- Jan 20, 2023
- 530
- 133
Hi Everyone BHW,
For over 4 years I build and managed a Payment Company and Build a Gateway from scratch, serving high risk and low risk merchants. Also run Compliance so many years.
So here is my experiences and highlights could be beneficial to BHW members
I wanted to wrote this post cause people always asking and having doubts about processors.
And myself one of the member of Page Ads.
Technical Side of a Payment Company
In order to operate as a Payment Company either you have to built your Payment Gateway or you need to rent it out one. Most companies rented out because of constant changes in the industry and top of all most famous PCI-DSS ( Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard ) standards in order to keep it up with those standards you need people to employ and had to deal with Visa Master etc.. so renting it out is more cost effective and top of all cheaper !
Once you set it up the Gateway you need to apply the processors which is the painful part starts right here. If you dealing only with Credit Card that’s kinda easy cause only thing you need most of the time a commercial bank willing to except your client base. In my case in the past was mostly financial institutions and fintech companies so when it comes to money as a product it was a hell from the bank side.
If you dealing with EMI`s that was the easy part and also most risky and I will explain in a minute why ?
EMI`s ( Electronic Money Institutions ) not all of them are great due to recent changes in some regulatory bodies getting a Payment Company license surprisingly easy and fast once you get it some Banks also eager to work with you cause you seem like a high risk and anytime the Bank want to freeze your account they can. Which they did couple of times with no actual proof or reason, that’s because of weak regulatory bodies you cant do anything about it.
Electronic Money Institutions
When it comes to EMI`s if I you don’t work with big guys you have a high chance of getting blockage on account and months of fight to get your money back don’t forget about paperwork battle between compliance and legal teams.
EMI`s also have less power over Credit Card Networks and Banks reason why once you get your license and established your business you need clients fasts due to constant costs. And you making a deal with these institutions they very well know you have no other choice to do what they say so most of the time they abuse it unfortunately and so is EMI`s abusing clients in this fashion.
Literally thousands of EMI`s operating in the World and except big guys they have pretty much the same credentials so how can you be sure they can be trusted with your money?
What is Miscoding Operator ?
Miscoding used for a term if your merchant dealing with Industry A but you showing to processor Industry B that’s a miscoding.
And depending on the High Risk Low Risk nature of the merchant some processors if its high risk they redirect your Merchant Traffic to miscoding operations.
Here is the catch you will or the processor itself always ended up in a fraud cause these operators in the beginning they pay within designated settlement time and no chargebacks etc. When the settlements start to surpass the timeframe be aware you are not getting your money out from these guys. Like any other scam first give the confidence then rip the clients apart.
My suggestion as always don’t deal with anything High Risk but as a nature of business I recommend instead of Standard Processors use ` Fiat on Ramp ` solutions which means credit card processing but you getting the settlement with cryptocurrencies instantly. So there is no settlement time, plus processors have to do due diligence for their own. No chargebacks etc. cause settlement already done.
If you interested in these kinda solutions just Google it every week a new processor comes alive. Again your risk non to zero cause settlements are instant.
So finally here is first hand my experience on these processors and the date I was working with them :
ADVCash: 2020 – Present (They are solid so and good compliance so they don’t accept everyone as a merchant wide variety of products and now offers CC Processing , API suite is not great you have to figure out most parts yet support works fine , Legit Company )
FasaPay: 2021 – Present ( Paypal of Southeast Asia, and CIS region if you working with nice cause most people use it slightly less security but its convenient they offer payment gateway also, cross bank transactions via Swift solid provider for sure)
Perfect Money : 2023- Present ( Good for doing payouts mostly and CIS region especially use Perfect Money like Webmoney about the same client base due to restriction on PayPal people tend to use these EMI`s my experience was not pleasant however cause of constant demand for invoices and paperwork even for small transactions but yet overall acceptable. )
Web Money : 2020 – Present ( King of CIS I can tell you, they not just a EMI but they operating as a Bank offering micro credits and so on. Security wise its acceptable my money never stalled in their operation and Awareness is so high in the CIS about webmoney so if you working with this region highly recommended like ADVCash it’s a must. )
Payop : 2021-2022 ( Stay away in general they accept everyone but when the time comes there is a slight problem occurs for settlement you need a bank account in order to withdraw your money from them. But here is the they are acting like a EMI but they still need a corporate account ? makes no sense. And the fees above anything in the market they have a good coverage for local payment options but yet stay away from these its so problematic anyhow. Also very good user interface to be honest everything so easy to do. )
Paypal : 2019 – Present ( Everyone knows about PayPal but I can just share a trick to make your life easier PayPal security rules varies by jurisdiction to jurisdiction so If you apply the merchant account with EU entity you have a very high chance to work with them in the long run without getting blockage. After passing a 10.000 Euro mark preliminary compliance achieved so they leave you alone. )
AsiaPay : 2019-2021 ( It was the hardest payment processor to work with cause we were a western based company in that years only payment processor suit for us so after 2 months we get our merchant account and start working with these guys when it comes to local payment in south and southeast asia these guys covered everything but compliance was so tough to deal with we ended up opened a company in Hong Kong and had to open a bank account in this manner so the cost alone didn’t cover the income we ended up close this account. In general very strict and solid provider )
SafeCharge : 2021-2021 ( It lasted couple of months due to grumpiness and whining from them settlements are always late cause later we find out they were miscoding mostly that means they were get the settlements late also but one I like they give you money in advance to show trust so you can be sure about. They mostly deal with Casino yet they give accounts depending on the merchant activity. )
PaymentWall : 2022- Present ( Among these guys probably the best option very good support, solid compliance support local transactions also, commission rates are good no negatives in fact. )
Flutterwave : 2022-2023 ( If you dealing with Africa in general this is the payment solution you need. Backed up with UK investment banking very comprehensive Dashboard. But you need a local company like in Nigeria to get one of these things or you can use European entity If I remember correctly. If you using a Nigerian company you need NIN number etc. In short very solid )
Alipay : 2023 – Present ( Number of users above a billion its insane if you doing any business in China this is the deal beside Wechat Pay and the difference is Alipay specifically designed for merchant by Alibaba so when it comes to commercial use best option to proceed with. One problem settlements western block accounts accepted but specific ones I recommend open an account as a intermediary in CIS like Web Money or Adv to withdraw amounts to that account.
WeChat Pay : 2022- Present ( Probably the easiest and most convenient in China cause every individual have one and payments mostly passing through in general population with We Chat Pays best option for withdrawal to open another EMI in one of the Hong Kong Provider to withdraw money to there to yourself.
It will be continue…. Please add your experience also.
For over 4 years I build and managed a Payment Company and Build a Gateway from scratch, serving high risk and low risk merchants. Also run Compliance so many years.
So here is my experiences and highlights could be beneficial to BHW members
I wanted to wrote this post cause people always asking and having doubts about processors.
And myself one of the member of Page Ads.
Technical Side of a Payment Company
In order to operate as a Payment Company either you have to built your Payment Gateway or you need to rent it out one. Most companies rented out because of constant changes in the industry and top of all most famous PCI-DSS ( Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard ) standards in order to keep it up with those standards you need people to employ and had to deal with Visa Master etc.. so renting it out is more cost effective and top of all cheaper !
Once you set it up the Gateway you need to apply the processors which is the painful part starts right here. If you dealing only with Credit Card that’s kinda easy cause only thing you need most of the time a commercial bank willing to except your client base. In my case in the past was mostly financial institutions and fintech companies so when it comes to money as a product it was a hell from the bank side.
If you dealing with EMI`s that was the easy part and also most risky and I will explain in a minute why ?
EMI`s ( Electronic Money Institutions ) not all of them are great due to recent changes in some regulatory bodies getting a Payment Company license surprisingly easy and fast once you get it some Banks also eager to work with you cause you seem like a high risk and anytime the Bank want to freeze your account they can. Which they did couple of times with no actual proof or reason, that’s because of weak regulatory bodies you cant do anything about it.
Electronic Money Institutions
When it comes to EMI`s if I you don’t work with big guys you have a high chance of getting blockage on account and months of fight to get your money back don’t forget about paperwork battle between compliance and legal teams.
EMI`s also have less power over Credit Card Networks and Banks reason why once you get your license and established your business you need clients fasts due to constant costs. And you making a deal with these institutions they very well know you have no other choice to do what they say so most of the time they abuse it unfortunately and so is EMI`s abusing clients in this fashion.
Literally thousands of EMI`s operating in the World and except big guys they have pretty much the same credentials so how can you be sure they can be trusted with your money?
- Check about settlement timeframe if its more than 2 – 3 days high chance of getting scam (In the long run cause they wanted to embezzle as much as possible, so they need to build trust )
- Check about their license provider if you encounter some jurisdictions like Hong Kong, Western Sahara or in general offshore stay away !
- If they don’t request any paperwork or verification is kinda dull stay away also !
- If you talking with a guy supposedly from UK or some other part but have different accent !
- Always check their credentials (and request some sort of ID if they hesitate leave ! ) people you talking with cause these guys are master of disguise and not just Linkedin profiles, I saw payment companies attending expo`s and everything and the day comes they just disappeared cause legally they know if you sue them its already in the contract you accept the terms also top of all they can call bankruptcy yes ! a fake one but still recently some UK EMI`s did exactly that they just stopped the operation and not answering either phone or emails most famous IpayTotal Scam and Sterling Bank ( both shut down their sites )
- Reason you cant sue them because operational address and license in different countries so good luck finding a lawyer in Hong Kong also that license is not registered to actual owners they registered into some mule`s
- Why so many UK based EMI`s out there ?
- Easy! you can open a company in UK for 12 pounds with just an ID and use that company as a intermediary or white label for some other EMI`s which got license and you operating under that license basically if your clients ask for it that’s why trade name and company name of this processors differs all the time. The important part is that since you getting a white label you don’t even need a company or a sublicense anyhow.
- These EMI`s mostly running either Indian or Russian Based operations also that’s why always be in contact via phone or video call cause they scared to show their faces.
- If they cant tell you we are not doing video calls ask them whats wrong you are a company official and I have hesitations this way I could relief myself a bit. If the answer is no stay away !
- Credit Card Processors
What is Miscoding Operator ?
Miscoding used for a term if your merchant dealing with Industry A but you showing to processor Industry B that’s a miscoding.
And depending on the High Risk Low Risk nature of the merchant some processors if its high risk they redirect your Merchant Traffic to miscoding operations.
Here is the catch you will or the processor itself always ended up in a fraud cause these operators in the beginning they pay within designated settlement time and no chargebacks etc. When the settlements start to surpass the timeframe be aware you are not getting your money out from these guys. Like any other scam first give the confidence then rip the clients apart.
My suggestion as always don’t deal with anything High Risk but as a nature of business I recommend instead of Standard Processors use ` Fiat on Ramp ` solutions which means credit card processing but you getting the settlement with cryptocurrencies instantly. So there is no settlement time, plus processors have to do due diligence for their own. No chargebacks etc. cause settlement already done.
If you interested in these kinda solutions just Google it every week a new processor comes alive. Again your risk non to zero cause settlements are instant.
So finally here is first hand my experience on these processors and the date I was working with them :
ADVCash: 2020 – Present (They are solid so and good compliance so they don’t accept everyone as a merchant wide variety of products and now offers CC Processing , API suite is not great you have to figure out most parts yet support works fine , Legit Company )
FasaPay: 2021 – Present ( Paypal of Southeast Asia, and CIS region if you working with nice cause most people use it slightly less security but its convenient they offer payment gateway also, cross bank transactions via Swift solid provider for sure)
Perfect Money : 2023- Present ( Good for doing payouts mostly and CIS region especially use Perfect Money like Webmoney about the same client base due to restriction on PayPal people tend to use these EMI`s my experience was not pleasant however cause of constant demand for invoices and paperwork even for small transactions but yet overall acceptable. )
Web Money : 2020 – Present ( King of CIS I can tell you, they not just a EMI but they operating as a Bank offering micro credits and so on. Security wise its acceptable my money never stalled in their operation and Awareness is so high in the CIS about webmoney so if you working with this region highly recommended like ADVCash it’s a must. )
Payop : 2021-2022 ( Stay away in general they accept everyone but when the time comes there is a slight problem occurs for settlement you need a bank account in order to withdraw your money from them. But here is the they are acting like a EMI but they still need a corporate account ? makes no sense. And the fees above anything in the market they have a good coverage for local payment options but yet stay away from these its so problematic anyhow. Also very good user interface to be honest everything so easy to do. )
Paypal : 2019 – Present ( Everyone knows about PayPal but I can just share a trick to make your life easier PayPal security rules varies by jurisdiction to jurisdiction so If you apply the merchant account with EU entity you have a very high chance to work with them in the long run without getting blockage. After passing a 10.000 Euro mark preliminary compliance achieved so they leave you alone. )
AsiaPay : 2019-2021 ( It was the hardest payment processor to work with cause we were a western based company in that years only payment processor suit for us so after 2 months we get our merchant account and start working with these guys when it comes to local payment in south and southeast asia these guys covered everything but compliance was so tough to deal with we ended up opened a company in Hong Kong and had to open a bank account in this manner so the cost alone didn’t cover the income we ended up close this account. In general very strict and solid provider )
SafeCharge : 2021-2021 ( It lasted couple of months due to grumpiness and whining from them settlements are always late cause later we find out they were miscoding mostly that means they were get the settlements late also but one I like they give you money in advance to show trust so you can be sure about. They mostly deal with Casino yet they give accounts depending on the merchant activity. )
PaymentWall : 2022- Present ( Among these guys probably the best option very good support, solid compliance support local transactions also, commission rates are good no negatives in fact. )
Flutterwave : 2022-2023 ( If you dealing with Africa in general this is the payment solution you need. Backed up with UK investment banking very comprehensive Dashboard. But you need a local company like in Nigeria to get one of these things or you can use European entity If I remember correctly. If you using a Nigerian company you need NIN number etc. In short very solid )
Alipay : 2023 – Present ( Number of users above a billion its insane if you doing any business in China this is the deal beside Wechat Pay and the difference is Alipay specifically designed for merchant by Alibaba so when it comes to commercial use best option to proceed with. One problem settlements western block accounts accepted but specific ones I recommend open an account as a intermediary in CIS like Web Money or Adv to withdraw amounts to that account.
WeChat Pay : 2022- Present ( Probably the easiest and most convenient in China cause every individual have one and payments mostly passing through in general population with We Chat Pays best option for withdrawal to open another EMI in one of the Hong Kong Provider to withdraw money to there to yourself.
It will be continue…. Please add your experience also.
