PaymentCloud Overview
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.
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. PaymentCloud’s headquarters are located at 15165 Ventura Blvd #245, Sherman Oaks, California 91403. PaymentCloud’s CEO is Shawn Silver, the former vice president of high risk at iPayment.
PaymentCloud Review Table of Contents
- Costs & Contract: PaymentCloud offers a contract of variable length that 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.
Highest Rated Competitors
Our unbiased reviews are supported, in part, by helping you find highly rated merchant accounts. You can learn more here.
Lowest Complaint Merchant Accounts
Our Opinion of PaymentCloud
A Great Option for High Risk
PaymentCloud rates as a reliable merchant services provider according to our rating criteria. The company has not received much public negative feedback from merchants and deserves consideration from any high risk business, especially those that wish to integrate their account with QuickBooks.
For more information on the company, see the PaymentCloud website or call (888) 506-7859.
We rely on your feedback about PaymentCloud to keep this review accurate and up-to-date. Please take a minute to tell us about your experience. We and the small business owners of this world thank you!Top Rated Merchant Accounts of 2020
About Phillip Parker
Thank you for reading my review. I hope that it has helped you with your research.
Why I'm Qualified to Write About Credit Card Processing and Merchant Account Services
I'm a former credit card processing sales director who left the industry because I didn't like how it takes advantage of small business owners. It feeds like a leech on businesses and thrives by imposing fees that are nearly impossible to comprehend. Seeing a need for change, I left and built this website help business owners better understand the industry, research merchant services providers, and get refunds of excessive merchant account fees. My experience of working "behind the curtain" in the industry, and using that knowledge for good, has resulted in millions of dollars returned to hard-working small business owners as well as enterprise-level companies.
From the time that I starting working in the merchant services industry to when I left to create this website, I've been on the pulse of payments for nearly 15 years. It didn't seem fair to keep this "insider" knowledge to myself. To lift the fog, I've reviewed hundreds of companies, read thousands of user reviews, and learned the pricing tricks of every provider. If you have questions about credit card processing, you can find the answers on this website.
To Whom It May Concern,
I am a proud business owner. I am also an incredibly frustrated customer right now. I was duped into thinking and believing my company would be in good hands when we landed on Payment Cloud (paymentcloudinc.com) and Electronic Merchant Systems (emscorporate.com) for our merchanting needs. My company is generating steady income. We are doing so in a manner that is honest, legal, and legitimate. Although I disagree, I fully recognize the category of services we have been placed in. I also strongly disagree with the limitations that have been set forth thus far. ESPECIALLY considering we specifically made it a point to reach out ahead of time when we began to realize that the account was approaching the limit of $10,000. I wanted to get ahead of the curve and make arrangements in case the limit would cause a freeze on transactions, which would cause a HUGE headache. Yet here we are. After doing our due diligence to inquire, we were subsequently informed by Mr. Richard McCausland (Senior Account Manager of Payment Cloud) in mid-May that not only was the $10k cap reset on a monthly basis, but that it would be fine if we went a little over for EMS. We were even told that he was going to personally reach out about increasing the volume due to good processing. Given that I am now here writing this formal complaint, you can probably guess what happened next. Or perhaps, what DIDN’T happen.
As of this writing, we are owed in excess of $18,126.33 for the months of May and June. Those funds are OURS and we demand the immediate release. I shouldn’t have to spell this out, but we are a startup small-business that began just a month prior to the nationwide Covid-19 shut down. We continued operations because investments had already been placed and contracts signed. We were not expected to be lied to like this. I have a payroll to fulfill that puts money in the hands of my employees who have families to feed. They come to work to get paid. In the midst of political turmoil and health crisis, some of my employees feel safer here at work where we can provide them food and security. I am dangerously close to being in a position where I might have to cut back on my already-small workforce. All because your Senior Account Manager wanted a commission on signing us up. EMS is not off the hook either because when we brought this up to their attention, they basically threw their hands up acknowledging that Payment Cloud does this sometimes, no surprise. Well, great. So what, this is fine? This is acceptable?
As both companies should already be aware, one of the most vital decisions upon starting a business is working with a dependable, COMPETENT payment processor. We absolutely cannot reach our full potential if tens of thousands of our revenue is being held month-to-month. We were not prepared to be lied to and swindled by such an important piece of our business structure. At least not this early on in company’s venture. We don’t need this right now. We are literally in the business of helping people seek assistance from larger financial institutions who egregiously mislead, misrepresent, and miscommunication with their clients. Whether it is incompetence or malpractice, we simply refuse to let this slide.
Nathan,
There are ways you can make a payment processor release your funds.
Blast up credit repair
Missouri
Thank you.
I worked with Brent Bunting. He was very courteous and efficient with helpful me set up services. Took time to answer my numerous questions and was pleasant to speak with over the phone.
Consider yourself in great hands if you receive him as your agent.
Would recommend.
Stacy,
Could you reply with the name and location of your business to authenticate this testimonial?
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.
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.