Braintree Review

Good

Innovative payments via phone numbers. Mobile payment platform for digital publishers. PayPal-like processing costs and per transaction fees. International currencies and many settling currencies. Fast payout.

Bad

Still relatively small compared to Authorize.net, new in market.

Overall

Braintree is not as well known as other merchants, but they're no fly by night. Dealing with some of the hottest names in the dot-com space, transaction costs are reasonable and transactions processed by First Data.

Editor's Ratings

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Braintree was founded in 2007, which makes it a relative newcomer to the merchant account space. The organization continues to receive fresh venture capital funding, most recently with a $35 million Series B round from noted VCs such as Accel Partners in October 2012.

This Chicago-based payment processor deals with payments for large accounts like those of dot-com star, Airbnb, 37 signals, creators of popular collaborative online app, BaseCamp, and the company behind the hugely successful AngryBirds platform game too.

Braintree Benefits

The real benefit of the service that Braintree Payment Solutions offers lies in being able to provide a e-commerce payment gateway solution right on the customer's web site. This is different to a company like PayPal where even with a shopping cart integrated with PayPal, the site visitor still has to be redirected to PayPal (with an optional return link to the originating site). Clearly with customer retention on the mind of web site owners, being able to process transactions via checkout forms right on their e-commerce site is a clear advantage.

Fees

The payment processing fees are straightforward. Processing costs are similar to PayPal with a 2.9% transaction charge, with a 30c fee per transaction. Card processing is handled by First Data and the acquiring bank is the Wells Fargo Bank.

International Payments

International payment processing is also a key strength with Braintree. For many merchant account customers, they are either unable to gain access to international card processing or access is severely restricted. Usually the sticking point being the level of payments being generated in business, which is a particular frustration for small businesses just starting out but who already have a global customer base. The company can allow merchants to accept over 100 local currencies, with settlement in over 20 of those.

M-Commerce

Mobile transactions "m-commerce" is becoming a big thing for Braintree with over $2 billion of transactions annually and growing at a rapid clip. There is a sophisticated API for programmers to incorporate into web sites for on-site transaction processing. VenmoTouch is their one touch payment processing facility for iOS which can enable fast in-app purchases.

Braintree is also looking to start going a little more head to head with PayPal, with the introduction of their VenmoPayouts which allows people to send a payment to someone else using only an email address or a phone number, all via their Payouts API.

For clients, the faster payout terms mean that many transactions are paid out within two days. This helps small businesses keep up with their cash flow requirements. As restrictive cash flow is often one of the root causes that brings down younger businesses, this faster access to receivables will be much appreciated by customers.

 

Merchant Account Features

  • Transaction Fees  : 2.90%+30ยข
  • Gateway Fees  : None
  • Setup Fees  : None
  • Setup Time  : Instant
  • Recurring Billing  : Yes
  • Accepted Cards  : 6
  • Fraud Protection  : No
  • International Merchants  : Conditional
  • Multiple Currencies  : 130+
  • % Integrations  : 85%
  • Checkout Pages  : Yes
  • Mobile Payments  : Yes
Merchant Price  
Official Website $ View Website

Braintree User Reviews

Previous business owner

Reviewed by silvia on 2014-07-04 12:07:53

I wish i could give Braintree a half of a star considering they ran my business to the ground. I signed up for Braintree after being with Stripe Payments that is (phenomenal). I decided to open up a third website and i thought of being outside of the box after all they had better pricing. Needless to say i made a giant mistake by giving my business to braintree for payments. Braintree took payments and i was approved for a account in no time, after providing all the proper documentation i was good to go. I even received a email from Marty Chanes, saying i was good to go and i could go about fulfilling orders and operate my business as normal.

Days pass and Braintree hasn't made any funding to be but my merchant account was acquiring currency daily. I reached $9,000 and made a call to the offices located in Chicago I was tethered with on the phone when i asked who can direct me to help with pulling a record of ACH funding that were or should have been transferred to me. I was never allowed to speak to Marty Chanes but others. I was told my account was under review and my fund would be held until i reached a certain amount. I was outraged! i have been fulling orders and fronting clients because i thought i had a reliable merchant that would be paying me soon. I told them i had cleared any review and was given the ok from "Marty Chanes" and i took his word i shipped merchandise. They said they couldn't pay me unless i showed them i had shipped i said ok that's easy and provided tracking numbers and invoices. I was tethered with once again and was told they needed to hold my funds for 90 days!

A small business can't survive without a flow of income and now these customers that paid haven't really paid because now i wouldn't be seeing the money. I felt robbed and felt like my money was being taken and held hostage. Braintree decided they were taking back my account because i had another business and used another merchant and they frown upon that. Also Bobby with Braintree stated because 3-4 customers cards declined i needed to be held in review, I was furious and told them my business would fail because i used my personal savings to ship to clients and invested in merchandise as they had assured me i was good to go 7 days prior. All over a couple declines ! I hate Braintree my niche idea and small start up was ruined because of them. I was left with no choice but to close up shop and was left with bills and merchandise because Braintree lies to their clients and gives accounts and allows you to build and build revenue and turns around and tells you there holding it for 90 days! Meanwhile you starve your business fails and your left with nothing. What you choose is your prerogative, my idea made 9k in a week and i honestly think they couldn't handle such vast money being made. They are a nightmare run the other way they pick and choose who and what they want. The are owned by Paypal which is awesome but Braintree sure is there own problem and entity and now my dream crusher. I wish you the best of luck and recommend Stripe they handle business well, i read somewhere that Stripe was founded by Paypal but that's there own monopoly.

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