Old Company, New Name
Formerly known as Sage Payment Solutions, Paya is a large, U.S.-based merchant account provider that was founded in 1989. According to its website, the company specializes in providing solutions for education, government, B2B, healthcare, and nonprofit processing. When it operated as a subsidiary department of Sage Group, Paya specialized in payroll and accounting services for businesses, but it also managed to carve out a solid share of the payments market in both the U.S. and UK. In August 2017, a private equity firm named GTCR acquired Sage Payment Solutions from the Sage Group. It officially rebranded the organization to Paya in January 2018. The company now claims to serve more than 100,000 merchants and has narrowed its focus to becoming a top-rated payment processor. In August 2020 Paya announced a merger with FinTech Acquisition Corp. III.
Paya Payment Processing
Paya processes all major debit and credit cards for most business types including B2B. Their services include POS solutions, mobile payments, check/ACH processing, access to virtual terminals, e-invoices, data reporting and analysis, and PCI compliance
Paya Location & Ownership
Paya is a registered ISO of BMO Harris N.A., Chicago Il. Paya’s headquarters was previously listed 12120 Sunset Hills Rd #500, Reston, Virginia 20190, but the company also has several other offices located throughout the United States and Canada. Currently, it lists its headquarters at 303 Perimeter Ctr N STE 600 Atlanta, GA 30346. Jeff Hack is the CEO of Paya.
Video Summary
Paya Review Table of Contents
- Costs & Contract: Appears to offer a multi-year contract with a liquidated damages-style early termination fee and long-term equipment lease.
- Complaints & Service: Has received more than 40 public complaints.
- BBB Rating: Has a “B-” rating with the Better Business Bureau and has received 20 complaints and 6 reviews in the last 3 years.
- Sales & Marketing: Appears to hire independent sales agents and has received some complaints.
8 Responses
Paya is a second rate business credit card processing company. They actually held a large credit card payment from a long term (20 years) customers of ours and wouldn’t release the funds even though our customer AND American Express approved the transaction! They wouldn’t release the payment in full until after we shipped the product! They made us jump through hoops and treated us like criminals as if we were acting in a fraudulent manner. This very unprofessional act costs us unnecessary time, labor and money!
I had Sage then Paya through my Hudson Limited ltd airporter transportation software subscription. Hudson spoke very highly of Sage. We had them for 14+ years with minimal interaction after sales except PCI Compliance. I terminated my merchant account through Hudson(same way it was setup – never spoke with Sage Sales Department; just submitted application provided by Hudson) in April 2021 as we were no longer processing transactions through Hudson. According to my call today, the account was never shut down. We have incurred monthly merchant fees and non-compliance fees. The names of the charges are so vague it is difficult to tell one merchant fees from another when they overlap. The agent I spoke with said that he would submit a request for a refund of all fees since April 2021 to the Sales Department. I asked if that was the same sales department that ignored the request to shut down the account through Hudson? He mumbled, “I don’t want to deal with this.” and hung up.
While processing a customer payment for a smaller invoice, a larger down payment invoice was mistakenly included with the transaction. The transaction was flagged by Paya, they informed us they could not allow the transaction. We confirmed the transaction was unauthorized, and asked Paya to reject the payment.
Paya informed accounting to run a credit on our end to reject the payment, never informing us of the fees to do so. Had we done nothing, then the original request would never have been completed because of it being unauthorized by Paya as it was over the approved amount both by us and Paya.
Paya charged us the full fee as if the sale went through. Secondly, they also charged us the full fee to process the credit that they had instructed us to do. The funds were not deposited to our bank account, we also contacted our depositing bank and they confirmed the funds were never received by them to deposit to our account.
The amount charged for the first transaction was $6,059.37 and the amount charged for the processed credit was $4,423.05.
A customer support supervisor was contacted, requesting a refund. We received confirmation that their executive team authorized a refund to us. The refund was never received. The original customer support supervisor was removed and now follow-up emails and phone calls are going unanswered. This has been going on since June, Paya’s support ticket # is 3A6D4B. They also reference A564B6.
Stay away. High cost and hidden fees.
This post will help: Find and Eliminate Hidden Fees in Your Monthly Bill
-Phillip
I used Braintree, Squareup, and Paya. Closed business for move. Had IRS problem pop up. Needed access to two year old statements. With braintree and Square, I was able to go back as many years as I had account. With Paya, I am sealed off. They said the “research fee” is $55 per hour and then $10 per statement. I don’t begrudge them the right to do as they like, but these sorts of things are not on someone’s mind when first time starting out in a small business venture. Mind you, I do not know if it would have been better if they were still Sage.
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Great Customer Service
Paya (Sage Payment Solutions, whatever, same company) sent me a 1099(k) listing all of the money I received from customers. As you might imagine this resulted in a letter from the IRS, claiming that I under-reported my income, as I also received 1099(k) forms from my actual customers.
In attempting to remedy this issue with Paya, I was shuffled from one “customer service” to another, over the course of two hours.
Finally, exhausted, I called once more to the ‘Virtual Terminal‘ support desk, and simply asked for help generating a report for that tax year listing the payer and amounts paid. Simple enough.
I just received an email informing me that they charge $55 per hour and would require 10-15 days to complete this simple archive search.
If you choose to use Sage Accounting and/or Paya processing services, this is what you can expect.
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Great Customer Service
-Phillip
I thought I was donating to the African Wildlife Foundation. I was told it did not go through and to use another CC. I did not. 2 seconds later the donation did intact go through. A Bunch of liars and cheats. I immediately contacted Am/EX. I went to their web site and they are so opaque there is no way to see if they do in fact, Represent The above foundation. We will of course be contesting them, but just by the way they act and their exclusive web site made only to garner more business for them selves speaks volumes. Stay away from them. I believe they are part of a scam posing as anybody they choose to present they are.
This post will help: Best Payment Processors for Non-Profits
-Phillip
Been with them for several years. Very happy with them until recently they change to “Paya” . They have increased fees and added fees and charges. They never notified our company too update the horrible PCI and started charging us $75 plus a $35 fee monthly fee – (several extra hundred dollars in PCI fees). They have been charging us all sorts of unknown fees that we have no idea what they are – we are thinking of switching processors. We are now searching for another processor and may switch very soon. We don’t like being cheated !!!!!
This post will help: Eliminate Hidden Rate Increases And Markups From Your Monthly Bill
-Phillip