Braintree Payment Solutions Review
- Date Established
- 2007
- Location
- Chicago, IL
Pros
- Predictable flat-rate pricing
- Excellent developer tools
- Extensive integrations available
- Excellent customer support
- Comprehensive payment type support
- Multi-currency options
- Excellent marketplace tools
- Excellent subscription tools
Cons
- Not suitable for high-risk industries
- Long setup times for accounts
Overview
Is it a brain in the shape of a tree, or a tree that grows brains? I’m not entirely sure, but either way, I can tell you that choosing Braintree Payment Solutions (or, for everyone’s sake, Braintree) is a no-brainer — an easy but sophisticated way to accept payments.
Braintree offers merchant accounts and a payment gateway, with a high degree of customizability and multiple services available at no charge beyond processing fees. That makes it ideal for forward-thinking app developers, marketplace-style businesses, and other Internet-based, tech-driven merchants. It also provides seamless, frictionless billing while providing access to billing information in a way that most providers don’t allow.
These sorts of companies don’t often like to disclose just how big they are. But even if you’ve never heard of it, Braintree is big. Big enough that the company processes more than one billion transactions per quarter — that’s more than 4 billion transactions per year. And while Braintree hasn’t released any recent numbers, it did process more than $50 billion in total payments volume back in 2015. Given the company’s continuous growth, it reasons to say Braintree processes even more than that now.
You’re probably thinking that Braintree is sounding an awful lot like Stripe — and you’d be right. There’s definitely a lot of similarities between the two, from their developer-first focus to the core services provided. The primary difference is that while Stripe is a third-party processor, Braintree offers a bank-sponsored merchant account, which translates to more stability.
I wholeheartedly recommend Braintree Payment Solutions. If you have no need for the developer tools and other capabilities beyond simple payment processing, then you might want to look elsewhere for the lowest rates. In my mind, though, Braintree offers incredibly valuable services at a fair price, and almost any merchant could benefit from processing with the company. And you won’t find much better options if you need a platform to build a mobile or ecommerce system on. Congratulations, Braintreeps (Braintree reps, get it? I didn’t make this up). You’ve earned a perfect 5-star rating.
Read on to learn more about what makes Braintree unique. If you’re a current or previous Braintree merchant, we’d love to hear from you. Please check our guidelines, then leave us a comment about your experiences!
Table of Contents
Products & Services
We’re not looking at just a simple merchant account provider with Braintree. In fact, if you wants a POS integration or an mPOS app, or an all-in-one solution, you’re probably better off looking elsewhere. With Braintree, it’s mobile and digital products only. If you’re into e-tail, app development, or mobile anything, you need to take a closer look.
But with so many features, you might need to take a couple of days to process the possibilities. Everything is customizable, with one of the most painless integrations you’re likely to find anywhere in the industry.
There’s two elements of the service:
- Merchant accounts: Braintree is a direct processor, so your payments account comes directly from this provider, which translates into greater stability than you see with an aggregator such as Stripe or Square. Braintree is a also global provider, with international accounts available for merchants in some 45 countries total, Not to mention that you can accept payments in over 130 currencies. While Braintree does have a list of prohibited businesses, it doesn’t have a minimum processing requirement for merchants.
- Gateway services: This encompasses pretty much everything else Braintree has to offer beyond payment processing, from the control panel to the API. It’s worth noting that if you already have a merchant account and just need the gateway, you can use Braintree for a fee. However, it’s a higher cost than other gateways, so you should make sure the cost absolutely justifies the benefits.
Braintree’s services can be broken down into four elements or products:
- Braintree Direct: For businesses that want to sell directly on a website or in a mobile app. Direct requires Braintree to act as the gateway as well as the processor.
- Braintree Auth: This is more for partners and platform providers than merchants, but Auth is a way for these businesses to securely share merchant data and take authorized actions on behalf of merchants. Auth is, at the time of this review update, still in a closed beta for US businesses only.
- Braintree Contextual Commerce: These tools remind me a bit of Stripe’s Relay tools, allowing for merchants to share information and sell on each other’s sites and apps. There are two APIs, allowing Braintree merchants to share within the Braintree network and outside of it.
- Braintree Marketplace: Braintree’s marketplace solutions allow you to seamlessly manage all aspects of the business, including splitting payments between you and your providers, and keeping track of your 1099-K tax forms along the way. The flexible escrow service gives you the option to pay right away, or wait for fulfillment. Plus, it’s free. You only pay the normal processing rate for the initial transaction, and nothing else.
Additional Braintree Features
In addition to Braintree’s four core offerings, you do get access to a wealth of additional features at no additional charge:
- Sandbox: If you want to test out Braintree before you go about integrating it into your system, there is a sandbox for developers to play in. It’s free, though you do have to register.
- Drop-In UI and Custom Fields: When it comes to checkouts, it’s your choice — select Braintree’s ready-to-go checkout UI for your site or app, or use the custom hosted fields to create a unique checkout experience while maintaining PCI compliance.
- Different Presentment and Settlement Currency: If you sell internationally, Braintree offers an option for you to offer different presentment and settlement currencies, meaning the currency you can display on the site can be local the customer, while you still get the funds in your deposit currency. Even better, Braintree handles all the conversion for you.
- Recurring Billing: While a bunch of providers can hook you up with recurring billing, not many execute the service as well as Braintree. Customization is king with the Brain. This includes customized failed transaction management, pricing plans, discounts, promos, push notifications, rewards, and add-ons, automatically prorated subscriptions, as well as search/reporting capabilities. And let’s not forget the secure storage in Braintree’s vault. More notably, recurring billing through Braintee is free, whereas with PayPal it’s a $10 monthly fee.
- Payment Updater: Never lose a subscriber to a new or re-issued card. Braintree will automatically obtain and update that info for you, so you don’t have to reach out to customers, which is pretty awesome.
- Integrations: Braintree is compatible with an assortment of third-party services, from shopping carts to recurring billing and invoicing tools. Check out the full list.
- Fraud Protection Tools: With a Braintree account, you get access to fraud monitoring tools through the company’s partner, Kount. You can set parameters for security and override certain suspicious transactions if necessary. (Just make sure you have these features enabled to begin with!) Braintree notes that these tools aren’t always completely compatible with third-party shopping carts, so be aware of this.
- Manual Transactions: While it’s not quite a virtual terminal, you can create credit card transactions through Braintree’s Control Panel. If other payment methods are saved in the vault, you can authorize transactions that way as well.
- Data Portability: The Braintree gateway uses its “vault” system to give you access to your customers’ stored payment information while maintaining PCI compliance. With other gateways, you lose access to this information if you decide to switch providers. This means that all of your recurring payments would be interrupted (a really bad thing). So I’m really impressed to see Braintree offering this wonderful feature.
All of this is good to see. These are pretty solid features for merchants, and you don’t necessarily get all of these from any old merchant account provider — especially not data portability or advanced fraud protection.
And then, of course, there’s all of the payment methods that Braintree supports, which you can integrate into your system at your own discretion. However, it is nice to see such an array of payment options from a single provider:
- Credit and debit cards: This also includes acceptance of pre-paid debit and gift cards.
- ACH direct debit: Support for ACH is still in closed beta at the time of writing. Rates aren’t disclosed, though Braintree’s site claims to offer “low, capped fees.” Braintree says it will work with merchants to get the best pricing for their needs.
- PayPal: Braintree’s integration with PayPal shouldn’t surprise you, since it’s a PayPal company. You’ll still need a PayPal account to process through Braintree, but you will get a simple, time-saving and seamless setup and a unified way to accept all forms of payment.
- PayPal One-touch payments: App developers will love Braintree’s One Touch Payment option. We first saw this through Venmo, but now PayPal has adapted that into its own One Touch solution for apps and websites. Users can pay securely and easily, and PayPal will remember their information, so they can complete purchases more quickly in the future.
- Android and Apple Pay: Integrate payments from the two major mobile wallets into your setup.
- Venmo payments: This service allows you to pay your market providers using their email addresses or mobile phone numbers, so you don’t have to deal with collecting and verifying bank account numbers.Not only that, but you can actually accept Venmo transactions from consumers as well. Braintree has just added the ability to accept Venmo payments on the web in addition to app payments.
- UnionPay: UnionPay is China’s predominant issuer of credit and debit cards, and certain Braintree merchants are eligible. Take note, you’ll pay different rates to accept UnionPay.
- Visa Checkout and MasterPass: In addition to all of the above ways to checkout, you can integrate support for Visa and MasterCard’s online wallets.
- Pay with Google: This new Google API lets a merchant pay with any card they have on file with Google, not just Android Pay. That includes Google Play, Chrome, and even YouTube.
That just about covers what Braintree has to offer merchants. The knowledge base and documentation are two good resources to learn more about what Braintree can do. And of course, don’t forget that you can go poke around in the sandbox if you feel inclined.
Fees & Rates
For most of us, the rates and fees charged by Braintree Payment Solutions are incredibly simple:
- 2.9% + $0.30 transaction fee for everything except Bitcoin
That’s it. There are no surcharges, no fees. That means:
- No monthly minimum
- No monthly fee
- No annual fee
- No PCI compliance fee
- No early termination fee
- No set-up fee
- No gateway fees
- No statement fees
You’ll be responsible for chargebacks, though, which come with a reasonable $15 fee. This is industry-standard and unavoidable.
Braintree’s rate of 2.9% + $0.30 is absolutely competitive, especially when you consider there are no other fees and everything is very predictable. If you’ve integrated with PayPal, you’ll pay your standard PayPal rates, whatever they may be. It’s also worth noting that Braintree does offer volume discounts if you process more than $80,000 per month, as well as a non-profit discount. (2.2% + $0.30 and 3.25% + $0.30 for Amex).
I did mention that Braintree’s gateway is available independent of its processing services, though at a cost. Braintree says the gateway is compatible with most US merchant accounts, and you can even connect multiple accounts. Here’s what you’ll pay:
- $49/month for gateway
- $0.10 per transaction
- $10 for additional merchant accounts beyond the first
All in all, that’s reasonable for everything you get — but you get a better deal when you use Braintree’s processing.
I also mentioned earlier that Braintree is a global processor. You can accept payments in a huge number of currencies and settle transactions in a different one. The company automatically handles conversions for you at a 1% fee over the exchange rate. That’s a lot better than paying foreign exchange fees.
The two-day payout is another plus. That means you’ll get your money quickly. It’s not as fast or as convenient as next-day payouts or the instant access PayPal offers, or even Square’s instant deposit, but it’s on par with a lot of the best processors.
Contract Length & Early Termination Fee
You’ll have absolutely no early termination fee with Braintree, which makes sense given that it’s a PayPal company. You can see the standard Braintree Merchant Agreement if you’re interested. It’s pretty standard fare as far as merchant agreements go, and nothing that should worry you. As we’ve already said, there are no extra costs or hidden fees, so you don’t have to worry about early termination fees or monthly minimums or anything. Please make sure you check the list of acceptable business types before you sign up, too!
Another plus: If you do choose to leave Braintree, you get to take all of your customer data with you. That’s a really good deal. You’ll just want to make sure the new system is PCI compliant.
Sales & Advertising Transparency
With such a simple pricing structure, Braintree has an easy job when it comes to transparency. It discloses all rates, fees, and important contractual stipulations in plain sight, with absolutely no surprises.
The much tougher task here is properly explaining all of Braintree’s many features and customization options. Fortunately, it has some great resources: its developer guidelines, its article center (which is your self-service knowledge base), and its FAQ (a starter help center). You’ll also find an active blog with some good information for merchants, which is always nice to see. Want more information? Braintree also has a resource center to help businesses stay up to date on trends in the payments industry.
Braintree doesn’t have thousands of independent agents hitting the pavement to try to sell its products. All salespeople are in-house, and they know Braintree products inside and out. This is an optimal sales situation because it tends to lead to far more transparent practices and much happier merchants. It just seems like there’s far less pressure in these kinds of situations to close the deal at whatever cost — even if that means lying to a merchant and promising the world. While there are some companies that manage their independent reps well, they’re definitely few and far between. So I like that Braintree keeps is team in house.
Customer Service & Technical Support
While many providers struggle to maintain an acceptable level of customer support, Braintree has a reputation for excellence in this category. While there is no live chat option, you do get email and phone support at no charge and with no limits. In fact, Braintree likes to bill itself as offering “white-glove support.” We’ll explore whether that’s actually true or not in a little bit.
For now, if you need to get a hold of a knowledgeable support rep, you can do so during these hours:
Email Support
- 5 AM to 12 AM Central Time, Monday-Thursday
- 5 AM to 8 PM Central Time, Friday
Phone Support
- 8 AM to 7 PM Central Time, Monday-Thursday
- 8 AM to 5 PM Central Time, Friday
If it’s an emergency, you can get service 24/7/365 via email from reps and engineers on-call, and that’s pretty awesome. We’ve also already mentioned the website resources as well. In all, I find them to be quite comprehensive and easy to navigate, which is always nice.
I’m always thrilled to see phone support available, because the lack of it is invariably a major complaint against any merchant account provider. So this is definitely a great thing for Braintree, especially since it seems a growing number of merchants are growing frustrated by Stripe’s lack of phone support.
Braintree also maintains a Status page, where you can find information about outages or other technical difficulties in real time. Rather than getting a bunch of inconsistent anecdotal evidence in a giant rumor mill, you can see direct from the source whether something is working.
Negative Reviews & Complaints
Braintree has just seven complaints with the BBB in the past three years. That’s an extremely low number of complaints for anyone, but when you consider just how large Braintree is, it’s outstanding. Stripe, which is also extremely large, has hundreds of complaints.
Unfortunately, the BBB has lowered Braintree’s score to a B+ because it seems customers aren’t happy with the company’s response to their complaints. However, looking over the complaints, a couple relate to the chargeback process, another relates to an account being terminated for high risk, and one is about the fee structure in the Asia-Pacific region. One is from a customer who claims a Braintree merchant never shipped their order. Braintree also has 5 reviews on the BBB site, all of which are negative. A couple relate to being unable to open an account, one relates to a termination, one is just a general plea for help. So again, I don’t necessarily think this small smattering of complaints is indicative of a problem.
That said, there are other sources of complaints on the web, with more reliable information. And among those complaints, here is what I’ve seen:
- Long Setup Times for Accounts: This isn’t surprising, given that you do get an actual merchant account and not just an aggregated account like you do with PayPal (Braintree’s parent company) and Square and Stripe. You won’t get instant access, and you’ll have to provide several documents before you’re approved. This is definitely one of the more common and consistent complaints.
- Closed accounts and held funds: The overall serious complaint volume is pretty small, but among the serious complaints, these two show up most often. In theory, a proper merchant account means that holds and account closures are less likely than with aggregated accounts. And judging by the overall low complaint numbers, I think that’s true of Braintree. However, you should make peace with the fact that Braintree won’t accept every type of business. We highly recommend that you check out Braintree’s Acceptable Use Policy, including the list of prohibited businesses. if you’re on the list or in any sort of high-risk field, you’re better off pursuing a merchant account with a processor that specializes in working with those kinds of businesses, including Durango Merchant Services.
- Slow Response Times from Customer Service: I see a few complaints about this, but not a substantial number. In addition to slow response times, I’ve seen a few allegations that there isn’t communication between departments and you might get inconsistent answers. I do generally believe Braintree offers good customer support, but bad experiences do happen. That’s unfortunate, but not representative of the Braintree experience on the whole.
- Lack of Intuitive Interface: There are a handful of complaints about Braintree not being particularly user-friendly. These users don’t like the control panel or the reporting tools. However, there’s nothing that particularly stands out as consistent in these complaints. I’m more inclined to say “be aware this is something you might agree with” than to say it’s actually a problem.
Positive Reviews & Testimonials
Braintree’s client list speaks for itself, in some ways: GitHub, Uber, AirBnB, and DropBox, just to name a few. But if you really want something remarkable…
Braintree actually bothers to put in the effort to create case studies and shows how its solutions can be used to tackle different problems. Not many companies actually invest in doing this, but it’s always nice to see. You’ll see the case studies come from smaller-name businesses, too, not just the giants of industry.
That’s not the only source of good reviews. There are quite positive reviews of Braintree from actual users on other review sites around the web, mixed in with the negative reviews. As I dug through them I found that people really like the following:
- How easy it is to integrate Braintree
- Consistent pricing with no monthly fees
- The lack of problems they encounter when using the service
Developers in particular note how solid the API is. They also like the extensive support for various programming languages. I have seen some older complaints to the contrary, so it seems that Braintree has stepped up its efforts in this regard recently.
Final Verdict
Braintree is probably the only provider I’ve rated 5 stars without a widely available interchange-plus option. That would usually be a deal-breaker for me at this level, but the company pulls it off because it offers both consistency and affordability. When you consider the absolutely enormous number of unique features and services you get at absolutely no additional charge and for no monthly fee, Braintree may have the best value in the entire ecommerce/app-commerce processing industry. I’m beyond impressed.
With everything Braintree has accomplished in the past three years, it’s poised to own the ecommerce and m-commerce worlds. And that’s only going to get better as Braintree keeps finding ways to innovate and reshape the payments space. Keep an eye open and your ear to the ground for new offerings.
App developers would be crazy not to thoroughly consider working with Braintree Payment Solutions, and market-style businesses would be, too. These people are not only delivering a developer-friendly medium; they’re bringing ethical, transparent, high-quality processing services to the table. When you put these two attributes together, you get a solid 5-star processor. Good work!
Melissa Johnson
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77 Comments
Responses are not provided or commissioned by the vendor or bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the vendor or bank advertiser. It is not the vendor or bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Organization Name: Cycle Project Store
My company was hit by a fradulent order for 3000usd which Braintree charged when the fraud was reported. Noticing the chargeback, we went to cancel our order on Shopify and Braintree immediately impose an additional 3000usd refund on top of the chargeback imposed by the credit card bank. We disputed and submitted all evidence of correspondence with the buyer before accepting the order back then and won the case. A pre-arbitration case was open and Braintree did not inform us which we lost. Ended up we lost 3000usd of our own money and the 3000usd worth of goods.Braintree’s reply is that the issue lies with Shopify. Look Braintree, if you are our credit card payment online gateway provider, would you not have access to our details and that we were already being hit with a chargeback of 3000usd from the bank and you further went to deduct another 3000usd of our money.Your followup and reply was simply a ‘Shopify API fault and lodge a police report’. Shopify had handed the API access to you because you were our gateway provider! BRAVO, you shot yourself in the back and when you realized all was wrong, you simply hope the the card issuer bank will return the funds in good faith.To fellow business owners like me, avoid this useless online gateway payment provider and use others instead.
Organization Name: Aventurista, S.L.
I have no words for this company… my account has been declined for no reason (also no reason stated), with the sentence that “all payments already made via my account will be returned to the respective customers”… I would understand if something had happened… but nothing. No “support team” was available to be contacted regarding the matter…
Organization Name: Shoreditch 247 LLP
This company is a scam. They took the payment on my behalf for the service we provide and now after 3 months of long process our they declined to set up our account and will refund the money to my customer. Total nonsense. The reason is even more ridiculous because we are small ride hailing start up. Total waste of time leads to me double financial losses as I subcontract the work and paid. Imagine Braintree holds 1000 small companies money and making interest out of it. Also we don’t actually know if they are going to refund the money.
Organization Name: BSL LLC
slow, slow, slow disbursement. I have used both stripe and braintree and stripe is better. Braintree says 2-3 business days for disbursements on visa and mc but it often takes much longer. Amex disbursements take a really long time. Unfortunately, I switched from stripe to braintree and I’m regretting that decision. stripe has a much better dashboard that shows when the disbursement will be sent to your bank. braintree does not have that, they just give you a window of time — such as 2-3 business days or 4-5 business days and then they disburse late. I don’t recommend braintree.
Organization Name: org1
Braintree is garbage. Use stripe instead, it will save you a lot of headache when you run into security issues like we did.
Worst payment processor ever.If i see braintree as payment handler from now on i wont bother.Lost sales lost sales lost sales!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
All these negative reviews however they still have a 5 star rating? Stay away from Braintree/Paypal, once your business picks up and you start taking in high dollar transactions they will randomly lock your account and freeze the money for 140+ days. We have already shipped out the computer we sold to a customer only to find out the money will not be available to us and that our account was closed because it’s considered High Risk even though we clearly provide all documentation and information in the application process of what our business does and sells, got approved and then after there is a few thousand dollars available in the account they freeze it. Enjoy the interest on that for 140 days, we are going to our bank to open a merchant account where the funds will be available the next business day and not dealing with Braintree/Paypal/Stripe tactics of locking people out of their money.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I sell earrings, pill boxes, cribbage boards and potpourri items. I can’t get approved because I’m considered high risk and they will not tell me why – stay away from these clowns!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
We began our online store with Braintree this past November and as of June have had a measly 7 web sales. The first 2 sales were fraud sales. They were fraud because Braintree’s associates failed to assist in setting up the back end and leaving major holes in security. Now months after the chargebacks have been settled and refunded in full, Braintree’s Risk Team decides to investigate our account for the “large” chargeback ratio. After weeks of deliberation and failing to meet Braintree’s own deadlines they were giving us, we were finally contacted saying that they had closed our account effective immediately and any funds processed within the next 30 days will be withheld by them. Braintree has made it apparent to us that they do not specialize in customer service and that they are not willing to work with small, growing online businesses. Extremely disappointed in this service.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
First of all there are security holes in Braintree, from the first 3 transactions using Braintree all three were used via stolen cards. You get billed 15 bucks for each fraudulent credit card that someone uses on your site. Plus you are still paying Subscription charges that are not applied if you just use the PayPal buttons. Security hole is too big for the turnover and danger that is present. Much easier and safer to use PayPal and not over the Braintree interface, you as the Seller are liable for any fraudulent cards a Customer uses, that is unless you pay even more for CC checking which raises the costs.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I have been a licensed private investigator for over five years. I have had two merchant service accounts with different providers prior to signing up with Braintree. The first one “came with” a suite of case management software that I use and I never had any problems with them. Looking back, they were great. About 6 months ago, I moved all my commercial and personal banking business to a local bank with whom I was developing a great relationship. To go “all in” with my new bank that I really loved, I got signed up with their merchant service provider, too. It was actually a 3rd party merchant with whom they contracted, but I figured my new banker might get a spiff, so that was fine with me. Turns out I really hated working with that merchant provider. Clunky web interface, slow to pay, etc., so I started shopping around.When I found Braintree, I was very excited about the possiblities. They seemed like a great company, I studied all the fine print, and I decided to sign up. In a matter of minutes, I was logging into my bright, shiny new Braintree merchant account and was excited about the possibilities.In those five-plus years with my previous merchant providers, I have never once had to issue a refund, nor have I had a chargeback. I process anywhere from $5k-10K in credit cards every month, which is only a portion of the overall revenue of my company. My business operates like a small law firm. I work on retainer and my investigative clients pay me up front for my services. My investigative license is issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Ours is a very heavily-regulated industry as you can imagine. I carry ten times the state minimum of insurance. I also carry E&O insurance. I maintain a professional office in a first-class downtown highrise that is almost entirely populated with attorneys. 90% of my clients are attorneys and law firms. I run a very tight ship and am very selective about the private cases that I take…So imagine my surprise when I attempted to log into my Braintree portal to process a credit card and I learn that my account had been suspended. I contacted customer service, and was quickly forwarded to some mid-level sales monkey who informed me that while my account was initially approved through the automated system, underwriting went back and looked at my information and PERMANENTLY SHUT DOWN my account because I listed my business as private investigations. Braintree underwriters consider private investigations “high risk” and Braintree will not under any circumstances provide merchant services to private investigators. Period. End of story.I plead my case with this sales monkey to no avail. I laid out how my business is structured and how it operates. I questioned why Braintree happily provides merchant services to Uber drivers, but a professional private investigator is a persona non grata. Of course the sales monkey couldn’t do anything about it, he was “just doing his job,” and I wasn’t allowed to talk to the underwriters because they don’t take calls from the frowzy masses of the great unwashed. There was nothing I could do. Braintree was not going to take my money no matter how hard I tried to give it to them.The bottom line is that Braintree is duplicitous and dishonest. My business was never listed in any of their material I could find as one that they consider “high risk.”Braintree discriminates against one of the most highly-regulated segments of the legal services industry on one hand, yet has no problem whatsoever extending services to any idiot with a driver’s license and an auto insurance card on the other hand. Braintree is a sad example of idiotic coporate policies that are likely based on outdated t.v. shows instead of reality.The bottom line is this: If you don’t mind being lied to, Braintree might be right for you. If you don’t mind having your account mysteriously suspended and the rug pulled out from under you without warning, Braintree might be your new best friend. If you don’t mind the old game of bait and switch, you might really love Braintree.If you DO mind all of those things, avoid Braintree at all costs, and be sure to tell your friends and business associates. I know I’m telling mine.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hello, I am looking for something to use as a Point of Sale for local government. Any suggestions?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Annette,
We have a great filtering tool that you can try here. I hope this helps and if you have further questions please let me know.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
So I am a cam model starting up my own monthly subscription website selling my pictures, calendars, and social media sites. I have been using PayPal so far but resently they shut my account down do to “PayPal may not be used to send or receive
payments for certain sexually oriented materials or services or for items
that could be considered obscene.” Holding all of my funds. I was devistated because I still had to send out the products. Yes my material is definitely R Rated. What would be the best processor to use that will not care what I am selling. I’ve looked at KERPAY which states it can be used for any personal or business purpose. But they are back ended with STIPE and seems to be a new company with little to no reviews. Reading all of STRIPE reviews of people getting there funds with held definitely discouraging me from using them. And since BRAINTREE is back by PayPal another red flag for me. Is there any other good subscription based pay portals that are more lenient on so called “obscene material”? I have been having to keep up with all of the book keeping and payments myself manually and as my following grows it is getting a bit out of my control. I want a modem that will automatically deduct these monthly payments. Preferably without having to set up an account or profile. Please help me
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hello,
I would recommend taking a look at Instabill.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hello, thanks for posting your review of Stripe and Braintree. I am a tour operator based in the USA and sell custom travel group packages to Europe, which means I do not have a catalog, or ready made itineraries with set prices, but get requests throughout the years, to arrange for custom tours based on clients needs. I am saying this, as I applied for payments thru PayPal, but they told me I needed to have a website with prices and shopping cart set up, but I cannot really do that in advance of a group/quotation request. Once a tour is set up and ready to be sold, I would like to be able to accept deposits and payments by credit card. So far group leaders that have worked with me for the past 15 years, had no problem paying with checks, but I would like to offer my services to new clients, and I know I need to be capable to accept payment by cc. Would Braintree be good for me, or can you suggest another merchant that processes cc for travel?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Veronica,
Thank you for your inquiry, I am happy to help you with this. Travel related industries are general considered “high risk” so Durango Merchant Services and Payline Data might be better fits than Braintree. I hope this helps and if you have further questions please let us know.
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Hi Tom,
I’m looking for a new payment processing partner for sales in Europe (we are a start up based in the UK) with low rates and good customer service/technical support. I was looking at stripe, braintree and beanstream and all of them have pros and cons and a fair share of bad reviews. Are there any others you would recommend?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hello Tom DeSimone,
I have few questions. I am from Bangladesh but Braintree don’t support Bangladesh. But one of my uncle live in Greece which Braintree support. So am i able to use his details to open an account in Braintree? Also will they require any verification? Like: National ID card, Driver License or Passport? How much am i able to receive without any problem? I am planning to make an eCommerce site. So is it possible to receive $5K to $10K each month? Or less? If i will do that much transaction, will they require national document verification? And how often they are paying and how they are getting paid? Like direct bank or PayPal?
Please reply me if you know these.
Thanks in advance
Regards
Nayem Hasan
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My biggest knock against Braintree is that they do not offer a mobile dashboard option to keep track of all purchases on the go.
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Hi there, question: what is the turn around time on the processing of payment for deposits into an account?
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Help ! I recently found that my merchant services “Flint” will no longer have the ability to service my account. Flint has suggested that I move to Stripe. This does not make me happy and the only information I can get from Stripe is via email which takes forever. I have extremely low volume business. My volume ranges between $150-$400 per week. I take copay for services. I have checked with Payline and they are not really made for small volume business too many fees.
Can you suggest a merchant for very low business. I only want to process credit card payments, no frills.
Thank you,
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Hi,
Checkout Intuit GoPayment. It sounds like they’d be a good fit.
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This company are theifs
After being accept as a client and paid all the setlements to that date I start working normaly and charging credit cards regulary, one day I reveived a email from someone saying that my account was blocked as I was working only on the dashboard and not the way they intended. Starting thay date I never again get a deposit from them and now they have 10.000 euros in their account that are mine.
Everyday I send them a email asking to make the deposit and every day the aswer is the same, that my problem is in the risk department and the email will be sent to them.
Until today I only get silence from them, for 2 months no answer what so ever. I think I’ll have to hire a lawyer to get my money back. So if you are thinking in make business with this company, think again and save yourself a headache.
Cheers
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
from the braintree website: ” How much does Braintree Marketplace cost?It’s free for Braintree merchants. You’ll pay 2.9% + $.30 when the customer makes their purchase, but we don’t charge for distributing the funds to you and your sellers.”The merchants in the market place solution are the market place vendors, not the marketplace itself, so the marketplace gets charged the fee, then the money moves for free to the people supplying the marketplace. Not exactly “clear” as they state in the headline.
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This is all assuming they even accept you into the marketplace product tier, which is a BIG if! They will probably push you into the normal merchant account where you have to transfer funds manually without the API slit integration and 1099 record keeping.
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Thanks for the reply Brandon and you’re right: it’s clear as MUD.
I don’t even know what Braintree Market is, never heard of it. I was just looking into them because they are integrating with BigCommerce and my merchant provider is pissing me off so I was looking for a backup solution.
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I like others on these reviews have had a terrible time just trying to open an account with them. I am running a marketplace app, basically what Braintree was intially designed for. They called me high risk and said they wouldn’t split payments and I would have to do it manually (defeating the whole purpose of using them). Their advertisements are also misleading saying their are no fees until you hit a certain dollar amount. This is untrue; for the marketplace clients, you will pay all fees immediately, but they hide that truth in the faq section. Do yourself a favor and just use Stripe, if your company grows you can negotiate lower rates with them, with paypal/braintree you are stuck at the same rate no matter how big you grow. Braintree will interrogate you and request very personal information like copies of your passport and and drivers license via insecure email, where they could easily/accidentally forward this info to people that shouldn’t have it. The whole process takes way too long with Braintree, it’s madness! Take my advice, if they are this bad upfront, think about how bad they must be when you are already a customer. Just avoid the madness and use Stripe
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Having a terrible time with this company. They currently have my funds on hold and despite assurances that they have lifted the hold I am still not in receipt of my money.
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I really had a bad experience with them. I signed up my company, everything was running well and smoothly. And a week later they send me a email saying :we regret to inform you that we are unable to underwrite your business.
So I called them and asked why and again they weren’t very friendly trying to find a solution with me. They didn’t give a lot of information for the denied process — only: you business is high risk for us.
I got very mad, because I was ready to launch my company and I needed to push further to figure out the situation. And they took a week to notify me that I was not a good fit for them.
On their website there’s no information however about this.
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Great site.
We’ve got an internet based/US incorporated online travel agency. Have been using PayPal invoicing since inception, and now w/ the elimination of their volume discount (2.2% + 0.30 per transaction) we are looking into alternatives.
Aside from the first $50K free (which is nice), I don’t see any other advantage to switching to Braintree. Am I missing something?
Other better alternatives?
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Eliot,
Braintree’s advantage is the ease of which the gateway can be integrated with web apps. For someone that doesn’t have a web app, there’s really no benefit to going with Braintree over say Payline Data. You can probably negotiate lower rates with Payline whereas Braintree has some pretty high rates after that free $50K that you get. Payline is my choice for you.
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Thank you.
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Just awful, but what can you expect from a paypal company. Their barely literate call center morons will take weeks and weeks to setup your account. Even though they claim you can signup in minutes and start processing transactions right away, if you do they will simply steal all that money from you in the case that they decide to arbitrarily decline your account application. Nevermind if you have already provided goods or services to the clients who’s transactions you processed, you will just be cheated out of this money.This is a truly awful company .
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My experience with brain tree has been beyond poor, pretty much laughable. Way too much time wasted on set up and experienced many issues with their system during set up. I really wish I would have went with another processor.
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Outstanding…we are launching another website and selected Braintree because the site will have International versions and we beleived it was the best to stretch across all the site…having said that, my German counterpart had a long list of issues with Braintree which made me wonder…Do the International versions differ from the US version? Could the German Braintree be that different than the US’s??ThanksDHN
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Hi DHN,
There are likely some differences between the experiences of German and US Braintree users. We’re interested in experiences from all countries, but most of the feedback we have is from US and Canadian users, and that feedback has been predominately positive. Electronic transactions are handled in slightly different ways across the globe, which can definitely impact the overall merchant experience.
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Well on my way to sign up with Braintree. I have been on the fence for a while. My developer was talking about signing with Stripe. So I figured I better get some facts researched quick. Braintree is a clear winner in my mind.Great Review!!!
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Love your reviews! We are a fashion company building our site through Wix and looking to select a suitable online merchant. SquareUp and Stripe were on our short-list of potentials until we came across your wonderful page. Thank God! Braintree now seems to be leading the pack on our list for good reason. Can you please help us out with some info.
How is the ease-of-use in terms of integrating Braintree to your website/shop? During checkout will the customer have to leave your site page? Lastly, would there be a monthly cost to have PayPal as an alternative payment option to Braintree (since they are the parent company)? Your advice will be invaluable. Keep up the amazing work! Cheers.
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Hi,
I also would like to know if paypal would apply their charges if I signed up to braintree for online payments which currently are shown as free up to the first £30k. But then on reflection I also thought, Paypal may still want to charge their fees alongside and once I go over free £30k frees transaction limit would I get a double whammy of fees charged per transaction. Sometimes free is to good to be true so could you clarify this?
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Hi Chuck,
Great questions. Have you received an answer to your question? I’M currently in the same situation you were a year ago. I was leaning towards stripe but this review has me asking more questions.
Thanks Brian
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Hello Tom – I was researching the best company to process credit payments. My only product is a book and would need a card reader for selling the book at conferences, etc. This will probably mean that the sell volume would be low and sporadic. Does it make any sense for me to sign up with Braintree? If not, can you provide a recommendation. Thank you.!
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Cecilia,
We also have just a book to sell occasionally at conferences and also on a simple website. What solution did you end up choosing? Any recommendations?
Thanks.
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Is Braintree good for high volume?
We do 6k-10k in monthly volume, but are looking to ramp up to 15k-25k.
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Hi Mark,
Braintree can work for high-volume, but it’s a better deal at low volumes.
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Would braintree be a good deal for non-profit fundraising? Do they have special pricing for non-profits?
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Hi Joe,
Braintree doesn’t offer non-profit rates. Check out Dharma or Helcim to qualify for lower rates based on non-profit status.
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Thanks for the quick reply. I’m caught up between using a merchant account service or a fundraising service that would collect donor information to reach out to them in the future.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Joe,
If Dharma or Helcim doesn’t work out, try PayJunction. I don’t know if they offer non-profit rates, but they have a good customer management program built in. Dharma offers services tailored to non-profits though, so I really think they are your best bet.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Just to clarify, I just spoke to Braintree and they do offer non-profit rates. 2.2% + .30. You do have to ask for it as it is not marketed. The one catch is that you do not get the first $50,000 free. Hope this helps.
-Morgan
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Braintree is far and above my choice for ALL my clients. Easy to set-up – Sandbox for testing, LIVE Person to to talk with on integration and or security issues. Lowest Cost of ALL the other major players and the first 50K earned NO FEE.
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Braintree stole my money. They said it was easy to set up a merchant account. They sure did set me up: so I took my first two big payments. Days later I check my account. Weeks later I checked my account. Today I checked my account. Still no money. Now they are effectively ignoring all queries I make to hunt down the missing money or give explanation as to why. I am now having to contact my clients (very embarrassing) to assist with chargebacks so they clients can keep their money rather than it end up in Braintree’s pockets. I have lost over five hundred pounds (seven fifty) dollars to Braintree. AVOID BRAINTREE LIKE THE PLAGUE.
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Hi,
would you recommend strip or braintree for a company who starts accepting payments ?
Thanks a lot for your advice.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi,
Braintree is a great option. Very inexpensive and simple setup, low level of commitment. This is assuming you are an internet-based business. Otherwise, maybe consider Helcim.
Good luck,
Tom
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Is there a minimum transaction volume to use the service? I see that there are no fees (except charge backs) until you reach $50,000/year which leads me to believe they are trying to attract start-ups. (I will only have ~$500.00/month in subscription fees for my 3-6 month beta period.)
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Ben,
No minimum required for Braintree‘s current pricing model. It’s entirely pay-as-you-go, meaning that if you don’t processes any transactions you won’t be charged a dime. Even if you process over $50K annually, you won’t be charged any subscription fees. You might be refering to their current promotion, which allows you to process $50K with no fees whatsoever. This means that if you process $50K, you keep $50K. To quote Braintree’s site:
And there are no time limits on this offer. You will have to be located in the US to qualify for it though. So you could end up payig basicically nothing for a low-volume business over the first year.
Let me know if I can help you further!
-Tom
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Just FYI: The same promotion is currently available in the UK (the first £30,000).
So chances are that similar promotions are available in other countries where Braintree operates.
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Great review! I am interested in starting an ecommerce business, but I am really confused about gateway providers, merchant accounts, and shopping carts. What is considered a good deal for a small ecommerce business? Is there a monthly service fee for the three accounts needed to operate an ecommerce business? Do you think shopify is a better option for me? I greatly appreciate your advice.Regards,Ramiro Aguirre
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Ramiro,
Thanks for checking us out! The answers to your questions depend on your specific needs, desires and processing volumes. If you want to build a good looking online store with as little effort and investment as possible, and get your payments account integrated as easily as possible, and you don’t need a lot of customization power, then using a service like Shopify will make the most sense for you. You’ll have to pay their monthly fee, but you’re paying for the convenience of using their tools to set up and maintain your online store. This comes with your gateway and merchant account included if you choose to use Shopify Payments. If not, they’ll charge you a transaction fee AND you’ll have to pay for the merchant account elsewhere, so it almost always makes more sense to use Shopify Payments if you use Shopify.
If you use a service like Braintree, then you don’t pay any fee for your merchant account or your gateway. You just pay the 2.9% + $0.30, and that covers everything. But you’ll have to get your shopping cart and webstore design elsewhere, like through a service such as LemonStand.
I know this is confusing. Let us know if we can help you further!
Good luck,
Tom
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Just wanted your advice for my business credit card needs..FYI I’m located in Canada ….I have a unique contract that will need a credit card terminal or swiper for only one customer exclusively also located in Canada but parent company is in US. This contract will pay approx 100 000$ per year but the terminal will only be used for this one customer. Monthly this would vary but obviously average over the $ 5000$ mark.
I initially thought that a phone app might be the easiest but I’m not sure after reading everything, I am so confused about what would be most cost effective, and holds on funds over the $5000 amount. Any info would help thanks!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Tamar,
You have a few options, each with varying costs and ease of use. The best solution will depend on exactly how you will be taking the payment. For most Canadian merchants, I suggest that they first give Helcim a look. Most of the time this the best, most reliable option. If you will be taking the card in person, then a card reader or terminal will help you to get the best rates (swiped transactions are cheaper than manually entered ones). If you’ll be taking payment over the phone (ie, without the cardholder present), then you’ll just need a virtual terminal to process cards from your computer. I wouldn’t suggest using any mobile/aggregating providers if you’ll be processing large transactions.
Since this will all come from a single client, the amount you pay for processing will have a lot to do with how that particular client chooses to pay. For instance, what type of card they use and what country their payment account exists in will have an effect on the amount you pay to process. But all of that aside, I believe that Helcim will be the best deal for you. They even have a reasonable terminal rental program that won’t rip you off. Just make sure to give them an accurate picture of how you will be processing, including a good estimate of the largest transaction you could need to process. This will help to prevent funding holds as much as possible. If you need to process a transaction larger than your approved high-ticket amount, you’ll have to call up the processor for approval or else your funds will almost definitely be held. Many merchants are not aware of this and it leads to a lot of headaches.
Good luck, and feel free to follow up if you need more help!
-Tom
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
While ive been using braintree for 5 months now they switched me to a second merchant so i am getting double charged. I signed up thinking Braintree was the merchant and the gateway. But now they are the gateway and Bank card USA is the merchant? I am getting doubled charged now. i dont like it one bit. I still like braintree because they do a good job but seems like im getting screwed both ways.
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Hi Daniel,
Braintree is a direct processor, so there is no reason Bankcard USA should be involved with your account in any way. It sounds to me like Bankcard USA set you up with a separate account. I would contact Braintree right away about this. Please come back and let me know how this plays out.
Good luck,
Tom
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I received quotes from 8 different processors and Braintree was the highest price of all of them. They also were unwilling to negotiate at all. Companies like Paymentech, Merchant e-Solutions, First Data and Blue Pay Go!, were all cheaper.
Of the 8 companies I compared, they had the highest per transaction cost ($.30) and the highest monthly minimum ($75). They had the 2nd highest setup fee ($99) and the highest monthly fee ($35).
I actually wanted to choose them over the others because they are so forward thinking about data portability. But, why would I pay more money to choose them? If your bottom line is important, you may want to shop around – you may be able to get a much better deal elsewhere.
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They do look very top notch, alas, as a Canadian business we can’t use them unless we create a legal U.S. presence. Hopefully they expand their reach …
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Here is a quick update on the earlier conversation, Braintree has recently expanded to Canada as well as Europe. Check out our payment APIs and apply for a Braintree merchant account. We can help you accept international credit card payments in more than 130 currencies, and settle in 13 major currencies, including GBP, AUD, and EUR. Disclaimer: I work at Braintree
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Thanks Lisa. Braintree review updated coming soon. Take care!
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I love your site and all the useful information, but Braintree is clearly out. You see, I’m a sketch artist and writer looking for a good merchant rep to handle credit card transactions by cell phone. What solid company would you recommend for a little guppy like me. ;>
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T.Falcon,
I just sent you a private message. Let’s see if we can find you a good provider.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Wow. This company seems very forward thinking. Impressive! I LOVE the fact that they also offer data portability. Everyone reading reviews of merchant accounts should take a VERY SERIOUS look at data portability. A LOT of gateways (like Authorize.net *ahem*) will inadvertently LOCK YOU IN since you can’t get YOUR customers data out of the gateway once it’s in there. So if for any reason you ever wanted to move your merchant account elsewhere, you have to hope that your customers will re-enter any reoccurring subscription billing info! I got burned on this once and learned my lesson. Not enough people talk about this downside of gateways and data management. Remember merchants, these are YOUR customers and therefore you should consider it YOUR data. Don’t let someone keep it hostage from you!Their PCI compliance solution seems pretty clever too.
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$75 minimum, $35 monthly fee, $99 set up? You must be kidding!
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Thanks for the comment Bob. I wasn’t going to let this one through because, I can’t really say it adds anything to the conversation per my policy, but it does raise some good questions…
Just by looking at those three incidental fees, do you feel that you’re able to accurately determine that Braintree is more expensive than any other providers? Wouldn’t you need to take other fees into consideration? Especially the discount rates? You’d probably actually have to have a full rate proposal from Braintree and the other provider in order to get a better idea of what the true cost of your merchant account would be…right?
Additionally, do you think price is the only thing a merchant should look at when shopping for a merchant account? Is it that much of a commodity that price becomes the only thing that matters?
I’m not trying to pick on you here Bob, but it’s difficult for me to add any validity to an argument that doesn’t present me with anything new or enlightening. I love being proven wrong, because that means I can get better at what I do, which in turn will better my reviews, but you gotta come with something better than “You must be kidding!” if you plan on being heard.
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Just an FYI for everyone. The reason for the B- rating could very well be because they don’t pay the BBB. Good info. Thanks for the review!
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What a pleasant surprise. Thank you for the kind words.
Bryan Johnson
Braintree
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No sweat Bryan. You guys deserve it. 🙂
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“Braintree Payment Solutions doesn’t have any complaints or negative reviews because they’re choosey with whom they do business with. By being selective, they can focus on a smaller number of big merchants, thus providing great customer service and support to them all.”I can clearly see that Braintree is the best in the business. But my small business doesn’t even earn enough revenue at this point to sign up with them. The little guy is stuck with PayPal etc, I suppose…
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I wouldn’t say that you’re stuck with Paypal. There are other third-party providers like Google Checkout or 2Checkout as well, but you are right, it’d be much better for you to start off working with one of them until you have enough sales volume to justify the expense that will come with a merchant account. See this article here.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.