Coastal Pay Review

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Carlsbad, California, Coastal Pay is a merchant services provider offering payment processing solutions to businesses of various sizes. The company provides services such as credit and debit card processing, ACH payments, and supports alternative payment methods including Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, and PayPal. Coastal Pay offers integration with over 2,000 software platforms and point-of-sale systems, catering to industries including retail, e-commerce, and high-risk sectors. Their services include features like dual pricing programs, virtual terminals, and a proprietary payment gateway. The company advertises instant merchant onboarding and emphasizes security measures like tokenization and end-to-end encryption. Coastal Pay operates as a registered Independent Sales Organization (ISO) of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., and Axiom Bank, N.A.

• Payment Processing
  • Includes all major debit and credit card payments across various business types.
• Check processing
• Analytics
• Business loans and financing
• Marketing solutions
• API integration
• POS Systems
  • Including countertop, wireless, and mobile options.
• Mobile payments
  • Payments via smartphones or tablets.
• Virtual terminals
  • Solutions for processing payments online or over the phone. These terminals are designed with security and user-friendliness in mind, featuring options for recurring billing, fraud prevention, and customizable payment pages.
• E-Commerce
  • Solutions to facilitate online sales of products and services.

Evaluating Coastal Pay’s Customer Feedback Trend

Coastal Pay appears to have made great strides in improving its client satisfaction, as the company has virtually eliminated its complaint volume over the last five years. Prior to 2019, we had identified around 100 negative Coastal Pay reviews across several platforms. These reviews frequently highlighted concerns over undisclosed fees, aggressive sales tactics, challenging lease terms, and issues with service quality.  Customers had also voiced frustrations with telemarketing, misrepresentation of contract details, high termination fees, service cancellation obstacles, and difficulties in contacting customer support.

Interestingly, the volume of negative feedback has seen a significant reduction since 2019, likely due to policy changes related to early termination fees and the dissolution of Northern Leasing Systems, which had been contracted for providing payment hardware leases. Northern Leasing Systems was forced to shutdown by the New York Attorney General due to predatory business practices.

Coastal Pay BBB Rating

Coastal Pay has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and is accredited since April 5, 2019. The company has been in business for 10 years. On the BBB website, Coastal Pay has an average customer review rating of 5 stars based on 3 customer reviews. There are no customer complaints filed against the business.

Negative Feedback

There are no negative reviews available about Coastal Pay on the BBB website.

Google Rating for Coastal Pay

Coastal Pay has a 3 out of 5 star rating based on 84 user reviews on Google.

Yelp Rating for Coastal Pay

Coastal Pay has a 4.1 out of 5 star rating based on 39 user reviews on Yelp.

Coastal Pay Contract Terms

Coastal Pay has informed us of a recent update that they no longer charge cancellation fees.  The company advertises a flat processing rate of 2.5% and 15 cents per transaction on its website, but it’s unclear whether this rate applies universally or varies by transaction type or industry. A merchant application we obtained lacked filled-in fields, leaving uncertainty regarding potential rate changes. Notably, the application listed additional fees including a $25 monthly minimum fee, a $5 monthly PCI Compliance fee, and a $10 monthly fee.

Employee Sentiment

Generally, employee feedback regarding Coastal Pay is positive with negative reviews ceasing in 2019. The company appears to utilize both in-house sales staff as well as independently contracted agents that are compensated on commission-only.

Coastal Pay has greatly improved its business practices since 2019 and appears to have aligned its strategies with maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction. We have improved the company’s rating from 2-stars to 4-stars, with the remaining star retained due the company’s past issues. If Coastal Pay maintains its current trajectory, the review could see a full 5-star rating in a subsequent update.