For many of us, recurring billings are without a doubt heavily ingrained into our lives. Our phone services, internet, mortgage and car instalments all make up some examples of recurring payments which are ever-present in our day-to-day lives.

In the past two years, Curlec has been instrumental in making the recurring payments process easier for both business owners and consumers.

We’ve built an end-to-end recurring billing and subscription management system, which has transformed the Direct Debit process to become seamless and automated.

With this, businesses both small and large have been able to introduce Direct Debit to their customers, enabling both parties to enjoy the convenience that comes with recurring payments.

Introducing recurring card payments with Curlec

While we previously only provided the option for recurring billing from bank accounts, you can now offer your customers the option to pay with their debit or credit cards as well!

Initially, Curlec’s Direct Debit sparked a buzz in the FinTech scene for fuss-free recurring withdrawals directly from the customer’s bank account.

Now, merchants can enjoy the exact same fuss-free process to collect recurring payments from their customers’ debit or credit cards as well.

How does recurring card payments with Curlec work?

Existing merchants, fret not! The procedure to set up recurring card payments is almost exactly the same as what you’re already used to.

For starters, customers need to complete their one-time verification via the Mandate as usual. This time, instead of selecting the “FPX” option, customers simply choose the “Visa/Mastercard” option.

The Mandate is essentially a form that customers fill to grant permission for the merchant to deduct the agreed amount and frequency of payments from their bank account/card.

After filling in all the necessary details, the customers’ card details are tokenised and stored in the system. The next time a payment is due, all you have to do is click a button to collect the payment due.

“Store my card details? What do you mean?”

Concerned customers will be glad to know that card details are not stored by merchants nor Curlec, and are only held by Mastercard Payment Gateway Services (MPGS).

The difference for businesses

• Bigger reach
• More options for your customers
• Customers still get to enjoy credit card reward points

With recurring card payments comes all the convenience you’d expect from credit card processing.

As a merchant, you’ll be able to expand your reach to customers who are comfortable with being billed from both bank account and card.

With recurring card payments, there is also the usual credit card incentive of reward points – which might serve as an extra incentive for customers to opt for recurring payments with you.

Most of us are familiar with using terminal machines when paying with card, which typically involves credit card networks such as Visa and Mastercard as the intermediary.

Curlec however, uses Payments Network Malaysia (PayNet) as the foundation for processing both Direct Debit and locally-issued cards as well. This means that card payments which go through PayNet still count when it comes to earning reward points!

That being said, card payments are subject to a higher transaction fee as well as longer wait time.

With Direct Debit on the other hand, there are no card networks involved such as Visa and Mastercard. The only communication that takes place is between one bank to another.

This makes Direct Debit a more affordable option as the processing fee is significantly lower.

To find out more, an article we’ve written earlier delves a little deeper into Direct Debit vs Credit Cards.

Malaysian consumers are generally familiar with the concept of recurring card payments, whereas Direct Debit may feel like they’re granting the business full access to their bank account.

With more traditional industries such as utilities, customers may be more hesitant and less willing to explore Direct Debit, automatically leaning towards card payments instead for their recurring billings and subscriptions.

In the end, it all boils down to having both options in place for your customers.

If you’re a business who would like to explore these payment methods, find out more about Curlec here, or scroll down to the form at the bottom of this page to get in touch with us!