Crowdfunding Bootcamp

BancBox is excited to be attending the Crowdfund Investing Business Bootcamp for Entrepreneurs this week at the Ravella Resort and Spa in Lake Las Vegas, NV. We believe we offer entrepreneurs and crowdfunding platforms a unique solution to the payment process and are excited at the opprotunity to present our solution.  

BancBox does everything you need. Our APIs allow you to collect, store, and send funds, all you would need for a crowdfunding application.

1. Collect funds using credit card, ACH or wire (even direct deposits are supported)

2. Store funds in individually FDIC insured accounts that your application creates on the fly

3. Send funds to crowdfunding project owner via physical check, ACH, paypal, or even wire transfer

You have control over how funds settle, how they are stored, and when/how they are disbursed.

The JOBS Act has opened a unique opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors to connect and BancBox is excited to play a part in that process.

Typical BancBox Flow

It’s simple to get started on BancBox. First, visit our sign up page to create an account to access the “Sandbox Environment” – a place where you can test out the BancBox APIs with your web and mobile applications.

The sandbox is a great place to get familiar with the BancBox platform and our workflow; however, you will be conducting fake transactions in the sandbox. When you’re ready to integrate the BancBox platform, you will need to be approved and underwritten to begin operating your application in the “Live Environment.”

With either the sandbox or live environment, BancBox subscribers can begin collecting, storing and sending funds by following the typical flow below:

 1.    Create a client in BancBox

The term “client” refers to a placeholder for your users on the system. A client can be used to open a BancBox bank account, or store the user’s credit card information. A client must be created in order to use the BancBox platform.

2.    Open an account for the client

Once the client is created, you can open a bank account for the client. A BancBox bank account has all the same features as a traditional bank account (FDIC insured, routing numbers, etc.), and can receive and store funds.

3.    Link an external account to the client

In order to transmit funds to the new client bank account on BancBox, it will need to be connected to an external account. These external accounts can be anything from a bank account from a local bank to another BancBox bank account.

4.    Link a payee to the client

If you need to send funds from a BancBox bank account, you will need to attach a payee to the client. This may include a non-BancBox account and routing information for ACH, name and address for checks, or the account ID for PayPal.

5.    Collect funds from a buyer using Credit card or ACH

Once the previous steps have been implemented, BancBox subscribers can use the CollectFunds API from the buyer using credit card or ACH to accept funds into their client account.

6.    Collect fees on the funds that were collected

Each subscriber will have a Fee and Revenue (F&R) account where they can charge for transactions using the CollectFees API. These fees are automatically credited to the subscriber’s (F&R) account.

7.    Send funds to the supplier or payee

The SendFunds API makes it easy for the subscriber to send payments to any payee linked to the client.

We hope that this brief overview of the BancBox flow gives you more understanding on how you can easily collect, store and send funds using our platform. If you have more questions, please feel free to visit our FAQ page or contact us for more information.

Simple Solutions in the Complex World of Payments

The crowded space of mobile payments offers many solutions to many problems from a variety companies. The bridge between the physical and digital world is developing from the mobile platform, and mobile payments is becoming a fragmented market with many sub categories.  The players in the payment space offer solutions from credit card processing to digital wallets, but very few companies can offer a full scale solution like BancBox can.

BancBox offers a one of a kind payment services solution that is secure and compliant to meet your needs. Our complex set of APIs cover the entire flow of funds from collection, storing, and sending so you can deliver and handle a variety of payment needs. Our platform can:

1. Collect payments or integrate payment services to collect credit card payments, wire transfers, ACH debits and credits, checks, wires, moneygrams, and multi-party transactions.
2. Store funds and create e-wallets for mobile and web applications creating stored value accounts to safely store money. Each of these accounts is FDIC insured and includes full ledgering and reconciliation so you can see activity and balances at your discretion.
3. Send money using an extensive set of APIs to integrate and automate typical banking services to simplify how you send funds between accounts or to other services. You can dynamically send checks without logging into a bank, transmit money via ACH, send funds to e-bill pay services, connect to PayPal, or other transmission methods.

With BancBox, we have taken the complexity out of building payment services and provided a simple way to include payment platforms to mobile devices and social networks.

The possibilities are endless for any company that wants to add revenue-generating opportunities to their business. Visit the BancBox website (www.bancbox.com) to see how we can help you achieve your goals. 

New pricing policy removes account maintenance fees

We, at BancBox, are committed to providing a best in class payments platform to enable our customers to launch their business and scale. We are pleased to inform you that BancBox is releasing a new pricing structure this week and that we are now including our account opening and ledgering features for free in our plans.

Highlights of the new fee structure are as follows:

1. No more account opening fees

2. Monthly account maintenance is free

3. Ledgering and account activity archiving, also free...

Also, we are giving better clarity to transaction fees and offering a tier pricing approach to save you money based on an easy to understand monthly service plan. You can see our new pricing on the updated pricing page.

We hope our new fee structure allows you to leverage the platform the way you want without worrying about the complicated cost calculations or considerations.

For existing subscribers, we will continue to honor our pricing commitment with you. Please feel free to reach out to us in case you have concerns or questions.

Taking the Complexity Out of Transferring Money

If you’re thinking about offering e-wallets, gift cards, or other stored value payment services to your customers you will be subject to a number of state and Federal regulations for money service businesses (MSBs).

Your company is designated as an MSB if the primary function of your business is sending or receiving money. All MSBs must register with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network or FinCEN, a Department of Treasury agency concerned with curtailing money laundering and other financial crimes. They must also comply with a number of government regulations including the Bank Security Act (“BSA”), which entails monitoring transactions and filing Suspicious Activity Reports (“SARs”) or Currency Transaction Reports (“CTRs”) if warranted by the circumstances.

In addition to Federal regulations, each state requires MSBs to obtain a money transmitter license (MTL) to do business in their state. You must also obtain a license in each state from which you receive and to which you send money. The process to obtain licenses in multiple states can take several months and exceed $1 million to purchase the licenses plus a few hundred thousand dollars more each year to maintain them.

For many companies determining whether they actually need an MTL can be unclear. Examples of new marketplace businesses such as AirBNB, Zimride and AvenueHQ, can argue that their core service is the rental of a room, car or apartment, and that the movement of funds between their buyers and sellers are just incidental to that service. It’s a gray area and experts and state regulators can differ in their views.  It’s best to get legal advice to ensure you don’t inadvertently engage in practicing unlicensed banking. Failure to comply with state and federal regulations can have serious consequences, including fines, penalties and even worse.

For many businesses, the cost and complexity of obtaining MTLs is prohibitive. But companies like BancBox can simplify this process. We have worked for years with our partner banks, and done the due diligence to research and understand the regulatory requirements and obtain the MTLs.

Because we manage the payment services part of your business for you with our API-driven platform, you don’t have to worry about obtaining and MTL or meeting compliance. This frees you up to focus on the core services of your business and allows you to easily add more payment services as necessary.

More and more businesses are adding payment services to their offerings. We believe the BancBox approach is an attractive alternative to tackling the complex process of transmitting money.