by Ben Dwyer ProPay is a subsidiary of TSYS, one of the largest processors in the world. The company was founded in 1997, and is located in Utah. In addition to offering traditional payment processing services, ProPay also provides the ability to pay out commissions to your employees if needed. In this ProPay review and profile, we’ll take a look at the company’s services, rates and fees, reputation, and more to help you determine if it’s right for you.
What services does ProPay offer?
ProPay offers all the standard payment acceptance options you’d expect from a processing company. You can choose in-person, mobile, or online processing (or some combination), take advantage of a virtual terminal for mail and phone orders, and choose to set up recurring billing. Additionally, ProPay allows you to accept and make payments in 150 currencies.
In-Person Processing
With ProPay, your business can accept all major credit cards and debit cards using countertop credit card terminals or full point of sale systems. You can also accept e-checks, eliminating the need to take paper checks to the bank to deposit.
Mobile Processing
For taking payments on the go, ProPay offers its own headphone jack card swiper. The swiper is compatible with both Apple and Android devices, so you can take payments anywhere you have cell service.
Online Processing
These days, more people purchase online, and if you’re looking to take credit cards through the internet, ProPay can help. It offers two shopping cart solutions – ProPay CartLite, a customizable shopping cart that integrates into your current website without the need for a programmer, and 3DCart, an end-to-end e-commerce solution. Alternately, you can use “buy now” or “donate now” buttons to encourage sales or donations on your site.
Virtual Terminal
When you take mail or phone orders, customers aren’t at your store with their cards. A virtual terminal solution means that they don’t have to be, and you can still accept payment. Any internet-connected computer can access the secure online form so you can enter payment details. But if you do have in-person customers and want to use your computer to take payments, you can optionally connect a secure card reader via USB and potentially receive lower swiped transaction costs.
Recurring Billing
ProPay offers recurring billing that comes with its EnsureBill service, an auto-updater. If you utilize EnsureBill, ProPay will retrieve updated account numbers and expiration dates for the credit cards you have on file, helping to reduce the likelihood of invalid transactions and time spent chasing down your repeat customers.
Other Services
Aside from payment acceptance, ProPay also offers the ability to pay commissioned employees utilizing prepaid cards, and gives your accounting staff easy QuickBooks integration.
Make Payments
Do you pay commissions to your staff? ProPay lets you give them those commissions in the form of MasterCard prepaid credit cards, a convenient and easy solution for everyone.
QuickBooks Integration
If you’re already using QuickBooks for accounting and don’t want to switch, ProPay can sync transactions so you won’t need to hand key information into QuickBooks.
Equipment
ProPay sells card readers that complement its mobile payment solutions. The ProPay JAK mobile card reader lets you process credit cards on your Apple or Android device. The ProPay FLASH card reader connects to a computer to process credit card payments. However, you can also use it away from a computer, and it will store up to 71 transactions.
Additional equipment may also be supported, but ProPay does not provide information on brands or whether it sells equipment directly.
Security
ProPay is PCI compliant and offers consulting services to help you become PCI compliant, as well. The company utilizes tokenization, a method that replaces sensitive data with symbols so it can’t be used by criminals. It also utilizes end-to-end encryption in its secure card readers.
Part of ProPay’s security measures is an online solution called ThreatMetrix. It helps your determine whether someone is a trusted customer or a fraudster.
ProPay Rates and Fees
ProPay offers three “plans” for processing: Premium, Premium + Card Reader, and Platinum Card Reader.
The Premium plan publishes rates starting at 2.6% with a $39.95 annual fee.
The Premium + Card Reader plan lists rates starting at 2.6% with a $41.95 annual fee.
The Platinum Card Reader plan lists rates starting at 2.4% with a $69.95 annual fee.
ProPay states that custom plans may also be available for businesses with higher volumes.
Other fees may also apply. ProPay’s site references per-transaction fees, refund fees, funds transfer fees, and paper statement fees. Chargebacks and returned checks also incur fees.
If you want to know exactly what you’d pay to use ProPay as your processor, request a free, private quote through CardFellow. Start here.
ProPay Reviews and Reputation
ProPay has been accredited with the Better Business Bureau since 2000, and currently has an A+ rating. The BBB likely gave ProPay that rating in part because the company actively seeks to address customer complaints. (38 in the past 3 years as of 2016.)
The most common complaint is that ProPay has a tendency to cancel accounts and withhold funds without warning, although that seems to be an issue with businesses who’ve had chargebacks. There is also one negative review on the BBB site. The reviewer claims that they received a notice that the account was expiring and would need to be cancelled or renewed, but when the reviewer went to cancel, ProPay had already renewed and would not refund annual fees.
ProPay has 2 reviews on Yelp, both 1-star. The reviews complain of difficulty with ProPay readers, causing the customer to hand key cards at a more expensive rate, and of difficulty switching accounts to a new business. Neither reviewer was satisfied with ProPay’s handling of their situation.
