Tomato Pay is a free app to consumers that charges merchants far less than cards for payment transactions. The article provides almost no information beyond pricing, but it can be assumed this solution utilizes the Open Banking Pay by Bank methodology.
This approach is also used by Instanea, TrueLayer, PayIt, and other alternative payment processors, banks, and global card networks. This methodology and these solutions, as well as an explanation of the issues associated with deploying production level API platforms, are discussed in Mercator’s upcoming report “A Lesson for the US: How EU Open Banking APIs Have Stabilized to Support Alternative Networks:”
“The free-to-download app charges firms a penny on transactions of up to £10, 10 pence for payments of up to £100 and 0.1% for payments over £100.
There are no card minimum fees, or chargebacks, alongside easy refunds and confirmation of all transactions for both customer and business.
In a survey of 2007 Brits commissioned by tomato pay, 35% say they now decide where they shop based on whether or not the place accepts non-cash payments and one in five would be put off from using a small business if they could only pay in cash.
Nicholas Heller, CEO, tomato pay, says: ‘tomato pay is an app designed specifically to support small business owners and remove the headache of finances – starting by ensuring that more of a payment goes to the business and not their payment providers.'”
Overview by Tim Sloane, VP, Payments Innovation at Mercator Advisory Group