FREQUENTLY ASKED
QUESTIONS

Co-ordinating and managing payment plans can be time-consuming, often require extensive follow-ups, adjustments and record-keeping.

When this is not the main area of focus for the practice, it takes away resources in the form of staff and time from the practice. When the dedicated admin person is off sick or needs time off, this can impact the practice and patients.

Safe Pay Smiles is a tool that allows the practice manager to take control and elevate their role. Along with our fixed pricing structure, outsourcing the payment plans to Safe Pay Smiles will result in a healthier, more profitable practice.

As a practice owner or manager, your time is your most valuable asset. The thought of switching critical systems, even for long-term savings, often feels like a risk—a trade-off between today's efficiency and tomorrow's benefit.

We eliminate that trade-off.

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We designed our transition process to be fast, non-disruptive, and low-effort. Our system implementation is seamless to your daily patient flow and staff operations.

In fact, you can switch over in your lunch break, sit back and watch as we organise it all for you.

We work as a partner to your practice, which means we will take care of your patients to ensure both your reputation and ours are protected. Our friendly, local Gold Coast team will deal with your patients and is available to your practice for any queries.

We co-brand our marketing material and communications to your patients to ensure they are aware that we are acting on your behalf.

Absolutely. You can register a patient via the same QR code on your practice tablet, complete a registration via the partner portal or email us to give the patient a call. There are how to videos that can guide the patient and your practice through the different options for registering the payment plans.

We can also customise the setup to your preferred operations.

Yes, you will have unlimited login available for our partner portal.

Unlike other providers, we don't charge licensing fees for accessing our portal, it's simply part of our offering to you.

You can leave us notes on the partner portal of any changes you require. These notes will be loaded against the patient's file for you to view later. Our team will get notified and apply changes throughout the day. Your practice will receive a daily digest the next day with confirmation of changes and updated payment plans.

You can refer any existing overdue accounts directly to our parent company COLLECT4U. They are experienced collectors that have successfully collected for a number of other dental or orthodontic practices. There are no lock-in contracts or subscription fees, only commission charges on successful collections.

When a patient misses a payment or the scheduled direct debit fails, our local Gold Coast team will get in contact with the patient directly via a series of SMS, emails and letters. We will retry any failed payments as per the agreement with the patient.

The practice will be advised of missed payments on a weekly basis in order for you to minimise risk and expenses on appliances. Depending on your operational preferences, we might also suggest you hold off on further treatment.

Once there are 3 missed payments, the account will be handed over to our parent company COLLECT4U to ensure the payments are collected. If this fails, we will discuss the option of default listing against the patients credit file with you.

We process payments from the patients accounts weekly, fortnightly or monthly, generally on a Thursday or Friday. These payments take 3 business days to clear through the banking system.

Based on your account setup, we can settle all cleared and reconciled funds to your bank account, fortnightly or monthly.

We will provide you with a remittance advise that will ensure easy and fast reconciliation within your PMS.

Yes, we clearly advise all patients of our fees upfront. These fees won't affect the cost of the treatment plan for your practice.

We charge a once off setup fee of $42.00 and a transaction fee of $1.10 for every direct debit from a patients bank account. All failed payments will incur a $17.70 dishonour fee, however, if the patient informs us of any issues with the payments in time, we can waive this fee.

There are no interest fees charged.

There are some credit criteria that the patient needs to meet in order to set up the payment plan, however we don't do an external credit check via a credit bureau.

It is up to the practice to decide whether they want to accept the patient on their payment plans that we manage on your behalf.

Patients can contact our friendly, local Gold Coast staff via phone or email to answer any questions they have.

Furthermore, each patient receives a unique log in code to a portal to view their account and repayments.

If you are already managing payment plans either in-house or through a 3rd party, you have several options.

You can start with new payment plans with Safe Pay Smiles on a specific date and continue to "run down" the existing payment plans as is.

Alternatively, we can discuss how to transfer your current in-house payment plans across, without any disruption to the existing patients.

Patient have the ability to make extra payments on their payment plan throughout the term of the plan.

We provide options for EFT, Direct debits and Credit card payments via our secure patient portal.

Any extra payments received will be paid over in full to the practice within the next upcoming reconciliation and settlement due. Unlike other providers, we don't hold on to any extra payments receive.

We believe the funds are more valuable to your practice. Afterall, it's about increasing your profitability and cashflow.

We believe in providing the patients as many secure ways to pay as possible and to take away the friction of payment processing. We have a list of payment partners available.

Patients can choose to pay via direct debit, EFT, debit card, credit card, PayTo, BPay and much more.

Yes, we work with the practice and the patients to set up payment plans (deposits, terms and repayment frequencies) to suit both.

Our systems and processes are set up to easy and smoothly manage high volumes and different types of plans.

Yes, as long as they are currently in a full-time role based in Australia and can afford the repayments set out in the plan.

We have a contract in place with the dental/specialist practice providing you the service or product. We have your set payment plan, however, we need your bank / credit / debit card details in order for us to facilitate and manage the payments securely.

You need to complete the secure form to authorise us to set up a direct debit on your account as we can't otherwise withdraw money from your account.

We don't share this information with the practice and we hold it securely within our systems.

Yes, at the time you are setting up the payment plan or if you later on increase your payment plan. The deposit is between 10% and 30%, depending on the cost of your treatment and the repayment period. The deposit is paid either directly to Safe Pay Smiles via our secure credit card portal or to the practice. If you would like to pay the deposit by EFT, please give us a call or use the bank details found on our app .

You can get all the secure forms you need from our app. Simply scan the QR code from the dental/specialist practice. If you need help, contact us via email at patient@safepaysmiles.com or call 07-56580500.

Absolutely! We use a secure form, limit access to the information and use encrypted files to store and process the information.

Yes, we will send you a SMS a couple of days prior to the payment being deducted from your bank account or credit/debit card. This reminds you to ensure there are sufficient funds available as charges apply to failed payments.

You will see the payment being deducted with the reference or description as "Safe Pay Smiles" from your bank account. Please keep in mind that Safe Pay Smiles is a subdivision of Collect 4U.

The flexibility you have to change the payment schedule depends on the practice you have the service with and the specific payment plan you are on. Please give our friendly team a call on 07-56580500

The terms for cancellation of your payment schedule depend on the practice you have the service with, but generally once you've agreed to treatment and have started, you are liable for the full amount outstanding. If you've had a change in circumstances, please get in contact with our patient care team to discuss the details.

Please don't allow the payments to fail as this will attract failed payment fees and the debt could be referred to our debt collection team. Rather get in contact with us as soon as you have any difficulty in repaying the account, on 07-56580500

If a payment fails you will be notified by either sms or email. The payment plan will continue as per normal, however the failed payment will need to be made as well. There are different options on how to make up a missed payment.

Please note that you may be charged failed fees by us and possibly also by your bank. We will notify you if any fees are charged and if you're unsure, please get in contact with our team.

There are different reasons why you might have missed a payment, however it's easy to catch up the missed payment. You can:

* Pay directly into our bank account. Details can be found on our app or send us an email.

* Pay with your credit/debit card on our patient portal. You will be able to use Google Pay or Apple Pay securely.

* Complete the form on our app, to add the missed payment to your next scheduled payment.

* Give us a call (07-56580500) and we can put a catch up arrangement in place that is affordable for you.

You are able to view and download statements and payment receipts via our patient portal, which you can access via the app. We would like to be kinder to the environment and therefore don't send out paper statements.

If you struggle or have any questions, please get in contact with our friendly Gold Coast team and we will happily send you a statement via email. All fees and charges are transparent to you and the practice.

If you change bank details or your credit card expires, you need to contact us straight away. This will ensure that you don't miss any payments, get charged failed payment fees or have to make up any payments. You can use the app to change your payment details, email us (patient@safepaysmiles.com) or give our friendly staff a call on 07-56580500.

Yes, you can make extra payments outside of your payment plan in order to pay it off earlier. There are no penalties or extra fees for doing this. You can use the app to make a payment with your credit card or find the details for our bank account.

As with most businesses, there are generally fees and surcharges for setting up and using the banking and credit card facilities. These are all transparent and outlined in our app for you to view. If you have any questions, please give us a call on 07-56580500 or send us an email at patient@safepaysmiles.com.au

Life happens, we get it. At Safe Pay Smiles when there is a change in your situation, we are able to assist you with either an alternative repayment arrangement or an extended payment term. Please email us (patient@safepaysmiles.com) for the financial hardship application form. Ensure you have the supported documentation ready. Alternatively, give us a call to discuss.