What is a PSP?

In a globalized world with ever-expanding markets, digital payments are a must-have. Standard digital payments have become a no-brainer and are part of any business’s payment infrastructure. Unfortunately, the more a company expands internationally, the more options it is presented with when it comes to digital payments. This is why it’s important to understand exactly what Payment Service Providers (PSPs) do, why it’s advisable to have more than one, and what is the best way to manage them. In this article, we will dive into the definition of PSP and explain why it’s paramount you consider a payment orchestration software like BridgerPay.

Payment Service Providers: What they are

First, let's get the nomenclature down. Payments Service Providers can also be called PSPs, or Merchant Service Providers. These are different names for the same thing.

Here and here are two good resources, but the gist is that PSPs are third-party companies that connect to banks and other financial institutions to provide businesses the ability to accept payments with various methods, such as credit/debit cards, bank transfers, and Direct Debit. PSPs have become fundamental because security and compliance in digital payments are growing increasingly complicated, and for what is often a small fee, these companies can relieve businesses of any size from a huge burden. Additionally, PSPs often give merchants easy access to issuing refunds, managing subscriptions, reporting tools, and many features that would cost a huge amount of money and time to develop in-house.

Main benefits of using a PSP

Depending on each specific PSP, they offer a plethora of features, but we can boil down the main, must-have characteristics to the following:

1. Security: PSPs are guaranteed to comply with the latest regulations and security requirements, allowing you to process payments with complete peace of mind
2. Cross-border transactions: most PSPs nowadays offer currency exchange options, allowing businesses to grow and expand internationally without worrying too much about global transactions
3. Plug and play: most PSPs are easy to implement in your workflow. Issues arise when you need more than one, see below for more details

Drawbacks of using PSPs

Unfortunately, all that glitters is not gold. PSPs have their drawbacks. Not to worry though, the solution is in the next paragraph! Let’s see where PSPs come short and what BridgerPay does to rectify this.

1. International transactions: while a lot of PSPs have multi-currency support, often they are localized to specific geographies, or there are more economical competitors in one area, or some users prefer to use a local payment method rather than a big international one. Long story short, often using multiple PSPs is the way to go
2. No control over your payment infrastructure: by using one PSP, you are bound to their set of fees and features. At the same time, managing multiple PSPs can quickly get out of hand, as each integrates differently and needs a specific set of requirements
3. Clumsy redirections and compromised user experience: PSPs may redirect your users to separate security pages that don’t match your branding, hence interrupting the flow of the user experience
4. Lost transactions: every PSP has a set of requirements to accept payment. As a consequence, some transactions may be declined for technical reasons, losing you revenue and customers

Payment Orchestration: The best of all worlds

PSPs have strengths and weaknesses, the great news is that you don’t have to compromise. BridgerPay is a payment orchestration software and it’s literally the answer to your prayers:

• We integrate with 350+ PSPs, so you don’t have to worry about a thing, we have already done all the development, you just need to connect to us
• Centralized reporting: see all your transaction from all your PSPs in one dashboard with Bridger Reports
• Payment orchestration: route transactions to any PSP according to country of origin, currency, amount, and dozens of other custom options with the drag-and-drop Bridger Router. Your customers will automatically see the PSP they prefer and will be more likely to complete the transaction
• Choose the perfect PSPs: get the best out of all providers, without suffering from their imperfections
• Save declined transactions: Bridger Retry™ automatically submits refused transactions for technical reasons to another PSP, saving over 20% of those transactions
• Maximum security guaranteed: no need for PCI scoping with our PCI level 1 compliant checkout and Bridger Safe. Our tools offer secure payment processing and tokenization. Additionally, sensitive information never travels through your servers, saving you the need to invest in expensive tech
• PayWith™ allows your users to choose what PSP they want to use and even allows them to split a purchase between a few different methods.

BridgerPay takes digital transactions to the next level, relieving your business from the burden of managing your payment stack with internal tools. Being in total control of your payment infrastructure means more time and money to focus on what really matters: your business.

Get in touch today, it’s free!