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(877) 776-3706Compare WorldPay
Company Overview
Worldpay is a very large direct processor with an international presence in 40 countries, with a primary focus on the U.K. and Europe. Founded in the UK in 1989 under the name “Streamline“, the company’s name was changed to Worldpay a few years later. In 2001, Worldpay began to offer U.S. merchant accounts in Atlanta, Georgia. Shortly after, the company was bought by The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and rebranded as RBS Worldpay. In 2010, RBS sold its controlling interest in the company and RBS Worldpay was rebranded back to just “Worldpay.”
Worldpay Payment Processing
Worldpay processes all major debit and credit cards for most business types. For small and medium businesses, they offer POS systems, EMV terminals, the Authorize.Net payment gateway, digital and mobile wallets, FastAccess funding, extensive security features, gift card solutions, and data analysis and processing. For enterprise-level businesses, they also offer B2C and B2B e-commerce solutions. They claim to accept over 300 types of payments.
Online Payment Gateway
Worldpay’s online payment gateway allows businesses to securely process online transactions. Their payment gateway is compatible with a variety of e-commerce platforms and offers features such as fraud detection and prevention, recurring billing, and customizable payment pages.
Point of Sale Systems
Worldpay offers a range of point-of-sale (POS) systems that allow businesses to manage their payments and inventory in one place. Their POS systems are designed to be user-friendly and offer features such as inventory tracking, employee management, and customizable reporting.
Mobile Payments
Worldpay offers mobile payment solutions that allow businesses to accept payments on-the-go. Their mobile payment solutions include a mobile app that allows businesses to process payments from their smartphone or tablet, as well as support for mobile payment methods such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Gift and Loyalty Programs
Worldpay offers gift and loyalty programs that allow businesses to incentivize customer loyalty and drive sales. Their programs are customizable and offer features such as gift card management, customer data tracking, and promotional tools.
Acquired by Fidelity National Information Services
In 2017, Vantiv acquired Worldpay for $10 billion. The combined entity has since assumed Worldpay’s name and begun to consolidate its sub-brands into Worldpay. Less than two years later in March of 2019, Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. announced its agreement to purchase Worldpay for $35 billion. The Fidelity acquisition became finalized on July 31, 2019. 2023 saw an announcement that FIS would spin off Worldpay. Additionally, Worldpay put this note on their website: “As of 06th March 2023, Worldpay Online Payments Gateway (WPOP) has been decommissioned. After this date you will not be able to transact any MOTO, eCom and recurring payments.”
Location & Ownership
Charles Drucker is listed as the president and CEO of the company and its corporate headquarters are located at 8500 Governors Hill Drive, Symmes Township, OH.
Video Summary
Table of Contents
- Costs & Contract: Offers a multi-year contract with an early termination fee of up to…
- Complaints & Service: Has received more than 400 public complaints regarding…
- BBB Rating: Currently has an “A+” with the Better Business Bureau and is not BBB accredited, though they have acquired 181 complaints and 31 reviews in…
- Sales & Marketing: Hires independent sales agents and has received a high number of complaints about…
WorldPay Reviews and Complaints
Here's What Their Clients Say
Complaint Summary
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Total Online Complaints
400+
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Live Customer Support
Yes
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Most Common Complaint
Hidden Fees
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Recent Lawsuits
Yes
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High Complaint Total
There are hundreds of negative Worldpay reviews online, and many of these complaints accuse the company of being a ripoff or a scam. The most common types of complaints report unexpected fees and surprise over the $495 cancellation fee or auto-renewing contract (example here). There are also complaints regarding deceptive sales practices by agents, poor customer support, and fund-holds. Businesses who have had their funds held by Worldpay may be better served by a high-risk specialist. If you have your own Worldpay review to make, please do so in the comments below.
Active in Responding to Complaints
Company representatives have been active in responding to publicly filed complaints (including those in the comment section below this review), but it’s unknown whether the complainants ultimately receive satisfactory resolutions to their problems. It should be noted that many complaints may get attributed to Worldpay’s resellers instead of Worldpay itself and vice-versa. In general, the company has a moderate number of complaints that follow very consistent themes, which warrants a “C” rating.
WorldPay Lawsuits
WorldPay settled a suit regarding the alleged overcharging of nearly 200,000 merchants in 2017 for $52 million.
On May 1, 2019, investor’s rights law firm Halper Sadeh, LLC. announced that it had filed a class-action lawsuit against Worldpay. The suit alleges that Worldpay had offered its shareholders a misleading registration statement recommending that they vote in favor of the company’s sale to Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. The statement is purported to have misled shareholders about each company’s financial projections and the potential conflicts of interest relating to the firm entrusted with the financial analysis of the company. This complicates the agreed-upon $35 billion acquisition of the company by Fidelity which was announced in March of 2019.
The suit on behalf of the company’s shareholders comes less than a year after two other class-action suits against Worldpay. In the matters of Alghadeer Bakery and Market, Inc. v. Worldpay US, Inc. and Acebedo & Johnson, LLC et al v. Worldpay US, Inc., business owners allege that the company executed a “multi-part scheme” to knowingly misrepresent and omit fees. A settlement was reached, directing Worldpay to pay $15 million into a settlement fund to pay cash benefits to affected merchants.
We have uncovered evidence of three more lawsuits against Worldpay from 2020, two of which seem to involved clients’ money being allegedly held by Worldpay (see here and here) and one of which involves a former employee suing the company over race-related issues.
Worldpay Customer Support Options
Worldpay offers phone and email customer support to all of its clients and may also provide support for its subsidiaries’ client accounts.
Worldpay Customer Service Numbers
- (877) 776-3706 – Toll-Free General Customer Service
- +44 20 8081 3840 – Europe, Middle East, and Africa
- +63 2 8802 6299 – Asia-Pacific
Other Support Options
- Customer support form on its website
- Customer service email at [email protected]
These channels are evidently significantly lacking when compared to top merchant account providers for great customer service.
WorldPay BBB Rating and Report
Our Better Business Bureau Profile Assessment
BBB Summary
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Total Complaints
181
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Resolved Complaints
56
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Unresolved Complaints
125
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Response Rate
100%
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Over 180 Complaints
As of this review, the Better Business Bureau has given Worldpay an “A+” rating. As of a previous update to this review, the BBB showed that Worldpay (as FIS) received accreditation in 2010. Despite being recently reset, the company’s profile is currently showing 181 complaints in the last 36 months. Only 56 of these 181 complaints were resolved by the company to the satisfaction of the merchant. The remaining 125 were resolved to the dissatisfaction of the merchant or received no final response.
What Merchants Say
The company also received 31 informal customer reviews on its BBB profile, all of which were negative in tone. A recent review cites poor customer service:
**WARNING** DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!Worst customer service I have ever had from any **********************. I feel bullied, lied to, and that’s just the start. Won’t cancel my account, won’t release my money, and won’t work with the customer to resolve issues.
This customer’s complaint shows the difficult issues merchants can face against providers. Learning how to cancel a merchant account without paying a fee can aid in avoiding situations like these.
A “C” Performance Overall
Considering the company’s complaint volume and resolution rate, we agree with the BBB’s rating of a “C” for the purposes of this review.
WorldPay Fees and Rates
A Closer Look at the Contract
Cost Summary
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Cancellation Penalties
Yes
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Monthly & Annual Fees
Yes
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Processing Rates
Variable
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Equipment Leasing
Yes
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A Wide Range of Contract Terms
Worldpay advertises rates of 2.90% plus $0.30 for swiped transactions and 3.30% plus $0.30 for those that are keyed in. The company’s qualified rate is slightly lower at 2.70% plus $0.30. Based on a few reports, it appears that businesses are more likely to experience higher rates and longer service agreements by signing up directly with Worldpay instead of through a reseller. This is probably because the company gives resellers pricing and contract flexibility, which allows them to offer better deals to merchants if they choose to do so.
Three-Year Standard Contract
Merchants considering a Worldpay merchant account should read the company’s contract carefully, as the standard service agreement is for three years with automatic one-year renewals if written notice is not given within 90 days of the service expiration. The contract includes an early termination fee of up to $295. Additionally, the company appears to charge a PCI Compliance fee of $15-$25 per month, which is above average for the industry. Clients are also reporting an annual fee of $69 for what looks like an IRS 1099 reporting fee. Worldpay leases point-of-sale equipment through its ISO’s at terms ranging from 12 months to 48 with a monthly charge for the equipment based on each merchant’s credit score. Businesses leasing equipment from Worldpay have the option to purchase the equipment at the end of their lease term. We encourage business owners to check out our list of the providers of the best merchant services.
Virtual Terminal and Payment Gateway Pricing
In addition to its storefront payment processing services, Worldpay also dedicates a portion of its website to advertising its virtual terminal and payment gateway services for B2B and B2C sales. However, pricing is not disclosed on either of those services. Additional rates and fees, including gateway fees, technical support fees, batch fees, and additional transaction rates typically apply to these e-commerce services.
Comparatively High Prices
The potentially high cancellation fee, auto-renewing contract, and high compliance fees greatly lower the company’s rating in this section and prevent it from being an affordable merchant account provider.
Some of the Worldpay e-commerce and in-person payment solutions
WorldPay Jobs and Employment
Hiring Standards and Ethical Marketing Assessment
Key Points
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Uses Independent Resellers
Yes
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Telemarketing
Yes
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Misleading Marketing
No
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Discloses All Important Terms
No
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A Global Sales Force
Worldpay markets its services both directly with its own inside sales staff and indirectly using independent sales agents, resellers, and sub-ISOs. This is a common strategy for the industry and usually leads to a moderate amount of complaints. In this case, we are able to locate hundreds of negative Worldpay reviews that describe nondisclosure or misrepresentation of fees by sales agents. These complaints cite all varieties of unexpected charges, including undisclosed termination penalties, higher-than-quoted rates, and unexpected monthly costs. If you suspect that you are being charged undisclosed fees, we recommend seeking a fee reduction analysis from an independent third party.
No Tricky Advertising
We found no uses of misleading advertising or rate quoting in the company’s official materials. This compares favorably to our list of best credit card processors. Given Worldpay’s complaint volume and the regularity with which these complaints have been posted, however, we have assigned the company a “C” rating in this section.
WorldPay Review Summary
Our Final Thoughts and Opinions
Worldpay is a very large credit card processing provider that processes payments around the world. It rates poorly according to our rating criteria due to a large overall number of complaints regarding its termination fee and customer service. The company can improve its rating in this review by reducing or eliminating its early termination penalty and auto-renewing contract and greatly reducing its volume of client complaints.
Da
This company could be the subject of a truly fascinating and bizarre documentary on horrendous predatory business practices. I hope they all go to prison someday.
True things that have happened in my ongoing 6 month-long saga to close my nonprofit’s account with them (which has still not happened—they are still charging monthly fees):
-4 times customer service pretended they couldn’t hear me/the line was breaking up when I told them I wanted to cancel the account. When I told them to stop because someone had already tried that with me and I was documenting the call…they miraculously could hear me again.
-I called support at least 24 times trying to get information. They “accidentally” hung up on me at least 10 times “transferring” the call.
-12 times I provided my email and phone number to have someone followup since they said they didn’t have it on the account. No surprise, but one ever called or emailed.
-one of the customer support numbers their account team provided is just a recording saying you’ve just won a prize and asks you to divulge personal information to move forward
-when I asked for a copy of our contract and terms—they said that was sensitive account information that they were not at liberty to disclose.
-when I received written confirmation that the account was permanently closed and asked why they were still charging $100 per month—surprise, surprise they said that was sensitive account information that they were not at liberty to disclose 😂
-at different times different email signatures/account fees from this company have been under: Worldpay, Vantiv, FIS Global and Element Express. No one will tell you that they are all the same company unless you do some sleuthing.
I would recommend documenting every single interaction you have with this company, filing a complaint with the consumer financial protection bureau and calling your local representative. There is no way to hold this company responsible. It has been a nightmare for me!
Mick Gosney
I was issued a card reader on the Thursday, I was taking my first deposit over the weekend £13,000. I called Worldpay to see if I need to pre approve it as it’s a large payment, they said no and take the payment and it will be in your account on Mon/Tues.
Worldpay called me on Monday saying “my business model is outside their risk appetite “, and they would be keeping the £13,000 for a 120 days.
Absolute con men , it wasn’t outside their business appetite when they gave me the machine or when they said take the payment.
Do not use this company
faraz
Case Ref No PO2000444895
Dear Sir /Madam,
I would like to make a serious complaint regarding my account verification case handler.
He or She is not responding me about my account suspensions and stopping my payment processing since last three weeks. After making hundreds of calls and spoke to different customer services representatives, ( Jade , Lila, Norman, Mgr. Nita, vans, Embro and Cristine) no one has the information about who is dealing this case and didn’t have their contact no to speak with.
I am running a small business and have limited cash flow and my credit card payments have been stopped since last 21st of Nov22. I have no cash to pay salaries, bills and purchasing goods invoices .
This will leads to put my company in under administration. Please take action against the long delays and poor progress on this sensitive issue against the case handler and customer service team who were telling me same stories that, case has been forwarded to case handler since 2nd of Dec and giving me limited information’s about the case and manager or supervisors were not making any progress on that, asking me to wait.
Last person I spoke to was Supervisor Cristine who promise me that my money will be released by account department on Monday 19th Of Dec.
Kindly look into this delaying and poor responses, which causing me to go under administration or shutting down my company soon.
If that happened, I will take legal action against WorldPay and claim for company losses and compensation.
Waiting for your earlier respond.
Regards
Faraz Mirza
Merchant no 11414855
Al Shaheer halal foods pvt Ltd
Mobile no 07887766313
Wilson Sherman
Very unethical marketing practices. These people flat out lie about the purpose of their call.
Don’t trust or believe a thing the are saying and do not provide them any confidential info.
Roxanne
This Company does out right lie. They deduct fees from your account even after you have called numerous times to stop service and say account is closed then the next month fees deducted again to spend over an hour on the phone four months in a row to resolve the issue. Very unethical business practices. They should be put out of business.
Vincent Troncoso
I totally agree. Horrible company
Patty West
The customer service department is the worst. They are all foreigners that don’t speak english very well and they don’t understand it as well. I’ve got over 20 calls trying to get something handled and still haven’t found anyone to help. I am beyond frustrated. I wish I didn’t have Cryptopay and have to be locked into using them!! ARGH!
Adam Ritzman
Dealing with this company is like sitting on hold with the IRS, while in the waiting room at the DMV after immediately coming from having oral surgery at the dentist. Horrible customer service, no one ever answers the phone and if they do be prepared to repeat the same info to 4 people before being offered no answer or resolution to your problem. If this review helps ONE person stay away from this company, I will have made the world a better place.
Patti Drinville
I have never used World Pay. Over 4 years ago I had a short relationship with Vantiv who was bought out by WorldPay. 4 years later my bank charged me over $1,000 in 3 ACH charges. Like every story on this page, I have called and called, got the local rep involved and put in 3 claims. Nothing came of it. World Pay says my account has been closed for over 4 years and there are no charges. Yet my bank and the local rep say the charges came from WorldPay.
If there is an attorney out there who implements a class action lawsuit, please include me.
Someone on this page said BBB was next … that is where I am going next …
Has anyone taken them to small claims? I was online looking to see if they are registered in CA for just that reason when I came across the site …
Lee O'brien
Company will charge you thousands of dollars in processing fees per month. It’s like paying off a mortgage. Also very hard to terminate.
j. brickey
Worldpay service center is so poorly staffed and resolving a complaint is apparently an impossible task. We had issue with a bank withdraw by Worldpay for a shipment of their credit card processor. They wanted us to pay for shipping a credit card processor that was to replace an original one that never worked. It has been three months and the issue has not been resolved. 12 + hours of holding, being transferred, hung up on, told credit was coming and never did. It makes my stomach turn to know this company operates in 40 plus countries. We are in the process of transferring credit card companies. Once we transfer our business I may actually throw a party.
Mrs M Kotecha
A company that rips you off, I am a struggling small business and even though had given notice got charged and even though have not been operating for over a year they have slapped another fee fir compliance without even clarifying. Do not trust them . I need to complain about them, does anybody know who I can contact and take this further. People need to know.
Ersin
I wanted to cancel it because for around 6 months my business was shut due to law( lock-down), i was charged £45 a month. then you pay 1 months extra to cancel it and send the terminal back, they find reasons to change you extra when cancelling such as £376+vat for the terminal. (I use POS system from square now, with cheaper rates and NO monthly fees)