Fiserv (First Data) - ICICI Merchant Services vs. Stripe Payments

The arena of companies to choose from to process credit/debit card payments at this level is ridiculously small. I was told which one we would be working with, and am unaware how the others compare(especially on processing fees), but I can only assume that they would be better to work with than FirstData after the overly complicated process we have gone through over the last couple years when we were told it would easily take less than a year.

Incentivized

We had a client who wanted a QR to use in their marketing, which enabled their clients to donate to us. It was so useful to be able to set it up, and we can track the views and donations received using this code. Another client with issues with our website wanted to set up a monthly subscription, so I sent her a payment link, which worked brilliantly. For clients that want to make one-time donations, it also lets the client choose the amount. The only scenario where we haven't been able to help is when clients want to change the card associated with the payment - whilst we understand it is for security/gdpr, it means they have to cancel and set up something new, which poses the danger that we may lose them as a customer.

Incentivized

• Provided our client with competitive rates
• Integration came with a sandbox environment, which was convenient
• Backend has a summary of all transactions and a report that can be exported

Incentivized

• They are reliable. I can count on everything going smoothly with transactions.
• They are accurate. I don’t run into problems with collecting the proper amounts or being overcharged for fees.
• They have good customer service. If I have a question about the customer portal or a problem with a customer, they help me resolve these issues.

Incentivized

• [In my experience,] merchants will just follow this scam service and they will say they provide a refund to the customer but actually they will not do anything just use your money by giving unnecessary excuses.

• No automatic tax support. This is the biggest one for us. For customers that need to process complex tax situations like collection VAT or GST, Stripe allows you to create tax rates, but your software team must build out the software to support proper collection. I hope Stripe provides built-in support for taxes better in the future.
• Processing rates are slightly higher than some more legacy payment gateway/merchant account solutions, but we believe this is worth it for the level of service Stripe provides.
• As payment worldwide requirements are complex and differ from use case to use case, while the documentation and support is great, sometimes support is needed in order to understand the areas of the API that will be necessary for a specific use case.

Incentivized

Stripe is the leader in the industry when it comes to any type of industry. All that is needed is a plan and then implementing that plan either with a developer, or through the help of Stripe's customer service team to assist in getting you setup. The ease of use time it takes to get up and running is second to none

Incentivized

Stripe offers a very easy-to-navigate platform with many different functions. From linking it to our website and accounting platform to tracking our payments, being able to issue a refund quickly if required, and setting up QR codes and payment links for subscriptions or one-time donations, it really covers so many aspects that we need and use on a weekly and monthly basis.

Incentivized

Stripe's support is nearly perfect – great attention to detail, fast response times, and a willingness to really dig into issues and get to the bottom of them. In the five years we've been using Stripe, the only negative thing I can say about their customer support is that it seems like there has been a slight shift to less technical front-line support agents, which means it's more likely your issue will have to be escalated before you get more information. This, however, has happened as Stripe rolled out more real-time support features like call and chat, and that really isn't workable if you're escalating everything right off the bat. It's absolutely an acceptable trade-off.

Incentivized

It took less than an hour to have everything setup and running

Incentivized

We had previously used Elavon Merchant services. We found the provider to be more expensive and offer far less flexibility for our processing. Also, our processing was entirely manual and had to be done in the office.

Incentivized

Stripe is easier to use and offers better support and rates. My favorite part with Stripe is probably their ready-to-use plug-in that's offered for me. We have multiple eCommerce stores and we rely on our payment process going smoothly. The plug-in from Stripe is free, constantly updated, secure, and very easy to implement.

Incentivized

• Sales have increased in the past year because I have a dedicated site to selling products that people used to have to come in person to order. First Data along with putting everything up on my website definitely makes it easy for me to automate things.

Incentivized

• It makes getting money from your clients really easy
• It gives your clients the guarantee that their payment information is totally secure and confidentially used and kept
• It is very easy to integrate with online assets of the company
• In a couple of occasions, some companies have wanted me to use Stripe for them to pay me, and I have had a couple of hiccups. This was more related to the way that these companies set up the Stripe integration of my account to their platform. In both cases, the integration has not been possible and to this date, I still do not know why with exactitude.
• As I said before, the commissions kept by Stripe could be lower, and shared with the CC companies, rather than having us clients pay for all of o it.

Incentivized