Economy is starting to recover, says boss of Acceptcards
THE CHIEF executive of a Yorkshire-based card payments company said he is seeing signs of an economic recovery among his business partners as the lockdown is eased across large parts of the country.
Acceptcards has seen card payments bounce back to levels close to where they were before the UK went into lockdown in March this year.
The business arranges merchant card services for business customers of some of the UK’s largest trade bodies and associations.
Its clients include the CBI, Enterprise Nation, the Forum of Private Business and Yorkshire Asian Business Association.
Richard Bradley, the company’s CEO, said: “During the 15 years since I started the business this has undoubtedly been the biggest shift in the way consumers and businesses use cards to pay for goods and services.
“We had a downturn during the banking crisis of 2008, but we’ve seen nothing like the fall we experienced in early March, accelerating into April and May when we saw transactions drop dramatically across Britain as lockdown conditions took hold.
“Many sectors like hospitality, retail, hair and beauty, charity, performing arts and events couldn’t trade at all with all their income streams halting overnight.
“This had a massive impact on many merchants. They were very concerned as to how they could pay the fixed monthly service fees and terminal rentals.”
Mr Bradley said he worked “tirelessly” with his merchant account partners to arrange for their charges to be frozen. Most kept their facilities live so they could trade straight away when lockdown eased.
He added: “This advice was so important in giving our customers peace of mind at a time when lots of businesses were in survival mode.”
“We are a small team here, with only 12 of us, but we are agile and we work to our strengths. We support each other, share best practice, and share our profits at the end of the financial year.”
Last week saw the team return to its offices in Elland after nearly five months away.
Mr Bradley added: “Being a people person, this has been one of the biggest things I’ve missed. As proud as I am of the team’s resilience and what we have achieved since March, the energy of being together is something that you can’t replicate on the phone, over emails or via online Zoom meetings.”