We occasionally have a customer question our policy of not accepting cheques as a method of payment for Jumba or AussieHQ services, so I thought I’d write a quick post to let you know the reasons behind this policy, and our preferred alternative.
UberGlobal is a leading company in the Australian technology sector, and we actively encourage our customers to take full advantage of new technologies and all that they have to offer. Obviously cheques are often viewed as an outdated method of payment and there is good reason for that. We’ve had many customers’ cheques lost or delayed in the mail, causing their websites to be suspended for non-payment.
Our preferred method of payment is credit card, and there are a few reasons for this:
- Payment transfers are instantaneous, meaning your invoices are paid on time and you don’t run the risk of having your account suspended for non-payment.
- Payments are ‘set and forget’. You just securely enter your credit card details once and then your payments are automatically deducted at the end of every billing period.
- Paying by credit card removes the possible risk of losing your domain name! With automated payments, there is no risk of losing your domain registration by forgetting to pay the renewal and letting your competition steal your name.
- When you pay by credit card, you are covered by the buyer protection offered by your institution.
So there you have it! If you have any further concerns about payments, please feel free to let us know in the comments below.
10 Comments
Oops! Spelling errors!
“loosing your domain name” – should be “losing”
and “covereved” ???
Oops! Thanks for pointing those out Andrew, I’ve fixed them up now!
Cheers,
Heather
We’re a small not-for-profit and we don’t have a company credit card because we’re trying to avoid credit card fees. This means as CEO I have to pay fees using my private credit card, however this situation is not ideal. Do you offer any alternatives to credit card, such as bank transfer etc?
Hi Priscilla,
If you are a Jumba customer then you are able to pay via Bpay. If you are an AussieHQ customer you can pay via direct deposit.
Hope that helps! If you need anything else, drop a line to feedback@jumba.com.com or feedback@aussiehq.com.au as we’re always willing to do everything that we can to help out non-profits
Hi Heather,
Payment with auto deductions takes the control of paying from the purchaser and gives it to the supplier. This places the purchaser in a less favorable position in terms of dispute, financial control and ongoing customer service. I believe that transaction security, in the short and long term risk assessment, decreases from cash to cheque to credit card to debit card and now to swipe cards. While you may consider that cheque payment is old fashioned the concept of forcing customers who prefer cheque payment to be ” moderrnised” may be at the risk of losing custom.
Sue
Hi Sue,
I’d definitely agree that there is a level of risk associated with all methods of payment, and some are riskier than others.
Although you prefer cash and cheques, cash can still be stolen (with very little chance of getting it back) and cheques can be made out fraudulently (and I’m not aware that you would would be guaranteed of getting your money back of that were the case).
Credit card use also has some level of risk associated with it, however in this case you are able to report any mis-use to your bank and get all of your money back, as you will be covered by a security guarantee (eg http://www.anz.com/personal/credit-cards/security/money-back-guarantee/).
As I’ve mentioned to Priscilla, If you are a Jumba customer you also have the option of paying via Bpay, or if you are an AussieHQ customer you can pay via direct deposit.
I hope that helps!
Cheers,
Heather
Hardly an explanation of a policy, it’s merely a state of THE policy.
Any customer that wants to pay a supplier is a good customer! The fact that some customers might bounce a cheque or simply post it late, hardly creates an environment in which a perfectly acceptable form of payment is refused.
A better post would have been – “UberGlobal don’t take cheques because we simply don’t want the hassle of walking to the bank, We realise this might mean some customers have to go elsewhere, but we’re okay with that!”
There’s nothing wrong with having a silly policy, that’s okay. But attempting to hide behind the notion that cheques are an outdated mode of financial transaction turns the silly policy into a stupid one.
Hi David,
Absolutely I agree that we don’t want to scare away paying customers! I’m sorry if you took my post to mean that I think customers who want to pay by cheque are bad customers!
I think it is the case that the amount of trouble that accepting cheques used to cause outweighed the benefits (ie giving our customers more choice in how they pay). As I mentioned in the post, things can get very messy if payments are not made in time, as can easily happen when they are posted through the mail. We’ve found that the best way to make sure bills are paid in time and domains names don’t expire/websites aren’t suspended has been to allow for the process to be automated via credit card payments.
If you really aren’t into automatic payments, we do still offer Bpay (for Jumba) or direct deposit (for AussieHQ).
Cheers,
Heather
I think it is the case that the amount of trouble that accepting cheques used to cause outweighed the benefits
Its called offering a service…
if your ‘worried’ about not getting payment in time, send out the invoice 30 days before being due.
I can see where ÜberGlobal are coming from with not accepting cheques – and it’s not like there aren’t alternatives, like the previously mentioned BPAY and direct deposit.
How many people send/accept cheques for eBay transactions, for example?