant losses in earnings and productivity. Although this is unlikely to happen in the near future, individual payment service outages remain quite possible. By using a reliable service like E-Complish, business owners can spend fewer hours without payment processing functions. E-Complish offers PCH compliance, customized payment solutions, and excellent security features. Schedule a consultation to learn more.