eCard

International ACH made seamless

eCard Systems manufactures, wholesales and manages gift cards and vouchers for merchants, handling everything from delivery to consumers, to balance tracking and POS integration.

“Our vision is to make gift cards seamless for everyone, from merchants to end users,” said Melanie Colson, Assistant Controller, eCard Systems.

The company has operations in the US and Canada, and offers automated ACH payments to customers in both markets. But, in 2023, it suddenly needed a new solution for Canadian customers when the Federal Reserve Financial Services pulled the plug on the FedGlobal ACH Payments service.

GoCardless stepped up and restored eCard Systems’ cross-border business with Canada, while also streamlining ACH payments with a direct integration to its NetSuite accounting package.

A lifesaver

Providing a choice of payments is all part of eCard Systems’ ethos of making things seamless for customers. The automation of ACH makes it particularly popular among customers, and Malanie prefers it because of the low fees.

“GoCardless is a lifesaver for our Canadian business because not everyone wants to pay by card,” said Melanie. “And it’s way better from a business perspective. Each transaction, no matter the value, costs a flat rate, compared to around 3% on credit cards.”

ACH also helps eCard Systems save money on chargebacks or failed payments. 

NetSuite, no problem

Top of eCard Systems’ wishlist for an ACH solution was the ability to integrate with NetSuite, and it was one of the first in the world to use GoCardless this way. 

“We simply import a CSV file to initiate payments. GoCardless collects the money and marks it as paid in NetSuite. We don't have to do anything else,” added Melanie.

By contrast, the previous process using its bank’s system was manual and time consuming, which would only become more laborious as the company grows.

“GoCardless saves four hours of admin a month at our current scale, so we know we can grow without adding head count,” said Melanie. “Customers can sign up digitally — which is a great experience for them — and then everything from running payment batches to reconciling accounts is super streamlined.”

Phenomenal service

Melanie says that GoCardless’ support was first class during the integration.

“The process was seamless and we developed a really collaborative, problem-solving relationship with GoCardless,” she said. “Progress, obstacles, solutions — the communication was excellent.”

And things have only got better from there.

“GoCardless is still there for us whenever we need them,” said Melanie. “I couldn't ask for better customer service — it’s phenomenal. Our Customer Support Manager and Lead Solution Engineer keep each other fully up to date on our position, so we never have to repeat ourselves. If there's ever an issue, they reply to emails quickly and get things fixed just as fast.”

A global platform

GoCardless is a global platform that enables collections in local currencies, which is good for eCard Systems’ customers and great for its global expansion plans.

What’s the catch? (Hint: There isn’t one.)

eCard Systems searched high and low for a new ACH system — it took them almost nine months to find the right one — and Melanie was sure there must be a catch with GoCardless.

“When we finally found a solution we liked, we thought, ‘where are the glitches, what are we missing?’” she said. “But everything has turned out as great as it looked. I hope I can save anyone reading a lot of time by saying ‘stop looking, just choose GoCardless.’ I'm so grateful we found them and can’t imagine we’ll ever need an alternative.”