Chase Adds a Pay-Per-Use Real-Time Payments Option for SMBs

Chase, the banking arm of giant JPMorgan Chase & Co., introduced a suite of digital products it says will help small businesses improve their cash flow and payment processing.

Among the services are the ability to choose a payment speed, such as standard automated clearing house, same-day ACH, or real-time payments, for sending a payment; the ability to accept contactless payments via an iPhone; and the ability to create and send invoices electronically. Chase says it also will launch Customer Insights, a complimentary platform for Chase for Business customers that can provide aggregated, anonymized data about businesses like theirs When they use Chase for credit and debit card acceptance, it will provide transaction-based data that can be used for marketing and loyalty programs, among other uses, according to Chase.

Chase says its new Payments hub provides small-business owners access to different ways to pay vendors and employees. The ACH and real-time payments service are pay-as-you-go, with no monthly fee, says Jameson Troutman, Chase head of product for small business, via email. Standard ACH fees are $2.50 for each payment up to 10 per month and 15 cents per payment above 10. Same-day ACH and real-time payments are priced at 1% of the transaction value up to a maximum of $25 per transaction.

“When a banking customer goes to make a payment, they are presented with the different options that are available for that transaction and the fees and delivery speed so they can make an informed choice,” Troutman tells Digital Transactions News. “All of these transactions can be seen from a single dashboard online or mobile, and clients only need to enroll once.”

Chase participates in both real-time payments services, RTP from The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC and FedNow from the Federal Reserve. “In an average quarter, we move more than $10.5 [billion] in same-day and real-time payments for Chase Business Banking small-business customers to support their cash-flow needs,” Troutman says.

The contactless payments component of the product suite includes Tap to Pay on iPhone. It’s available exclusively to business customers that use Chase QuickAccept for their payments processing. Tap to Pay on iPhone enables merchants to accept contactless payments with an app on an iPhone without having to plug in a card-reading device.

The invoicing tool enables small businesses to create invoices that can be sent via text or email, and allows payees to pay via Zelle, a peer-to-peer payments service, or by check. Chase customers using Chase QuickAccept to accept credit card payments get same-day deposits.

All of these services are meant to help small businesses, Troutman says. “Small businesses tell us that their top concerns include cash flow, staffing, and revenue growth. That’s why Chase is introducing new services that will allow small-business owners to electronically create and send invoices, make better use of customer insights, and speed up the payment process.”

Except for the ACH and real-time payments options, there are no fees for the services with eligible accounts.