Repayd and Axcess Payments Group Launch Free Health Check to Cut Hidden Travel Payment Costs

Repayd and Axcess Payments Group have launched a free Travel Payments Health Check to help travel businesses identify hidden costs and improve cash flow. For fintech professionals, this tool highlights the growing demand for specialised payment auditing in the travel sector, where fragmented infrastructure and complex cross-border fees frequently erode margins and restrict working capital.

What was announced

The Travel Payments Health Check is a free online assessment tool designed to help leadership and finance teams in the travel sector evaluate their existing payment infrastructure. The tool takes approximately 10 minutes to complete and provides a personalised score out of 100, alongside indicative estimates of potential annual savings. It is specifically tailored for a broad range of industry participants, including airlines, cruise operators, travel technology platforms, online travel agencies (OTAs), tour operators, destination management companies, and accommodation providers.

The assessment generates red, amber, and green ratings across seven critical operational areas: multi-currency pricing, cross-border costs, pricing transparency, currency alignment, payment method fit, cash flow, and supplier payouts. By examining transaction volumes, booking values, and customer markets, the tool identifies where fragmented arrangements or settlement delays might be restricting access to working capital. It also highlights opportunities to generate additional revenue through multi-currency pricing. The initiative aims to address the incremental development of payment systems as businesses expand into new markets, helping them determine if their current commercial arrangements still meet their operational needs. Users receive results via email and have the option to consult with a travel industry payments specialist to discuss the findings.

"The commercial question is how much of a booking’s value remains once the full payment journey is complete. A competitive acquiring rate can still sit alongside unnecessary currency conversions, expensive cross-border transactions and inefficient supplier payouts."

Will Plummer, CEO of Repayd

The companies involved

Axcess Payments Group is a specialist provider within the broader Payments Group, a company with a significant footprint in the fintech sector. Led by CEO and Managing Director Nick Fox, Axcess focuses on the integration of acquiring, settlement, foreign exchange, and payouts to streamline complex payment journeys. The firm has established itself as a key player for businesses operating in high-volume or complex ecosystems that require more than just a standard processing rate.

Repayd, led by CEO Will Plummer, is a fintech firm focused on the specific needs of the travel sector. The company provides expertise in managing the unique challenges of travel payments, such as long booking lead times, international distribution, and the coordination of supplier commitments. Repayd’s market position is defined by its ability to bridge the gap between travel operations and payment technology, ensuring that businesses retain more revenue from each booking. Both companies operate in a market where the visibility of total payment costs is becoming a critical differentiator for travel firms looking to protect their margins against rising operational expenses.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has previously tracked the expansion of both companies within the travel and payments infrastructure space. In September 2026, we reported on how Axcess Launches utlx: The Intelligent Payments Infrastructure Platform for Complex Ecosystems, a move that signaled the company’s focus on providing sophisticated tools for businesses with intricate payment needs. Earlier that year, in July 2026, FF News covered a significant collaboration for Repayd in Repayd and Nezasa Partner to Streamline Global Travel Payments for Tour Operators. That partnership focused on automating and simplifying the payment flow for tour operators, highlighting Repayd’s ongoing strategy to address the specific pain points of the global travel distribution chain.

What this means

This move reflects a broader industry shift toward payment transparency as a tool for margin protection. In the travel sector, where margins are notoriously thin and transaction paths are long, the "headline rate" from an acquirer is no longer a sufficient metric for success. By offering a free diagnostic tool, Repayd and Axcess are putting pressure on traditional payment providers who benefit from the opacity of cross-border fees and currency margins. The challenge for the sector now is whether travel firms will move beyond diagnosis to actually re-platforming, as the friction of changing payment providers often outweighs the perceived savings of a better rate.