Your Business’s Payroll Made Easy with a Prepaid Card
One of the biggest challenges facing any business, particularly those that have just formed, is ensuring the payroll is balanced, manageable and accurate. It is important that a business’ employees are paid the correct amount of money at the expected time. Prepaid cards are an increasingly helpful, reliable and cost-effective ways of achieving this.
In December 2010, the Treasury revealed in a briefing that approximately 1.5 million households in the UK do not have access to a regular, recognisable or workable bank account. Of course, this presents a barrier to a great many of people working for companies, who tend to get paid directly into their bank account.
Even if a business is prepared to pay their staff in other ways, this can present a business with another set of problems; for example, if a business issues a company cheque for the employee to cash, the likelihood is that their business will be charged by the bank for issuing the cheque. In some cases, the cost can be as much as £10 per cheque issued and these costs quickly mount up, especially when a business is being charged £120 a year simply to pay one member of staff.
Fortunately for businesses, ensuring a smooth, consistent and easy-to-manage system for their payroll has now become a great deal easier thanks to the introduction of prepaid cards.
A prepaid card is a payment method that the holder can top up with a set amount of money of their choosing. Once the funds have been spent, the cardholder then has to again add funds in order to continue purchasing using the card. A prepaid card is not a credit card, therefore the cardholder spends pre-loaded funds and does not borrow money. In this respect, prepaid card users will not pay interest charges on purchases and shouldn’t increase any outstanding debts.
One of the main benefits of the cards is that they offer guaranteed acceptance, regardless of whether an individual has a bank account. Furthermore, employees can then have their wages paid directly onto their card. Uniquely for prepaid cards, the Cashplus prepaid Gold MasterCard card accounts come with a Sort Code and individual Account Number. This allows payments to the card account to be made using the Faster Payments system. This not only reduces payroll processing costs through the elimination of cheque processing fees but also reduces the time it takes for an employee to receive their money onto their card.
Another advantage to using prepaid cards is that many of the benefits associated with traditional card payment methods (such as free bill payments, purchase protection and cashback reward schemes) are also applicable to them. In fact, the Cashplus prepaid card offers all of these benefits. Over time, this will not only save money, but also add real peace of mind to owning the card.
Since their introduction, prepaid credit cards have not only been growing in popularity as a method of paying staff but also as the perfect way to keep a lid on business expenses. Many business owners and managers are using the flexibility and convenience of prepaid cards to manage their business expenses. An easy way of doing that is by setting a monthly budget and paying that amount onto the card, then using the card to pay for all their business expenses.
Indeed, businesses found prepaid cards to be so flexible that many are now using them as a business bank account, which can save a business time and money in the long run. Indeed, the Cashplus business prepaid card offers free deposits, instant approval, free and unlimited purchases and free online transaction tracking.
A prepaid card is an excellent way of maintaining control over payroll in the most cost-efficient and flexible way possible, especially if a company’s employees who do not have a traditional banking relationship. In addition to this, many businesses have found that controlling their own business expenses, and even their entire business bank account, is most effectively achieved by using prepaid credit cards.