What You May Not Know About Yapstone’s Fees and Contracts

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YapStone

Rating
D
2/5
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Pros and Cons of YapStone

Pros

Industry Specialization
Global Reach
Integration Capabilities

Cons

Customer Support Issues
Account Holds
High Fees
Contractual Obligations
Integration Limitations

Overview

In this review of YapStone, a major player in the payment processing sector with a strong presence in property management and vacation rentals, we examine their global payment solutions, customizable options, and security measures designed to reduce fraud and risk. We also address challenges that impact their reputation, including customer and employee complaints, legal disputes, and transparency concerns. Our analysis covers contract terms, fees, and rates to highlight both the advantages and drawbacks of working with YapStone. In addition, we assess their marketing practices, customer support, online ratings, and legal history to provide business owners with a balanced, comprehensive picture of YapStone’s role in the payment processing industry.

About YapStone

Screen Capture of Yapstone Homepage
YapStone Homepage

Founded in 1999, YapStone is a global merchant account provider offering cloud-based web and mobile payment processing. Formerly known as “Paymerica,” Yapstone primarily offers payment processing solutions for property managers. Most notably, the company is a payment processing partner of growing vacation rental platforms like Homeaway and VRBO. There is some evidence that the company is an ISO of Chase Paymentech. YapStone offers multiple variations on its RentPayment processing platform, including VacationRentPayment, HolidayRentPayment, StorageRentPayment, InnPayment, DuesPayment, and ParishPay. In 2019, YapStone partnered with Priority Technology Holdings (Priority), a leading provider of merchant-acquiring and commercial payment solutions. 2022 saw a further partnership with Sezzle to add buy-now, pay-later options to the company’s offerings.

YapStone was purchased in 2023 by Velo Payments.

Products & Merchant Services

Payment Processing

YapStone specializes in payment processing for travel and retail businesses, supporting all major credit cards, e-wallets, ACH, check-scanning, and cash via phone, mobile app, or text. Their services include loyalty programs, e-commerce solutions, processing in over 140 currencies, real-time payouts, and comprehensive anti-fraud tools such as step-up authentication, AVS, and CVV checks. YapStone is PCI and PSD2 certified, holds money transmitter licenses where required, and offers detailed payment reporting and analytics. They also provide automated verification for individuals and businesses, including KYC, AML sanctions screening, and identity verification, with customer support available in multiple languages.

International Payment Solutions

YapStone’s international payment solutions enable businesses to accept payments from a global customer base. The company supports a wide range of currencies and offers currency conversion services.

Payment Facilitator Model

As a payment facilitator, YapStone provides benefits such as enhanced control and flexibility over payment processing, advanced technology, and robust security and compliance measures.

High Approval Rates

YapStone reports a 95% approval rate for transactions, achieved through advanced technology and thorough underwriting processes.

Data Security

YapStone is Level 1 PCI-DSS compliant, adhering to the highest standards for data security as mandated by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).

Platform Uptime and Chargeback Handling

The company maintains a 99.9% platform uptime and has a dedicated team for managing chargebacks, with an 80% success rate in resolving disputes.

Customizable Payment Solutions

YapStone offers tailored payment solutions for vacation rental businesses, including options for recurring billing, installment payments, and seamless integration with most vacation rental platforms.

Fraud Prevention

YapStone employs a comprehensive fraud prevention system, including compliance checks and post-authorization monitoring, to safeguard sensitive payment data.

Customer Reviews & Sentiment

Increasing Volume of Complaints Against YapStone

Currently, there are over 200 negative YapStone reviews available online, with several labeling the company as a scam. This figure represents a significant increase over the years. Predominantly, clients have voiced concerns about delayed payouts, failed transactions, fund withholdings, and unsatisfactory support from YapStone, especially in handling disputes related to rental payments. Initially, most grievances were from renters using YapStone’s RentPayment service, expressing frustration over unclear policies and the necessity to incur fees for credit card transactions. If you have experiences with YapStone to share, please contribute to the comment section below.

Employee Feedback

Additionally, a handful of complaints from current and past YapStone employees highlight challenging work schedules and low morale within the workplace. These issues seem to have diminished recently. The bulk of YapStone’s criticism arises from renters on VRBO and HomeAway who have encountered problems with the company’s risk management and customer support teams.

Support Services at YapStone

YapStone maintains a customer support form on its website along with various email addresses for customer service inquiries. However, the company has removed its customer service phone number. This reduction in support accessibility has contributed to a lowered customer service rating for YapStone, positioning it below the benchmark for top-rated payment processors in terms of customer service.

This update aims to provide a balanced overview of YapStone, incorporating insights into customer and employee reviews, legal matters, and customer support capabilities. By including SEO-optimized phrases relevant to YapStone reviews and complaints, this content enhancement is designed to facilitate easier discovery and assist readers in making inCEO formed decisions based on the latest information.

Industry Scores & User Ratings

Online Ratings Summary
PaymentPop1
BBB Rating1
Trustpilot1.7
Google Maps2
Average Rating1.56

PaymentPop Rating for YapStone

Negative Feedback

Yapstone service has declined drastically in the last year. It is practically impossible to win a chargeback dispute. The only notice you receive is a “this is our third attempt to contact” email w/ a notice of a ruling in the cardholder’s favor. Attempts to contact customer service via telephone is an exercise in futility. You are placed on hold until you agree to leave a number for a call back that never comes. Emails take days to get responses. Even then, they don’t resolve the problem, or they direct you to contact customer service via telephone.

Recently, we received a notice stating “due to chargebacks” our funds would be held for 2 weeks. Attempts to resolve this has resulted in endless “please provide more documents” emails from them and no resolution. Our company processes more than $700k in reservations each year.

In the past month we have noticed that deposits, which were once posted to our bank the same day, have taken up to a week to post. This is a serious warning flag! The lost revenue from chargebacks, the 2 week hold of funds, and the increasingly sluggish deposit payments have raised concerns regarding Yapstone’s solvency.

I would strongly recommend not using Yapstone as a processing house.

Positive Feedback

There are no positive reviews published about Yapstone on the PaymentPop website.

YapStone BBB Rating

YapStone Inc. is not an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau. As of this review, the company’s profile appears to have been combined with that of Vacation Rent Payment. As of this review, the company holds an “A-” rating with the BBB and has had 18 complaints filed against it in the last 36 months, considerably less than the 86 complaints at the time of a previous update. Of the 18 complaints, only 2 were resolved to the satisfaction of the complainant.

What Merchants Say

RentPayment has also received 8 negative informal reviews to its BBB profile. The most recent review describes poor service:

If I could do a **** star I would. This company is ridiculous. Their agents are untrained. Their system archaic. Cannot resolve issues with them because you cant get in touch with anyone. Lodging a BBB complaint. Do NOT use them with VRBO.

Excellent customer service is crucial to provide clients with to address issues that inevitably arise, making it an important consideration before executing a contract.

A “D” Performance

Given the company’s rapidly increasing complaint total and poor resolution ratio, we have adjusted the BBB’s rating to a “D.”

Trustpilot Rating for Yapstone

YapStone has a 1.7 out of 5 star rating based on 59 user reviews on Trustpilot.

Positive Feedback

Our experience has been absolutely perfect from set up to just normal everyday usage. The customer service is outstanding. When we have questions or need help with anything, they are super quick to respond and get us back on track. This has been the best experience we have had with a payment gateway!

Negative Feedback

Good morning this company has taken 2 payments from me instead of one and trying to get it reimbursed is just terrible they keep saying it will be dealt with this is over two weeks ago still no closer to my refund

Google Maps Rating for Yapstone

Yapstone has a 2 out of 5 star rating based on 44 user reviews on Google Maps.

Negative Feedback

This company, during a chargeback proceedure, willfully and knowingly clawed back funds from my bank account which it had never distributed to me. In simple terms … Yapstone stole money out of my bank account to which it knew, or should have known it had no right, whatsoever, to withdraw.

Processing Rates & Fees

Flexible Contract Terms

As of the latest update, YapStone’s contract terms remain somewhat ambiguous. However, we’ve obtained a sample YapStone contract (pertaining to their homeowner’s association-focused arm, DuesPayment), indicating a one-year term with automatic renewal and a 30-day cancellation notice. The fee structure varies across payment channels: online and automatic credit/debit payments incur a $9.95 fee, phone payments are charged $14.95, while ACH/eCheck payments bear a $2.00 charge for automated transactions.

It’s noteworthy that YapStone seems to collect processing fees from payers—homeowners, renters, and travelers—rather than businesses, a less common approach in the industry. Additional fees might be outlined in a separate agreement. For more insights, business owners are encouraged to explore our list of top merchant service providers.

Issues with Fund Handling

While YapStone complaints mainly revolve around fraud prevention protocols and customer support rather than pricing, grievances regarding fund-holding and fraudulent payments are notable. Rental companies (YapStone’s primary clientele) often encounter delayed payouts or rolling reserves due to the nature of their card-not-present transactions. However, an alarming number of YapStone reviews highlight instances of fraudulent payments slipping through their systems. Although YapStone can’t prevent card theft, proactive measures can minimize chargeback risks.

Challenges with Chargeback Disputes

Some YapStone clients claim the company lacks advanced transaction information post-transaction, hindering their ability to contest chargebacks weeks later. Without insight into YapStone’s internal risk assessment tools, it’s challenging to evaluate their support in this regard. Nonetheless, numerous complainants consistently raise this issue.

Contentious Policies

While actual pricing seems less contentious, YapStone faces criticism for its policies. Should you possess information about YapStone’s standard merchant agreement (including potential termination or PCI compliance fees), kindly share it in the comments section of this review.

YapStone chargebacks
YapStone addresses chargeback concerns on their website

Lawsuits & Legal History

In April 2019, YapStone faced a lawsuit from Todd Feldman regarding an alleged breach of contract, which is still pending resolution. January 2017 saw YapStone resolving a class-action lawsuit for $4.9 million due to a data breach that compromised customer personal information, including social security numbers and passport details.

In 2021, YapStone was involved in a legal dispute with Priority Technology Holdings Inc., though details of the case remain scarce. Another class-action lawsuit concluded in 2022, addressing complaints from former employees over unpaid wages. Moreover, YapStone has faced several penalties for violations related to privacy and consumer protection.

Employee Reviews & Sales Practices

Inside Sales Team

YapStone appears to market its products through a combination of strategic partnerships, telemarketing, and inside sales agents. At this time, YapStone does not appear to employ independent sales agents. We are also unable to locate any negative YapStone reviews that mention the company’s sales team at this time, although we did find one YapStone complaint alleging deceptive rate representation by the company when it went by the name Paymerica. This compares favorably to our list of best credit card processors.

RentPayment Complaints

RentPayment’s website does not appear to engage in any deceptive advertising tactics, but we have located some RentPayment complaints from customers expressing confusion about fee structures and how to schedule payments through the service, which occasionally led to overcharges. Many of these complainants do not appear to be business owners, so it is unlikely that clients are experiencing similar difficulties understanding their agreements.

No Direct Marketing

In general, most users seem to encounter YapStone for the first time as the backend processor for their VRBO or HomeAway accounts. This means that YapStone doesn’t directly market to these users, so there’s little to evaluate in terms of its sales approach. The available descriptions of YapStone’s direct sales process are mixed in tone, but the sales department’s overall impact on the client experience appears to be limited. If you suspect that Yapstone’s sales team has added undisclosed fees to your account, we recommend seeking a third-party statement audit.

YapStone Competitors

Compare YapStone to competitors that earned top marks.

Bottom Line

YapStone is rated as a worse-than-average credit card processing provider. Specific details regarding the company’s contract terms remain sparse, which makes a thorough and balanced assessment challenging. YapStone, particularly through its Vacation Rent Payment platform, is attracting a concerning number of public complaints. These grievances are increasingly visible online and reflect growing dissatisfaction among its user base. The majority of these complaints originate from processing clients who are unhappy with aspects of the service they receive, though complaints from renters are also significant and contribute to the overall negative perception. Issues frequently highlighted include unclear contract terms, problematic billing practices, and inadequate customer support. Such feedback suggests systemic issues within YapStone’s operations that could potentially impact any business that chooses to engage with their services.

Given these circumstances, business owners who are considering YapStone for their credit card processing needs are strongly encouraged to conduct a meticulous review of all contract terms presented by the company. It is essential to understand every aspect of the agreement to avoid potential pitfalls associated with ambiguous terms or unfavorable conditions.

Read Actual User Reviews

All user reviews have been moved to our partner, PaymentPop.com

Contact YapStone

Contact & Customer Support
Co-founderTom Villante
Co-founderMatt Golis
Headquarters1990 N. California Boulevard, 8th Floor, Walnut Creek, CA 94596
SupportOnline Contact Form
Websiteyapstone.com