Specializing in Hard-To-Place Business Types
Headquartered in Woodland Hills, California, PaymentCloud is a merchant account provider that specializes in credit card processing solutions for high-risk business types. The company does not publicly list any information about its founding date or its executive leadership, but some of the copy on its site makes reference to its work over the past seven years. Additionally, there is evidence that the company is a reseller of Electronic Merchant Systems.
PaymentCloud Payment Processing
PaymentCloud processes most major debit and credit cards for all business types and offers a large number of options in processing. These include EMV terminals, POS solutions, wireless payments, e-commerce gateways and shopping carts, mail and phone orders, and check processing. They use the paysley mobile system and specifically boast integration with major e-commerce software solutions.
Multiple Partner Banks
PaymentCloud’s acquiring bank is not listed on its website, possibly because high-risk credit card processors tend to work with multiple acquirers. The company’s headquarters are located at 16501 Ventura Blvd Ste 300, Encino, CA 91436. PaymentCloud’s CEO is Shawn Silver, the former vice president of high risk at iPayment.
Acquisition of Paysley
In October 2020, PaymentCloud acquired the majority shares for contactless technology startup paysley. Paysley utilizes custom QR codes and markets itself as an easy payment solution for fundraising, donations, recurring rent payments, and businesses utilizing text message payment requests.
PaymentCloud Review Table of Contents
- Costs & Contract: PaymentCloud offers a contract of variable length that does not charge setup or cancellation fees. The company also relies on Authorize.Net as an online payment gateway.
- Complaints & Service: PaymentCloud has received fewer than 10 public complaints.
- BBB Rating: PaymentCloud does not have a rating with the Better Business Bureau at this time.
- Sales & Marketing: PaymentCloud appears to hire independent sales agents but has not received any complaints about its sales practices.
- Rates & Fees: How Merchants Got The Best Rates With PaymentCloud.
PaymentCloud vs Stripe
While both services appeal to merchants with a high need for online payments, there are some fundamental differences in the way the two companies operate. Particularly, PaymentCloud is a wide-ISO with more access to customer service and support. You’re more likely to have a direct line to a customer service representative when using one of PaymentCloud’s different high risk merchant accounts. Stripe often functions more as a payment aggregator for different marketplaces like Etsy, and their software suite supports integrations with most APIs and storefronts. In our Stripe and PaymentCloud reviews, we found that both companies are decent choices for most merchants requiring e-commerce solutions and payment processing services.
PaymentCloud vs Stripe Costs
The companies both advertise competitive rates, with Stripe charging a flat per-transaction fee of 2.9% + $0.30, regardless of card type and an additional 1% fee for international payments. PaymentCloud advertises very similar rates; however, these rates are subject to change depending on sales volume, industry type, and other factors. There’s also a possibility you will face an additional charge of $25 per month to utilize the Authorize.net gateway through PaymentCloud. Stripe also offers some interchange-plus pricing options, something that PaymentCloud lacks.
PaymentCloud Serves “High-Risk” Industries
One area that PaymentCloud and Stripe differ is how they deal with high-risk business types. Stripe has an extensive list of prohibited business types that include speculative financing companies like debt relief, CBD, MLM, adult industries, or businesses with poor credit. PaymentCloud is receptive to many high-risk business types, offering additional services geared towards these industries like increased charge-back protection and more. In this category, we find that Stripe would not be a good option for merchants seeking payment gateways for high-risk businesses.
Stripe and PaymentClound Woocommerce Integration
If you’re a merchant looking to integrate with your existing online store accounts, Stripe and PaymentCloud are both excellent options. The APIs both allow seamless integration into many payment platforms such as Google Pay, Apple Pay, and many more. Stripe offers a specialized plugin for Woocommerce integration, making that process even simpler for merchants. PaymentCloud boasts easy integration with 99% of existing payment gateways; however, it might require a slightly more technical setup. Integrating with Woocommerce requires merchants to abide by their restrictions and guidelines, which means you cannot sell guns or pornography (among other high-risk business types) even if Stripe or PaymentCloud allow it. This is more in line with Stripe’s list of approved businesses and makes integration a slightly smoother process.
40 Responses
Have been with Paymentcloud for a couple of months now and I am beyond happy with them! Special shout out to my agent Brandon Conlan, that really knows what he is doing. He was very helpful from the beginning and is continuing to do so as we are going on. Very happy and definitely the right choice. Will continue to be their customer even with non-high-risk business in the future.
Hi Leonardo, I’m so happy to hear you had a positive experience with PaymentCloud and that Brandon was able to answer all your questions in a timely manner. We appreciate you taking the time to leave a review and look forward to your continued support and business in the future. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to Brandon with anything you may need! Thank you again. -Caroline
was approached by payment cloud to process my credit card payments for which i wasn’t interested and turned them down and from there every day i received harassing emails from them asking me to explain why i wasn’t interested and other ones pretending i had approached them and kept sending me sign up form links. eventually i had enough and told them to leave me alone and that i was an Australian business with no interest in an American provider with crazy high fee’s they then turn around and sent me an email stating thanks for my enquiry but they don’t deal with Australian businesses. If you deal with a melissa mullis block her straight away she is one piece of work and i’m still gobsmacked by how she tried to make it look like i approached them and that they were turning me down at the end. was just so uncalled for and childish, avoid these guys at all costs they also hide a lot of information like a buffer they put in place and as many times as i asked they refused to give me information on the buffer and the higher fee’s involved when the buffer was reached plus they will hold your money for as long as they like also. Dodgy as shit company and terrible staff and crazy high processing fees it’s much cheaper to use paypal credit card processing
Hi Michael,
We do not do any outbound lead generation, all of our inquires are opt-in. I apologize for any unwanted communication you experienced with one of our representatives. At PaymentCloud, it’s always our goal to listen to our merchants and it seems we may have missed the mark in this case.
As for your other comments about pricing and processing times, these rates and timelines vary by bank. Because we partner with various processors to accommodate all industries, credit card processing rates and deposit timeframes are unique to each account (with factors such as risk, processing history, and credit score). In fact, PaymentCloud has no hand in freezing or withholding any funds from our merchants. If anything, we are the ones that advocate on your behalf for the release.
As you stated, we cannot work with international businesses and therefore would not be able to help you connect to one of our domestic partnering banks. We wish you luck in your business endeavors.
Put my business back months. Terrible.
This is my first ever online review. I had to post this to let other people know to AVOID this company.
They wasted 4 months of my time with promises they couldn’t deliver.
I’m based in the UK, with a US LLC and I sell supplements, all of which are considered high risk which I understand and I’ve had issues with merchant processers before because of it, but usually they give me a no straight out of the gate as to avoid wasting everyone’s time.
Ohhhh no no no, not PaymentCloud, they waited 4 months to tell me.
The intial application was successful and took 6 weeks to get onboarded, during this time I had to continuely chase up as their customer service is nothing short of woeful but I know these things take time so i was patient.
At week 6, I was given the green light by the acquirer bank, all that needed to be done was implement the merchant API into my websites. I use Shopify(Yes, the $1bn T/O eCoommerce Platform) and Clickfunnels(The Largest Funnel Platform Globally.) I had told PC multiple times that I use these platforms and even their Chief Of Technology told me that ‘We integrate with Clickfunnels’
Well…
After 10 weeks of terrible communication, and me asking for updates on a weekly basis I was told that they DO NOT integrate with 2 of the largest platforms out there.
The reason I was given was that I was the first person from an international perspective they had helped and that their third party API had let them down.
This has put my business back months.
If you are reading this and thinking about signing up, don’t. Even if you are in the US, their customer service and communication is some of the worst I’ve seen.
If you trust these people with your customer’s money, on your head be it.
We appreciate you taking the time to leave this detailed review and for the opportunity for us to take this feedback as an opportunity to make our team better. I would like to address and possibly clarify a few points and hope that, although we were not able to help you with credit card processing, we can come to an understanding.
First and foremost, we specialize in US based domestic credit card processing and rarely venture into international markets because we do not have the relationships built and proven solutions that we have in the US market. Because of the relationship with our referring partner, our relationship manager went above and beyond to source a solution for UK based CBD businesses that we were assured checked all the boxes that you required.
We did in fact get you a live merchant account and were told that your development team would be able to use the information provided upon approval to make the appropriate e-commerce platform connections. At that point I think we ran into a couple of issues; first, that connection required custom work, and second that work was outside of your scope and you did not have additional developer support to help.
At that point, we brought in both our lead developer and our CTO to help troubleshoot the issue. We absorbed all of the costs to make every attempt at building the connections you needed. Unfortunately we received very little – almost zero – feedback and support from the processor who owned the API connection and could not find a way on our own. I apologize for the time this took, but please know that we left no stone unturned and pursued every avenue to try and make this work, at no cost to you.
Please know that we are doing everything we can to remedy the situation, and as a result of your experience have decided not to move forward with the solution you were placed with. We strive to maintain a very high standard as experts in the ecommerce space inside the US with almost limitless integration capacity and unmatched customer support – that includes hundreds of Shopify merchants every month.
I will personally apologize on behalf of the processing solution that so much time and effort was spent on something that did not come to fruition. We take full responsibility for going out on a limb, but if you have one takeaway please know that we were truly committed to helping you at any cost. If there is anything further we can do to help please don’t hesitate to reach out directly.
Chase,
I truly appreciate the kind words. We really value your business and look forward to a lasting relationship. As always, any problems that arise big or small please reach out to me and I will handle. Looking forward to seeing your company grow to new heights, no doubt it will.
After searching for a merchant account that was willing to work with my business in the firearms accessories industry, I came across PaymentCloud after being referred from Authorize.net. PaymentCloud seemed to be a great solution due to their reasonable fee structure and willingness to work with me. Another big plus is the fact that they allow for more popular online wallets such as Apple Pay; a big plus for a business like mine that is 100% online based.
The process from learning about PaymentCloud, to applying, to being accepted was coordinated by Neal Hamou, who was there with me every step of the way. Neal worked patiently and diligently with me through the process and I am glad to have him in my corner. Every question I had was promptly answered and every hurtle was met with a quick fix from Neal. I could not imagine a quicker or more painless process or a better person than Neal to work with.
Chase,
We’re glad to hear that your experience with PaymentCloud was so good. They rank as one of our best merchant accounts for good reason. Could you please provide us with the name and location of your business so we could authenticate your feedback?
Payment cloud only offers credit card processing for companies that sell CBD topicals, no ingestables. Just got that information from a phone call with them today.
We can now accept all forms of CBD :)
I wanted to give a shout out to Brent Bunting for giving superb customer service! He was always very kind and professional. Brent would answer our questions and if he did know the answer he would research and find out the answer instead of just “saying I can’t help you”, like most people do. He always took the extra step to help. I am a dentist and I owned my practice and I wish I would have had an employee like Brent. I would have had the confidence that things were getting done correctly and efficiently. I really appreciate all of Brent’s efforts and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors. Keep him around………..he is a great employee!!
Hi Joni,
Please reply to this comment with your business name and location in order to authenticate your testimonial. Thanks!
We have a vaping business and had many issues getting an online processor until we met Faviola who walked us through every step. She responded to us within a day and even walked us though changing our domain name. I’d highly recommend working with Faviola.
Upon be recommended by Stripe to execute services from Payment Cloud. I was immediately told by the agent that they could help me with my merchant solution. I was never ever told about any fees that would incur which put me at risk for my household expenses. I was coming from a FREE solution to one that has a substantial month fee.
I also recommended this service to a fellow colleague and she also was not told of these fees and had to freeze her merchant account.
As business owners we have many fees coming out of our account on a monthly basis. When we are not informed ..then this put our household expenses at risk.
There is a fee of $40-$65 dollars fee for 24 months attached. That I believe should be explained before entering into any discussions about a merchant solution. To break this agreement is a hefty $595. Although I am steaming mad about this I prefer to do this than pay more for the duration of 24 months.
I did read the contract. It I was my understanding that these fees only incurred when a transaction was made. I hadn’t a clue that $64 a month would be charged if I didn’t use the service after 90 days. SO UNFAIR.
Anyway I wanted to write this review to warn people to make sure they ask what the fees are and could they get it in writing.
I hope this helps someone.
This post will help: Best E-Commerce Merchant Accounts
-Phillip
Good Afternoon Sharon,
We appreciate your feedback and take your concerns very seriously here at PaymentCloud.
Stripe trusts PaymentCloud to ease the transition off of their platform because we take great pride in our customer service and transparency in what can be a very confusing payments environment. Our team cares about your business and knows how hard it can be to find a provider, quickly, when you are losing an account to keep your business running smoothly.
We know that “high risk” is an unfair term for most business owners and work with solutions that mirror your previous experience as closely as possible. However, accounts of this type require substantial underwriting and risk considerations that will usually be reflected in slightly higher fees. I apologize if these fees were not explained to your satisfaction by our account representative during the on-boarding process. I appreciate the opportunity to make our team better.
I’d like to make every effort to ensure your experience with PaymentCloud was a good one and am working with our bank to waive the cancellation fee on the contract, we will be reaching out shortly to confirm. If you have any further questions I would love to chat, please reach out directly.
-Mike Wright
COO PaymentCloud
I just spoke with my rep at Payment Cloud and they are not processing for CBD other than topicals at this time.
This post will help: Best CBD Merchant Accounts
-Phillip
After a pleasant conversation with Brent, I found out that unfortunately the major card networks are not taking any Kratom accounts. I had a very nice conversation, Brent was very nice, informative, and patient with all of my questions. Since I work as a web developer, I will definitely be quick to offer PaymentCloud as an option to any of my clients that require online payment processing for “high risk” categories.
Hi Steve,
Please reply to this comment with your business name and location in order to authenticate your testimonial. Thanks!
Hi Steve,
It was a pleasure speaking with you and I’m glad I was able to give you some concrete information regard payment processing on some high risk verticals. We love your kind words and we also love referrals! We excel in lots of areas including low-risk merchant accounts as well!
Neal is the best account manager I have ever had. My experience with PaymentCloud has been amazing and I look forward to the future with them.
Rachel,
Thank you for the kind words! It’s been a pleasure working with you and I look forward to many more years together. I know you have options when it comes to credit card processing and we truly value your continued business.
Turned my application down because I am not processing MORE than $250,000 per month. As a brand new company, that is quite difficult to do. Account representative was not very friendly, and told me the only option I had was echecks. He said there are currently NO processors doing business with start-ups.
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for CBD
-Phillip
April,
I request that you refer to my comment below on the current landscape for CBD. We are in the process of securing a viable option for start-up and existing processing merchants. I’m truly sorry that your experience was less than enjoyable. Please contact me offline and we will discuss which sales rep you spoke with. We do not take this lightly and this case will be reviewed. Customer service has always been at the pinnacle of our core values.
We had begun using payment cloud for our credit processing for our CBD products. We were notified that as of 5/15/2019 they would no longer be offering processing for us. Very challenging to change processors in this industry with little time to do so. Very disappointed.
This post will help: Best CBD Merchant Accounts
-Phillip
Jody,
I’m sorry you were one of the accounts affected by the nationwide closure. For everyone reading US Bank (through Elavon) was boarding all of the domestic CBD accounts. A little over a month ago US Bank faced pressure from government bureaus and decided to close the cbd/hemp vertical. This meant that they shut down all existing cbd accounts (I’m being told in excess of 200,000 merchants) as well as not allowing any new ones. Feel free to Google the recent events and you will find dozens of articles reflecting the aforementioned.
All of us in the high risk space are faced with this issue, it was not because of something you, Jody, did as a merchant. It was beyond your or our control.
Our executive team at PaymentCloud are in negotiations with a handful of banks to open this vertical once again. We are doing everything in our power to be able to accommodate the overwhelming amount of CBD merchants across the United States. Should anyone need to discuss temporary solutions or need insight on what to look out for please down’t hesitate to reach out to us.
After confirming that they closed my account at my request,they continued to bill me for 5 months after.When I contacted them,SE President,Chelsea Cooper and CEO,Sheldon Silver,they admit an error was made but refuse to refund me all my money after charging me fees ,penalties etc for those months,totalling $6-700.I have emails,correspondence etc to prove I’m telling the truth.
Hello Ronald,
This is Matt with PaymentCloud Merchant Services, I was your account representative if you recall. First and foremost, I want to take the time to reach out and apologize for the negative experience you had with our company. We value our merchants greatly and do everything in our power to make sure they are taken care of long after the account is boarded.
Shortly after I got your account approved with Elavon for your travel business, you realized you did not have much need for the account at and wished to close it. Unfortunately, since we are a sales office, we tend to be at the mercy of our banks as far as refunds and account closures go. When you wanted to close your account, we made every effort to close it swiftly and correctly and waive any early cancellation fees (ETF). We submitted the signed account closure form to the processor and were told that the account was closed. We did not know that your account was still open for a few months until you alerted us about the billing issue.
After much back and forth with Elavon, we were finally able to get you refunded for the 3 months your account was supposed to be closed, but unfortunately, they were unwilling to refund for the time your account was supposed to be open. We greatly value and thank you for your business and hope this experience does not prevent you from wanting to work with us again in the future. I am more than happy to explore other options (as we work with so many other banks) for you and see if we can find another solution that will work for your business.
Please do not hesitate to reach back out to us in the future, even if its simply to use us as a resource to make a more informed decision about anything payments related.
Best,
Matt Friedhoff
PaymentCloud Merchant Services
I used this NRA endorsed company. They set me up with PaySafe a British owned company. After nearly a month of delays with getting registered I gave up and went with TYSYS, a Denver based, gun friendly company. within a week I was on board and selling from my store site. Now I find I have been charged by PaySafe for services not rendered and was told I may not get a refund. The gent at payment cloud was very nice and did the best he could. At one point he admitted to problems with PaySafe. I’d steer clear. I was also told that I was in a high risk category and would pay slightly higher rates. I sell accessories not guns.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Gun-Friendly Merchant Accounts
Great merchant processing company! My business is in the high risk category, I had to provide a few extra details about my business as well as make some adjustments to my website, however I had a great account representative that walked me through the entire process and got me approved for a merchant account. The vaolume limit on my account is slightly lower than I asked for however that’s to be expected for any start up business in the high risk category. I am very happy with the, comparably, excellent processing rates, and the really nice virtual terminal they set me up with.
Highly recommend company!
Thank you
Adam Amaro
We used them for several months in 2017, after their staff said they would give us rates better than our current processor. Big mistake switching. We ended up going from 3% to paying over 6.5% on an average month. Additionally, although they said they would let us out of the contract if we were not happy with their service, they wouldn’t. ETF cost us over $1,500 to get out of that contact. However, by moving to another company we saved enough in 6 months to cover their screwing us. Highly recommend you stay away from them. Please contact me to verify this as I have it documented and would be happy to provide the evidence and the salesman’s name. Jim. [email protected]
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best High Risk Merchant Account Providers
I came across Payment Cloud through various attempts at getting merchant accounts. I have been working with Faviola Paz and she has constantly exceeded my expectations.
She is extremely quick with her work and doesn’t like to waste any time, something that is greatly valued. Aside from that she’s just a great person to deal with. Couldn’t be happier with the fact that I came across Payment Cloud and Faviola. Within 24 hours she had me applied for a merchant account and approved that same week. Outstanding! I’m very pleased, thank you for everything.
Hi Bijan,
Please reply to this comment with your business name and location in order to authenticate your testimonial. Thanks!
Payment cloud made it very easy from start to finish, very happy with the service. I highly recommend payment cloud.
I had some problems getting a merchant account because I was erroneously placed on the MATCH/TMS List and it took a month for them to realize their mistake and remove me from that list. But I had contacted Payment Cloud in that time and the person associated with my account, Neal, was extremely supportive and kind to me during that whole process.
Even though (at the time) I was not putting an application in with them, he offered to give me support and advice during that time about how to proceed and how to find out how to get off that List.
When it was time for me finally get a merchant account, I obviously had many options, but I didn’t consider them because Neal had actually treated me like a person and genuinely wanted to help me when I needed it.
I trust him and Payment Cloud completely to give me the best advice possible and support me again should anything not go as smoothly as planned.
Hi Jordan,
Please reply to this comment with your business name and location in order to authenticate your testimonial. Thanks!
Not currently offering accounts to credit repair start-ups.
Hi,
Just to clarify the sponsoring bank where we were boarding all of our credit repair accounts tightened up their credit policy, therefore not accepting any new credit repair accounts. We have since found another bank and are going back and forth with legal to wrap up agreements, we are being told that it is at the tail end and we should have that solution back up and running shortly.
It should be worth mentioning that we do have an existing solution for credit repair merchants that have a minimum of 3 months clean processing under their belt.
Thanks guys!
They are in connection with EMS which had a D rating and have over 50 complaints of the company freezing their account and keeping the money. Stay away!
Alana,
PaymentCloud is a payment company that is currently sub registered with Chesapeake Bank, Esquire Bank, & Harris Bank to name a few. We utilize different acquiring solutions that each specialize in “hard to place” high risk SIC codes. These different acquiring solutions are a great fit for almost all card-not-present (CNP) businesses that consist of future delivery, high ticket size, restricted business types, and difficult guarantor credit. Most of these banks have similar underwriting requirements and procedures in terms of how they analyze an account on a risk basis. However, with that said Electronic Merchant Systems (EMS) does conduct first batch release audits and site inspections to mitigate their risk. If these conditions are not met, then probable cause to terminate a merchant relationship could be executed. PaymentCloud is always more then willing to help and assist with any risk/security questions or concerns as they pertain to each and every banking relationship we have in place. Please feel free to email me directly and I can look into your particular case and hopefully offer a solution.