Overview
Braintree Payment Solutions (braintreepayments.com) is a merchant account provider based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 2007, Braintree markets its services primarily to e-commerce merchants, subscription-based businesses, and merchants that key in all of their credit card transactions.
Braintree’s payment gateway offers virtually automatic PCI Compliance by storing the credit card data off of the merchants’ systems and on its own secured servers. The system allows cards to be recharged or refunded without reentering the card information and enables merchants to set up recurring charges for periodic billing purposes, such as subscriptions and memberships. Braintree also allows U.S.-based merchants to accept international payments in 134 local currencies with settlement in 44 different currencies.
Braintree was purchased by PayPal in September 2013 for $800 million. The acquisition also included Venmo, Braintree’s mobile cash transfer service. Braintree uses First Data for its card processing network, but merchants appear to deal with Braintree exclusively for the service of their accounts. Braintree is located at 111 North Canal Street, Floor 4, Chicago, Illinois 60606, and the company’s acquiring bank is Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Walnut Creek, California. Bill Ready is the CEO of Braintree.
Key Points
- Sales & Marketing: Braintree does not hire independent sales agents and has not received any complaints about its sales practices.
- Costs & Contract: Braintree offers a month-to-month agreement with no early termination fee.
- Complaints & Service: Braintree has received more than 20 public complaints.
- BBB Rating: Braintree has a “B+” rating with the Better Business Bureau and has received six complaints in the past three years.
- Rates & Fees: How Merchants Got The Best Rates With Braintree
Related: Phillip’s Top All-Purpose Processor Picks
Phillip’s Top Mobile Processing Picks
Braintree Payment Solutions Bottom Line
Braintree Payment Solutions scores well as a merchant services provider in this review due to its flat transaction fee and its elimination of monthly fees, PCI Compliance fees, setup fees, and cancellation fees. It also maintains a very low complaint rate for its size and time in business. Overall, the service appears to be best suited for e-commerce and subscription/membership businesses.
About Phillip Parker
Hi, I’m Phillip and I’m disgusted by the state of credit card processing in the U.S. and abroad. I believe that the industry has been overrun by people who engage in fraud and deception in order to steal money from hard working business owners. I’ve made it my mission to expose the companies and individuals who engage in predatory marketing, pricing, and contracts, or just provide terrible service. Along with uncovering the bad guys, I’ve also discovered the good guys who do stand out from the status quo. CPO is a website where you will find ratings and reviews of these companies along with advice on how to save money and which service providers consider. Together we can move the industry in a positive direction. If you would like to help support my work, please checkout “Fee Sweep” my eGuide to getting the lowest possible fees when accepting card payments. If you haven’t heard of “interchange” this advice will save you hundreds, even thousands, in processing fees.
Schedule a Consultation with PhillipPhillip’s Merchant Account Rate and Fee Savings Guide
I used Braintree for almost 2 years on my eshop. We faced 5 cases with fraud cards for which they held my funds without informing me at all, and finally they blocked my account without any notice. For 3 days my clients could not pay for their orders online and we couldn’t identity the reason because the awful customer care of Braintree forgot or ignored to send and email.
When we requested an explanation and an official reply from them concerning the outcome of th chargebacks they just forwarded us our statements. The guys there are ridiculous
After months of using Braintree fine they closed my account without warning and held my funds. I think this website is a scam. I spent a lot of money developing payment integrations with Braintree but now all that money is wasted and I will lose all my customers which are stored on the Braintree system. I am unable to access information, I no longer have access to my account, money, or anything. They demanded I send them a copy of my driver’s license a copy of my tax certificatie, social security number, tax id number, and much other personal information. After prividing ALL of this VALID information, very reluctantly they immediately came back and said “we couldn’t verify so we closed your account”. Even though it is ALL VALID INFORMATION.
Braintree is a SCAM and it is just there to steal your clients, steal all your personal information, and ruin your credit with a worthless hard inquiry which will lower your credit 10 points immediately.
BEWARE!! AVOID BRAINTREE AT ALL COSTS!!
I integrated Braintree in Q3 of 2016 on my ecommerce website and was beyond disappointed. Braintree processed 3 successful orders over the course of about 48 hours – ALL THREE WERE STOLEN CREDIT CARDS that resulted in chargebacks. Their fraud detection and deterrence suite is absolute garbage. Stay away from this company if you are in ecommerce.
This is the worst company ever. I own an online store and have been selling for 8+ years online. I decided to start going through Braintree with receiving payments recently. Well, I drive 2 hrs to pick up supplies for my business, get there and PayPal card declined. I had $7K in my PayPal account. Come to find out, after calling and being transferred to 7 different departments, there was a fraud on my account with 3 orders within the same day. Braintree asked me to refund these orders and don’t ship, then they will lift the limitations off my account. I went through this whole deal for 3 days without access to money then Braintree tell me to update some Braintree fraud tools to prevent this again, then my account will be back. Well I called Braintree again and got someone to walk me through the process of the fraud tools. After he said he will get them to review it within 24 hours. Day 4. I call Braintree again to see why my account is still limited. They told me give it 24 hours since I submitted all the documents they need. Day 5 (Saturday) I call to see what’s going on. I’m on hold for 35 mins. And she says, “I’m sorry but we usually have a specialist here at Braintree lift the limitations on the weekends, but unfortunately no one is here this weekend to do it.” So now here i am, a business owner that trusted Braintree and PayPal to handle my payments, now I had to turn away all walk in customers this week with debit cards and I couldn’t ship none of my online orders this week because I ship through PayPal and my account is locked. No access to my money but they let my customers continue to pay for items from me. Note: I have a family to take care of and I use this account for many things. I had to be ashamed asking people to borrow money for food for my kid because braintree decided to lock my account because they allowed a fraud transaction to come through. So I’m just here and I have to wait until Monday to even get more information about MY MONEY that I work hard for. Braintree is the worst company ever. Don’t ever trust them.!!!!
These guys seem to be collecting data i sent my passport image they wanted the full image so they could see the mtr etc, sent letters with proof of address and then linked paypal to it and my UK bank account as well. They wanted business bank statements and sooo much more, i really was so frustrated with these guys and i know 10 other people who applied and got refused or just gave up like me. I would strongly recommend you stay away from these guys! Feels like some kind of scam to get my personal data now they have my passport images and proof of address and more :( either t is a scam or only for the 1% super big business only… COMPLETE WASTE OF MY TIME!
I like others on these reviews have had a terrible time just trying to open an account with them. I am running a marketplace app, basically what Braintree was intially designed for. They called me high risk and said they wouldn’t split payments and I would have to do it manually (defeating the whole purpose of using them). Their advertisements are also misleading saying their are no fees until you hit a certain dollar amount. This is untrue; for the marketplace clients, you will pay all fees immediately, but they hide that truth in the faq section. Do yourself a favor and just use Stripe, if your company grows you can negotiate lower rates with them, with paypal/braintree you are stuck at the same rate no matter how big you grow. Braintree will interrogate you and request very personal information like copies of your passport and and drivers license via insecure email, where they could easily/accidentally forward this info to people that shouldn’t have it. The whole process takes way too long with Braintree, it’s madness! Take my advice, if they are this bad upfront, think about how bad they must be when you are already a customer. Just avoid the madness and use Stripe
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Are you with Braintree? Learn how to resolve this complaint.
Hello,
I totally agree with SIlvia.
Our case is similar but in a higher amounts.
Please Realy be careful to reling on Braintree for your online payments.
If you are in Europe their assistance is poor, but the main critical issues are related with fraud.
If you are running an international business they do not advise you or set up with a basic configuration to avoid fraud.
As an expert gateway payment tehy should provide a basic fraud prevention configuration.
But the worst part is that i you are having some fraud and chargebacks they could retain your funds !!! and like Silvia your business been affected.
Braintree is only a reseller and the processor is Adyen.
Again be carefull!
I just called Adyen and I can confirm that Braintree is in fact a 3rd party reseller for Adyen.
And here I thought Braintree was a first party. No, Braintree is not a payment processor. Braintree is a 3rd party reseller for another payment processor, Adyen.
Now that I looked, look at Braintree’s logo. It says, “Payment solutions”. As in, they will resell another payment processor’s services and get middleman fees for being a reseller. Braintree is not the actual payment processor, they are a 3rd party.
I wish i could give Braintree a half of a star considering they ran my business to the ground. I signed up for Braintree after being with Stripe Payments that is (phenomenal).
I decided to open up a third website and i thought of being outside of the box after all they had better pricing. Needless to say i made a giant mistake by giving my business to braintree for payments. Braintree took payments and i was approved for a account in no time, after providing all the proper documentaion i was good to go. I even received a email from Marty Chanes, saying i was good to go and i could go about fulfilling orders and operate my business as normal. Day’s pass and braintree hasnt made any funding to be but my merchant account was acquiring currency daily. I reached $9,000 and made a call to the offices located in Chicago I was tethered with on the phone when i asked who can direct me to help with pulling a record of ACH funding that were or should have been transferred to me. I was never allowed to speak to Marty Chanes but others. I was told my account was under review and my fund would be held until i reached a certain amount. I was outraged! i have been fulling orders and fronting clients because i thought i had a reliable merchant that would be paying me soon. I told them i had cleared any review and was given the ok from “Marty Chanes” and i took his word i shipped merchandise. They said they couldnt pay me unless i showed them i had shipped i said ok thats easy and provided tracking numbers and invoices. I was tethered with once again and was told they needed to hold my funds for 90 days!!!!!!!!!!!!
A small business cant survive without a flow of income and now these customers that paid haven’t really paid because now i wouldn’t be seeing the money. I felt robbed and felt like my money was being taken and held hostage. Braintree decided they were taking back my account because i had another business and used another merchant and they frown upon that. Also Bobby with Braintree stated because 3-4 customers cards declined i needed to be held in review, I was furious and told them my business would fail because i used my personal savings to ship to clients and invested in merchandise as they had assured me i was good to go 7 days prior. All over a couple declines ! I hate braintree my niche idea and small start up was ruined because of them. I was left with no choice but to close up shop and was left with bills and merchandise because braintree lies to there clients and gives accounts and allows you to build and build revenue and turns around and tells you there holding it for 90 days!!!! Meanwhile you starve your business fails and your left with nothing. What you choose is your prerogative, my idea made 9k in a week and i honestly think they couldn’t handle such vast money being made. They are a nightmare run the other way they pick and choose who and what they want. There owned by Paypal which is awesome but braintree sure is there own problem and entity and now my dream crusher. I wish you the best of luck and recommend Stripe they handle business well, i read somewhere that Stripe was founded by Paypal but that’s there own monopoly.
Hi Phillip,
I am looking for a new solution to online processing since Google dumped its Google Checkout. I am looking at Braintree ( Google is partnering with them) and you stated that there was no monthly fees. But, on their site they state there is a $35.00 monthly fee.
I have a physical terminal hooked into my phone line for people who come into our shop. I am considering using that account for online purchases as well. I really like Ecwid for my shopping cart and can use the emulate Authorize.net but it will take some setup.
Hi Tina,
I believe the monthly fee to which you are referring is charged if you choose to only use Braintree’s payment gateway in conjunction with your current merchant account provider. Otherwise, you just pay Braintree’s transaction fee when you make a sale using the integrated credit card processing service.
Here is an list of other Google Checkout Alternatives: Google Checkout Alternatives
Braintree will not provide payment gateway solutions, unless the majority of the users/ customers reside in the US. This is the information I got when I tried to get a payment gateway for my website. My users live all over the globe, and a large percentage of them reside in Asia,
If a company has a condition that the majority of users should live in the US, and the “target audience should be those living in the US”, how does this company qualify as a provider of international payment gateway solutions?
This company’s service is NOT international if this is a condition to get a service,
Switched from Intuit Merchant Services + Authorize.net and couldn’t be happier. Braintree has been a great company to work with. Very professional, courteous and helpful through the entire process. Plus, for smaller businesses, you only get charged what you use (similar to PayPal – which has subsequently purchased Braintree).
Cutting out the higher merchant fees with Intuit, plus the recurring Gateway fees of Authorize.net allowed me to save thousands of dollars within the first 6 months of switching. And your fees are removed at the time of deposit, rather than end of month.
Strongly suggest Braintree!
Hello,
When you leave a testimonial as “Anonymous,” it really brings into question its authenticity. I would recommend replying to this comment with your business name and location if you want other merchants to take your review seriously. Thanks!