Latest / The Payments Shed / Ep. 34 - Navigating Travel Payments, Data, and the Merchant of Record Approach with Trust My Group & Repayd CEO Will Plummer
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to the Payment Shed Podcast, the weekly podcast that
- 0:03dives into the big topics, trends and people shaping the
- 0:06world's of payments, fintech and business leadership of your two
- 0:09Co hosts, myself Grant Evans and Justin Hannah.
- 0:13Welcome back to the Payment Shed podcast.
- 0:15Today we are joined by Will Plummer, CEO of Trust My Group.
- 0:19Will, thanks for coming in. Tell us a little more about you.
- 0:22Well, thanks for having me. Great to be here.
- 0:24So CEO of Trust My group and the group split into two main
- 0:28companies. So on one side we've got TMU
- 0:31management, so that's an insurance MGA providing credit
- 0:34risk insurance to the travel industry, financial institutions
- 0:39and FX houses. And then on the other side,
- 0:41we've got repaid. It was formerly Trust My Travel,
- 0:44which is a merchant of record solution for travel companies
- 0:47basically. Hey, so I like the the the
- 0:49merchant record piece gets excited when we talk about
- 0:52payments. What I really kind of pulled you
- 0:55into solving problems in in the payments world from a travel
- 0:58perspective. Good question.
- 1:03I think I'm a problem solver at heart.
- 1:05I'm sort of I like to tinker with different things and that's
- 1:07probably been my end doing at times.
- 1:09But was in travel before selling outbound travel, selling inbound
- 1:13travel to Oman. Actually, I used to run ADMC in
- 1:16Oman and it was looking at some of the challenges around that.
- 1:20So we're going back 2000 and six, 2007.
- 1:24It was really easy to build your own website. e-commerce was in
- 1:28its infancy, but also things like financial protection were
- 1:32also in their infancy as they met e-commerce.
- 1:35And it was what could we actually do to, to marry that?
- 1:39So we originally started with a trust account solution and then
- 1:43it was how do you get money into the trust account?
- 1:46Bank transfers obviously initially, but then payments,
- 1:49credit card payments came in, came in and here we are today
- 1:53built up into a fully fledged sort of payment company.
- 1:56And when I guess did the merchant of record model first
- 2:01click for you guys as this is the route we need to be going
- 2:03down, were the pain points that did you start in a different
- 2:06place and you're like, we can't keep going like this.
- 2:07We need to look at a different way of doing things.
- 2:10I think merchant of record on the whole is a pain point and I
- 2:14wouldn't say we've necessarily gone.
- 2:17We've we've solved it and we're happy.
- 2:19You know, we take legal advice every year to check we meet the
- 2:22regulations that we're doing the right things by our customers
- 2:25and by the market. So yeah, it's, it's probably
- 2:29still up in the air, but it was certainly early on.
- 2:33How do we get money from from A to B?
- 2:35We do a lot of business outside of the UK, outside of Europe.
- 2:39So there are varying challenges around that where a pay FAC
- 2:45wouldn't actually fit that model.
- 2:48But what we've done with that merchant of record is we are
- 2:51actually providing a service to the customer.
- 2:53So we're providing financial protection to the consumer.
- 2:56So we on board the travel company and then we are taking
- 3:00that that consumers money and protecting it either with the
- 3:04funds sat in a trust account until after travel or we're
- 3:07insuring them against the against the merchants
- 3:10insolvency. And you take on a level of risk
- 3:13by being the Mor then as well and you're.
- 3:15Of course. Yeah, absolutely.
- 3:17I mean that that's what goes hand in hand with being an Mor
- 3:21is you are taking on that risk and you've got to acknowledge
- 3:24that. You've got to acknowledge that
- 3:25with the acquirers, with the schemes because any failures
- 3:29that coming to you. So for us, that's a lot of due
- 3:33diligence when we're on boarding, but also where the
- 3:36models being built up is with that security in place.
- 3:39So we have this insurance that protects everyone through the
- 3:43value chain on that, which includes back to the acquirers.
- 3:46So they're actually getting a level of comfort from us, a high
- 3:49level of comfort because they're endorsed within an insurance
- 3:52policy which protects them in the event of merchant failure.
- 3:56And then ensuring chargebacks. And just picking up a small on a
- 3:59small thing, then you sort of acquire as plural.
- 4:01So you have multiple acquirer relationships.
- 4:04Yeah, I think that's crucial. Especially in travel, right?
- 4:07Especially, especially in travel, we also work multi,
- 4:11multi geography. So we're looking at where we can
- 4:15process closer to where the consumer is less, we're less
- 4:19concerned with where the the travel provider is, is located.
- 4:23But also, I'm not sure burnt is the right word.
- 4:27But we've certainly, we've explored a lot of things where
- 4:30we've gone down a single acquirer relationship.
- 4:34COVID was, you know, a real exponent of that.
- 4:37And, and I would encourage anybody in a space like travel,
- 4:39to your point, Justin, to to look at a multi acquirer
- 4:43strategy. I think that's prudent.
- 4:45Appetites change, you know, whether they're going for an IPO
- 4:48or a fundraising, but also how the market looks at travel.
- 4:53I think you've got to have that protection, whether you're ours
- 4:56or whether you're a travel company just getting a acquired
- 4:59relationship yourself. Look at COVID right or I, I, I
- 5:02talk about COVID, but actually example I always get from credit
- 5:05risk teams and I was selling to travel and analyzers.
- 5:07No one expected the cloud ash in 2000 and whenever it was right
- 5:11and all of a sudden the world's ending and, and people losing
- 5:13millions. And I remember I tried to win a
- 5:15huge travel business once. I can't say names.
- 5:17And I remember sitting in a meeting room with our credit
- 5:19risk team saying like they're never going to fail.
- 5:21Look at the size of Thomas Cook. Too big to fail, but.
- 5:24They're too big to fail. And then the day it happened,
- 5:27all I got was a one sentence e-mail from my head of risk
- 5:32saying I told you and it was a link to the Thomas Cook claps.
- 5:35So I think it's a really good point.
- 5:37Now around we always go to credit risk and say, yeah,
- 5:40there's a risk, but these guys would never fail.
- 5:42They've got this behind them and they've got that behind them,
- 5:44but you just don't know what's going on sometimes.
- 5:47Yeah, it's true. What do you think then that are
- 5:49the biggest misconceptions from a merch to record to a pay FAC?
- 5:55What they're doing and, and the role they're sort of playing
- 5:57within, within an ecosystem, you know, a payment facilitator
- 6:02who's obviously regulated and and sort of heavily regulated
- 6:05and controlled in that they take a limit of risk.
- 6:09But ultimately that's still, it's still sitting largely on,
- 6:12on the merchant with us. We're, we're taking again to
- 6:16Grant's point, we're taking all the risk.
- 6:18So it's for us to justify that to the acquirers again to the
- 6:22schemes, but also give that level of comfort to the market,
- 6:26both to the travel providers that trust us, but to their
- 6:29consumers who suddenly, you know, they get a receipt from
- 6:32us. That's our, that's our duty as
- 6:34merchant of record. So really making sure that they
- 6:36understand why they've paid us, why the money's come to us and
- 6:41what we're doing for them. It's such a fascinating spot.
- 6:43I think every acquirer looks at the merchant of record part of
- 6:47the ecosystem with slightly different eyes as well.
- 6:50Some see Mor as a pay FAC almost and that it you know, it
- 6:54shouldn't exist. Whereas others that dive deeper
- 6:56into the finer terms and conditions, the contracts
- 6:58between I I think that's maybe what it is.
- 7:01There's an there's an element of I'm gonna say laziness.
- 7:03Maybe it's not the right word, but do they have to review a
- 7:06fine tooth? Comb your contract with the
- 7:08customer, the customer's contract with their customer,
- 7:11Right? It's like, it just seems like
- 7:12hard work. We can just say they're a pay
- 7:14FAC, but you know, you're not the pay FAC and there is a very
- 7:17real reason why. Merchant record and pay FAC are
- 7:19two different things. But I think we've maybe got a
- 7:21little bit lazy in the industry around having them very much in
- 7:24defined buckets. I think we can blame sales
- 7:26people on that a little bit, right?
- 7:28Because you've got sales people that are trying to win a bigger
- 7:31contract value. Yep, they will do what they want
- 7:34and what they can to manipulate. Manipulate a conversation to try
- 7:38and win a bigger deal. Agreed.
- 7:39Yeah, I think as well back to all that point you, you speak to
- 7:43a lot of requires and they use the what I call The Dirty a word
- 7:47which is aggregator and they see merchant of records as an
- 7:50aggregator. And there is there are a lot of
- 7:52cases of that, there's a lot of history of that.
- 7:55But certainly we go out of our way to say no, we are actually
- 7:58delivering value and a product within this transaction.
- 8:02We're providing that financial protection and that's an
- 8:04important distinction and that for the acquirers to understand,
- 8:08they see the value. You know, we have acquirers that
- 8:10will actually refer as business because of the value add that
- 8:14we're giving and also offsetting that risk.
- 8:16Again, you know, what can you do to balance that sales with your
- 8:20risk team to make sure that it goes through and you as a bank
- 8:23can actually process that payment?
- 8:25I love that narrative. So acquirers are like
- 8:27understanding the hard work you've done to enable them to be
- 8:30de risked from a travel company point of view and then they're
- 8:33sending you their travel business.
- 8:35And that's a, that's a big thing, you know, it's
- 8:37understanding that risk. And I would, I would suggest
- 8:41that a lot of acquirers that are in travel and for a lot, I think
- 8:44you'd agree travel is a golden ticket because they can
- 8:47sometimes charge high higher premiums on that, albeit comes
- 8:50with an offset at scheme level. It's really a lot of them do not
- 8:56have an understanding of the risk they're taking on.
- 8:58They say they've got level three data.
- 8:59They say they've got an analysis and understanding the risk.
- 9:03I say a naughty word, but let's just say no they haven't.
- 9:08Nice. And kind of what do you think
- 9:10was kind of your purpose of motivation and how'd that evolve
- 9:12as the company has grown into what it is today?
- 9:15It does my personal motivation. It's a really interesting and
- 9:22nice kind of juxtaposition between different industries.
- 9:26Love travel, love travelling, love that industry.
- 9:30It's a really fun and interesting industry to be in.
- 9:34And then you throw in payments which has different complexities
- 9:38and you know, different viewpoints on things.
- 9:42We've also post COVID obviously got into the insurance industry
- 9:45as well. And all together, there's a huge
- 9:48crossover, but a really interesting diversification and
- 9:52we quite like the fact that we can dip our toes in and out and
- 9:56and meet all of them. And I guess the biggest
- 10:02challenge that you faced early days when going down the
- 10:05merchant Rep, sorry harp on about merchant Rep, that was the
- 10:07biggest challenge that you faced when you initiate it going into
- 10:10that model. It, it's, it goes back to kind
- 10:14of what we were saying, you know, it's getting an, you've
- 10:18got to break the ice somewhere. So it's getting an acquirer to
- 10:21really understand what you're doing and you need someone to,
- 10:24to go 1st. And when we started, that was
- 10:272012. You know, it's a very different
- 10:30space than we are now. Aggregator was a word that was
- 10:34banded around a lot. Did you go straight into that
- 10:38model as well then or did you have to go on a non M no, so
- 10:40you? Were literally like this.
- 10:41We were straight Mor, we explored in fact we when it was
- 10:46still the FSA, you know, we were originally registered with them
- 10:49in terms of not, not as a pay fact, but what we could do as a
- 10:53payments business and, and how that SAT.
- 10:56But again, taking a lot of legal advice, understanding how the
- 10:59model SAT, we realised that actually that was hampering what
- 11:04we were doing and we needed to take that away mainly because of
- 11:09the relations we had with outbound payment companies.
- 11:12You know, they don't like dealing with two registered or
- 11:15regulated entities. So, so that was a challenge.
- 11:18But on the Mor yeah, it it kind of, I don't want to say that was
- 11:23the easiest route. That was the easiest route
- 11:26conceptually in terms of what we were trying to achieve.
- 11:30But actually it probably came with more challenges.
- 11:33And the way we on board, the way we DD and do KYB on our
- 11:37customers is probably at the same level or harsher than a a
- 11:42sort of payback pay FAC onboarding.
- 11:44Because you know to your earlier point, it's our risk.
- 11:48We've got to take it on. We also have to demonstrate and
- 11:50we're willing to demonstrate to all our acquirers, you know why
- 11:54we've onboarded where the risk sits etcetera.
- 11:58But yeah, so it was, I'm not sure early on we necessarily
- 12:03considered another route. We, we have since obviously and
- 12:06we've explored that but merged of record and I think the more
- 12:09we do it and the longer this has been going and the greater
- 12:12understanding there is within the the payment space, the more
- 12:16opportunity there is, but also what a great pathway it can be.
- 12:20You probably get that you know, acquirer sort of five years ago
- 12:24wouldn't speak to you that's now coming back a little bit with
- 12:26their tail between their legs going oh guys you've got the
- 12:29volume now can. We have your volume, please.
- 12:31Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
- 12:32No. I think that that when I was
- 12:34selling into that space, each year it would kind of change
- 12:38appetite where I'd have a merchant come to me, I'd put to
- 12:41my risk team, they'd say no. The next year, they'd say yes.
- 12:43On the flip side, I would lose a deal to another acquirer and
- 12:47then have the same contact reach out to me saying we've been
- 12:50capped at 5 million a month. Can we look to move a couple of
- 12:54a million a month into into your processing platform?
- 12:58And there's quite a few, especially in the OTA world now
- 13:00that I've got 5 or 6 acquirers and there's a lot more travel
- 13:03business now using orchestration platforms.
- 13:06I booked a holiday yesterday, I know.
- 13:10And as I went to book it, Cell Point Digital came up because
- 13:14they are just doing more and more in that space now.
- 13:16And and when it comes to orchestration platforms, winning
- 13:19more travel businesses from a gateway and then looking at the
- 13:22acquiring side. Yeah.
- 13:25I, I think that's everywhere. And again, it's we, we've made
- 13:28the point, I think travel needs that resilience of a multi
- 13:31acquire strategy. I think it works for the
- 13:34merchant as well. You know, you then you're
- 13:36spreading risk, but you're also able to push back on pricing and
- 13:41it's demonstrating what you're doing and how you're doing it.
- 13:43And I think you've got to employ that strategy.
- 13:46You an acquirer can say, Oh no, you're with us for life.
- 13:50But every acquirer I've ever worked with, you know, their
- 13:54appetite does change. You know, it doesn't take much.
- 13:57It takes an ash cloud. It takes COVID to really know
- 14:01where where things sit. You know, even during COVID,
- 14:05some people were really willing to work with us and understood
- 14:09what we were doing and how we were protecting them.
- 14:12Others ran for the hills. Is there, is there a risk, do
- 14:16you think that maybe some of the acquirers are underestimating
- 14:19when it comes to credit risk? I think that is a case not just
- 14:27amongst acquirers, but we see it in the insurance world, in the
- 14:29bond space, within the travel industry.
- 14:33People are underestimating the risk to win the business,
- 14:37especially in some of the tier two acquirers where you know,
- 14:40they want to get into the travel space, they want that that kudos
- 14:44and that opportunity to to win that business.
- 14:47And there's, there's huge volumes out there to the right
- 14:50player. But for us, and I preach about
- 14:55this a lot, it does come down to understanding the risk and
- 14:58mitigating the risk. And I, I said to you in when we
- 15:01were exchanging messages before, it all comes down to this data
- 15:05and understanding exactly what's going on.
- 15:08And whenever I talk, that will be the keyword.
- 15:11I think if you want to, if people are paying bingo along to
- 15:13this data is kind of the, the crucial part of all of this.
- 15:18And I think wherever you sit, whether you're the merchant,
- 15:21whether you're the acquirer, if you've got that data and if you
- 15:25can understand that data, you can put yourself in such a
- 15:28strong position to achieve whatever you want in the
- 15:31payments world, whether you're in travel, which is considered
- 15:34high risk or not. And.
- 15:36Where do you think that the acquirers are overact,
- 15:38overreacting and under reacting the most as far as the travel
- 15:41sector is concerned? I think it depends who you are
- 15:45as an acquirer. You know where you sit, what
- 15:49you've, what you've taken on in your portfolio and also again
- 15:54your understanding of exactly what is going on in your
- 15:56portfolio. We know of some acquirers that
- 16:00have got very profitable merchants that are disgusting
- 16:06risk, but they make them sizeable amounts of money.
- 16:09So they don't want to, they don't want to move them off that
- 16:12off that books. But I think.
- 16:13He's a merchant she wouldn't touch with a barge pole on your
- 16:15own Mor so. No, I would not.
- 16:17I would also say every single acquirer out there has has high
- 16:21risk merchants where the margins are so big that they're willing
- 16:25to take that risk and and that rough on the schemes.
- 16:28Agreed. But then you've got to as a as a
- 16:31merchant, you've got to play that forward, you know, are they
- 16:34the acquirers that then have a knee jerk reaction and there's
- 16:37an ash crowd cloud? It's just like, oh, let's get
- 16:39everything out of travel. Oh, I'm having an IPO.
- 16:42Let's get out of travel as fast as we can.
- 16:44Or are you actually building a really healthy consolidated book
- 16:49where you understand what's going on?
- 16:51Yeah, you've got some high value, high risk merchants, but
- 16:55they're nicely offset by, you know, some clean and maybe lower
- 16:59value ones. And go again, just going back to
- 17:02the insurance world, it's that balance of of risk, which I
- 17:05think from an acquiring acquirer you have to sort of take that
- 17:09viewpoint if you want to move forwards.
- 17:12You know, even the big acquirers who are when they talk about
- 17:15travel, it's largely aviation based.
- 17:19They can say, well, they're state backed airlines and
- 17:22there's no risk whatsoever. But you know, if they fall, they
- 17:26will fall hard. But you know, that becomes a
- 17:29judgement wasn't. Like the the regional airlines
- 17:32in the UK that go bust every six months and someone else goes and
- 17:35buys it again. You all know the the one we're
- 17:37talking about. Recently, 1/4 of them before
- 17:39every six. Months they go bust like these
- 17:41little propeller planes. I mean, how many people need to
- 17:43fly from Exeter to Newcastle on a given week?
- 17:45Like that's that's the question I'm asking.
- 17:47I can't comment on that. You have to get someone from
- 17:49Exeter on that. But you know, it's like Chapter
- 17:5211 in the US, isn't it? It, it, it's that kind of model
- 17:56and that kind of risk. And I think you've got to
- 17:59analyse and understand that. And I think again, that comes
- 18:02down to understanding the cash flow of these businesses.
- 18:07And as an acquirer, how are you or merchant of record, how are
- 18:11you protecting that cash flow? You know, we will analyse a a
- 18:17customer and most customers have their money as they would get
- 18:22with a normal acquire relationship.
- 18:25So they process a payment, they'll get paid out a week
- 18:28later, half week later, whatever it may be.
- 18:31But others start-ups higher risk.
- 18:34We won't pay out until after travel.
- 18:36We won't pay out until wheels up.
- 18:38But it's understanding that risk and it's also having that
- 18:40flexibility around that risk. COVID, I'm not going to, I'm not
- 18:44afraid to say that we put brakes on a lot of things and we just
- 18:47stopped payout and that was the right decision because
- 18:50subsequently a lot of refunds went out the.
- 18:52Door can you look at an example then you don't have to name a
- 18:55company, but was an example where you know a merchant on
- 18:59paper looked very high risk. But using your data and the way
- 19:03your products work, you will actually these guys aren't high
- 19:06risk at all, but you're just not looking at them the right way or
- 19:09the the maybe the direct acquirers they were speaking to
- 19:11weren't looking at them the right way.
- 19:13Yeah. I mean, great question.
- 19:15I'd say that that's what we do. I don't say that's what we do
- 19:18for for everybody, but but absolutely I would say we are
- 19:23very good at converting high risk or was perceived as high
- 19:27risk merchants to lower risk merchants to the acquirer
- 19:31because we're doing a number of things.
- 19:32We're controlling that that payout flow.
- 19:35So we know where the cash is going and also holding back cash
- 19:38doesn't necessarily mean that that's helping the merchant.
- 19:41There are other scenarios where there's there's a whole back of
- 19:44cash and that's actually impacting the businesses ability
- 19:48to trade and then you're going, well, that's a vicious circle.
- 19:51So yeah, so you've got to understand what's going on
- 19:54there. You know, a lot of scenarios
- 19:55where in a tour operator or OTA space, you can actually through
- 20:00a trust account, we call them control accounts, but you can
- 20:03control the payments going to the suppliers within a booking.
- 20:08So you've got full visibility and a full audit trail of all of
- 20:11that happening. The suppliers getting paid, so
- 20:14they're happy you're mitigating risk.
- 20:16We actually ensure that whole value chain as well as part of
- 20:19what we do. But again, it it does come back
- 20:23to this visibility, it does come back to this data and being able
- 20:27to say, look, this is this is the lead in time.
- 20:30This is what's that risk, This is how we've adjusted that risk
- 20:34for you. But this is also how we've
- 20:35supported that business not go out of business because they've
- 20:39got no cash. And every scenario is different.
- 20:42I mean you guys know as well as I do, travel is a huge amount of
- 20:46verticals was a huge amount of varying risks and aviation is
- 20:52different from accommodation is different from to operators and
- 20:55even within those there are different make UPS of each of
- 20:58those in terms of what they do in the markets they serve.
- 21:02If you could rewrite the kind of the rule book for travel
- 21:05underwriting teams, what would you kind of change on it first?
- 21:12I would dictate a certain level of data and information that
- 21:16needs to be provided. And I would, I think probably at
- 21:21a scheme level, I would also dictate that the acquirers, if
- 21:25they want to get into travel and maybe you have to incentivise
- 21:27it's carrot and stick because a lot of them have to put down
- 21:30huge collateral to offset their risk in travel.
- 21:33But I'd actually say, look, this is a a data standard that we
- 21:37expect you to have as an acquirer and you start from that
- 21:41point and you have a real understanding because you talk
- 21:44to acquirers and they and you say, do you collect level three
- 21:46data? They say, yeah, we do it's OK.
- 21:49Can you, can you provide it to us?
- 21:51Well, we know that the average need in time is 6 months for
- 21:54that particular merchant. How?
- 21:57Well, because they told us, OK, that's kind of, you know, figure
- 22:01in the air stuff. And I think for something like
- 22:04that, any kind of delayed delivery merchant, that
- 22:08visibility is crucial. And we're in 2025, we've got AI
- 22:14that can break up that, you know, that mass, mass amounts of
- 22:17data. And that has to then be the next
- 22:20step forwards, I would have thought.
- 22:22Yeah. I was going to ask you about AI
- 22:24because you know, data is clearly not a buzzword for you
- 22:26guys. It's really essential part of
- 22:27your model. Are you starting to pull AI into
- 22:29your stack then? A little bit.
- 22:32And, you know, I think I got carried away because how do you
- 22:35shoehorn AI into your business come what may?
- 22:38And, and the best piece of advice I was given is only use
- 22:42AI if you've got a reason to use it.
- 22:44So we have just built it into our new platform on both sides.
- 22:49And for us, it's really about being able to analyse vast
- 22:52amounts of data that that's as far as we've gone at the moment.
- 22:56And that's twofold. So internally being able to, you
- 23:00know, we've, we've always had these kind of alerts.
- 23:02So with each merchant, we would say, where are we expecting the
- 23:06customers to come from, where are they travelling to?
- 23:10What's the average kind of lead in time and then alerts if that,
- 23:14if any of those change. So we can investigate, we can
- 23:17look at what's going on. But also on the front end when
- 23:21we're giving data to our travel providers, you know, our, our
- 23:26platform, our dashboard was very much this is what we think you
- 23:29want to see. This is the, the split of data
- 23:31we think you want to see. But we realise we've got all
- 23:34this data, let them decide if they want to see the amount of
- 23:39bookings they've had from the Cook Islands or what the split
- 23:42of Visa, MasterCard during this period was or that kind of
- 23:45thing. So that's where we've dipped our
- 23:48toe in with AI and we'll see moving forwards.
- 23:52And what's the single most important data track for you as
- 23:55a business? Do you have one particular thing
- 23:57or is is it multiples? No, it not really a single data
- 24:04track. It's a variant on what we set on
- 24:09a per merchant basis. So configuring that merchant day
- 24:12one in terms of expected numbers, expected leading times,
- 24:17expected destination, etcetera. Having the awareness when those
- 24:23things change and then having an understanding as to why they
- 24:26change. It's OK that they change.
- 24:28You know, businesses change, business opportunities come, but
- 24:31you know, we saw in the early stages of COVID, you know,
- 24:35safari operators whose average leading time was six months
- 24:38suddenly go to two weeks. When I see people selling out to
- 24:4420282029, I'm like, OK, if it's you can't book flights at the
- 24:50moment, if you're a tour operator, that's too far out.
- 24:53So that seems like a run for cash in a lot of businesses.
- 24:57So it's really understanding the changes in what what's been
- 25:01modelled. And then what we'll do is we, we
- 25:03audit based on risk. You know, everyone gets at least
- 25:06an annual audit, but it may be earlier, maybe more regular.
- 25:10If we consider high risk, we'll actually adjust those to to what
- 25:13we've seen. So we set a new kind of a bar
- 25:16and a standard line for each one.
- 25:18Today's episode is sponsored by ISX Financial.
- 25:21Most growing businesses end up stitching together multiple
- 25:24providers to run their payments and banking, leaving them
- 25:26exposed to cash flow, reconciliation and even security
- 25:29issues. ISX Financial delivers a unified
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- 25:50helping your business transact with confidence.
- 25:52You can learn more at ISX dot financial.
- 25:55That's ISX dot Financial and a big thank you to the team at ISX
- 25:59for supporting the show. How do you kind of separate that
- 26:02that the meaningful signals from noise when analysing the
- 26:06cancellations? A lot of that comes down to
- 26:11understanding the business, so understanding who you're dealing
- 26:14with, seeing what's actually happening, seeing what the the
- 26:21customer behaviour is as well. Does that increase chargeback
- 26:24rates? We have, because we're motion of
- 26:26record, we've obviously got all of the customer details so we
- 26:30can reach out. We can get on top of things, you
- 26:33know if there is a run to charge backs or if there is fear of
- 26:36certain things, wing out on top of things like that.
- 26:41It's also having that close relationship with the travel
- 26:43provider. Why have you started selling
- 26:462028? Why are you now selling a new
- 26:49destination? Did you know you've now got more
- 26:52people booking from this region and you're always that region
- 26:57and understanding from them what's going on?
- 26:59The other nice thing about a merchant of record model,
- 27:02especially how we sit it with the control accounts, the trust
- 27:05accounts, is we're holding the money and that's not holding
- 27:09people to ransom. But that is basically saying we
- 27:12need to understand because we're the ones that risk if things go
- 27:15wrong and we have a responsibility to your customers
- 27:18if things go wrong. So give us the data and we're
- 27:22very happy to give you your money.
- 27:24What's 1 sort of surprise you've had from all of your data sets?
- 27:29Is there a particular thing from all the data that you get?
- 27:31You've been like, I didn't expect to see that.
- 27:36I think it's probably how non standard, it's not even a word,
- 27:43non standard, irregular. The data can be within similar
- 27:48businesses and how they're approaching the market so
- 27:52differently. And I think that's such a common
- 27:54misconception in the travel underwriting space is actually,
- 27:58oh, we've got an airline, so they must behave like that.
- 28:01We've got a tour operator, so they must behave like that.
- 28:05They don't, you know, even if they're selling identical
- 28:07products, their operations tend to be very different.
- 28:10How they do things tend to be very different.
- 28:12Are they paying their suppliers by virtual card?
- 28:15Is that traceable? What kind of credit terms do
- 28:19they have with their suppliers? How are they marketing what
- 28:23payment types they're accepting? It's so variable and that's what
- 28:28makes it interesting. I remember we used some stats
- 28:30years ago where it was mentioned in around when people book
- 28:34through the travel agent face to face the lead times a lot longer
- 28:38than if someone wants to do it online.
- 28:40So that then takes it has a huge knock on impact as to who the
- 28:44payment fighter is. If you're taking the in store
- 28:46payments for their for their travel compared to someone's
- 28:48booking online because you might book for a flight in two weeks
- 28:50time. But very rarely would I go into,
- 28:52I don't know, Tom Tui and say, Hey, I want to go on holiday in
- 28:56two weeks. So the payment providers of
- 28:59them, different channels of of payments that has to take that
- 29:02into situation as well. Yeah, and it's really
- 29:04interesting the way that's kind of changed and COVID changed
- 29:08that. You'd probably say 2019 travel
- 29:12agents were going to die. You know, there was no need.
- 29:15Everyone was shifting to online OTAs, COVID.
- 29:19I think people wanted that reassurance.
- 29:22There's now talk of AI taking that back, but I think there'll
- 29:27be a full revolution where people will still want that
- 29:30reassurance of making sure that that persons.
- 29:33I've actually seen that hotel. I actually know what that's
- 29:35like. And people like experiences now
- 29:37it's like, why are records? Why have they had their big
- 29:39renaissance right? There was something nice about
- 29:42going with your mum and dad down to the travel shop, especially
- 29:45with younger kids like you go and pick 8 magazines off the
- 29:48they just have the shelves in the background they were.
- 29:50Amazing, weren't they? Yeah, you.
- 29:51Could sit there and you and you felt like, I mean, This is why I
- 29:53guess travel counsellors and companies like that still exist,
- 29:55right, Because they give that personal service.
- 29:58It was a miniature version of that travel counsellors.
- 30:00You felt like Dave or Cindy or whoever was was serving you and
- 30:04and helping you book your holiday was really invested in
- 30:07you and understanding your your needs inside out and you don't
- 30:10you obviously don't get that from a computer experience.
- 30:13So that personal thing is is happening in loads of different
- 30:17sectors and spaces, but people kind of pushing back.
- 30:20I think a little bit around it may be in this from a COVID
- 30:23thing. Everyone went inside and it's
- 30:24like, no, I want to go out now and I want to talk to people and
- 30:26I actually want to have that interactive experience.
- 30:29So yeah, it's an interesting. I want somewhere warm with two
- 30:31bedrooms, somewhere nice for the kids, somewhere in Spain, and
- 30:36then you go in somewhere and I said they didn't go.
- 30:38These are the options we've got. That's enough.
- 30:40But we've got young kids, both of us.
- 30:42The last holiday I had before we had our second with just with
- 30:45just with our toddler where we went with the all inclusive
- 30:48holiday and sensible play. Yeah, it is.
- 30:51But like you would because with the naps and stuff.
- 30:54But we needed somewhere with a nice balcony because we knew
- 30:55from 8:00 at night we were going to be stuck in our room.
- 30:58So we ended up playing lots of card games and you know, God
- 31:01knows what else on the the balcony to try and entertain
- 31:04ourselves, have enough wine for the evening without having to
- 31:07leave the the hotel room. But what I really wanted was,
- 31:11you know, like a villa within a hotel resort where the kids
- 31:13asleep and we've had more outside space and you didn't
- 31:16feel like you were just parked in your room and stuck on your
- 31:18balcony for the evening and you couldn't go and enjoy the music
- 31:20that was going on further away. Interns or whatever it might be.
- 31:24That's quite a niche need that we had.
- 31:26And it was very hard to find a hotel that had the specifics
- 31:29that we were looking for online, but.
- 31:31Do you think that's the generational thing as well?
- 31:33Because I think the younger generation would probably argue,
- 31:36well, you could have put the right questions into AI and got
- 31:39the answer. But I think I think there's the
- 31:41reassurance in actually dealing with someone that can go yeah, I
- 31:44know that and everything else. That's my fear with AI that but
- 31:48this is a payments podcast. I know.
- 31:50But my fear with AI is actually that the younger generation kind
- 31:53of trust the answer that they get out of AI and and nothing
- 31:57else. At least with Google you know
- 31:59you'll, you know, search engine you you you actually have to
- 32:03make a. Signal, we'll come into this and
- 32:04obviously Agentic is going to influence your world
- 32:07significantly because people will be using it to book their
- 32:10holidays in that way, right? So that's something you'll, as a
- 32:13travel platform need to prepare for, right, potentially.
- 32:16I'm, I'm grinning because absolutely it's, it's the buzz
- 32:20at the moment that Agentic is going to take over and it will
- 32:23certainly have its place. The one thing I'm concerned
- 32:28about is we can't even get payments right and risk right
- 32:31and chargebacks right in a non agentic place with with manual
- 32:35intervention where the card holders actually put the card
- 32:37details in. And now you're saying, oh, well,
- 32:41I can give my permission to an AI to go and make a booking and
- 32:45a payment on my behalf. I'll, you know, think about the
- 32:50amount of friendly fraud in in travel as it is.
- 32:53That really is a nightmare waiting to happen.
- 32:55And and that's what concerns me is and you've got to have the
- 32:59base level in order first. And I just don't think we have
- 33:02it as an industry in place at the moment either on the
- 33:05payments or the travel space. So yeah, it's coming.
- 33:08Yeah, everyone's testing it and doing bits and pieces, but.
- 33:11Choppy waters ahead you. Don't want to be the first.
- 33:13Yeah. And I don't know what it
- 33:15ultimately looks like from a risk perspective and who will
- 33:17actually support it. And that's my fear with it.
- 33:20How? How do you then today
- 33:21communicate your data and insights to the acquirers in a
- 33:25way that you think will help influence their decision on on
- 33:29your business? So from an underwriting
- 33:32perspective, we're quite lucky in safaris and, and I say lucky,
- 33:37but we've worked incredibly hard and even when we on board a new
- 33:41acquirer, it's about them understanding and having
- 33:44visibility over our on boarding and risk analysis so that they
- 33:50can see how we've calculated that risk.
- 33:53Also, you know, see whether the the customer, the travel company
- 33:59is going to get money before travel or whether they're going
- 34:01to be insured and rely on that, sorry, rely on the insurance for
- 34:06money before travel or whether you know, the money is sat in a
- 34:09trust account. They constantly audit us and we
- 34:12welcome that. You know, it's kind of it's not
- 34:16quite open book, but it is we we want them to understand what's
- 34:19going on because we want to build this relationship.
- 34:22It's a bit like we were saying before, once they've got it,
- 34:24then then they crave more volume.
- 34:26But you've got to have that balance and that that
- 34:28discipline. So I think it's, it comes down
- 34:31to a two way St. You know, we say, and we've
- 34:33we've recently got into, you know, aviation and what we can
- 34:36do there. We've had, you know, very
- 34:40constructive conversations with our acquiring parts to say, what
- 34:43do you actually want to see? What do you need from us?
- 34:45This is our standard level in terms of the data we're
- 34:48collecting aviation at the moment, we're only working on a
- 34:51wheels up basis. But what do you want to see?
- 34:55And, and we'll get it to give you comfort.
- 34:58You know, we, we believe we're giving you a level of comfort
- 35:00already, but you know, you've also got your own internal tick
- 35:04boxes to meet. Acquirers have to embrace stuff
- 35:07that de risks themselves and they're not even having to build
- 35:10it themselves, right? Like that's the the key benefit
- 35:12that you're up. So then we'll go and build this
- 35:14for you. We've got the team that can go
- 35:16and do it and do it quickly. Just tell us how you want to see
- 35:19it, in what format and how often we have to send it to you,
- 35:21right? Yeah, I, I think the first 100%
- 35:24agree. I think the frustration is
- 35:27they've also got their own internal battles between someone
- 35:30like ourselves and their own direct sales team.
- 35:33And you know, direct sales is probably selling at a cheaper
- 35:36price, probably pushing the risk team harder to get across the
- 35:40board with no reserves, no collateral, whatever it may be.
- 35:45How does that sit when the acquiring bank because it's
- 35:47greater risk for less reward as as I perceive it.
- 35:53But I think there's got to be a balance on that.
- 35:55And I what we're trying to encourage our partners to do is
- 35:58actually look at this a bit more holistically and say, well,
- 36:01we'll take a bit of risk ourselves, but we'll also, we'll
- 36:04give a little bit of risk, you know, to repaid or we'll, we'll
- 36:07take some insurance, whatever it may be.
- 36:10So that our book, especially from a travel perspective is
- 36:13nicely balanced. So we can take the higher risk,
- 36:16higher reward, but also we're offsetting that with the lower
- 36:19risk, lower reward. And then does that it's a really
- 36:21good point. I mean, obviously work in the,
- 36:23the embedded payment space where we don't really deal with with
- 36:25and merchants in, in my team. But, and I kind of feel like I'm
- 36:30quite vocal about that being not from an enterprise point of
- 36:33viewing enterprise always there's going to be that one to
- 36:35one relationship, certainly with large customers.
- 36:37But you know, platforms like yours now exist in almost every
- 36:43part of the the ecosystem globally in, in retail and
- 36:46travel in whatever it might be that kind of 1 to many
- 36:49acquisition that, that my team would would have and I would
- 36:52have a focus on, you know, we sign a trust my group and we get
- 36:551000 customers or 2000 customers or 10,000 customers, right.
- 36:59But you guys obviously want the big fish as well, right.
- 37:01So there is a little bit of like how do you look at that from a
- 37:04portfolio point of view? Is it the the one to money
- 37:06strategy or do you have a bit of a bit of both in the?
- 37:09A bit of both and it comes down to risk and opportunity.
- 37:13Again, we also don't want to be seen as just supporting the big
- 37:18guys. You know, we, we, that might
- 37:20sound a little bit idealistic, but you know, I started out in
- 37:24travel. I started out with a travel
- 37:25company. We can through the platform very
- 37:28easily on board smaller customers, get them live, get
- 37:32them processing and hopefully they grow, Hopefully they evolve
- 37:35with us and. They're the ones who are.
- 37:37Quite often the risk versus reward doesn't stack up for an
- 37:39acquirer. Right, exactly, exactly right.
- 37:42They tend to be, albeit they tend to communicate a lot more
- 37:46with us. They do tend to be a much
- 37:49shorter bleed in sales time. You know, the big fish takes
- 37:52quite a lot longer to to actually get across the line.
- 37:56When they do, yeah, you win big. But when it goes, that can
- 38:00really damage your business. So like everything and that I
- 38:04don't myself sound self-righteous, but you know,
- 38:07you've got to have that that balance book.
- 38:09And that's how we look at it. And we're trying to support as
- 38:12many people as we can, acknowledging that the merchant
- 38:15of record model isn't right for every business.
- 38:18And we get plenty of applications where we go.
- 38:20No, we'll actually introduce you direct to the acquirer because
- 38:23that is a better fit for you. You know, we're not the cheapest
- 38:26because we build in, you know, all the insurance, all the
- 38:29things that we do. So if you're working in a single
- 38:33market and located in that market, we're probably not
- 38:37adding a lot of value to you if you're.
- 38:39Giving stuff back to the acquirer, Same way they're
- 38:41giving you stuff. But if you're doing a lot of
- 38:42cross-border, if you're higher risk, absolutely we can add
- 38:45value to to what you're doing. Where do you see the biggest
- 38:48risk risk for requires over the next kind of three to five
- 38:51years? I think AI is a risk to them
- 38:57because I think there will be a big push and big pressure to to
- 39:01get on board with this agentic commerce to try and make a name
- 39:06for themselves in that they don't want to be left behind.
- 39:09There are a lot of big name players that will do that and I
- 39:12think they haven't got their own house in order as what I was
- 39:17saying before, to actually then take it to the next level.
- 39:20You've got to be sure in how you're operating to be able to
- 39:23cover that risk. And I think vamps are really
- 39:26good example of where people have not got their house in
- 39:30order. I'd question whether these are
- 39:33even got the house in order. I mean that that is a case of
- 39:36where I would like to have seen data standards haven't been set
- 39:40before all came in because you can talk plenty of requires and
- 39:45they might say they know what's going on.
- 39:46They haven't got a clue what's within their own portfolio.
- 39:49Something out on time and payments though without like,
- 39:51oh, we're delaying that by another six months.
- 39:53We're not quite ready. We're going to give you another
- 39:54nine months to get ready for that change.
- 39:57I won't hold my breath for that day, but yeah, that's the dream,
- 40:00isn't it? That it all seamlessly fits
- 40:02together and works. I've forgotten the original
- 40:07question if I'm honest. No, I think it's a risk to
- 40:10acquirers, right. What's going to be the risk to
- 40:12them? I think you're not.
- 40:12You actually nailed it. And it's it's difficult in the
- 40:15travel world for acquires because you don't know what you
- 40:17don't know, right. And we can be talking about AI
- 40:19dented commerce, but also what we can't foresee there could be
- 40:22another issue in the world over the next three to five years and
- 40:25also in travel shuts down is. Is there a payment trend for you
- 40:31guys as well? And maybe I'm going to give you
- 40:34one that I think could be an interesting one for your space.
- 40:36Open banking obviously was seen as in some ways very high risk
- 40:41in travel, but actually in terms of speed of payment, in terms of
- 40:45cost of payment, if they overarch some of your
- 40:47protections. Is, is open banking something
- 40:49you guys have delved into or is that an over hype for you as
- 40:52well? We've looked at it.
- 40:54I mean, look, the the interesting scenario is could we
- 40:59provide some kind of insurance that essentially reply or puts a
- 41:03similar chargeback protection on the open banking because that's
- 41:07why people buy high value products like travel through a
- 41:11credit card because they get the chargeback protection and open
- 41:15banking doesn't offer that, which I think is a challenge.
- 41:18I also the bottom line is I don't think it's taken off
- 41:22because there is enough value to the providers in it.
- 41:25Because Ryanair rolled it out, right?
- 41:27They did a big song and dance. And I'm sure you mean it was
- 41:29purely a cost point for them knowing Ryanair.
- 41:32But I don't know what the adoption rate is.
- 41:33I don't I haven't seen those stats.
- 41:35I would I would suggest that most people still book through
- 41:39card payment and anyone that listens to this watches this can
- 41:43comment and say you're completely wrong.
- 41:45But I would say most of that is still card payment.
- 41:48I'd say the ease of car payment is still much better.
- 41:52I'd say the protection is a big thing in the travel space,
- 41:55especially if you're not booking through a travel, a travel agent
- 41:58or where you've got that financial protection, so.
- 42:02Is that a company versus conversion rate, right.
- 42:04So there'll be less adoption rate for open banking, but I'd
- 42:07be certain. So the conversion rate of
- 42:09someone when they do select open banking will probably better
- 42:13than someone selecting the card payment.
- 42:16I'm always thinking your globalization, you guys
- 42:18obviously in various different parts of the world and there's
- 42:20certain parts of the world you operate in where A to a payments
- 42:22are more prevalent than card. That's how you're.
- 42:24Handling, yeah. So we we are looking at that.
- 42:27That's something that we're expanding out now and a reason
- 42:32why we've we've added sort of, you know, different companies
- 42:38around the world. So I was trying to think what I
- 42:40was saying there exactly for that, because you you need to
- 42:43take that account to account. I look at accounts to accounts
- 42:47slightly different to open banking in an already sort of
- 42:52card dependent market like the UK.
- 42:54So account to account if you go South East Asia cards are not,
- 42:59you know, the prevalent payment sort of provision there.
- 43:02I'm not sure. And again, this is only
- 43:04anecdotally, I'm not sure they have the same concern about the
- 43:10charge back protection as we do over here.
- 43:12You know, if you take the US chargeback protection is the
- 43:16most important thing. The issuers talk it.
- 43:19The other big thing during COVID was the amount of issuers that
- 43:22were actually encouraging chargebacks and we still see it
- 43:25now on that. And that's a real kind of
- 43:29challenge. So account to account in those
- 43:31regions I think is important, is certainly important to us in
- 43:34terms of growth open banking. I just, I'm struggling to see
- 43:42the the major adoption and these high ticket inner space like
- 43:45travel. Just that's why I'm struggling
- 43:48with it. There's not enough money in it.
- 43:52Yeah, no, it's interesting. And I think your point around
- 43:55chargebacks being a kind of go to, I think the the one that
- 43:58springs to mind for me was able and cold the furniture company
- 44:01when they went into ministration a few years ago.
- 44:03They're obviously still on the High Street now, but I remember
- 44:05going on to their website because my mum had bought a sofa
- 44:08from them and she had to end up going and collecting it from a
- 44:11warehouse in Manchester. They basically, if it's being
- 44:13shipped and you can get hold of the warehouse company, that's on
- 44:16you hire the Transit van. And when you pick this thing up,
- 44:18right. But on the middle of that
- 44:20website, it literally said we are an administration.
- 44:23These are our administrators. If you're having issues with
- 44:25your order, we recommend you contact your your bank to raise
- 44:29a charge, basically to raise a charge back.
- 44:31They're pretty much saying that on their website.
- 44:32I see. And This is why the travel
- 44:35sector, the furniture sector, right?
- 44:36They get tarnished with that brush of your high risk, yes,
- 44:40your high reward as well. But if it does all go wrong,
- 44:44stuff like that's not going to help, like that relationship
- 44:47with the risk teams that acquires in the long term.
- 44:49But that's the other chance in the travel space when there's an
- 44:52atoll failure, you go to the atoll website.
- 44:55Again, to your point, the the first thing that they say is if
- 44:58you have paid by credit card, contact your card company and
- 45:02and begin a section 75 or a chargeback.
- 45:05And we're going well, no, hold on, because this travel company
- 45:09as part of their atoll should have had to put some financial
- 45:11protection up. They've got the money.
- 45:13They've, they've either got the money or they've got a bond or
- 45:15they've got insurance or whatever it may be.
- 45:17Let's make sure that everyone knows where the protection lies
- 45:21and there's that full coverage. And it shouldn't just fall back
- 45:24on the acquirer because acquirers just go, well, I don't
- 45:27want to do, I don't want to deal with this.
- 45:28I don't want to take an atoll holder.
- 45:31There has to be this better transparency about that risk,
- 45:35but also who's covering that risk and in the event the
- 45:37failure almost like a drop down of where that risk is being
- 45:41borne. And I think that's crucial as
- 45:44we, as we move forwards. Yeah.
- 45:48Very good. And again on the furniture side,
- 45:50we worked for an Enquirer a few years ago and we did have a loss
- 45:53in the furniture sector and we didn't board a furniture company
- 45:56for about two years after. That loss changed the whole risk
- 45:58profile of the nervous. Absolutely.
- 46:00Yeah, it's understandable. Perfect.
- 46:04So coming to the end of the show, Will what would you like
- 46:08to bring to the shelf? For shame.
- 46:10What gives you the ick in this world of payments?
- 46:12I'm going big, I'm going chargebacks as a as a concept
- 46:16right now. Something created in the 1970s
- 46:20hasn't really changed. And again, travel, where there's
- 46:24a lot of friendly fraud, there is a complete imbalance and it's
- 46:28not fit for purpose. OK.
- 46:30I'm going to unpack that one before I put it on the shelf.
- 46:33The reason being we've obviously just talked about the US for
- 46:36example, where chargeback is the biggest consumer upsell, right?
- 46:41So I get it's really legacy and I've had a very well publicized
- 46:44chargeback challenge in the last couple of years with with a drop
- 46:47shipping item that I purchased, right, dealing with, you know,
- 46:50issuing a scheme on that side of things.
- 46:51So I do agree there's a lot of frustration around chargebacks
- 46:54in the processes and the reality of can you actually win that
- 46:57chargeback dispute if you go down the road, how long does it
- 46:59take? But what's going to replace the
- 47:02chargeback if we're getting rid of it?
- 47:05I think the chargebacks in terms of what it was originally
- 47:09created for the the consumer protection piece probably holds
- 47:14true. But there needs to be a balance
- 47:17and there needs to be clearer messaging and a clearer process
- 47:22to how it actually functions. Because you know, a consumer
- 47:27gets 540 up to 540 days to contest a charge back for for
- 47:31non delivery and a merchant gets 14 days to represent.
- 47:35And I just see it as a, you know, I, I personally take it on
- 47:39sometimes when I'm, when I'm given some of these.
- 47:42And I'm quite upset by the level of arrogance of some of these
- 47:48card holders that they would dare contest the fact that
- 47:51they've signed in for a tour. There are photos of them on a
- 47:54tour and you kind of go, yeah, all over social.
- 47:57Media. You are literally the, the best
- 47:59one we ever had was someone had booked a helicopter ride over
- 48:04Sugarloaf Mountain in Brazil. And so charge back here you go
- 48:11represent. You've signed in for this tour.
- 48:14Oh, no, that wasn't me. Someone the merchant has has
- 48:17signed, has forged this kind of signature.
- 48:20So the guy, the guys that we work with over there literally
- 48:23trolled through Facebook and everything.
- 48:26And lo and behold, there's this guy taking photos in his
- 48:29helicopter over Sugarloaf Mountain, Sugarloaf Mountain.
- 48:32And we won that. But it shouldn't have had to go
- 48:35that far. It shouldn't have had to be that
- 48:37frustrating where it's basically a con.
- 48:40And, you know, you hear all the stats.
- 48:42It goes from 60 to 85% of friendly fraud in travel.
- 48:47There has to be a clearer way. You can still call it
- 48:49chargeback, the mechanism that still actually operates it, you
- 48:55know, don't recognize this charge.
- 48:57Fair enough, I'm sure about this.
- 48:59Fair enough, didn't get what I paid for, fair enough.
- 49:02But if it's non refundable you should have read the terms.
- 49:06It's the biggest issue, the waiting then in the favor of the
- 49:09customer. Yes and also if it's gonna be
- 49:13weighted that way, let's call a spade a spade just so you're
- 49:16never gonna win a chargeback in this space cuz I think travel
- 49:20space success rate is something like 25% typically on some of
- 49:24that I. Raised one charge back in
- 49:26travel. It's where I booked a five star
- 49:29hotel and it was not a five star hotel, so it wasn't as as
- 49:33advertised. But then and I agree with that,
- 49:37but then did you stay in the four-star and should there be
- 49:39have been some adjustments? Because I had to complain about
- 49:42it, said this is not what I was shown, but the rooms were
- 49:45different like that. The the pictures were not what
- 49:48we what, what we'd had. That it took me months, months
- 49:53and months and months and months.
- 49:54Took me 9 months on my COVID one with KLM.
- 49:57I mean, yeah, they all they had to do was say if This Is Us
- 50:00countering, I guess all they had to do was say we're in the
- 50:03process of sorting a refund because it was COVID.
- 50:05They're like, well, we've got 10s of thousands of these
- 50:08flights to get through, right? So they could probably buy
- 50:10themselves time. But I got my chargeback reversed
- 50:13and then say months later, they finally refunded me.
- 50:16But because they just said we're working on it, I had to wait
- 50:19months to get my, my money back and been abandoned by them in
- 50:22South Africa. So it kind of goes both ways.
- 50:25I think I, I, I've probably only won one charge back out there.
- 50:29Me too, I I think when it comes back to shelf for shame.
- 50:31I think the charge back process needs to be looked at.
- 50:36So you go let it on. Yeah, I'm for it.
- 50:39I am for it because it's helped me as a consumer.
- 50:41It's. 2025 we can't do something that's crazy in 1973 in the form
- 50:47it was so the actual process needs to we.
- 50:49Can't give a consumer 540 days and give a merchant 14 days.
- 50:52To do that and 100% agree that any in some way shape or form it
- 50:55needs to go on there and it needs to be changed.
- 50:58But again, do you know open banking?
- 51:00Open banking to sort kind of if. You don't have any chargebacks
- 51:03then the arguing that goes but. Then you don't get a protection.
- 51:06Yeah, you got to take the adoption.
- 51:09So, so legacy chargebacks process legacy charge goes on
- 51:12the shelter show, right? I'd appreciate perfect.
- 51:14Well, thanks so much for joining us today.
- 51:16If people want to find out more about trust my group, get in
- 51:19touch with you. Where do they go?
- 51:21So go to the website, trust my dot group, there's links to both
- 51:25businesses within their. I'm all over LinkedIn.
- 51:28I'm quite opinionated. So come and find me there.
- 51:31Come and have a chat. We're always interested to talk
- 51:33to people. Even if we can't help, you know,
- 51:36we don't believe in square pegs, round holes.
- 51:38We want to find the right solution for you.
- 51:40If that's not us, we'll point you to people that we know in
- 51:42the industry that can help you. Amazing.
- 51:44Thanks a lot for your time. Thanks guys.
- 51:45That's great.