Braintree gateway is a payment gateway provider that allows merchants in the US to conduct cardless and remote transactions. It also allows merchants to store cardholder information online for recurring purchases. The company was founded in 2007 in Chicago. Later it purchased Venmo, and the following year, Braintree was bought by PayPal for $800 million. Therefore, it is named “Braintree – a PayPal service”. Despite offering a completely different set of features. Braintree gateway operates in almost eight countries and 130 different currencies. It is a massive e-commerce company doing nearly $55 billion in transactions annually in its merchant services wing. Likewise, Braintree gateway is considered an adequate gateway service as well. This Braintree Gateway review will discuss the pros and cons of the processor in detail.
Pricing
According to the reviews, Braintree’s pricing is one of their popular features. While the merchant service provider determines the fees of the transactions, the additional costs of the gateway are nominal. If you integrate with PayPal, the rates are different according to the policy.
Services
Through Braintree, merchants can send and receive payments over the digital medium. It accepts all major credit card organizations like Mastercard, Visa, Maestro, and American Express, among several others. Along with credit and debit cards, it also allows digital payment methods like Samsung pay, Google Pay, and Apple pay. ACH, PayPal, and Venmo are also not out of their acceptance range. Apart from e-commerce payment services, it facilitates in-person transactions through PayPal Here card readers.
Customer Support & Training
Braintree gateway provides its customers support through email and help desks. Merchants can also ask their queries and give reviews and suggestions by phone. FAQs forums are also available for a better understanding of the application. A comprehensive video training is available to help new users.
Security
Braintree provides detailed security services to users. All cardholder data is managed by various encryption keys using the Braintree vault. Users reviewed that suspicious activities on their accounts were handled well by gateway most of the time. Braintree is a level 1 PCI compliant service and claims not to store card validation codes and pins. They also claim to conduct automatic vulnerability scans four times a year and a detailed penetration testing by outside sources once a year.
Devices Supported
Braintree offers its services online on desktop and Android, and IOS applications.
Integration
Braintree allows integration as their service as well. If you don’t want to use the Braintree merchant account or already have an active merchant account, you can easily integrate the Braintree gateway with your existing account. It supports integration with various e-commerce companies throughout the US.
Downsides of Braintree
Braintree is a very popular merchant service provider and a payment gateway provider. While most of the complaints about Braintree are concerning its merchant services, there are some complaints about the gateway. Here are the common customer grievances in reviews;
Inadequate Customer Service
Merchants have a serious problem with Braintree’s customer services. Customer reviews state that there is no customer care dedicated to Braintree Gateway. Since PayPal has acquired the provider, all their calls go directly to PayPal representatives. When merchants ask for a representative of Braintree, there is usually no one available to handle their grievances. Merchants state in reviews to be very careful before opting for gateway services with the provider. The likelihood for a resolution to problems is near to none once they occur.
Fraud Charges
There are merchant complaints that claim fraudulent charges against their business. One review further elaborates that the problem extended over a couple of days. Braintree did nothing to stop the payments from the source through their gateway. The merchant was very upset that the gateway service failed to provide fraud prevention despite advertising it.
Glitchy Processes
While merchant reviews claim that it gets the essential jobs done, there are some problems with the efficiency of the gateway. The fraud detection system often flags payments as fraud for no reason. The payments get declined unnecessarily. Then they have to be cleared through the customer service or have to be done again. The fraud detection system either seems to be malfunctional or out of touch.
Lack of Support for Physical Stores
Payment gateways are best designed for remote or card-not-present payments. But some merchants prefer using a virtual terminal in-store as well. The gateway is not intended to cater to in-store transactions. Merchants showed disappointment over this as it limits the usability of Braintree’s gateway services.
Problems with Overseas Transactions
The payment gateway operates in several countries and caters to various currencies. But there is a serious problem with the system. If a merchant works in an area with a currency other than the USD, their payments will be forcibly converted to their currency, even if the receiving account is USD. This will happen even if the merchant sets their default currency to USD. This adds a conversion fee to the payments and results in an excessive fee per transaction. Merchants claim that the only reason this is to charge extra money.
Conclusion
Despite the serious complaints against the gateway, it is still one of the best-reputed ones in the market. This is because they support overseas merchants and transactions in different currencies.
However, since the takeover of PayPal, the services have deteriorated greatly. Some of the most concerning factors are the sub-par customer service, lack of security features, and the problems with overseas payments. Astonishingly, the provider does not allow direct transfer of funds in USD despite all the arrangements by the merchant. Based on this Braintree gateway 2024 review, it is best to avoid such a gateway that cannot ensure the safety of your funds.
