Merchant Maverick Your Merchant Account Critic

ProPay Review

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

Last Updated: January 21st, 2009

Overview:
Most of the good info on this review is listed in the sections below, but I'll give it a quick rundown anyway.

ProPay has been around since 1997, so that's always a good thing. If you didn't know, they're a U.S. company with a Canadian branch. These guys are a big outfit, especially since they've partnered with eBay.

They have a great BBB rating, but their complaint count is very high at 57 (as of this review).

They only have a few negative reviews floating around on the web, and they actively work towards rebutting to them. Considering they've been around for over a decade, that's not bad. However, a larger number of their merchants were victims of some sort of data breach a couple years ago. A breach that ProPay says was not their fault.

If you want to see some testimonials, you'll have plenty to look at. ProPay also has a Twitter account, just in case you want to publicly say something positive or complain about them.

I'll give 'em a 4 out of 5 for now.

Date Established:
1997.

Parent/Partner Company:
No parent company here, however, the original ProPay is based in Canada. They use TSYS (Vital) as their go to credit card processor, and they offer their own payment gateway along with any other third-party gateway like Authorize.net.

They've also partnered with Hosted Concepts to create ProPay CartLite, which is a shopping cart solution for all of you eCommerce merchants.

They operate the following sites:

• www.propayments.com
• www.propaymentnetwork.com
• www.propay.ca

Type:
Registered ISO/MSP of Wells Fargo Bank and MetaBank.

Trust Symbols:
Here's the ProPay BBB profile. It has a "A+" rating as of this review, with 57 complaints in the last 36 months.

ProPay corporate info can be found here.

Security/Privacy:
ProPay is secured by TRUSTe.

Customer Service:
I've never had an account with ProPay. Any of your input would be great.

Contract Duration:
ProPay doesn't lock you into a contract from what I was told. They do, however, charge an annual fee that seems to make up for it (see below).

Cancellation Fee:
There is no early-termination fee, but rather an annual fee. Depending on which merchant account you choose, you'll be charged anywhere between $34.95 and $299.95 every year. When you first sign-up, you have 30 days to cancel without repercussions. After that, your annual fee will not be refunded.

Interchange-Plus Pricing:
Interchange-plus is offered, but depends on your business profile (i.e. monthly volume, risk profile etc...).

Seasonal Downtime:
Based on their value proposition, ProPay says that they don't charge you any monthly fees, so whether you're seasonal or not, you won't be getting charged during your down months.

Negative Reviews:
You can find a few complaints on RipOffReport, ConsumerAffairs and ComplaintsBoard.

A few of them are worthless, written by merchants who either don't understand how transaction fees work, or because they just feel like ripping into someone...anyone.

It also seems like some ProPay customers were victims of a data breach back in '08, but as the rep from ProPay explains in this WebmasterWorld thread, apparently the breach wasn't within the ProPay ranks. So, if you see any complaints about fraudulent charges by "XYZ Subscriptions" in the amount of $24.95 to $39.99, it's most likely in regards to this breach.

The rest seem pretty legit in my book, and most of them have one thing in common (see below).

Common Complaints:
It seems that ProPay has a tendency to hold funds and cancel accounts without warning, especially if you have a few chargebacks. I would assume they're being excessively paranoid, but it's a tactic that is, unfortunately necessary, at times. Just keep in mind that if you have a business where chargebacks are normal, you might end up getting canned by ProPay, leaving you without a way to process credit cards.

Verifiable Testimonials/References:
There are a ton of testimonials on the site, all including audio snippets of the "actual" merchant's voices. It would be nice to see the full name and business information of the merchant to verify them though. That way I could remove the quotes around "actual."

If you visit the "News and Events" page, you'll also find some customer case studies as well...pretty cool.

Locality:
Lehi, Utah.

Product Offering:
Retail (Credit/Debit), eBay payments, eCommerce..

Specialty:
None.

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