Worldpay Review – Complete Digital Payment Ecosystem?

This Worldpay review evaluates the entire Worldpay payment ecosystem- it discusses its features, functionalities, pricing and possible drawbacks.

Not so long ago, cards were at the center of digital payments. We mentioned Visa and MasterCard every time we discussed paperless transactions.

So, of course, I started looking into a wide range of seemingly ideal payment processors. Quite a number caught my attention, including Worldpay.

Worldpay Review: Overview

Worldpay has been around for ages- since 1989 when it was known as Streamline. In fact, the company was among the principal pioneers of online payments back in 1994. It was the first payment service provider in this space.

Well, it has withstood the test of time since then, thanks to its ever-changing payment ecosystem. But, it has also experienced its fair share of challenges as it shifted from one owner to another.

Today, Worldpay is owned by Vantiv- and is widely recognized as a payment solution that provides all types of business with solid payment processing solutions that can be customized to fit their dynamic environments.

Now, that sounds interesting. So, let’s find out more.

This Worldpay review evaluates the entire Worldpay payment ecosystem- it discusses its features, functionalities, pricing and possible drawbacks.

Worldpay Review: Features

Payment Modes

Worldpay is seemingly not shy about payment processing. It goes the whole nine yards by facilitating multiple payment modes on one platform.

This, of course, sees it power numerous types of businesses- from small startups to large enterprises- the bulk of which come with varying systems of operation.

If you’ve supplemented your ecommerce site with an offline physical store, for instance, you can leverage Worldpay for point of sale processing.

And you know what? The selection process doesn’t end there. There are still numerous POS solutions offered by Worldpay, optimized for different types of stores and customers.

While traditional retail stores would operate quite well with countertop POS systems, for example, freelance sellers would prefer adopting wireless mobile POS. Some of the principal features they’d enjoy include built-in receipt printing, integrated PIN pads, and EMV compatibility.

To top it off, Worldpay’s POS systems can seamlessly integrate with the standard POS frameworks that most of the stores currently leverage. Consequently, business owners are able to establish well-streamlined payment processing systems.

Sounds good. But, do you need to have a physical store to capitalize on Worldpay’s POS terminals?

Well, it turns out that Worldpay also seeks to support offline sellers who don’t necessarily own physical stores. It provides a virtual terminal in conjunction with Authorize.Net, which essentially runs on tablets or PCs.

With a virtual terminal, you can accept payments both in-person and remotely- with your tablet acting as a POS terminal.

And that’s not all. Worldpay offers additional flexibility through a wide range of mobile payment solutions. You can sell and process payments from all the primary credit and debit cards anywhere at any time. This not only boosts your overall conversion, but also substantially minimizes back-office payment management and accounting.

And speaking of back-office accounting, it’s quite interesting that Worldpay’s payment ecosystem also extends to both ACH processing and eCheck payments. The solution helps you deal with the headache of handling traditional checks through its real-time authorizations and straightforward payment management.

Consequently, your business benefits from reduced check processing costs, fewer returned checks, plus lower risks of check fraud.

Then finally, the payment mode that Worldpay is seemingly renowned for- online credit card processing.

As a matter of fact, this channel quite diverse. The platform merges more than 150 different international currencies and remits them in USD, covers more than twenty international settlement countries, and supports a similar number of domiciled countries.

Value-Added Services

Payment processing is just one set of Worldpay’s functionalities. It also provides an array of value-added services, which come in handy when you need to boost your business’ processes.

The equipment replacement service, for example, is quite dependable when devices break or get damaged. After paying a monthly fee, Worldpay guarantees prompt delivery of spare check readers, PIN pads, printers, or terminals in case of breakages.

Photo credits: iStock

Other than that, Worldpay also comes with features for creating and personalizing gift cards- in addition to its gift card processing function.

Well, there are many possible ways to leverage this provision. And it goes without saying that it would be a creative way of reaching out to your leads, and subsequently promoting your business.

While you’re at it, remember not to forget about the other valuable set of buyers. I’m talking about repeat customers- who could be your biggest revenue source. To help you trigger more sales, Worldpay offers loyalty cards as a way of rewarding your return customers. You can even adjust them accordingly, then monitor their subsequent success rates.

Then guess what? It turns out that you can also take advantage of Worldpay to secure additional business funding. The platform has linked up with CAN Capital to provide merchant financing of between $2,500 and half a million dollars without scheduled monthly payments.

Even more surprising is the fact that this capital is never attached to personal collateral, and the application process is completely free of charge.

Security

About 10 years ago, Worldpay made the news for all the wrong reasons. There was a pretty serious security breach, which exposed more than 1.5 million users. Consequently, millions of dollars were stolen by cyber-criminals who were later arrested and charged.

Admittedly, this is the kind of stuff that would give you the chills. But let’s look on the bright side here for a minute.

At that time, Worldpay was owned and managed by the Royal Bank of Scotland. Currently, however- and as we’ve already established- Vantiv is the master chef here. And it has implemented quite a number of notable security features.

To prevent a similar group of hackers from stealing card information, it implements point to point encryption during transmission of data from your end to the central processor. Then it further generates random tokens through a process called tokenization- to mask the corresponding credit card details.

In addition to that, all Worldpay card payment terminals are EMV-compliant. This helps store owners process only the genuine cards while avoiding potential counterfeits used by fraudsters.

Fair enough. But, let’s face it- maximum protection is not possible without security protocols that apply both ways. Your end of the system should also have its set of reliable security features.

That’s basically why Worldpay safeguards its system by working only with PCI complaint users.

Now, to help you gain and maintain PCI compliance, Worldpay goes ahead to add its OmniShield Assure Program to your list of offerings.

Well, this bumps up the monthly fee but it comes with significant protection benefits. In addition to providing regular scans to assess potential data security vulnerabilities and overall compliance to PCI, the program reduces possible breach consequences with a relevant liability insurance cover.

Analytics

Worldpay relies on an analytical engine called Vantiv IQ, which uses multiple tools for tracking, and assessment of payment data. Consequently, you get informative reports that would provide significant insights for calculated decision making.

For starters, the system provides crucial credit card processing reports- which cover both historical and current details. In addition to exception handling, you’re able to pull details on possible fraud, fees charged, interchange management, reconciliation, and more.

Well, that pretty much covers payments. But that’s not all. Vantiv IQ also tracks individual customers to generate corresponding actionable insights. The subsequent reports, which are accessible on the go, contain transaction details, including amounts spent by various customers, the purchasing frequency, and items bought.

Otherwise, you can capitalize on Worldpay’s partner Pazien’s holistic analytical engine to assess and establish valuable insights from all your payment information, across all the channels, on one central platform. This would help you discover multiple opportunities for secondary payment modes, reducing transaction costs, and boosting the number of transactions.

If everything proves to be too cumbersome, you have the option of relying on Worldpay’s experts. Their consultative approach should help you see things from a strategic perspective- then ultimately boost market share, and increase overall conversions.

Overview of Features

• Multi-channel payments
• Shopping carts
• Hosted payment pages
• Recurring payments
• Virtual terminal
• Mobile & tablet point-of-sale
• Integrated point-of-sale
• Credit card machines
• Mobile wallets
• Alternative payments
• Card payments
• Ach check transactions

Worldpay Review: Pricing

Sadly, you will not find a standard pricing schedule that applies to all businesses on Worldpay’s main site. The amount you end up paying depends on your store’s location, the business setup and size, plus the solutions you adopt.

To process credit card transactions on a UK-based app or website, for example, the UK version of Worldpay gives you two options:

• A fixed monthly fee of £19.95, plus 2.75% of the value of the transaction on credit cards, and 0.75% on debit cards.
• A pay-as-you-go system, which basically charges 2.75% plus £0.20 on both credit card and debit card transactions.

The US version, on the other hand, charges:

• At least 2.25% plus $0.10 for in-store card transactions
• At least 2.7% plus $0.30 for ecommerce card transactions

Not that cheap, right? Well, there’s hope. It turns out that you can secure a better offer when you contact Worldpay’s sales team. As a matter of fact, prospective users are encouraged to seek quotes in line with their specific payment processing needs.

That said, expect to pay a monthly fee based on the solutions your business adopts plus the corresponding number of chargebacks.

For a standard small business with only two chargebacks per year, the average monthly fees would be around $20 per month- for PCI compliance support and chargeback rates.  Basically, the higher the chargeback rate, the more you should expect to pay to use the service.

To help you understand the charges, here’s a breakdown of the monthly fees:

• A monthly chargeback fee of between $7.50 and $40– Business that are fortunate enough to operate without chargebacks end up paying $7.50 per month. Then one or two chargebacks would have you paying $10, while three or four translates to $15 per month, and so forth until it hits $40 for businesses with 22 to 25 chargebacks annually. Anything higher than that in twelve months is charged $25 for each chargeback.
• PCI compliance support fee of $9.95 per month.

Other than that, there are certain fees which are usually levied after specific incidences. They include:

• PCI non-compliance fee of $19.95 for each month of non-compliance
• $15 for lack of sufficient funds in your bank account when Worldpay attempts to withdraw a fee.
• Retrieval fee of $2.50 each time a customer’s bank seeks supplementary documents for a certain charge. This normally applies before launching a chargeback.

Worldpay Review: Who Should Consider Using Worldpay

By now, you’ve probably noticed the most outstanding drawback here. Worldpay’s website is quite confusing, and Vantiv is only making things worse by blending its main site with Worldpay’s.

Its pricing structure is also considerably unclear, and it would take you quite some time to compare the corresponding solutions.

So far, most of the complaints raised by its users are on poor customer service, although I had a fairly easy time connecting with its support staff.

All things considered, however, Worldpay is a fairly reliable flexible payment solution for small, mid-size and large enterprises. The team behind it just needs to simplify the website, improve the customer support, and voila!