Clearly Payments Review

Pros

• Month-to-month billing
• No early termination fees
• Offers interchange-plus & membership pricing
• No PCI compliance fees
• Next-day funding included with each account

Cons

• Clover software subscription fees not disclosed
• Very little merchant feedback is available at this time

What Is Clearly Payments?

Clearly Payments is a relatively new Canadian merchant services provider that offers transparent pricing and flexible contract terms. The company recently announced its expansion into the United States, giving US-based merchants another high-quality alternative to expensive traditional credit card processors.

In Canada, Clearly Payments offers businesses a choice between interchange-plus and membership pricing plans, with all rates and fees disclosed on the company’s website. Because Clearly Payments has just announced its availability in the United States, we aren’t able to determine what differences (if any) there are in terms of pricing or equipment availability between the US and Canadian markets.

As a small and relatively young company, Clearly Payments hasn’t accumulated much in the way of user feedback yet. However, the few reviews we’ve found have all been quite positive.

Products & Services

Clearly Payments offers a full range of products and services to support both in-person and online transactions. Key features include the following:

Clearly Payments Fees & Rates

Clearly Payments offers merchants a choice of either interchange-plus (which they refer to as cost-plus) pricing or membership pricing. Customized pricing is also available for businesses processing over $250,000/month.

Clearly’s website also includes extensive –  but incomplete – disclosures of the various fees you’ll have to pay to maintain your account.

Sales & Advertising Transparency

Clearly Payments appears to use a combination of its website and social media presence to market its services. While the company’s website includes an email contact form for new inquiries, it does not offer an online application at this time.

We consider this to be a good practice, as full-service merchant accounts require extensive underwriting and documentation before they can be approved. It’s better to establish contact with a provider’s sales team to work out the details before submitting a formal account application.

One advantage to Clearly’s pricing transparency is that you won’t have to negotiate what type of pricing plan you’ll receive or what your rates will be. You can choose between the interchange-plus and membership pricing options, and your rates will be determined by your monthly processing volume.

While Clearly claims that you can set up an account without needing to negotiate its terms, this isn’t entirely true. The company doesn’t disclose pricing for its various equipment choices on its website, and you’ll definitely want to know what those costs are going to be before signing up for an account.

Enterprise-level users will need to negotiate their terms and pricing if they choose the custom pricing option. The published rates for the interchange-plus and membership pricing options should give you a good idea of how much you can expect to pay.

We haven’t found any negative feedback from customers regarding Clearly’s sales practices, which is a good indication that merchants are generally happy with the process. As always, we strongly encourage you to review all contract terms carefully before signing up, even with a transparent company like Clearly Payments.

Contract Length & Early Termination Fee

Clearly Payments does not charge an early termination fee of any kind, and this offer applies to all users. In other words, you’ll be free to close your account for any reason, and at any time, without having to pay a monetary penalty. However, we’d strongly caution you to carefully review the terms of your contract, so you’ll have a full understanding of how the account closure process actually works. Even with month-to-month contracts, you might be required to provide up to 30 days notice before your account can be shut down.

Terminal rental contracts, while not requiring a long-term commitment, usually provide a fairly short window in which to return the equipment to your provider before a penalty (often the full retail value of the machine) is assessed. Clover users should also be aware that Clover products cannot be reprogrammed to work with any other processor outside of the Fiserv network.

Overall, Clearly Payments’ contract policy is a very good deal for merchants, giving you the flexibility to close your account for any reason without having to worry about having to pay a heavy penalty for doing so.

Customer Service & Technical Support

As a relatively new provider, Clearly Payments’ customer service appears to be a work in progress. The company currently offers support via telephone and email. However, hours of availability are not disclosed. Specialized features such as live chat or a dedicated customer service representative are not currently available.

Clearly also lacks an online knowledgebase for diagnosing and solving simple technical issues on your own.

While we’d love to see this feature added in the future, be aware that Clover and other hardware manufacturers already offer extensive documentation and technical support for their products on their own websites.

We’ve seen very little feedback from merchants regarding the company’s customer support, but the lack of complaints is a good indication that existing users are satisfied with the level of support they’re receiving.

Clearly Payments Users Reviews

Negative Clearly Payments Reviews & Complaints

Clearly Payments is not rated by the BBB, but currently has an A+ rating.

The company has received zero complaints within the last three years and no reviews from customers. We couldn’t locate any specific complaints about the company on consumer protection sites, so there don’t appear to be any common issues or problems to watch out for. The company’s transparent pricing and flexible contract terms eliminate many of the problems merchants commonly have with their credit card processors.

Positive Clearly Payments Reviews & Testimonials

Clearly Payments has two 5-star reviews on TrustPilot, and an overall score of 3.8 out of 5 stars. On Google, the company has a perfect 5.0 score based on 14 reviews. Almost all of these positive reviews are detailed and explain why the merchant was impressed with the company. As you might expect, saving money on credit card processing appears to be the most commonly-praised virtue users identified.

Final Verdict

Although it’s a relatively new company, Clearly Payments is off to a great start.

By offering transparent pricing and month-to-month contracts, it directly addresses two of the major pain points that most merchants have with their credit card processors. The wide range of processing hardware is another strong feature, as you won’t be tied to a single, proprietary device that might not fully address your needs.

That said, we’d note that Clearly’s prices and rates aren’t the cheapest we’ve found, although its membership pricing option can offer significant savings to high-volume businesses. The company acknowledges on its website that its services are geared toward mid-sized and larger enterprises, and it would be an excellent choice for an established business with a stable monthly processing volume.

At the same time, Clearly’s pricing might be a little steep for a newly-established or low-volume business. We’d really like to see the company add an affordable, flat-rate pricing option that would be a better fit for small businesses.

Overall, Clearly Payments scores higher than many of its competitors. We strongly recommend the company for larger businesses that need a full-service merchant account and can benefit from the company’s pricing structure. For a look at other great choices in payment processors for Canadian merchants, check out our article on the best merchant accounts for Canadian small businesses.

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.

The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆

Clearly Payments	Visit Site

After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Clearly Payments for yourself.

The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆

Clearly Payments	Visit Site

After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Clearly Payments for yourself.

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