Marketing
Primarily, it markets its services through a number of strategic partnerships, such as the one it has with budget-club giant, Costco. Its sites is pretty and user-friendly, but it is short on merchant service information. Also, NetPay uses Facebook and Twitter to promote its company culture but doesn’t really use them to market their products or services.
Honesty
NetPay’s acquiring bank is First Data, which means it underwrites its merchant accounts. Therefore, when merchants sign up their contracts our with First Data. First, NetPay isn’t transparent about this, and second, merchants should be sure that whatever rate NetPay quotes matches what’s in their contracts with First Data.
Additionally, NetPay doesn’t list any misleading “starting at” rates, but its language isn’t exactly clear and straightforward.
Sales
NetPay gains sales through referrals, wholesale partners, indirect resellers, and corporate markets. It services are distributed from more than 100 strategic partners covering a broad spectrum of industries, business types, and sizes. Its partners are telecommunications and utility providers, web design agencies, and franchises, as well as other payment services businesses.
This is bad news because some of these entities are permitted to sell NetPay’s services under their own business names, which allows these businesses to set their own prices, terms, and conditions.
Support
Availability
NetPay can be reached by phone, email, and inquiry form. Also, it offers a webchat service Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Staff Knowledge
During our interactions, we found the staff to be very knowledgeable and confident. They were quick to ask questions and to answer question. However, there responses were vague at best about details, like pricing and contract terms. The staff could speak in great detail about its Revolution platform. The skills and experience were definitely there, but they weren’t offering up anything of substance.
Staff Interaction
The staff is very knowledgeable but, in our experience, when we presented an employee a possible challenge or obstacle we faced in the past, they were quick to talk about it incredible customer and technical support. When talking with staff, they seemed defensive and not as focused on coming up with a positive resolution.
Also, NetPay is somewhat active on Facebook and Twitter, but the sites are mostly used to share information about top employees and its company culture. It is definitely not the best way to engage with the company.
Staff Responsiveness
We received a response almost immediately after we sent our first email. It was a good beginning, but the responses offered no real information. However, it did encourage me to call to learn more. The inquiry form was answered just as quickly. Calling was problematic. Eventually, we did reach someone, but we waited a long time to get a human.
Pricing
NetPay doesn’t disclose pricing on its site. However, its best rates that it offers through its partnership with Costco, gives merchants an idea of what they can expect. The rates and fees listed here are only available to standard Costco members. Executive members are encouraged to call NetPay for even greater discounts. Rates and fees are charged based on a business’ industry, transaction volume, and types of payments, and other things, so this list illustrates the rates that NetPay offers to its best customers.
The rates are:
- Credit card transactions 0.685%
- Debit card transactions 0.385%
- Authorization fee 2.5p per transaction
- Premium credit cards 2.0%
- PCI-compliance fees Free for the first six months, and then, it is £4.99 per month
All prices listed don’t include VAT. Also, it is important to note that Costco rates only apply to new First Data underwritten customers.
The above card processing rates are what merchants pay when customers pay using chip and PIN. Payments that are swiped or taken by phone, are considered less secure, so an additional charge of 0.4% is charged for debit and card transactions when cardholders aren’t present.
Additionally, it charges a monthly minimum service charge of £15 per month, a paper statement fee of £4 per month, and an administrative fee of £15 for each chargeback.
Hardware Costs
NetPay offers a number a variety of countertop, chip and PIN, and mobile terminals from Pax, Spire, and Ingenico. The following are the best hardware costs it charges for customers, such as Costco members:
- Corded contactless terminal £9.85 per month
- Wireless contactless terminal £16.50 per month
- GPRS Contactless Terminal £18.00 per month
- Virtual terminal from £9.50 per month plus a one-time £25 set-up fee
- NetPay also offers Costco members terminal support £42.00 per terminal
All fees are excluding VAT.
Early Termination Fee
Contract lengths vary; customers have reported contracts as long as four years with automatic renewal clauses. Since their contracts are powered by First Data, merchants who cancel agreements early are subject to a fee that is determined by adding up the business monthly minimum fee, monthly customer service fee, and monthly account fee, and then multiplying it by the number of months left before the end of the contract. Therefore, due to varying contract lengths, so are the early termination fees.
