Kia ora, welcome aboard.
We are stoked to have you here, you are the whole reason we started this company. We would love to take the opportunity to explain a bit more about how we work, who we are, what information we need to ask you for, and how we keep that information secure.
Choice is here to work for our communities.
New Zealand is our home. When we came together to ask ourselves how we could make a positive impact on our local communities, we took a closer look at some of the systems that underpin our day to day. One of these was the payments system. We found out that merchants paid $461 million in transaction fees in 2015 alone - that number is estimated to be around $750 million in 2019. There are no other option for fast, secure payments other than the card network. So Choice was born, to create an independent payment platform, for New Zealanders, by New Zealanders.
Our Mahi!
We spent over 18 months working closely alongside banks, terminal providers, and some of the biggest and smallest merchants in Aotearoa to understand how our payments system works, and how we could improve on it at every step. So we have created a system that uses bank payment APIs and QR codes, to create a direct transfer method for kiwis who want to pay their favourite businesses. We charge a flat rate transaction fee that’s transparent, instead of the confusing multitude of fees that you have to deal with. No hidden costs. Just a flat rate fee.
We also decided that we would redirect half of our fee to a local charity. Our local communities need this more than borderless multinationals.
People
Planet
Purpose
So how does it all work?
Glad you asked! To pay with Choice, users download the Choice app from the Apple or Android stores. They are good to go once they sign up and link a payment account. To pay in store, they simply scan a QR code that shows up on a device at your business. Right now, that’s an independent mobile phone with the Choice merchant app. For our next release, we will have terminal integrations, which is really exciting because this will fit into your reconciliation systems and make life that much easier.
We thank you for joining us as an early adopter.
We need to ask you for some company information before we can set you up to receive Choice payments.
New Zealand has passed a law called the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (we will call it the AML/CFT law). The purpose of the law reflects New Zealand’s commitment to the international initiative to counter the impact that criminal activity has on people and economies within the global community.
As a payments provider, we must do a number of things to help combat money laundering. This is because some people may have bad intentions when signing up for and using Choice to accept payments.
To combat this, we are required by law to confirm at least one business director’s full name, date of birth, and current address. We must take reasonable steps to make sure the information is correct, and so we need to ask for documents that show this.
To confirm these details, we must obtain a copy of a document such as your driver’s licence to confirm your name, and a document that shows your address such as a utility or mobile phone bill.
Your information is held securely.
We use secure systems to manage and store your data to comply with all data protection and privacy laws. This information will never be shared with anyone outside of permissioned team members in the Choice organisation, unless there is a criminal investigation we must comply with. We will notify you first if there is any such pending occurrence.
Furthermore, we will notify you immediately if we detect any suspicious activity.
Our obligations
Choice is a registered Financial Services Provider FSP643289 and a member of the FSCL dispute resolution scheme 7719. This means we are a regulated institution and if we can’t solve your complaints, you can ask for outside arbitration.
Kia kaha
Please take a moment to read the Choice Merchant Terms and Conditions on our website to ensure you understand how we work and what our obligations are.Thank you for working with us and being one of our first merchants. Please contact me below if you have any further queries on how we manage your information. We look forward to working with you and all of Aotearoa to make payments with purpose a reality.