SAIL Review

Name: SAIL
Item: SAIL
Rating: 2.5
Author: Phillip Parker

Updated: June 19, 2024

Maintained Since: September 17, 2012

We take our role in providing guidance and education regarding the card payment industry very seriously. At our own expense, we have vigorously defended our right to continue expose unethical and predatory practices in the industry, successfully defeating every attempt to silence us. However, fending off frivolous lawsuits is costly. To sustain these efforts, one of the ways we generate revenue is through affiliate partnerships with ethical providers. This means that some of our outgoing links connect business owners to trustworthy, low-cost payment processors, which is what most of our readers seek. We see this revenue channel as a win-win-win for everyone involved. Business owners find good processors, processors get good clients, and we are able to continue to provide a valuable service to the small business community. We also recommend and link to many services that do not compensate us. Our priority is to guide you to the best solutions for your needs, regardless of potential revenue. If you have questions, please feel free to contact us.

All mentions of rate and fee costs are estimations based on publicly available information and client feedback. Actual costs may vary based on a variety of factors unique to your business.

SAIL

Rating

2.5/5

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Updated 1/9/2019: Verifone discontinued its line of SAIL products in December 2012. Its assets were acquired by Capital One Merchant Services and restructured to create Spark Pay. The Spark Pay lineup of products was retired in December 2017, and now Capital One resells mobile and point-of-sale products from its partner WorldPay. SAIL (sailpay.com), also known as “SAIL Pay” and “SAIL Payments,” is a mobile credit card processing application for use with smartphones, tablets and some dedicated countertop payment terminals. The service launched in mid-2012 and is the creation of the popular card processing hardware maker Verifone. SAIL is Verifone's attempt to compete with similar services such as GoPayment, PayPal Here, Pay Anywhere, and Square. Like its competitors, SAIL provides an easy signup process, free app & card reader, simple pricing and month-to-month service terms. The fees for SAIL resemble that of GoPayment because SAIL has two different account types. The first, dubbed the “Go” plan, has no monthly fee and charges a swipe rate of 2.70% (2.95% for AMEX cards) and a key-in rate of 3.70% for all card types including international transactions. The second, called the “Pro” plan, includes a $9.95 monthly service fee but lowers the swipe rate to 1.95% (2.95% for AMEX) and the key-in rate to 2.95% for all card types. Aside from a reasonable fee schedule, SAIL promotes that it integrates with Stitch, a sales management tool, to allow merchants to track inventory across multiple sales channels including well known applications such as Etsy, BigCommerce and Shopify. Additionally, Verifone has included a 24/7 customer support number (855-SAILPAY / 855-724-5729) as well support by email, Twitter and Facebook. As of this review, SAIL does not have a Better Business Bureau (BBB) profile and no complaints in the other usual forums. However, the service is getting an average rating of 3 out of 5 stars in the Android and Apple marketplaces. Of the negative reviews, users are mostly reporting difficulties with the app loading slowly, consistently crashing, or having compatibility problems with a device. It may be too early to tell if these are widespread problems or isolated incidents. VeriFone Systems, Inc., is located at 2099 Gateway Place, Suite 600 San Jose, CA 95110. As of this review, it is unclear which company is acting as the transaction processor for SAIL.

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About Us

CardPaymentOptions.com

Established 2009

My name is Phillip Parker, and I started this website back in 2009 as a simple blog to call out shady credit card processors that were taking advantage of small business owners. At the time, I had no idea this side project would grow into a leading voice pushing for transparency and integrity in the payment processing industry. I also didn't anticipate just how far some of these companies' owners would go to try to silence me.

I was recruited out of college for a sales role with a credit card processor. At the time, I didn't realize the “training” was really about tricking me... into selling business owners expensive processing with hidden fees and long-term service agreements. In my first few sales, I unknowingly cost friends and family thousands of dollars after they trusted me to switch their services. When it finally clicked that something was seriously wrong, I was furious. I quit immediately and made a promise to expose that company and any others operating the same way. That promise is what led to the creation of this website.

As I wrote about these processors, their tactics, and the people behind them, the articles started to spread among business owners. News organizations picked up the stories, readers shared them online, and traffic to the blog took off. Unsurprisingly, that also caught the attention of the companies and individuals I was exposing.

Over the last 17 years, I've received several anonymous death threats and defeated four lawsuits meant to intimidate me into taking my blog down. Their efforts to muzzle me only made my determination to expose them even stronger, leading me to work with state authorities to help shutdown some of the worst offenders.

I'm proud to say that of the millions of people who have read my work, thousands have taken the time to write and thank me for helping them narrowly avoid a very costly mistake. This blog has played a small role in pushing the industry toward more ethical practices - but there are still bad actors out there, which means the work isn't done.

If I can offer one piece of advice, it's this: get every promise in writing, and take the time to review contracts carefully. Tools like ChatGPT can help surface red flags and uncover expensive surprises buried in the fine print.

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading. I truly appreciate you being here, and I wish you every success with your business.

Our Research Methodology

Pricing & Fees

We analyze all costs including rate structures (interchange-plus, tiered, flat-rate, etc), monthly fees, equipment costs, early termination fees, and hidden charges. This data is gathered from service agreements, statements and client feedback.

Features & Technology

Evaluation of POS systems, e-commerce integrations, mobile capabilities, reporting tools, recurring billing..., and developer resources. When possible, we directly test services and hardware. Otherwise, we rely on client feedback and public information.

Customer Support

We evaluate availability across phone, email, chat, and social channels. Measuring hold times, night and weekend availability, and client feedback regarding effectiveness, professionalism, and resolution rates.

Contract Terms & Conditions

We review service agreements and equipment contracts for reasonability, transparency, and fairness. We focus on uncovering any predatory clauses, such as unjustified early termination fees, hidden costs, and unclear cancellation policies.

User Experience

We comb the internet and interview current and former clients to evaluate the overall user experience and identify any common pain points that may impact the user experience.

Sales & Marketing Practices

We evaluate sales tactics, marketing materials, and client feedback to determine the level of transparency and ethical nature of the provider's approach. Does the provider publicly disclose pricing? Do they use teaser rates? We score based on these and other factors.

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