Services like GoFundMe and Meetup use WePay to handle payments between users. WePay is also the behind-the-scenes processor for FreshBooks Payments. If you take credit cards through FreshBooks, you’re processing through WePay.
If you have a platform service and are looking for a payment processor, here’s what you need to know about WePay’s rates and fees, services, reviews, and more.
In 2017, JP Morgan Chase announced that it would acquire WePay. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, and it’s unclear if WePay will continue to operate under its current name or if it will be rebranded under Chase. We’ll continue to update this profile as more details become available.
WePay was founded in Boston in 2008 and is now headquartered in Redwood City, California. The company focuses primarily on offering credit card processing to businesses that facilitate payments between users.
Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and ACH payments. With WePay, you can also set up recurring payments and payouts to multiple parties.
WePay is specifically designed for businesses that accept payments on behalf of other parties, such as crowdfunding platforms or marketplaces that link a buyer and a seller.
WePay offers the option to settle funds as payments are made, or on a set schedule. You can also choose to settle funds by check and automatically cut paper checks to mail to your customers.
No. Using WePay does not require a money transmitter license. Additionally, WePay handles the required tax documentation for your customers, and will mail 1099-Ks to your merchants when required.
WePay, as a processor for platforms, connects users paying online. You don’t need credit card terminals to facilitate payments. WePay can help you get set up to act as the intermediary for online payments between two users.
WePay uses tokenization and encryption technology for security, and is PCI Level 1 compliant. Additionally, WePay holds user funds in FDIC-protected banks. You can also set your custom risk preferences to protect yourself from fraud.
WePay publishes a flat rate for processing of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for credit cards and 1% + $0.30 for ACH transactions. A $15 fee per chargeback also applies.
WePay does have a contract; the company states that customers can choose to end the contract at any time. Additionally, WePay can choose to end your contract at any time. Some complaints about WePay online indicate that WePay does exercise that option, and businesses have found their accounts cancelled shortly after sign up.
WePay was founded in 2008 and has had a little time to gain traction in the payment processing industry. The company has some big name clients (such as GoFundMe) but that by itself isn’t indicative of a great service, and the company also has negative reviews online.
WePay, Inc. has been accredited with the Better Business Bureau since 2009 and currently boasts an A rating, but has had 110 complaints lodged with the BBB in the past 3 years. Complaints span all 5 categories in the BBB’s system, including Advertising and Sales Issues, Billing and Collection Issues, Delivery Issues, Guarantee and Warranty Issues, and Problems with Product or Service.
The majority of complaints focus on the difficulty of obtaining money. Some customers refer to long hold times, difficulty withdrawing funds, long deposit times even when funds aren’t held, and refunds without warning. Some complaints reference accounts being shut down after initially being approved, claiming the business is “high risk” and then refunding payments. WePay doesn’t deny this, responding to some comments to say that in the case of “high risk” businesses that were mistakenly approved, they choose to refund the money to the users rather than keep it in reserves/un-releasable to the business whose accounts they closed.
21 complaints are listed as resolved to the complainant’s satisfaction, but the remaining 89 complaints are only listed as “answered.” For the BBB, “answered” complaints mean that either the BBB didn’t hear back from the complainant after WePay responded, or the complainant wasn’t happy with WePay’s proposed resolution.
Have you used WePay? Leave a review!
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Posted by Erin Margaret Day on Oct 11, 2022
They are holding people's money with no accountability. Read reviews all over the internet for further details.
Posted by Michael Clay on Jun 08, 2022
Terrible system - you get sent to pay for a response for a refundable $1 and the fee says $47. There is no way to go back to the Chat person that sent you. What a bad joke this is. You are holding a donation to a charity!!!!
Posted by mike on Jun 04, 2021
Horrible company. Customer service is horrible. There is no phone number and they only email you once a day with a 4 word reply that doesn't help or answer any questions.
Posted by Kelly Davis on Jun 01, 2021
This company is a scam. They have been holding on to over $24K of ours for over 2 weeks and have no date as to when they will release it. They are creating false reasons and giving us the runaround.
Posted by Rob on Jan 23, 2019
I highly recommend against them as they might damage your relationship and reputation you have with your customers and cost you time and money. We are an established business representing the estate of a rather famous artist from the UK. We’ve been selling art related products over the last few years without issue. In fact, after several hundred orders we’ve had no issues with payments or complaints with Stripe or SquareUp and just one dispute with Paypal, (a damaged item received which we resolved). Then WePay showed up! We added WePay through our Ecwid store and an order came through for $231.99, our first and only order with WePay. Two days later I received an email stating: “Unfortunately, we can no longer support your business and we'll need to cancel any pending payments." And they canceled the order in our store!! It happened without our knowing and I have no idea what the customer thinks yet but it doesn’t make us look very reputable because, WePay IS NOT reputable. Why was this? Because they decided that our “account is susceptible to a high chargeback or dispute rate.” However, if we only had this one sale, no other activity, no chargebacks, no disputes, nothing, and a track record of success with our payments, then this decision is unsubstantiated. Many others have similar complaints and if the WePay response is true, that their “processor holds them to high standards and has rules regarding accounts that are seen as high-risk” THEN WHY DID THEY APPROVE US TO BEGIN WITH? Also, I reached out to Ecwid support and ‘Alex F' said; “That sounds pretty strange in this case. Possibly, if you contact them and ask to reconsider their decision, they will reopen your account.” Reconsider? After this, why would we ever want to do business with such an untrustworthy company like WePay? If we lose this sale or our reputation is damaged, I’m filing formal grievances with the BBB and anywhere else possible. Lastly, I strongly advise against anyone using WePay, if you read the reviews/complaints they have a consistent track record of holding money hostage and damaging a businesses reputation.
Posted by Russell Spencer on Nov 02, 2018
I noticed they have taken off reviews. That says it all really. Signed up for WePay - thought we would give them a go. Spent two hours signing up for their nonsense service, then another half hour making a test purchase of £10, then had to wait another five days for them to process it, only for them to shut the account saying high value transactions aren't available! Wow! No joke! They then said they would not allow us to close our account in case they want to take money out of our bank for the single £10 transaction that we made. Honestly I would avoid this company and service at all costs.
Posted by dave wells on Jul 07, 2018
Stay away - they are crooks. We process a high volume of orders, and we began noticing that our revenue records were not matching the deposits. Upon further inquiry, we found that they were in fact not depositing all of our completed transactions into our bank account. When we asked why, it took them 3 days to respond and then they said it was a glitch and that they would fix it. Well, that was the last I heard from them. They never fixed it and the issue kept happening. Repeated emails to them went unanswered so we immediately took our business to another payment provider and have had zero issues with our new payment provider since. In all total, it appears that WePay stole about $3,200 from us. We contemplated filing suit, but it would've been cost prohibitive to do so. WePay isn't a Better Business Bureau member so even though we filed a grievance through that, they apparently ignored it. My advice, stay away from both WePay and UltraCart. UltraCart was the cart system we used which is owned by WePay, and so of course they were of no help whatsoever. They ignored us just like WePay did. WePay lost a lot of business with us.
Posted by Hugo Z on Apr 26, 2018
MightyCause (Razoo) uses WePay. MightyCause does not provide telephone support. Just online support. After taking & making so much money from charity fundraisers, no support?! So greedy and so lazy.
Posted by Erich on Dec 08, 2015
I was with WePay for over a year. They were competitively priced, offered the services I needed, and started off with decent support. That all changed pretty quickly. A few "updates" which limited the functionality I needed (one was the quantity was changed so it had to be a round number) leaving me high and dry without a payment processor for some time. This is when I noticed their support starting to decline. They weren't helpful or apologetic and definitely didn't let anyone know this was happening beforehand. Then there were multiple issues with how long it would take to transfer the funds. Their support, again, got worse. Then I tried to update my billing info and spent many weeks back and forth helping them figure out why it would never save for more than a day at a time. The funds were going in to the wrong accounts! Then they discontinued invoicing and told me they would only be focusing on their bigger clients. Probably because of all the issues they had had with us "little guys". And finally, my last straw, I refunded a client a pretty small amount so I could get a check from them instead and WePay took it from an account that wasn't even supposed to be attached anymore. They actually had the nerve to say it was my fault even though I had numerous support tickets showing that not only could their system not handle the billing change requests but I even tried to help them by testing it out many times. Did they offer to cover the overdraft fees from a bank I no longer used? No. Did any of the reps or managers apologize once? Nope. I spent a lot of time with WePay and afterwards cleaning up their mess and I will never use them again. Actually, 2+ years later, I'm still leaving reviews about them wherever I can. I've since switched to Freshbooks and Stripe and they have been an absolute pleasure to work with.