Marketing
PayPoint markets its services through its website and social media, including Facebook and Twitter. Its approach is honest, but its website is overwhelming and confusing. It is easy to click on link after link and still not get where you intended on going. Also, though we didn’t find anything misleading, the site lacks substance.
Honesty
PayPoint is honest in the sense that it doesn’t publish any deceiving “starting at” rates. However, it seems easy to appear direct when you offer no pricing information, contracts lengths, and other disclosures. But, again, we didn’t find any false statements, and PayPoint clearly notes its partnerships with Barclays and Lloyds Bank Cardnet.
Sales
PayPoint does not use independent sales agents (ISOs), and instead, uses its own in-house sales team. Also, we could not find a single complaint about aggressive, deceptive, or misleading sales practices. This is extremely positive because. When ISOs are used, organizations see their customer service complaints rise. There are plenty of reports floating around the internet about resellers and ISOs using aggressive sales tactics and other misleading information to gain customers. Additionally, you often can expect to pay more when you work with a reseller because the primary service provider allows them to set their own prices.
Support
PayPoint can be reached via phone and email. Users are encouraged to get business updates via @PayPoint on Twitter. It also responds to inquiries on its Facebook page within a day. It does not offer a live chat option.
Staff Responsiveness
We found both calling and emailing PayPoint effortless, which is a rarity in this industry. We were on a brief hold before we were patched through to an agent who was helping, friendly, and courteous. Emails were answered within just a few hours of them being sent. It appears that staff also respond quickly to customers on Facebook and Twitter.
Staff Knowledge
The sales team was very knowledgeable, but took way too long to get where we needed to go. However, it was positive to speak to team members that had offered a lot of product and service information and were enthusiastic about what they provided.
Staff Interaction
We were pleasantly surprised during our interactions with PayPoint team members.
They were professional, confident, and helpful when we they were gathering our information, they also spoke very clearly about the product offerings. Though not pushy, its sales representatives were eager for us to move forward to the next step, they were never aggressive or rude. Their positive attitudes were refreshing.
The information we received was consistent and helpful, but you aren’t any of the real important information without moving ahead in the application process. This was a bit disappointing but predictable for the industry.
Pricing
PayPoint does not share any pricing information on its website. Also, we were unable to find any complaints about hidden monthly, PCI-compliance, chargeback, or statement fees.
However, this is not surprising since Lloyds Bank Cardnet is its acquiring bank. All merchant account contracts are signed with Lloyds, so the bank would be setting the fees and rates.
Lloyds doesn’t disclose its prices on its website; it offers bespoke pricing based on business size, services, and transaction volume. Customers have reported Lloyds charge between 1.25% and 3.5% transaction fee on debit and credit card transactions, as well as a monthly minimum fee of £15. Those merchants who don’t already have a Lloyds business account also can expect to pay a membership fee of £175, a monthly minimum fee of £25, and an authorization fee of 3p per transaction.
Early Termination Fees
PayPoint makes no mention of contract length or early termination fees on its site. However, sales representatives noted that contract terms can vary, depending on the business type, transaction volume, and average ticket price. The representative was unable to provide more specifics without providing more information and completing an application.
It is important to note that a standard contract with Lloyds Bank Cardnet’s outlines a term of six months with an early termination fee of up to £200. With Lloyds, the amount you pay to cancel early depends on the specific terms in the agreement you sign.
Hardware Costs
The only pricing PayPoint provides is its information about its Base (for current merchants) and Core (for new merchants) packages for its hardware. With the Base plan, weekly rental fees for its PayPoint One terminal costs £10 per week and includes a POS tablet, integrated card payments, cloud-based back office tools, and business services. Merchants pay £20 per week with the Core plan. With Core, merchants receive all Base features plus EPOS Core, custom promotions, a free cash drawer, personalized promotions, and product storage to enable quicker scanning.
Complaints
A long search for complaints of PayPoint turned over only a handful of complaints related to merchant services. There were some complaints about lackluster customer service, automatic contract renewal, and difficulty canceling contracts. Also, there are many more complaints related to the non-merchant services it provides, but for the purposes of our review, it really is not work really considering.
The fact that it doesn’t have many merchant account related complaints, since those who sign up with PayPoint actually contract with its acquirer, Lloyds Bank Cardnet. It’s more than likely that most complaints have been filed against Lloyd, though PayPoint is the entity in which the agreement originated.
Based on our positive interactions with PayPoint, we would like to think it is a top-notch payment solution provider that does exactly what it promises. However, we are more compelled to believe there are many more complaints out there, but PayPoint isn’t getting all of the criticism because merchants’ contracts are with Lloyds.
The most common complaints from Lloyds merchant account holders are long fund holds for high-risk businesses, as well as some claims of undisclosed fees.
