Orum.io offers an easy-to-implement solution for our customers to quickly access instant payouts through several major payment rails: Real-Time Payments (RTP), FedNow, Same-Day ACH, ACH, and Wires.
We’re particularly passionate about Real-Time Payments for many reasons.
RTP delivers an instant experience for your customers, who can access their funds within seconds. Beyond the obvious advantages of a real-time payment experience, other benefits of using RTP include the fixed cost per transaction and the flexibility in requiring minimal Personal Identifiable Information (PII).
As you’re building your payout experience and evaluating the benefits of Real-Time Payments (RTP) vs. Push to Card, you may be wondering which is the best option for your business, but first, let’s revisit what Push to Card payments are.
What are Push to Card Payments?
Push to Card payments involve electronically transferring funds to a prepaid debit card, commonly used for disbursing employee salaries, government benefits, and insurance claims. This method enables the receiver to access funds through the prepaid card for ATM withdrawals, purchases, or transfers to their bank accounts, offering a convenient alternative for those without traditional bank accounts or who prefer the flexibility of a prepaid card.
6 Benefits of Real-Time Payments (RTP) vs Push to Card
1. RTP is super fast
If you’re using or considering debit rails as a money movement solution, speed is most likely the top priority. RTP delivers an instant payout experience 24/7/365.
When you use Orum’s payout API, you’re tapping into a solution that ensures the fastest, most efficient journey to complete the transaction. Your customer’s payment gets from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible, considering details like the size of the transfer, the time of day, the day of the week, and the credentials on file. It’s all automated, so you don’t have to spend time or money building the logic on your end.
RTP is often the fastest path for money movement. Introduced in 2017 for U.S. domestic payments, this rail is real-time: Payments are processed 24/7/365,even on bank holidays, and settlement is immediate. That means your customer receives their funds instantly.
With RTP, every payout transaction is cleared individually for instant settlement. According to one study, 70% of consumers who have used real-time payments would be “very” or “extremely” likely to use them again. Plus, 30% consider RTP availability a key factor when selecting a bank, with 25% even willing to switch financial institutions to get access. Many customers are willing to pay a transaction fee to access their money in real-time, allowing your business to create a new revenue stream.
2. RTP comprehensively offers 100% coverage with Same-Day ACH
In cases when your customer can’t receive RTP payments because of eligibility limitations, Orum’s payment orchestration capability still has you covered with a same-business-day experience.
With our Instant Rail Eligibility endpoint, you will know instantly whether a specific bank is eligible to receive instant RTP push payments. If your customer’s bank doesn’t have the functionality to receive RTP payments, Orum will route the payment through Same Day ACH and can still deliver the end user’s funds within the same business day.
3. RTP is seamless and secure
The speed of payouts isn’t the only thing our customers love about RTP. It’s also a straightforward experience for the end user requiring minimal PII. When your company uses card rails, customers are often required to provide sensitive information like their Social Security number or Taxpayer Identification Number, which many individuals and businesses are reluctant to share, especially online.
That’s not always necessary with Orum’s Real-Time Payment solution – making it easier for you to remove friction from the onboarding flow and engage with your users. With Orum, customers often need only to provide their first and last name, or if you’re a business, the company’s legal name.
To be sure, you’re not sacrificing any security or reliability. RTP adheres to Know Your Customer/Business data rules to make sure the transactions are secure. But if you implement card rails, you’ll need to ensure you have in place a PCI compliance program. This is more expensive, complicated, and significantly more time-consuming.
4. RTP is cost-effective
RTP is a more cost-effective way to send and receive instant payments than card rails.
Card rail vendors typically charge basis points, but RTP through Orum is a simple flat fee per transaction. While card rails can deliver a near-instant experience, they come with a significant cost. For example, companies that use card rails can lose up to $30,000 in fees for every $1 million they make in sales.
Even if you were to supplement a small portion of your annual instant transactions with RTP, you’d increase your margin and ability to reduce costs. That’s a huge benefit in a capital-constrained environment where optimizing cost structure and margins is more important than ever.
5. RTP is data-rich
Card rails include only basic information within transactions: the payment amount and who’s receiving it.
RTP offers more. Real-time payment systems use the data-rich ISO 20022 messaging standard for payments, which allows for more detailed information about a payment’s source and purpose or why a payment was denied. The RTP infrastructure is designed to be both fast and secure, and it meets consumer protection criteria that help prevent fraud and misuse.
RTP sends confirmation messages to both the sending and receiving parties once the transaction is completed. This is another feature that card rails don’t deliver.
6. RTP is here to stay
Today’s customers expect on-demand services like real-time payouts. According to a 2021 survey by the Federal Reserve, more than 60% of consumers want their payments to be posted immediately with real-time account balance updates.
This trend will continue as Gen Z and younger generations become even larger portions of the workforce and heads of households. For example, a study of insurance customers found that 80% of Millennials and Gen Z are willing to switch insurers to gain access to real-time payouts.
The shifting nature of work — namely, the rise of the gig economy — also signals an increased desire for RTP. About 70% of gig workers said they’d be more likely to work for a platform offering them near-instant pay, according to one study. This preference for instant payouts and flexibility like Earned Wage Access is also strong across the general U.S. workforce, at 64%, so access to RTP can be a powerful hiring and retention tool.
With its speed, coverage, low cost, seamlessness, and security, RTP offers many benefits when compared with card rails.
Real-Time Payments with Orum.io
Orum.io offers quick access to RTP — as well as FedNow, Same Day ACH, ACH, and Wires — without costly bank integrations or prolonged compliance. We’ll have you set up in two weeks or less. Get in touch with us today.