Collecting fees by direct debit means providers can focus on providing care instead of chasing money

Collecting care fees from local authorities and families of elderly and disabled people can be arduous and time-consuming and one way of clawing back some of this precious time is to get people signing up to direct debit payments.

With a huge host of fee-payers to keep track of, it is essential the system used is secure and accurate.

Caretree is a family-owned domiciliary care agency that provides care to elderly people in their own home. Mark Prendergast, co-owner and finance director of Caretree, says: “At Caretree, our primary focus is on providing the very highest standard of care and support.”

He was attracted to the flexibility and bespoke nature of London & Zurich’s service. “We were aware that there are many cheaper competitors within the Direct Debit space; however, upon closer examination, we realised we wanted a provider that could provide the integration we requested,” he says.

“This integration is essential to providing true end-to-end processing of financial data – confidence would immediately be lost in our quality approach if an error occurred as a result of us manually entering invoice amounts.”

Not only has it given the agency’s clients more choice when it comes to payment, but the secure nature of the service means all confidential data has been safely and effectively maintained.

The direct debit system at London & Zurich is easy to set up and allows home care providers to collect fees whenever they are due.

“Rather than having those awkward conversations whenever payments need to be made, once authorisation has been obtained from the customer, home care providers can collect payments directly from customer accounts,” adds Paul Baker, partner sales manager for London & Zurich, a direct debit provider.

Other benefits include:

• Payments are easier to process – The whole process can be automated so you can concentrate on running your business in the best possible way. You’ll also know who has and hasn’t paid and be informed as soon as a direct debit is cancelled.

• There’s nearly no administration – Rather than checking your bank balance every five minutes to check for payments coming in, the fees will be taken from parents’ accounts on the same day every month. You’ll know the money is in your account without having to check, and you won’t have to chase those annoying late payments.

• It’s cheap – Receiving payments from credit cards or debit cards will typically cost a percentage of the transaction plus a flat fee. Direct debit payments tend to be much cheaper.

• It’s easier for parents – Parents can set up their payments on your website if you have one, so there will be no forms to post to the bank and no trips to your branch.

• The ability to process variable payments – The number of hours of childcare you provide every month is likely to change in line with the requirements of the parents. Direct debit allows you to collect variable payments without having to ask for authorisation every time.

You can find out more about their direct debit collection service by clicking here

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