MYOB rewards program to let businesses “double dip” points
Businesses will be able to earn credit card reward points and MYOB reward points to pay suppliers and employees.
A new MYOB Rewards program will allow small businesses paying with a credit card to earn double points when making payments through the software. MYOB Rewards, announced as part of MYOB's Partner Connect conference in Melbourne on Wednesday, will be powered by Mastercard and launched to businesses later this year.
General manager of product at MYOB David Weickhardt said they wanted to be able to bring the benefits of rewards points to all credit cardholders.
David Weickhardt, MYOB
"We saw how popular [rewards points] have been, you look at people using their Amex cards. When I was in an Uber the other day, the guy said he got his annual family holiday through paying his business expenses on an Amex," Weickhardt said.
"How do we offer something great for Visa and Mastercard holders as well?"
Small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can make payments using Mastercard, Visa, American Express, BPAY or electronic funds transfer on MYOB. SMBs that pay using a credit card will be able to earn rewards points when the program is launched in October this year. Rewards points can start to be redeemed by early 2020.
The credit card payment requirement for the program effectively means that businesses will be able to earn double rewards points when they choose to pay with a rewards credit card.
"They can double dip," Weickhardt confirmed. He also said that one of the unique things about the program is that it will be bank agnostic.
"Mastercard see our vision of letting people use whatever bank they want to use. You don't have to go and bank with NAB or Bankwest, you can have anything," he said. "You can use a business or personal credit card – it gives people flexibility."
SMBs will be able to pay goods and services or even staff payroll to be able to earn rewards points. Weickhardt also said the incentives that are able to be redeemed extend beyond traditional rewards programs.
"We give them the choice of how they use the reward points," he said. "They don't have to just use it for flights, they can use it for paying back their other purchases."
The incentives that are on offer include payments towards business expenses, digital gift cards for staff or customer rewards and travel.
MYOB also announced it would introduce low-cost debit card payments as an option for supplier and payroll payments, but these are not eligible for the rewards program.
"If you want to pay with a credit card because you've got cash flow issues, you can use a credit card, you want a really low-cost solution, you can use a debit card."
"Our ultimate goal is to help small businesses succeed. And so whatever it takes to help them succeed here, we're gonna go there."
MYOB Rewards will be available to small businesses in October 2019.
The writer travelled to Melbourne as a guest of MYOB.
