Our Products Help Businesses Weather COVID-19

It can be tough keeping a business going when stay-at-home orders are in place. But if you can protect your funds and do your banking from the safety of your home, it helps a lot.

“Through this whole pandemic, there’s been no lack of communication from Town and Country,” says Dan Werner, owner of Green Tree Home Solutions in Edwardsville, who uses some of the bank’s Treasury Management products. “They’ve been really helpful and relieved a lot of stress off of me.”

“We have learned how vital our Treasury Management products are in making the pandemic safer and less stressful for our business clients,” says Lara DeGroot, Assistant Vice President and Treasury Management Sales Officer for Town and Country Bank. She oversees services that ease banking procedures for businesses on a daily basis, but during her regular check-in calls with clients, she’s hearing that these products are especially useful during COVID-19:

• Remote Teller – Have to make a deposit? As long as you have a secure connection to the Internet, there’s no need to come to the bank. Use your scanner and computer software from Town and Country Bank or Peoples Prosperity Bank to scan checks and deposit them from the safety of your home or office. Make deposits by 6 p.m. and get them into your account the same day.

“It’s made my life simpler and safer,” Dan says about Remote Teller. “My mother lives with us and, out of our whole family, I worry about her the most because the coronavirus affects the elderly a lot more. I’m very cautious about who and what gets around her. So, it’s fantastic that I don’t have to leave home to deposit checks.”

• Positive Pay – “Fraud is always a concern, but unfortunately during times like these, there will be more situations of fraud,” Lara says. Positive Pay protects your account by comparing a list of your checks with your account’s pending withdrawals. If they don’t match, the bank lets you know, and you can stop a transaction. This ensures someone else isn’t getting your money.
• ACH Filter – You may have given a landlord or other creditor access to your account to make payments for rent, a gym membership, or other regular costs. “What we’ve seen during the pandemic is people withdrawing from accounts before they should,” Lara says. “I think some people are worried about getting their payments. So, for example, some landlords are withdrawing rent for April in March.” The ACH Filter lets the customer know when payments are being withdrawn and they can decide to pay or return. “Some of our clients may be running on tight budgets and this makes sure they stay on track,” she says.
• ACH Payroll – Paying employees with a hand-delivered check is not the safest measure right now. Instead, ACH Payroll directly deposits payment into their accounts for you. It saves you time from passing out checks, too.
• Promontory Network – If you’re concerned about safeguarding all of your funds, take advantage of this service. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insures up to $250,000 per depositor, per deposit, per FDIC-insured bank. If you have more money than that, Town and Country Bank and Peoples Prosperity Bank can place it with this network of banks to get FDIC coverage for all of your money, and you only deal with one bank -- Town and Country Bank (or Peoples Prosperity Bank in Quincy) - to oversee it.
• Zero Balance Account – We always suggest that our customers set up a separate account for receiving automatic payments via ACH and Wire transactions. This way, they never give their operating account information to others. Once a transaction is complete, the money is transferred into the operating account and it is business as usual. “This one extra step, that can be automated, is a great way to protect your funds,” Lara says.
  
  Lara set this up for Dan because he has a medically-comprised client who is confined to the home. “He couldn’t figure out how to pay us without having to walk outside to mail a check or meet with my salesperson,” Dan says. “And I didn’t want to turn over my account and routing numbers to anyone. Lara recommended we set up a secondary account for wire transfers. It worked out fine. I’ll use this for years to come.”

To learn more about how our Treasury Management products and services can help your business and peace of mind, please visit our Treasury Management page or contact our experienced Treasury Management team today.