Cost Comparison

Cost Comparison Worksheet

GiftTran™ vs. Remote Centralized Database

The new GiftTran™ product was developed to provide merchants with a much less expensive and more versatile technology by which to implement effective customer loyalty, gift certificate and promotional programs. The popularity of card-based systems to accomplish this is skyrocketing in today’s competitive marketplace. Unfortunately, the costs to develop and implement such programs are too… That is, until now!

The following represents the typical costs incurred by merchants for implementing a gift card and/or customer loyalty points system and other promotional programs. The cost comparisons are between the GiftTran™ technology and the average remote, centralized database approach. The remote, centralized database approach to card systems has been the most commonly used approach by merchants. There was no other cost effective alternative... until now!

With the new GiftTran™ technology, it is now considerably less expensive since there are no transaction fees and ongoing costs. No comparisons were made to approaches using chip ("smart") cards or contact-less card technology since the average cost per card is prohibitive ($2.25- $5.00 per card) for these types of applications.

	APPROACH
COSTS		Typical Remote Centralized Database
Setup of Database and Parameters	Included	Considerable cost
Software needed	Included	Considerable cost
Transaction and Service Fees	NONE	Substantial fee per transaction or per card
Additional fees if cardholder exceeds contracted no. of transactions per card	NONE	Fee per transaction increases significantly
Card initialization fees	NONE	20¢ - 40¢ charge for initially issuing a card
Transaction time	Approx. 3 seconds	20-35 seconds avg.
Access fees	NONE	Fees charged for accessing the database
Communications and routing fees	NONE	Percentage of dollar value of transaction
Charge for reprogramming credit card readers at point-of-sale stations	Unnecessary	Required extra charge
Merchant Help Desk charges	Unnecessary	Extra charge per call or per mo.
Hardware needed	Any standard card reader or barcode scanner.	Proprietary terminals may be necessary at a monthly charge or reprogramming of existing hardware and software is required
Installation charges	Minimal… almost "plug and play"	High
"Per unit" site fees for licensing the software; programming fees	Minimal	Considerable per site charge
Data warehousing fees	NONE	High
Record fees	Not applicable… records can stay on the database as long as you like	Charged for the no. of days the card (record) remains on the database
Report generation fees	Not applicable… included in the software	High per month per site charge
Required guarantee by merchant of minimum annual fee income to be made by database service provider	NONE	Merchant may have to make up the difference if income received by service provider is less than amount contracted for
Magnetic stripe or barcoded cards with encryption, up to four color custom graphics and security features; 10-30 mil thickness	"One stop shop" high quality cards, design and manufacturing to any spec, all at unbeatable prices	Limited to magnetic stripe cards only

Your costs may vary according to the number of sites, the volume of cards you use, etc. Overall, since the Debit Design Technologies' approach requires minimal ongoing expense to operate, you’ll see a very quick return on your investment in comparison to other methods. Contact us or your local point-of-sale dealer for more information on how our system can boost your bottom line and keep your customers coming back!