Piatel.co.uk - Finance Features

Our unique Pia Virtual Merchant is integrated within the PiaTel platform, and gives any person the ability to transform common financial transactions to fully automated and interactive transactions that take place over the telephone.

To use Virtual Merchant, just use any touch-tone phone. That’s all you need to get started in selling goods and services electronically. It comes complete with customer order taking, credit and debit card processing and electronic funds access and transfers. It is also ideal for collecting and processing funds for all types of subscription accounts and account receivables.

The Pia Virtual Merchant, apart from being essential for business users is ideal for the residential market. It can be used for various occasions such as for collecting payments from those unwanted items sold on eBay, selling home care products or personal services. Our technology now gives the average person the financial tools of electronic banking, previously available only to commercial and financial institutions. With PiaTel, the world is your office.

The Virtual Merchant service is available to your customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from any touch-tone phone anywhere in the world. It’s also easy to use, safe and extremely secure. Your customer simply calls your regular Pia telephone number. When Pia answers, they just press the hash key (#) on their touch-tone telephone, and they are in. Pia will begin the transaction process by asking them for the whole-pound amount of the purchase.

From there, Pia will walk them through each step of the transaction, including buyer’s name, description of the purchase, shipping address, method of payment, etc. As the seller you get both a telephone call and an email confirming each order, with all the relevant customer data, and a recording of the customer’s actual request – and only after the credit charge has been verified. All you do is ship the purchase or provide the service. As our technology is based on a multiple line service you can therefore answer hundreds of telephone orders at one time.

The advantage of our Virtual Merchant service over others, such as PayPal, is that because no special equipment is needed, you can use our service instantly from any location and whenever you need it. You can make an on the spot sale whether making the charge from your office or home, over your standard telephone or from the floor of a trade-show using your mobile phone. Compare our services with the limitations of our competitors and you’ll see how flexible we are.

We don’t require your customers to have an account with us in the way others such as PayPal do. We don’t require your customers to enter the payment detail over the internet. Other companies will only take online payments — limiting you to a time when your customers are connected to the internet. Apart from these limitations, you as the seller have the added problem of possibly not being big enough to be accepted as a merchant from a processing company in the first place. You never have these problems with us as we welcome everyone, no matter how large or small their sales might be.

The Virtual Merchant cost nothing to set up. You only pay a transaction cost when you use the service. We charge a transaction fee for which we agree in advance before using, of anywhere between 3-5% of the value of the transaction. The initial rate may be reduce once we have established a good business relationship with you.

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Taking and making payments is easy now

PiaCard
Making money with Pia Virtual Merchant is wonderful. But it's no great deal if you can't actually get at your money. With PiaCard there are no worries. You have access to your funds 24 hours a day, every day from almost any ATM around the world. It doesn't matter if your business is in London and you're in Glasgow. Whether you earned your money in New York, and are holidaying in Florida – it’s no problem. The transfers are electronic and fully documented. With PiaCard, wherever you are is home for your money.

Collecting your cash is simplicity itself. Just phone in to your PiaTel account and transfer your funds to your PiaCard. Pia will take as much of your accumulated credit as you want, and transfer it to your PiaCard. You can also withdraw that cash from any of over one million ATM locations worldwide.

Your PiaCard is more than just a valuable ATM card, it’s also acts as a valuable and convenient Debit Card. You and your immediate family can have the full, worldwide purchasing power of the PiaCard name, accepted at over 24 million merchants around the world. From high street shops to internet shopping, you'll be welcomed everywhere when you have a PiaCard with our trusted Logo.

The PiaCard can either be combined with our PiaTel communication and Virtual Merchant services or can be sold to you independently, as a completely autonomous stand-alone product.

Advantages of a PiaCard.
The PiaCard gives the features you need most from a bank account with none of the hassles. A PiaCard account is perfect for someone just starting out, because you get the ease of ATM access and purchasing power, right from day one. PiaCard is ideal for people without a bank account.

If you already have a bank account, what could you possibly need with another account like a PiaCard? Two words — limited risk. We all know how clever fraudsters and crooks are these days, especially in the area of electronic banking. Fine, just use a PiaCard as your low risk account for those times when you question who you're dealing with. By limiting the funds in your PiaCard account, you've completely limited your risk.

Another advantage of PiaCard is that black marks on your record won't stop you from getting a PiaCard Debit Card, because there are no credit checks to pass. Everything you do with your PiaCard is pre-paid, so there are no worries about credit limits, late fees or any of the other irritations of managing debt. Instead, you get the freedom of plastic, without the worry.

Because all our transfers are instant, PiaCard is advantageous for those of us who are on the road a lot, such as travelling salespeople, who suddenly need money for those unexpected purchases that their employer never warned them about. No problem. With one simple call to the office, our salesperson’s employer can instantly top-up the PiaCard our salesperson is using. It doesn’t matter where they are the money is available right away.