Paymill Review: Fees, Comparisons, Complaints, & Lawsuits

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Note: As of 2022, it appears that the Paymill website no longer exists. It is unclear whether the company still functions. If you have any information about the status of Paymill, please let us know in the comments below.

Online Payment Processing with Simple Integration

Paymill is a European online merchant account provider similar to the U.S. company Stripe. It specializes in offering services to merchants in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The company serves merchants and online businesses in over 30 European countries; however, it does not offer services in the U.S. or Canada. Launched in 2012, Paymill primarily offers e-commerce merchant accounts. Paymill merchants can accept payments via the company's own payment gateway or through an integration with PayPal. Klik & Pay acquired Paymill in 2016.

Paymill Location & Ownership

Paymill is headquartered at St.-Cajetan-Straße 43, 81669 Munich, Germany. Mark Fabian Henkel is listed as the CEO of Paymill.

Paymill Review Table of Contents

  • Costs & Contract: Paymill offers 2 choices of monthly plans with no early termination fees associated with either.
  • Complaints & Service: Paymill has received more than 20 public complaints.
  • BBB Rating: Paymill does not have a profile with the Better Business Bureau at this time.
  • Sales & Marketing: Paymill does not appear to hire independent sales representatives and has not received any complaints about its sales practices.

Paymill Customer Reviews

Here's What Their Clients Say

Customer Reviews Summary
Total Online Complaints 20+
Live Customer Support Yes
Most Common Complaint Fund Holds

Low Complaint Total

We are currently able to locate more than 20 Paymill complaints, none of which accuse the company of being a scam or a ripoff. 5 complaints were located in the comment section of this review, while the majority were found in other consumer forums. Most complaints describe poor customer support, a slow signup process, and having their account shut down due to a risk assessment by Paymill’s internal risk department. While we do not know the facts of the account freezes, it does appear that Paymill’s customer support team receives mixed reviews due to its slow responses.

Paymill Lawsuits and Fines

We have not found any outstanding class-action lawsuits or FTC complaints filed against Paymill. Dissatisfied merchants who wish to pursue a non-litigious course of action against the company should consider reporting it to the relevant supervisory organizations.

Paymill Customer Service Options

The company’s website provides contact information for a dedicated support email address and a phone line, which is more than many e-commerce platforms provide. Nevertheless, the complaints of slow service suggest that Paymill does not rank as a top payment processor for customer service at this time.

Paymill Online Ratings

Here's How They Rate Online

The Better Business Bureau does not maintain a profile for Paymill at this time. We therefore will not factor a BBB score into the company’s overall rating.

Paymill Fees, Rates & Costs

A Closer Look at The Contract

Cost & Fees Summary
Visa/MC EU Base Plan Rate 1.95% + €0.25
Visa/MC International Base Plan Rate 3.45% + €0.25
Visa/MC Professional Plan Rate 1.35% + €0.25
Visa/MC International Professional Plan Rate 3.35% + €0.25
Basic Plan Fee €4.95 Per Month
Professional Plan Fee €19.95 Per Month
Chargeback Fee €18.75
Sofort Fee 1%
Early Termination Fee €0
PCI Compliance Fee €0
Equipment Lease Terms Undisclosed

Month-to-Month Contract

The standard Paymill merchant agreement appears to be a month-to-month agreement with no set term. The company does not charge an early termination fee or any PCI Compliance fees, but it does advertise a chargeback fee of €18.75.

The Paymill website lists 2 pricing tiers relative to options between the company’s Base and Professional plans. The Base plan charges €4.95 per month, 1.95% plus €0.25 per Visa/MasterCard EU transaction, and 3.45% plus €0.25 per Visa/MasterCard International transaction. The Professional plan charges €19.95 per month, 1.35% plus €0.25 per Visa/MasterCard EU transaction, and 3.35% plus €0.25 per Visa/MasterCard International transaction. Both plans charge 1% per Sofort transfer.

Other Assorted Fees

We have seen one complaint in the comment section of this review related to Paymill’s processing bank for international payments, Wirecard Bank. The merchant claims that Wirecard charges large conversion fees for foreign currencies in addition to higher-than-average per-transaction fees. Paymill itself acknowledges that currency exchange fees may apply in certain circumstances. A number of other complaints cite Paymill’s refusal to serve certain business types without extensive underwriting and a rolling reserve. Merchants operating in conventionally high-risk sectors may be better served by a top-rated high-risk merchant account provider.

Competitive for the European Market

Overall, Paymill shapes up to be a low-commitment, highly adaptable online payment option for its price. Its focus on European payment processing makes it one of the simplest tools for the markets it serves. That said, we always encourage merchants to check out our list of the providers of the best merchant services.

Paymill Employee Reviews & Sales Tacitcs

Should You Work For Them?

Jobs & Marketing Summary
Employs Independent Resellers No
Advertises Deceptive Rates No
Discloses All Important Terms Yes

Inside Sales Team

Paymill appears to primarily market itself through its website and traditional advertising. There is currently no evidence that the company employs independent sales agents, and we are unable to locate any negative Paymill reviews that accuse its sales staff of unethical behavior. This compares favorably to our list of best credit card processors. Paymill’s advertising generally targets web-savvy business owners and developers who are already looking for online payment solutions.

Prohibited Businesses

Paymill is certainly not a viable option for high-risk merchant acccounts. The company’s terms of service detail types of businesses which it will not offer services to under section 9.1, which include: night clubs, erotic bars, swinger clubs, restaurants situated in “red light districts”, arcades, casinos, sex stores, and weapons companies, among others.

No Deceptive Quotes

Additionally, the company does not appear to engage in unethical advertising strategies in its official materials. The company’s pricing is clearly displayed and easy to understand. If you suspect that Paymill is charging you hidden fees, however, we recommend seeking a third-party statement audit.

Our Paymill Review Summary

Our Final Thoughts

A Simple European E-Commerce Solution

Paymill rates as a reliable merchant services provider according to our rating system. The company is showing a low number of online complaints and appears to offer transparent, competitive contract terms. Paymill’s focus on easy software integration also offers an added value that merchants may find appealing. Since Paymill is not available in the U.S., American developers are advised to work with a top-rated merchant account provider for developers.

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Which is Most Important for You?

If you had to pick one, which quality would you say will be the most important with your next credit card processor? Tap or click your selection to register your vote:

  1. Low Transaction Fees
  2. No Monthly Fees
  3. No Contract
  4. Reliable Customer Support
  5. Quick Signup

Testimonials & Complaints

How Did Paymill Treat You?

7 User Reviews

  • Dénes Szilárd

    Paymill: Simply, it’s ridiculous. How I get to this conclusion? Read below.

    I fought for more than 5 months to get my account activated, and then my brain just blowed up.

    Here is how it happened:
    • They asked for several contracts, several proofs about my legal business. I had to make a contract even with my importer, who is not really existing because I am dropshipping. It was painful to find somebody who signs a Supplier Agreement.

    • I had to send this Supplier Agreement to them on my money.

    • I had to send them another bunch of contracts on my money, because they forget out something from the package.

    • After this I had to translate my business certificate to English and certify by a notary. The real issue started here. My business certificate is released by the Government of Hungary (my country). Is absolutely legal. The legal translator office translated my already legal business certificate with the stamp of the government, and they told me that is non-sense to give it to a notary, because the governmental stamp is above the notary stamp, legally.
    Anyhow, an official translation agency can certify a business certificate in Europe. Germany is in Europe as well. So I have a legal and legally translated f*cking legal business document at this point.

    • I forwarded the translated document (with the governmental and agency stamp) to Paymill, and they pushed back with the reason that there is no notary stamp on it. After explaining the stuff above, their answer it was that: it’s a mandatory. For who?

    • And then, I got very upset, and told them that you can go to hell, with my 50$ blocked in my account. (and with the other ~80-90$ what I spent on them)

    • Anyhow, they have a 350 euro threshold, below which they do not pay you out. So you have to collect at least 350 euro before your first payment, but you will never get activated. Hahaha. Is this a reliable business model? You have to invest in your payment gateway to get paid out somehow?

    • Simply, it’s ridiculous. So Paymill can go to hell. I do not recommend to use them, even if it’s very simply to register, and they have no monthly fees.


    This post will help: Best E-Commerce Merchant Accounts

    – Phillip

  • Beate Matthäi

    Terrible Experience with Paymill!!!

    Since some years we have been using Paymill without any problems – but since the have a new partner Bank Paymill is for smaller erchants absolutely NO GO.

    If you recieve a creditcard Payment you may wait half a year until you get the money into your account.
    You are completely helpless cause they just don’t react- they keep the money and they don’t answer support ticlkets.

    For larger companies they might be ok – but for small startups – BEWARE and pay great attention with the contract, cause you can wait for your money until you yourself go broke until you receive the money in your account…

    From The Editor
    This Post Might Help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money

  • Sara

    Terrible, not paying out, not replying on e-mails. Vert unprofessional. Look for other solution!
    Had one transaction when we started using system, and they didn’t paid this after almost 4 months! Not even trying to explain why they didn’t pay, simply not answering e-mails or answering after couple of sent e-mails without real reply.

  • Neven Miculinić

    After two mounts of consultation two manager, after that I send
    many documents of my company, document of origin of goods, document of authentic of goods, after I make changes on my website that Paymill request.
    They say me that I must pay 25 EUR fee/month, because they not
    support my currency (HRK). On Paymill website is specified that they work
    with Croatia and that they do not take month/fee.

  • Pierre Bastoul

    Hello sir,

    I would like to add my own experience.
    I am a Paymill customer since 2 years now. Our business is a classical ecommerce shop, not classified as “risky”.

    About the enrollment process

    The process of enrollment was very long, about 6 monthes.
    They were unable to write the contract with the fees negociated, I had to re-send all the emails from the sale person.
    They asked me for new documents every monthes, sometimes asking the same doc twice…

    About the contract,

    Days after signin the contract, I’ve received a new contract from a bank I’ve never heard of. That was the day I discovered that Credorax will provide the bank account and they will acquire our payments. Before that it was a UK bank. This discovery was coming with a new train of legal information to read, new agreements to sign, and again, company, olders ID, nature of business to provide…

    The payment settlements

    The sale person said I will have a daily money transfert, he never told me about a rolling reserve. When reading the banck contract, I was thinking I was at the end of this sooo long process, I discovered that they asked for a 30 days rolling reserve. I decided to shut down discussions, and go for a new provider. They finaly came back to propose a weekly transfert on friday (that’s what they offer now). But with practice, I understand now what a weekly tranfert does really mean. The transfert day is friday and must be a working day, if not, the transfert will be on next tuesday. Plus, first transfert will be issued 10 days after first week. So, every week you get the money of the 10 days before the preceding week, not the last 10 days. Finaly, they keep 7 + 10 days. That’s a lot of money. This is the real working of a weekly settlement, that is not explained clearly on their website and anybody.

    About our unique chargeback

    3 weeks ago we had our first chargeback in 2 years. The goods were sended a month before, just after the card transaction. The transaction of €60 was immediatly canceled by Paymill. They asked me to write the detail of the transaction for VISA, they only want it in english which is not my native language. Asking again informations they already have like the date of the transaction, the hour, the name on the card, the nature of my business, if I provide goods or services… the url of the website and so…. Sorry, just 2 things they did not have already: an invoice of the goods, the address of delivery, the phone number of the customer. That was really painfull and took much time. They told me that they will work with bank and VISA for a resolution. I’ve asked for the reason of the chargeback, they give me a generic list of possible reasons, I just had to guess wich one is the good for that case.
    After 2 weeks I received an email asking me to make a choice:
    1/ provide more information “to prove transaction is valid beyond any doubt”… send that infos to VISA, and proceed for a pre-arbitration. If I loose, I will be charged for €540
    2/ stop now the process, Paymill will charge m ofr €25 and money for that transaction is lost, definitely.
    Is my undestanding limited ? I can not provide more informations, I just did my merchand work, sending goods in time, validated that the goods were received, giving all informations I own. I decided to stop the process.
    The end of the story : I’ve talked to the customer, he gave me the name of his bank, after some times they found that they issued a bunch of chargebacks for a stolen card. Our paiement was in the batch for no reason. The bank paid us directly.
    What Paymill as done for me: nothing, how much did it cost: $25 (and many many time)
    And guess what ? just after that great experience, I received an email from Paymill, the subject was “New Credorax risk and chargeback policy”, I will not detail the content here, you will think of a joke.

    Last days with Paymill

    Paymill stopped our MOTO feature. MOTO means mail order/ telephone order. The day they did it, I’ve received an email with “for security reason, we stopped MOTO for your account”. We use MOTO to charge with a new transaction an already processed card, we don’t have access to the card number, it’s great. Our business case is when we receive a last minute call from a customer asking to add a good to his order, we add the good, and just charge the card for an additional amount, card number is kept secret. It’s a good service, quick, secure and painless for the customer. This feature is the one that make us go with Paymill (vs traditionnal providers we have in France). I’ve asked Paymill about the problem we have with MOTO, they just answered that we can not use it as a virtual terminal. I’ve asked again, may be a problem of understanding between us, strange answers, support service does not know why, really… they have a RISK service, that I can not talk to, they decided. They may have good reasons that I will never know. But I can not trust them more. I don’t need a payment provider that stop a feature without any advice.

    we are now looking for an other payment provider.

    Thanks for reading, sorry for my english, I know it’s far from perfect.

    Pierre

  • muacan

    Paymill is a great payment system for any developer and/or startup.

    However, if you are accepting payments in another currency than euro, their partner bank Wirecard Bank is not nice and will get you the worse rates. Also never forget-at least in some countries- they will make the payment in Euro not in your currency and due to converting your local currency to Euro with a bad rate, and then sending you Euro, than converting again you make a loss of about 5-10%.

    Adding to that, wirecard bank’s transparency is very bad. For example, in our last payment they paid 16,5% less than they declared, citing the intermediary bank costs as reason. However, their agreement states that the bank will only get 2.95%. The reason for the extra 16,5% fees? Still waiting an answer.

    Hope to live in a world were we loose the greedy banking system with hidden fees and bad transparency.

  • Nikoletta Ven

    Dear Mr. Parker,

    The information listed above is not showing the real service rating/review of Paymill.

    I have bad experience with them, because they have published misleading information about the business models they support and my project wasted time and money due to their unprofessional attitude. I cannot agree that a ¨reliable¨ payment provider with ¨transparent terms¨ will put off its clients with empty promises, or will reject an application without giving clear explanations for that.
    The contract manager of Paymill just sent me an email with this standpoint ¨We regret that we cannot disclose specific details on the evaluation process.¨

    Regards,

    Nikoletta V.

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