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The hotly competitive arena of integrated payments has prompted PointOS, a hospitality software developer, to register as an independent sales organization to gain better control over payment services it offers.
The company, which serves customers, announced its ISO registration this week and calls its service PointOS Payments.
“We became an ISO so that we can control our rates and fees, allowing us to offer more competitive rates to our merchants, Dylan Penebre, chief executive of the Boston-based firm, tells Digital Transactions News in an email.
PointOS Payments offers custom pricing, eschewing a one-for-all processing rate, Penebre says, “but we help all our merchants get the best possible effective rate for them without adding on large fees that don’t actually serve them.” The PointOS platform is priced at a monthly fee and works on Windows and Android computer systems. The company did not disclose its pricing.
“Becoming an ISO has allowed us to offer more competitive rates and fees to the advantage of our merchants, which also gives PointOS a competitive edge against larger, more well-known POS companies who attempt to get away with inflated processing rates, often under the guise of seemingly free or low-cost POS programs,” Penebre says.
Some software developers choose the payment-facilitator model when looking to get more involved in payment processing. Payment facilitators hold the master merchant account, and all its liabilities and responsibilities, and recruits other merchants as sub-merchants. Penebre says PointOS considered that model, but decided it made more sense not to, “as allowing our sponsor bank to handle the risk and underwriting helps keep our cost down for our merchants.”
PointOS says it now offers next-day funding to merchants with preauthorization and offline capabilities. It has an integrated gift and loyalty program. Clients also can choose to offer a mobile wallet.
Using a direct inside sales model, PointOS says its onboard model enables merchants to be approved and begin processing on the same day. There are more than 2,000 installations of its software.
Other software developers have become ISOs. One of the first was Mindbody Inc., which became an ISO in 2010.
