Opening new gateways

Derived from Latin, the word "meritus" means to earn, deserve or acquire. Since 2008, Meritus Payment Solutions has worked to earn the trust of small to midsize e-commerce, business-to-business, retail, restaurant, direct response, healthcare, gaming, nonprofit and service sector enterprises. It does so through a proprietary global platform that serves as the pivotal point of entry for all its clients.

"The company's mission is to maximize our client's success through our platform and payment experience," said Alan Kleinman, Principal of Meritus. "We are in the business of exceeding expectations and believe that integrity, commitment and delivering solutions is how we make this a reality."

Beyond traditional credit, debit, gift and loyalty card, and check payment processing, the company offers alternative payment and multiple currency options, and virtual and physical POS solutions. To that end, Meritus uses proprietary programs to manage fraud, chargebacks, recurring payments and other critical business functions.

Value-added sellers

Core to its merchant program, the proprietary Payment XP payment platform can link merchants globally with the backing of customized risk management for both in-person and card-not-present environments. Also included are advanced reporting features with authorization and settlement in over 150 global currencies made possible through partnership with a growing network of international banks.

"We have also recently obtained the ability to process Level III transactions through Payment XP," Kleinman said. "This brings great benefits to our merchants processing business-to-business and business-to-government transactions, ensuring them lower rates. With Level III on Payment XP, merchants can see up to a 1 percent fee reduction on these transactions."

Meritus' Fraud XP merchant-defined risk engine is designed to allow merchants to customize fraud protection with over 1,000 advanced filters to choose from and access to the some of the largest negative databases, including device reputation.

The company's Chargeback Management System (CBMS) offers a quick-response solution for dealing with chargebacks and requests for information. CBMS enables merchants to review chargeback reason codes, bulk upload documentation to fight each chargeback, and prioritize cases based on severity using its dynamic case management tool. Responding to client feedback, Meritus has since enhanced the system to further automate the chargeback process.

"Recently we launched Chargeback Management System Plus, which allows merchants to automatically fight chargebacks before they occur," Kleinman said. "CBMS Plus issues real-time chargeback alerts and automatic refunds on behalf of the merchant, therefore skipping the entire chargeback process altogether."

According to Kleinman, the original chargeback system, a forerunner to CBMS Plus, has proven to increase chargeback win ratio by 30 percent and reduce chargeback representation time by 40 percent for most merchants. "We expect even greater results from CBMS Plus since it automates the chargeback process," he added.

The proprietary Recurring Billing Manager system helps manage recurring revenue generated through subscription-based sales or nonprofit donations. Built-in capabilities include revenue tracking and direct deposit to help improve cash flow and maximize marketing efforts.

Meritus plans to launch an enhanced recurring billing solution in 2014, making it possible for merchants to automatically update customer card account information to prevent nonpayment from a variety of different types of declined transactions. The goal is to increase authorization approval rates and revenue retention. "We expect this new product enhancement will increase revenue by 3 to 6 percent," Kleinman said.

Promising future

With an eye to the future, Meritus recently appointed IT expert Mark Adams as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer to spearhead product engineering, application development, IT infrastructure and information security enhancements.

For ISOs and merchant level salespeople, Meritus offers flexible and competitive revenue sharing programs supported by 24/7 client services. "We understand that you have choices and assure you that with our competitive compensation package coupled with our high approval rates and technology centric product offering, we can board more merchants and retain them longer so that you earn more," Kleinman stated.

Notice to readers: These are archived articles. Contact names or information may be out of date. We regret any inconvenience.