Paya Review (Formerly Sage Payment Solutions)

Pros

• Strong support for eCommerce businesses
• ACH & eCheck processing available
• Extensive third-party integrations
• Offers good developer tools

Cons

• No publically-disclosed pricing
• Require long-term contract with early termination fee
• Primarily uses tiered pricing
• Little support for retail businesses

What Is Paya?

Paya is a merchant account provider that formerly operated as Sage Payment Solutions.

Paya is focused primarily on eCommerce, although it also offers some support to traditional brick-and-mortar businesses as well. Unfortunately, the company appears to be a fairly traditional large credit card processor, requiring merchants to sign a long-term contract and only providing pricing information to potential users via a customized quote process that obscures the real costs of its services.

Like many similar providers, Paya will not be a good choice for most small business owners and earns only a mediocre score overall.

While we don’t recommend Paya for most users, you can check out our guide to the best credit card processors for small businesses for some much better alternatives.

Products & Services

Paya offers a full range of products and services for eCommerce merchants but provides little support for in-person transactions.

Here’s a run-down of Paya’s primary offerings:

Fees & Rates

Paya does not disclose any pricing information on its website. All pricing is quote-based and customized for each merchant based on factors such as processing history, monthly processing volume, and the industry your business operates. At the same time, there are no misleading “rates as low as…” claims that only disclose the lowest possible rate.

Fees, likewise, aren’t fixed and can vary from one merchant to the next. Paya’s Merchant Agreement doesn’t list any fees, either, as they’re variable and subject to negotiation. Unfortunately, this lack of transparency makes it impossible for a merchant to estimate actual processing costs. If you’re considering switching to Paya from your current provider, the only way you can make a cost comparison is to obtain a quote from a sales representative and see how it stacks up against your current provider.

Feedback from merchants indicates that Paya offers a mix of both tiered and interchange-plus pricing plans. Unfortunately, you’ll probably have to ask for an interchange-plus plan if you want to avoid the more expensive tiered pricing model.

According to the company, Paya currently charges $75/year for PCI compliance. This fee has been reduced in recent years, probably due to the fair number of complaints it’s generated from merchants. There’s also a $35/month PCI non-compliance fee for every month that your account is non-compliant.

Sales & Advertising Transparency

Paya’s website is slick and professional-looking, but it’s not all that informative. There’s relatively little concrete information about products or services, and no disclosures whatsoever regarding pricing. Instead, you’ll find the usual empty marketing fluff that doesn’t tell you anything that you really want to know about what the company offers.

To get the information you’ll need to make an informed decision about signing up with Paya, you’ll have to contact the company’s sales agents to get a quote and find out more details about what they can provide for your business. Paya maintains an in-house sales team, and they should be your first point of contact, if possible. Unfortunately, Paya also uses independent sales agents and a network of sub-ISOs to market its accounts. Most of the complaints regarding unethical sales practices can be traced to these independent agents. They frequently work on a commission-only basis and are under tremendous pressure to close a deal. While there are some honest, reputable independent agents out there, the odds of finding one are not good. In-house sales staff are generally better trained and more closely supervised, and they provide better overall service.

Paya has social media accounts on Facebook, X (Twitter), and LinkedIn. There’s also a Paya-branded YouTube channel. These accounts are updated frequently and include company news and educational articles. Paya’s YouTube channel contains dozens of instructional videos, but no customer testimonials.

Contract Length & Early Termination Fee

According to Paya’s Merchant Agreement, all merchant accounts include a standard initial term of three years. There’s also an automatic renewal clause that extends the contract for two-year periods after that. While these kinds of long-term contracts used to be very common, today most reputable providers have moved away from them and now automatically offer month-to-month contracts to all new merchants. As long as you bring it up before signing a contract, you should be able to negotiate a month-to-month contract with Paya.

Closing your account with Paya will require at least 30 days prior written notice, regardless of the length of your contract. Unless you have a waiver, you’ll also have to pay an early termination fee (ETF). Unlike many providers that charge a fixed ETF, Paya imposes a liquidated damages-like fee of $25 per month for every month remaining on your contract. This fee could potentially be as high as $875 (assuming you had 35 months left on your contract). While this isn’t as draconian as a standard liquidated damages clause, which is based on your projected processing charges for the remainder of your contract, it’s still a hefty penalty for trying to close your account early.

Customer Service & Technical Support

Paya offers 24/7 telephone and email support but has received a fair number of complaints regarding the quality of that support. Customer support is always a tricky issue with payment processors, as most companies don’t invest sufficient resources into training their customer support representatives and frequently rely on outsourced agents for after-hours phone support. Customers are also far more likely to complain about a bad customer support experience than they are to offer positive feedback for a good one.

Unfortunately, Paya no longer includes a knowledgbase on its public-facing website. However, existing Paya customers should be able to access self-help resources through their online dashboard.

User Reviews

Here is a closer look at Paya’s reviews.

Final Verdict On Paya

Paya sticks close to the industry standard in the payments processing industry, offering reasonable pricing and contract terms (if you’re willing to negotiate for them), but not providing any exceptional products or services that distinguish it from its competitors.

However, the company’s standard practice of including long-term contracts, expensive early termination fees, and tiered pricing makes it difficult to recommend it to businesses that might otherwise benefit from Paya’s integrated payments platform.

While Paya isn’t any worse than most of the major credit card processors in the industry, it still earns a mediocre overall score. eCommerce merchants who’d prefer to avoid the hassle of having to negotiate to avoid getting ripped off can check out our guide to the best online payment processors for small businesses for some good recommendations.

Credit Card Processor Review Methodology

We evaluate and test each payment processor that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on certain key characteristics in order to generate our granular ratings for merchant accounts and credit card processors.

For payment processing reviews, we use a 24-point rubric to evaluate the provider. First, we look at pricing structure – interchange plus, subscription-based, tiered, or hybrid – giving the most points to providers that provide fair, transparent pricing and docking those that rely on tiered models. Then we examine rates, the presence and transparency of early termination fees, and any additional fees.

We also look at contract length and fairness and test out sales staff and customer service channels ourselves to ensure that the company uses reputable, above-the-board sales techniques. Finally, we take the company’s online reputation into account, reading customer reviews and comments.

Read more about how we rate payment processors.

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