PremierePC saves $14k+ on payments with GoCardless

PremierePC Technology Group is a managed IT service provider based in South Carolina, providing network support, help desk, phone, cybersecurity, and Office 365 services.

“We are essentially our customers’ outsourced IT consultant,” said Matthew Rydzfski, Managing Partner, PremierePC. “Each month, we charge a whole bunch of fees for various services that are bundled up and billed to clients monthly.”

Historically, the vast majority of customers paid by credit card. However, increasingly tired of the fees associated with credit cards, Matthew had considered switching all customers to cash or check. This would enable him to maximize the proportion of income that could be invested in the business and staff without raising prices.

But then he discovered GoCardless, an automated platform that uses the ACH account-to-account payment system to collect monthly payments faster than credit cards, and at a lower cost.

“I happened to use a product that had a payment gateway established for GoCardless,” said Matthew.

I went on the GoCardless website and thought, ‘Wow, these fees are fantastic. This would reduce our fee structure by over 85%.’

Account-to-account payments are faster and cheaper

Within weeks of making the decision to integrate GoCardless and adopt ACH payments, PremierePC was already making significant savings. Matthew began to think bigger.

“It was effortless and took us just three to four weeks to fully transition,” said Matthew. “I was so excited about the fee savings that we decided to nix credit cards – customers were going to be able to pay via check, or via ACH through GoCardless. This was important enough of a financial decision that we just needed to push through it.”

Going into this transformation, Matthew was unsure whether there would be pushback from clients, but the numbers speak for themselves. “Around 90% of our clients switched to ACH and credit cards went from being over 85% of our payment revenue to less than 3%,” he said.

That has translated to savings of thousands of dollars a year. “The cost of credit card payments was around three to three-and-a-half percent – now we pay less than half a percent with GoCardless,” said Matthew. “GoCardless has saved us about $1,200 a month in fees, and that money can be reused to better support staff, our services, and our clients.”

Customers convinced by convenience and security

Any customers that did have concerns with making the change to ACH payments were soon convinced by the increased security and convenience of paying with GoCardless.

“Some clients hesitated to share their bank account information to set up ACH payments, but the info needed to pay by GoCardless is the same as that printed on checks,” said Matthew. “It also stays in the GoCardless system where we don’t have access to it, so it’s superior in terms of security.”

“GoCardless is also a superior customer service experience to cards,” he continued. “We can set up ACH mandates for customers over the phone or they can do it on their computer, one time and that’s it, we’re off to the races.”

GoCardless reduced a lot of friction points, it was one of the smoothest changes we’ve ever made here and there’s been zero complaints, zero hassles. There’s just no problems.

Jump into ACH payments with GoCardless

Now, when PremierePC is signing up new clients, credit cards never enter the conversation. Matthew believes strongly that every company would benefit from switching to GoCardless.

“We have an onboarding procedure that just says, ‘And do you want to pay by check or ACH,’ and that’s it,” said Matthew. “My number one tip to other business owners is to just do it – jump in and get started. Taking how you get paid and adding something new, or taking something out of that process, is terrifying. But the GoCardless platform is going to get you what you need, in terms of quick payments with resiliency, and immediately the cost savings are going to benefit you. It does not cost a lot of energy to make the change to GoCardless. Set it, forget it, it’s done, never worry about it again.”