worldpay - 4 weeks until I get paid

[davie_ne1]

Hi all,

I was wondering if their was any other worldpay users on this forum

I noticed that it takes a little over 4 weeks from when worldpay recieve payment from my customer to the cash landing in my bank account.

Is this normal ?

4 weeks seems like a very long time to me :eek:

cheers

Davie

[the_bfb]

It is a long time - however after you've been trading a while you can contact them directly complaining about their rates and the time they hold onto your money then they will usually reduce it - we are on a 2 week turnaround now with reduced fees.

I still think it's unnacceptable though and they act as though they're doing YOU a favour!

[davie_ne1]

how long do you have to trade with them before getting a shorter payment?

we have been with them for 7 months now

[the_bfb]

They make it up as they go along!

Depends on how much business you've done with them - my guess is if you're in the early stages of business and have done little in 7 months, they'l turn you down - being doing well then they'll be happy to look at you.

I'd suggest an e-mail telling them how you've been looking at other options - HBOS, Secpay, Paypal etc. all of whom have offered you lower fee rates and lower payment time of 2 or 1 week.

You're happy with Worldpay and wonder if they could look at their fees and payment periods......

Regards
Phil

[Ruthie]

I'm not sure if you guys have the same Worldpay setup as us but we have a pre-suthorisation account and, although it's a little more work when processing orders, we get the money in our account in 2 to 3 days.

We always have done ever since we started the site.

Regards

Ruth

[pinbrook]

you have to trade with them for 6 months before they will reduce the payment period, so at 7 months its worth contacting them. Personally I would n't bother to mention you have been looking at the competition, they won't care. I don't know why you chose WP, but if its because you don't want to have your own merchant acct then mentioning competition will cut no ice, as they all require you to have your own mechant acct

It also used to be that you had to have £5000 plus pm turnover before they would consider a reduction in the rate.

[I-CC]

A turn around of 3 days with WorldPay is for WorldDirect (I think its still called) traders.

This is where you have a merchant ID and thus WorldPay do the online bit and your bank completes...

With the normal 4 week version, it is all done by WorldPay, so they take the risk in effect (which is the bank in WorldDirect through your bank Merchant ID).

If you can get a Merchant ID from the bank, then WorldPay is still good, but also look at others like Protx which charge a flat rate per month, as opposed to percentages...

A merchant ID gives you more choices and more power :)

[davie_ne1]

I think that I need to have a chat with my bank regarding a merchant account

4 weeks is just to long to wait for payment.

thanks for all the info

[Dr John William]

This is owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland so there's your answer.

I use HSBC and find them much better and they give you the money in a few days even as a startup.

Worldpay are way down on my list, infact not on it at all as there are others that are keener on rates and payment times.

[Duncan Rounding]

...With the normal 4 week version, it is all done by WorldPay, so they take the risk in effect...

What risk do they take? :(

[Dr John William]

They take none as a chargeback can always be invoked. Its just the banks making money by only being efficient when they want to.

Reminds me of BACS. It takes as long for a cheque to clear now as it did 30 years ago ie 3 days. Seems odd doesn't it given we are in the age of instant payments and verifications. Just the banks ripping everyone off. I was at a presentation by BACS a few years ago who said they they cleared everything the same day. In my view this is what the OFT should investigate and stop the banks in this bad practice. Worldpay should be ashamed of their service. When they were a small company in Jersey they were easier to deal with

[I-CC]

What risk do they take? :(

The risk is in providing an unknown with the ability to deduct money from peoples cards.

The merchant ID provider method, be it which ever bank, goes through a number of checks before they will grant and issue you with the merchant ID that then allows you the function of deducting those cards. They have there method of decision making and as many have discovered with even the most glowing of personal credit histories, just can not get the merchant ID off the bank (so the bank is saying in effect 'too much risk' - 'come back later when you have a better trading history' or something like that.

If/Once you have the merchant ID then you pick the online processor who does the middle ware bit for the merchant.

If it then turns out that you process tens of thousands of pounds of transactions and never deliver, and have high taled it out, then the merchant ID provider, not the online processor losses out and the banks/police start chasing.

Looking at it from the other way - WorldPay under the non merchant ID method generally issue merchants with little or no trading history with the ability to process cards (not merchant ID but simply all WorldPay). They balance the chances of that merchant being a bad person by keeping the money for 4 weeks, so less chance of a hit 'n' run trader as they have to wait for 4 weeks to get there hands on the money, plus charge increased %'s as an insurance policy (if you like) on the gamble they are providing.

Any bank or WP even that provide the banking element of enabling credit card payment receipts take a gamble of allowing it during the early days for those with no trading history, as fraudsters exist not just at the level of people buying goods on stolen cards (which the trader losses out on), but on fraudsters establishing themselves as traders using bogus documents to get bank accounts, merchant IDs, selling goods which never get delivered and extracting the money from the bank before the 1st month is even finished.

That is the risk I suggest :)

[ASMO]

When we first started trading in 2000 we got merchant services with Barclays. We were on a 3 week turnaround and caused us so many problems. It was two years and thousands of pounds of transactions before we got it down to a week. They also charged us stupid amounts per transaction.

Protx then came on the scene and we swapped to them for the processing, still using Barclays as the merchant. We can now been paid every day if we want to on a 3 day turnaround, we choose to be paid twice a week to keep the charges down. Protx charge us a flat fee and Barclays only get paid for processing the payment (which we have got reduced over the years due to the amount of business).

The charges we pay for getting money have therefore reduced over the years, but the amount of money we are receiving has increased.

We used to use PayPal as well, but they pulled our service because we sell lingerie. Nochex are quite good though and you get paid within a couple of days of the transaction going through.

[Jan]

Just to make you feel better, worldpay made me wait for 8 weeks before getting paid when I started out 4 years ago, we negotiated it down to 6 weeks but eventually decided to move away from them.

Regards,

[GiftedLlama]

Just to let you know I have been a customer with Worldpay for 2 years & as a result of reading this thread, I contacted Worldpay to try to get my charges reduced.

They have turned me down saying they will review my account again "when your turnover has increased to more than £5,000.00 a month"

I've also asked if the turnaround time (still 4 weeks) can be reduced but before they'll even look at that - they want my last years audited financial accounts as well as a full years forecasted accounts.

Ummm...

[davie_ne1]

I am now setting up a merchant account through my bank and am planning to use protx as my Payment provider. My Credit card processing fees will be about half what I am paying with worldpay and i get paid in a few days.

Note to all newbies - dont make the mistake that I made. Get a merchant account from the bank !!!!

4 weeks to get paid kills your cash flow :eek:

[GiftedLlama]

Also be careful who you get a bank account with.

I made the mistake of setting up a bank account with Alliance & Leicester who don't have their own Internet Merchant Account. They use a third party provider called Euro Conex.

Even though I have had an account with A&L for 2 years - never gone overdrawn etc. they won't provide me with an Internet Merchant Account because I work from home not from a business address. Apparently I'm too risky for 'em!

So to get away from Worldpay's stranglehold, I'm now going to have to change bank accounts. What a pain!!

Newbies take note!!

[pinbrook]

Note to all newbies - dont make the mistake that I made. Get a merchant account from the bank !!!!

The whole banking issue has be thoroughly researched.

New businesses often can not get a merchant acct because they are new, or because their chosen bank does not offer it.

This is where WP come into play as you can use them to take CC without having a merchant acct, but like all businesses because they offer a hard to find service with little or no competition they can charge what they like, as the customer has no where else to go.

The only other way to take CC without a merchant acct is Paypal.

Assuming you do get a merchant acct then you also must ensure you properly compare the online processors, as the cheapest option for business A is no necessariliy the cheapest for B. And of course you also need to know whether cheapest is in fact the best.

[RuralWeb]

Dont forget to check if they are able to work with Actinic as well - its a bit of a minefield out there.

[chris ashdown]

[QUOTE=GiftedLlama]
So to get away from Worldpay's stranglehold, I'm now going to have to change bank accounts. What a pain!!

QUOTE]

You could still try other companies like Cardnet to get a merchant account, you are not limited to your own bank's system. as far as I know Cardnet will accept you regardless of your bank as i am sure many others will

[sandersongolf]

I would advise using HSBC Epayments for your internet shop, we use it and get paid in 3 days ! from customer payment, its easy to set up, card fees are 2.3% and 0.20p for debit cards..

I agree worldpay is a killer for cashflow - not advised ..

you need a HSBC Business Account, then they set you up with epayments, i cant recommend it enough... it also has anti fraud alerts, online interface for checking out payments etc

www.sandersongolf.com

[davie_ne1]

update:

I have just set up an account with protx and what can I say wow - very fast service

it took a week to get a merchant account from the bank (lloydstsb - cardnet)

registered for a protx on sat 5 hours later had testing account set up

monday 9am intergrated protx into actinic (great help files from protx) and within half an hours i was ready to set to live.

monday 12 o'clock account set to live and so far no problems

I cannot praise how fast protx service was, lets hope the payment side is just as quick :eek:

[scsishop]

Yeah We had the 8 week delay too , good job had a bit of cashflow built up , The banks have had it there way for long enough , The thing we need is a revolution in banking , Starting today !!!