Marketing
Overall, WePay uses its website to promote its products and services. It has active Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, where it promotes itself as the payments partner of the platform economy. In general, it uses these platforms to discuss industry-wide news and related content. On the plus side, it does not market any deceptive pricing or misleading terms.
Honesty
WePay is honest about its pricing and terms, and clearly lists these items on its site. Though it is not overtly dishonest, we did think it was troubling that so many previous customers were unaware of its prohibited sales policy. Though we applaud WePay for posting on its site, there should be some type of prompt when signing up that encourages to view the list. Otherwise, we found no reports of hidden fees and misleading sales tactics.
Support
Though we attempted to reach a representative from WePay, we were unsuccessful. But, based on the many complaints we found, this is in line with what other merchants have experienced. According to the feedback we reviewed, WePay communicates very little with its users. The result is frustrated users and a large pool of complaints.
Staff Education
We were unable to determine the education levels of anyone at WePay since we were unable to reach anyone directly. However, it is important to note that its website, especially its help center, is quite comprehensive. Most answers to questions can be found in its FAQ section and other places on the site, which is helpful if you have the time to search for the information.
Staff Interaction
Unfortunately, the many online reviews we uncovered show that WePay interacts very little with its customers. Since the setup process is rather simple and does not require a lengthy contract, many customers never try to seek out a representative unless they have problems. What most customers say is that the business offers little help, and it can be impossible getting an issue resolved. The only way we were able to get a clear answer about anything was to use its help center.
Pricing
WePay collects a fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 for credit card payments, 2.75% plus $0.30 mobile POS transactions, and 1% plus $0.30 for ACH bank transfers. It does not charge any PCI compliance, monthly, annual fees. It does charge a $15 chargeback fee, which is standard for this industry.
Hardware Costs
Its mobile point-of-sale solution comes with a customizable card reader that accepts both magnetic stripe- and EMV-based transactions, and an Android and iOS-compatible software development kit (SDK). It does not provide pricing for the card reader. It does not sell any equipment suitable for bricks-and-mortar businesses.
Early Termination Fees
WePay offers month-to-month contracts, so there are no early termination fees to end an agreement. Often, merchant account agreements run for one to four year and include an automatic renewal clause. WePay’s approach makes it a low-commitment risk for those new to accepting online credit card payments.
Complaints
Before WePay morphed into the role as payment processor for platforms, like Constant Contact and GoFundMe, it received hundreds of complaints about its policies regarding its rolling reserves and high-risk merchant accounts. Now, WePay relies on the platforms to ensure that users are aware of the types of products and services that cannot be sold using its processing. Prior to this switch, we found many complaints about frozen accounts and long holds on funds because of large average transaction tickets and the sale of prohibited items. Many merchants claimed they were never informed about these policies. All of the details about prohibited products, as well as WePay’s complete “terms of service” is available on its site. In this document, it states that WePay can cancel accounts suddenly, if the payment platforms used deal with these items.
Others have also complained about not knowing that WePay requires a rolling reserve. Though WePay does post this information under its “help center,” it is quite difficult to locate. According to WePay, every merchant has its own reserve threshold that can range between $500 and $10,000 per week. On average, merchants have thresholds of $2,500 per week or higher. The threshold amount determines how much a merchant can immediately withdraw each week. Any amount over threshold is available seven days after it was received initially. Therefore, if a merchant has a $500 per week threshold and the person receives three payments of $250 each, the first two payments will be immediately available for withdrawal. However, the third payment will not be available until seven days after it was received. Though this is explained pretty clearly on the site, judging by the number of complaints, WePay obviously is not making it a point of ensuring merchants know about it.
What We Like:
WePay is an e-commerce and crowdfunding-centered credit card processor with a well-received API. Unfortunately, as a payment aggregator and not a dedicated merchant service provider, you can expect sudden account freezes for everything from large transaction tickets to the sale of what appears to be a restricted item. This processor is not a good choice for businesses that process more than $5,000 per month because you likely will experience very long waits to receive your funds, depending on your rolling reserve thresholds.
For online marketplaces and crowdfunding, WePay is one of the easiest to work with for in terms of payment processing. However, if you are an online business that wants to accept PayPal payments, you are going to have to look somewhere else. If all you want is the ability to process debit, credit and ACH payments, WePay is a good way to go. Setup is quite easy, and you can begin using the account almost immediately.
Since it is mostly a web-based credit card processor built for online use, it cannot offer you anything if you operate bricks and mortar businesses.
Like most online credit card processors, WePay gives you access to its API, which allows you to fully integrate its payments into your website. This is important because customers never have to leave your site, and the entire experience can be seamless. With all of this being said, it is important to recognize when it comes to customer support, it is not only inadequate, but unresponsive, unhelpful, and most cases nonexistent. Based on the number of complaints, WePay should make improving customer service a priority. In that same vein, we believe also needs to ensure customers understand rolling reserves, its prohibited list of products, and reasons for sudden fund freezes. Even if WePay stepped up its game in this area, this online credit card processor does not offer much for high-risk merchants, those with an international customer base, those that collect payments totaling more than a few thousand dollars per month, or those that count on the acceptance of PayPal payments. Though it offers transparent pricing, which is a major plus in this industry, most merchants likely will do better going with a full-service merchant service provider.
