Becoming a BPay Biller thru a Biz Bank? Anyone done it? Fees?

[addyoni]

Hi AFF,
any biz people set up a BPay code to accept funds/payments via the bank's BPay system. Not talking about you paying your bills with BPay. Talking about your business having it's on BPay code and then sending out invoices to customers with a Biller Code and Reference Number on it.

What are your experiences and what are the fees. I contacted BPay but they referred me to the banks. I've E-Mailed Qantas Credit Union, but no response. Think they got confused as they may not do business banking. Have an account also with ANZ, a credit union and another bank. Am considering going with NAB or Westpac if I can't get it through a credit union like Members Equity or Police & Nurses. Or I could give Bendigo Bank or somethin' a go.

Thanks.

 

[markis10]

QF Credit Union offer BPay Biller facilities:

Qantas Staff Credit Union Limited - BPAY Financial Institution Details - BPAY

Biller Services
Offers BPAY Biller Services?	Yes
Biller Enquiries Phone Number:	1300 747 747

 

[AVC]

When we had our internet business, we looked into setting up as an Bpay "receiver" but the costs were pretty high as I recall. Way more than Paypal or CC MSF (Merchant Service Fees).

At a guess it may have been like 35 or 50 per month. I'll try to find the info we had on it.

 

[one9]

Hi,

Yes my business accepts bpay payments. Most banks offer this facility. I remember when I compared banks when I opened the facility some charged setup fees around $500. I ended up going with Bankwest. It was some time ago so I can't remember the details so well but I think setup fee was under $100 and monthly fee is around $15. We selected to allow only Cheque/Savings payments and the transaction fee is around $0.80 per transaction. We only have a couple of transactions per day. I realise if you have a lot of transactions, you can get a much cheaper transaction fee. I remember they quoted us a really low merchant fee if we wanted to accept credit card payments by BPAY (something like 0.4% or 0.5%) but we declined to do this as we prefer to accept credit card payments directly which is faster. Our credit card merchant fee (non BPAY) is around 0.8%.

 

[ricee007]

Hi,

Yes my business accepts bpay payments. Most banks offer this facility. I remember when I compared banks when I opened the facility some charged setup fees around $500. I ended up going with Bankwest. It was some time ago so I can't remember the details so well but I think setup fee was under $100 and monthly fee is around $15. We selected to allow only Cheque/Savings payments and the transaction fee is around $0.80 per transaction. We only have a couple of transactions per day. I realise if you have a lot of transactions, you can get a much cheaper transaction fee. I remember they quoted us a really low merchant fee if we wanted to accept credit card payments by BPAY (something like 0.4% or 0.5%) but we declined to do this as we prefer to accept credit card payments directly which is faster. Our credit card merchant fee (non BPAY) is around 0.8%.

Then, surely, for some people... buying QF points would be a very profitable venture.

Let's say you run it for 6 months.... $100 + $90 + 0.5% (for CC)...

Put through, say, $20,000 /month, through a CC, mostly recycling the money...

That is $120k. If you earn, say, 1.25 points per $ on a CC..... is 150,000 points.
Cost to run $120k through? $100 + $90 + $600 =$790.

150,000 points for $790.

Points value can be easily 2cents per point (higher for ONE world flights, First international, etc)... but, at 2c per point = $3,000 value.

=$2,210 profit.... but, if you are using say, Business Class ONE world redemption... much better value.

Now, putting $20k through a month is not hard.... If you Bpay even $5,000 once a week through BPay (presumably you can get a turn around time of less than a week!)...

So, for those with $20k to float around... do it 5 times a month... that's $100k/month.... for 12 months, that's 1.2M * 1.25 =1.5Million points... If you can get a value of 5c... = $75,000...
Cost?
$1.2 * 0.5% + $100 + ($15*12) = $6,000 + $280 =$6,280.
$6,280 for up to $75,000.... if you have a spare $20k and a spare 2 minutes a week.

EDIT:-> Hell, even with an earn of 1 point per $1.... (though, should be able to do higher if you put through $1.2M in a year on your CC).... and even if points were valued at 13,500 points = $100 (0.74c).... still a value of $8880 in gift vouchers, at a cost of $6,280. Unfortunately, of course, you miss out on some interest payments... but, WORSE case scenario, you still make some money. EDIT:-> And, this ignores any benefits you get by putting $1.2M through an Amex..... I'm damn sure you could get a pretty good looking Amex if you spend that much...

 

[addyoni]

QF Credit Union offer BPay Biller facilities:

Qantas Staff Credit Union Limited - BPAY Financial Institution Details - BPAY

Biller Services
Offers BPAY Biller Services?	Yes
Biller Enquiries Phone Number:	1300 747 747

Yikes, cool dude! Thanks. Think I saw this page but didn't realise Registration would be it, thought that might be for starting to pay a bill on BPay rather than receiving them.

When we had our internet business, we looked into setting up as an Bpay "receiver" but the costs were pretty high as I recall. Way more than Paypal or CC MSF (Merchant Service Fees).

At a guess it may have been like 35 or 50 per month. I'll try to find the info we had on it.

Hmm a bit pricey, which financial institution is that with? Could probably just do it with PayPal but for some reason I assumed BPay would be cheaper.

Hi,

Yes my business accepts bpay payments. Most banks offer this facility. I remember when I compared banks when I opened the facility some charged setup fees around $500. I ended up going with Bankwest. It was some time ago so I can't remember the details so well but I think setup fee was under $100 and monthly fee is around $15. We selected to allow only Cheque/Savings payments and the transaction fee is around $0.80 per transaction. We only have a couple of transactions per day. I realise if you have a lot of transactions, you can get a much cheaper transaction fee. I remember they quoted us a really low merchant fee if we wanted to accept credit card payments by BPAY (something like 0.4% or 0.5%) but we declined to do this as we prefer to accept credit card payments directly which is faster. Our credit card merchant fee (non BPAY) is around 0.8%.

Hmm $500 is quite a fee just to connect, seems almost criminal. Oh wait, we are talking about banks after all. Probably only requires a few hours to set up, and now that it's probably done over phone or online, it's automated, so even at say $30 an hour, they're making pure profit of around $440 to $410.

Then, surely, for some people... buying QF points would be a very profitable venture.

Let's say you run it for 6 months.... $100 + $90 + 0.5% (for CC)...

Put through, say, $20,000 /month, through a CC, mostly recycling the money...

That is $120k. If you earn, say, 1.25 points per $ on a CC..... is 150,000 points.
Cost to run $120k through? $100 + $90 + $600 =$790.

150,000 points for $790.

Points value can be easily 2cents per point (higher for ONE world flights, First international, etc)... but, at 2c per point = $3,000 value.

=$2,210 profit.... but, if you are using say, Business Class ONE world redemption... much better value.

Now, putting $20k through a month is not hard.... If you Bpay even $5,000 once a week through BPay (presumably you can get a turn around time of less than a week!)...

So, for those with $20k to float around... do it 5 times a month... that's $100k/month.... for 12 months, that's 1.2M * 1.25 =1.5Million points... If you can get a value of 5c... = $75,000...
Cost?
$1.2 * 0.5% + $100 + ($15*12) = $6,000 + $280 =$6,280.
$6,280 for up to $75,000.... if you have a spare $20k and a spare 2 minutes a week.

EDIT:-> Hell, even with an earn of 1 point per $1.... (though, should be able to do higher if you put through $1.2M in a year on your CC).... and even if points were valued at 13,500 points = $100 (0.74c).... still a value of $8880 in gift vouchers, at a cost of $6,280. Unfortunately, of course, you miss out on some interest payments... but, WORSE case scenario, you still make some money. EDIT:-> And, this ignores any benefits you get by putting $1.2M through an Amex..... I'm damn sure you could get a pretty good looking Amex if you spend that much...

*cough* read my mind! :mrgreen: Now just wondering if anyone has done this in past and whether it's monitored for using own card? Could use a supplementary card that has family members name on it. For some reason limit on my Amex isn't much, so gotta get it increased, and I stupidly set my credit limit request for the WOW Qantas MasterCard at $5000! Ai. Probably would have been heaps more if I just let them set it, and now it's a complicated process to increase it. Oh well, need a VISA one so will let them set it to max and churn $10k a month through. Do it twice. Get a bi-weekly cycle going from online bank account to BPay biller code.

 

[cove]

Ricee007 you will get a phone call from your Bank if you do straight contras.
If you had say 4 merchants you could do a rotational system for the process to be way less obvious. Never round amounts,never the same amounts but end result .......however if you get caught you may need to leave your Bank and seeing there are so few Visa or MasterCards offering a point a dollar or better a lifetime of benefits could be stopped.
I know 2 who were stopped and no we don't breach bank rules.

 

[addyoni]

Ricee007 you will get a phone call from your Bank if you do straight contras.
If you had say 4 merchants you could do a rotational system for the process to be way less obvious. Never round amounts,never the same amounts but end result .......however if you get caught you may need to leave your Bank and seeing there are so few Visa or MasterCards offering a point a dollar or better a lifetime of benefits could be stopped.
I know 2 who were stopped and no we don't breach bank rules.

Guess there's always PayPal for that then. Purchasing spouses and friends stuff on eBay, and stuff being anything really, $5,000 for a hug or whatever LOL. Or a physical item that isn't shipped, but bid way over normal so no one else buys it. Of course eBay probably monitor this on fraud for their reputation (but not for the reason we're talking about of purchasing own stuff to funnel dollar payments through credit cards). Once or twice a month wouldn't raise any major red flags.

@Cove: what's 'straight contras' anyways? Contradictions of services or was ct left out of contracts? The world of finance terms is vast and I'm pretty new to it, despite having studied some and read other text books on banking.

 

[cove]

The obvious contra would be where say $20,000 gets booked onto two cards for two different businesses so points are earned by each participant and then the businesses pay off the card. If you did not get caught/warned/cancelled after a year then the fraud watch at the bank would be turned off or asleep.
Never,ever do this if you want to stay in business with a credit card facility.

 

[Mal]

Playing with papal is as risky as playing with a merchant facility. And the real issue is that they are probably nastier to deal with.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using AustFreqFly

 

[ricee007]

Hmm, never ran into a T&C that said it was against it... but I've never read Bpays -< only some banks / CCs.

 

[cove]

You would be able to pay someone else's tax on your credit card as a way to earn points if that is what you want to achieve.

 

[albatross710]

We setup to get a Biller code from Suncorp here in Brisbane. It was/is free to setup.

The transactions fees were standard...although I can't recall them now, they are nothing out of the ordinary. maybe 20c per incoming payment, cards extra.

We went away from Bpay on our bills as our business evolved away from 'retail' to more B2B.

As for the idea of intentionally setting things up to bill cards through the system to churn points, it is losing sight of the goal...to gain points at no cost and is ruled out in the Merchant Agreement(s).