About the Provider

1. Where would our program size fall within your customer list?

2. What are your strengths that differentiate your card program from other providers?

3. What are your planned enhancements over the next five years?

4. Which card brands do you offer (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, etc.)?

5. Who processes card transactions on your behalf?

6. Do you subcontract any parts of your Commercial Card programs?

Rebate and Fees

1. Identify the rebate incentives you will offer based on our current (and planned) program spend, including the related criteria, how it is calculated, whether any transactions are excluded, frequency of payout, etc.

2. Relay the fees our company could or will incur, including card design, rush cards, interface development/data import fees, implementation costs, customized reporting, upgrades, support, expansion services and so on.

Technology and Reporting

1. Describe the process and timeline for creating a customized interface file for our specified systems.

2. Provide an overview of your available technology solutions for program management. For each, we will want a demo and the ability to “test drive.” Create a list of all the features you are interested in and/or require, providing to bidding issuers within the RFP or prior to the demos.

3. Who owns/controls each technology solution (e.g., your company, the card brand, a third-party provider)?

4. How often do upgrades occur? What is the upgrade process (testing, communications, implementation, etc.)?

5. Share statistics about technology stability/reliability and down times.

6. Provide a list of the standard report options, what each includes and available formats.

7. Will we be able to schedule recurring reports and have them pushed to us via email?

8. Describe the availability of ad hoc reporting.

9. How long do you maintain historical transaction and cardholder data for online inquiry?

10. Is archived data available?

Other

You should also consider questions pertaining to fraud monitoring and compromised cards (and the related notifications), disaster planning and recovery, billing cycles, etc.

About the Cards and Card Issuance

1. Do you offer the following card types? Insert what your organization needs/wants.

2. Describe your electronic accounts payable (EAP) solutions (e.g., which type or types you offer).

3. Do you issue chip & PIN or chip & signature cards?

4. Describe available options for the card design (e.g., company logo, background image, customized second line of embossing, etc.).

5. What is the timeline for normal card issuance? Will we be able to request “rush” cards? If yes, what is that timeline?

6. What information do you require from each card applicant?

Implementation

1. Please provide a sample implementation plan and timeline.

2. What resources will be dedicated to our account? Will they be available onsite if needed?

3. Post-implementation, will you provide documentation showing the accomplishment of contract implementation deliverables?

Service Model

1. Going forward, will we have a dedicated account/relationship manager? If so, how many clients, on average, are assigned to one account manager? During what hours are they available?

2. What should we expect for turn-around times in response to our inquiries, in terms of both an acknowledgement and in providing a complete response?

3. Who will be available for technical support and during what hours?

4. Who will be available for after-hours support, including holidays/weekends?

5. Will you conduct periodic reviews of our program (e.g., at least annually)? What does the review include?

6. Describe your problem resolution process; for example, what happens if we would like a different account manager.

7. Do you offer performance guarantees related to customer service?

See also additional RFP-related content.