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Merchant Maverick’s Rating: (4 out of 5)

Last Updated: September 9th, 2010.

Overview:
BluePay Processing is based out of Naperville, Illinois. They’ve been in business since 2002, so that’s a decent length of time for them to establish their reputation. I definitely think that BluePay is an above-average merchant account provider, but there were a couple minor issues that kept them from getting a better score.

For starters, I think that they could definitely be a bit more transparent as a company, especially when it comes to their rates and testimonials.

Although my reviews aren’t focused solely on rates and fees, it does make me feel better when I see a provider displaying their rates in plain view. Not particularly the discount rates, but rather the incidental fees. It’s always good to know if the provider has a cancellation fee. How about a setup fee or an annual fee? Do they charge you for PCI compliance? These are all touch points that are important to the merchant solely because they are the same fees that sales reps have an incentive to keep quite about when trying to sell you on an account.

Also, I’d like to see some fully-disclosed testimonials on the BluePay site. I know, I know, you’re afraid that your competitors will come and steal your merchants away from you, but trust me, it’s important to us merchants to see those legit testimonials. Plus, there are a handful of companies out there that allow for third-party testimonial verification, so BluePay you might want to look into that.

BluePay has a 3-year term with an early-termination fee of $295, which is pretty much industry standard, but there are plenty of other guys out there won’t lock you into a contract, or charge you when you decide to break it. I’m willing to bet that BluePay will negotiate with you in this regard though.

They also charge a $99/year PCI compliance fee which to me isn’t ideal, but it’s hard to find a merchant account provider these days that doesn’t charge some sort of compliance fee.

I do like that BluePay has a blog and a Twitter account.

They also have an in-house payment gateway that may help you save on the monthly fees that you would otherwise pay with Authorize.Net, but that may bring up some integration issues if you have a shopping cart that’s not compatible.

Here’s a copy of the BluePay Program Guide which covers BluePay’s terms, including “Early Termination.” And, here’s a copy of the BluePay application.

BluePay gets a 4 out of 5 for now.

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Don’t forget to read through the rest of this review for more info on BluePay.

Date Established:
2002.

Location:
Naperville, Illinois.

Domain Name(s):
www.bluepay.com.

Parent/Partner Company:
BluePay Processing, LLC is not owned by any other corporation. They have, however, been on a bit of a buying spree themselves with the recent acquisition of Landmark Merchant Solutions.

Type:
Registered ISO/MSP.

Acquiring Bank(s) (Acquirer):
Wells Fargo Bank.

Payment Processor(s):
BluePay is the payment processor.

Payment Gateway(s):
BluePay has their own in-house payment gateway.

Do you need help setting up your payment gateway with your website? Click here.

Trust Symbols:
The BluePay BBB profile has an “A+” rating, with 18 complaints (as of this update) in the last 36-months.

Negative Reviews/Complaints:
You’ll find a few complaints on RipOffReprt. A couple of them have rebuttal’s, but the majority don’t. For those of you that are thinking about using the BluePay eCheck services, then this report might be a good read.

Common Complaints:
It was tough to nail down any commonalities between the complaints that I read, but if you cross reference the BBB complaint section with the ROR reports, you’ll notice that most of them fall into the “contractual issues” or “deceptive sale practice” categories. In these cases it’s difficult to place blame on anyone because it could be a lack of the sales rep addressing certain fees, or it could be that the merchant just didn’t fully understand their contract.

Most complaints of that nature have to do with the merchant not knowing about a contract term (3-years in this case) or a cancellation fee ($295 in this case). BluePay also charges an annual PCI compliance fee of $99.

Verifiable Testimonials/References:
The BluePay website does have some testimonials, but they’re pretty generic with only first name, last initial, but no reference to the actual company name.

Security/Privacy:
The BluePay site is secured by Trustwave.

Customer Service:
Have you worked with BluePay? Feel free to leave us your review. Don’t forget to read the user review and comment policy.

Contract Duration:
3-years with successive 1-year auto-renewals.

Cancellation Fee:
$295 if you cancel before the 3-year contract is up.

Interchange-Plus Pricing:
Interchange-plus is offered by BluePay.

Seasonal Downtime:
Seasonal downtime is also offered by BluePay.

Product/Service Offering:
Retail (Credit/Debit), Mail Order/Telephone Order (MOTO), EBT, Check Services, Online/e-Commerce Payments, Gift & Loyalty, Pre-Paid, Online Reporting, ACH, Point-of-Sale (POS).

Product/Service Specialty:
None.

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