1. 101 QUESTIONS
FOR YOUR PAYMENT AND PRESENTMENT PARTNER
The presentment and payment industry is changing rapidly, and we know
that it’s tough to gauge whether your partners on this front are keeping up.
Knowing the considerations that go into maintaining a comprehensive strategy
that addresses your business needs and new technology considerations, all
while meeting consumer expectations is a huge challenge. Billers agree that
manage without true expertise and real insight.
It’s important to ensure that you’re positioned to remain ahead of the market,
and that all of your suppliers are willing and able to be consultative partners
to you in this new market opportunity. Whether you’re seeking a new
payment and presentment partner and are preparing to issue an RFP, are
trying to understand your provider’s full scope of offerings relative to industry
trends, or are simply wondering if you’re getting the most from your current
To that end, Western Union Payments® is proud to present this list of 101
questions to ask your present or potential payment and presentment partner.
We recognize that every business has different needs and that those priorities
can vary considerably from biller to biller. To account for this, we interviewed
our clients, alliance partners, consultants, industry experts and marketing
leadership in order to compile this checklist. Their responses ranged from basic
functionality to less obvious considerations, all of which will help to give you
to help you create the most value from your billing and remittance strategy,
both now and well into the future.

2. Company Background Internet
1. What is their primary business?
options and fee structures for subsidiaries?
2. How many years have they been in the
payment and presentment business? 15. Do they require preregistration to use the payment site?
16. Do they provide site logging tools?
4. How many years have they been working 17. Do they offer an electronic wallet with multiple payment
with your industry? types and management capabilities?
5. What is their market presence in the payments industry? 18. Do they offer an online payments history view?
6. What is their market presence in your industry? 19. Can the consumer sign up for complementary solutions
(e.g., eBill enrollment and paper suppression, payments
7. What is their client relationship philosophy?
20. Do they capture an email address with the payment?
8. Can they provide strong references?
21. Do they offer customized, simple URLs?
Payment Types
9. Do they accept ACH (drawing from checking, savings,
and money market accounts), credit card (Visa, IVR
MasterCard, Discover, American Express), debit card
options and fee structures for subsidiaries?
Pulse, Accel) payments?
23. How is the customer passed from the biller’s IVR to the
payment IVR?
25. Do they offer call drop tracking for trouble
shooting purposes?
customer base?
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3. 27. Do they offer remembered payment features?
Mobile
42. Do they offer payments via text message?
28. Can the consumer sign up for complementary solutions
(e.g., eBill enrollment and paper suppression, payments
43. Do they work with all major carriers?
CRS and Management–Facing Tools
45. Do they offer a payments app? For which smart
and management portal?
phone platforms?
eBills
46. Do they provide both push and pull eBilling solutions?
31. Does it support unlimited users?
47. Do their eBills have integrated payment options or will
the customer be forced to another page to make a
payment?
33. Does it support complete auditing tools?
48. Are there solutions in place to maximize deliverability for
push solutions?
Recurring
49. Are there reporting tools in place to measure and
address eBill activity?
50. Do they provide marketing opportunities in the eBill?
51. Do they have a comprehensive eBill adoption strategy?
38. Through what channels do they offer recurring?
Online Banking Payments
39. Do they send electronic communications to consumers 52. Do they offer expedited online banking payments?
to notify them when a recurring payment processes?
53. Do they offer guaranteed funds for online banking
payments?
40. Are these payments processed and funded in the same
54. Do they provide account validation for online banking
payments to prevent posting errors?
41. Do they offer specialized reporting on recurring
payments?
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4. 68. Do they have a mobile messaging strategy?
69. Do they provide email append services?
Reporting
online tool? Hosting Environment & Compliance
70. Is it a fully hosted solution?
71. Are there any hardware or software requirements?
59. Is the reporting data exportable into multiple formats? (i.e., across two hot sites)?
60. How many standard reports do they provide? 73. What is the approach to redundancy?
74. What is their business continuity plan?
75. How does their total capacity compare to current
63. Is an eLockbox solution available? 76. What integration options are available? Real time?
Customer Communications
77. Are they compliant with all applicable standards?
64. Do they help to design a comprehensive consumer
adoption marketing strategy aligned with your business
goals?
78. What application monitoring is in place?
79. How long is payment data retained so it is available
options?
Processing & Funding
67. What types of consumer marketing do they support?
Through what channels?
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5. 92. Will you have the same account management and
82. Is a single remittance available?
management protocols?
83. Are they merchant processor agnostic?
94. Is technical support available on a 24x7x365 basis?
95. Where is their support located?
96. What are the escalation paths?
Account Management
86. Do they provide free hosting, implementation and 97. Is support accessible through email and phone?
upgrades?
87. How do they approach client support? service?
88. Do they sponsor user groups or industry consortiums? 99. What is their ongoing product strategy?
89. Do they provide regularly updated business intelligence? 100. What additional value can they provide?
90. Will they advise on industry best practices throughout 101. How do they differentiate themselves from their
the relationship? competitors?
91. Will they help create a payment strategy that will create
more value for your business?
ABOUT WESTERN UNION PAYMENTS
Western Union® Payments is committed to helping billers create the most value from their payments strategy by
partnering to give your customers convenient, cutting edge ways to pay. From presentment to payment, our services
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