BillingTree assessed in accordance with 2016 NACHA Operating Rules

Every now and then, when looking over your statement, you may have noticed a charge called “EIRF” and have wondered what EIRF is. The Electronic Interchange Reimbursement Fee, also known as EIRF, is an additional transaction interchange rate applied by Visa to certain transactions. It is a hefty charge that may appear on your statement when a transaction has been re-classified to a more expensive category.

One of the methods of measuring the effectiveness of a credit union is the Efficiency Ratio. The Efficiency Ratio is calculated by dividing the bank’s non-interest expenses by their net income. The ratio tells how well a credit union is using their assets to generate profits. Part of improving the ratio is to drive down the costs of operation. One of the best methods for doing so is to review current processes to understand where improvements can be made. Here are a few suggestions for lowering costs.

If you have low-balance or early-out accounts, online virtual negotiations can relieve the stigma of settling their debt because it will let a person come up with a payment plan without the requirement of talking to a human.

Here is some good news for the collection industry: Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) litigations were down during July 2016. The drop was significant: FDCPA suits were down 12.6% and FCRA suits were down 35.1%.

In BillingTree’s 2016 Financial Services Operations and Technology Survey, it was discovered that in the business growth strategies and critical factors area, member retention and growing the base of members through client acquisition were the two top factors respondents cited as critical to growth and profitability for financial services organizations in 2016, with cost reduction ranking a close third. Respondents ranked new technologies fourth, followed by offering merchant services to customers/members...

According to Healthcare Finance News, more than half of healthcare provider bills do not get paid. For every dollar that is billed to patients, providers have historically failed to collect 65 cents. Providers are experts at managing insurance reimbursement, but collecting self-pay dollars is a different story. With the average annual deductible for covered workers increasing 255% since 2006 and projected to continue this growth trajectory, providers are faced with a daunting challenge to remain...

If you own a collection agency in Massachusetts, here is important information that will impact your business. A new ruling by the Massachusetts Superior Court states that any call from a creditor to a consumer’s cell phone that goes to voicemail is an official “communication.” In court case Watkins v. Glenn Associates, Inc., the Court held that even if the creditor does not leave a message on the consumer’s voicemail, the creditor’s call counts as one of two permitted calls per week under Massachusetts...

Now that healthcare has started to come with higher deductibles and consumers are responsible for more of the payment, consumers are demanding more hospital pricing transparency. After all, consumers want to know what they will be paying for services.

According to the Mobile Payments Report from BusinessInsider.com, payments using mobile devices continue to increase at double-digit growth rates. Their latest US mobile forecast finds that volume will reach $75 billion during 2016. Volume is expected to increase significantly by 2020, reaching $503 billion. This reflects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 80% between 2015 and 2020.