Flint Mobile Review- Based on Real Customers in 2022

In our Flint Mobile review, we analyze the all-in-one payment processing program designed specifically for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Flint Mobile Payments: What Is It?

The software consists of a mobile app and an online merchant site that simplify payments for both the merchant and the buyer. It helps company owners to provide seamless client experiences and safe mobile transactions for speedy mobile payments. Accepting credit card payments, taking invoices, and managing clients from anywhere at any time is a breeze using Flint Mobile Payments.

Flint, a 2011 startup that uses Stripe as its backend payment processor. The key novelty of Flint is its ability to accept credit cards without a linked card reader. Instead, Flint scans encrypt, and securely processes each customer’s credit card number using the camera from your smartphone.

The approach uses the camera on the device to securely scan credit card information rather than swiping, which may not be a significant divergence from existing applications but makes it stand out. Additionally, although Flint Mobile Payments is not the most economical option, it is a workable method of payment for project-based billing, service appointments, time-based billing, Events & activities, and Custom goods & crafts.

These payments are handled by a Stripe account that is connected, and a transaction fee of 2.9% + $0.30 is applied.

Flint Temporarily shut down in February 2016

In addition to its distinctive processing technology, Flint once had its acquiring bank and offered exceptionally competitive prices. But in February 2016, Flint abruptly ceased accepting new merchant applications and suggested that active businesses transfer to Stripe. With no clear indication of the company’s future, this abrupt closure left thousands of users trapped with a broken app. We had to warn merchants away from engaging with Flint at the time due to their incredibly bad handling of this matter and blatant disrespect for clear communication or openness.

Relaunch of Flint and Due, Inc.

Since that shutdown, Flint has reopened as an integrated Stripe mobile and e-commerce payment processing app. On its website, it also includes a copyright notification from Due, Inc., indicating that it is either a DBA or a subsidiary of Due. However, that website domain is no longer active, thus it’s unclear how Flint and Due are related now. John Rampton is the company’s founder and CEO, and Due is headquartered at 201 Cowper Street in Palo Alto, California (zip code 94301).

How do mobile payments operate without a card reader?

You only need an iOS or Android-powered smartphone (or iPad) to get started. Follow the sign-up instructions after installing the Flint app. You will be prompted to enter your personal information.

After activation, among other things, you must complete your user profile by supplying information about your bank account. You are then prepared to accept payments.

Start by entering the payment amount in the Flint app, then scan the card with the phone’s camera (or manually enter the digits), followed by the CVV code and expiration date. Ask the client to sign on your phone’s screen at the very end, and you’re done.

Compatible Gadgets:

All contemporary smartphones can be used with Flint, which works with the two most prominent mobile operating systems, iOS, and Android.

Android 4.0 or later Android phones must have access to Google Play. The interoperability with iOS devices is essentially the same as it is with rivals like Square. You must own a smartphone running iOS 6 or higher to use the Flint mobile payments software, which means you must have an iPhone 3S or later as well as any iPad or iPod Touch.

Flint Mobile Payments: Features

Flint’s mobile payment solution enables company owners to accept payments right away after installing the smartphone application. This is because they don’t need to wait for an external device. Along with taking credit cards, Flint gives its clients the option to send invoices without charge, do business online with a logo and pertinent details, and even cultivate customer loyalty by issuing coupons.

Flint relies on the strength of social media. It encourages its clients to use word-of-mouth marketing by providing the required tools. Each receipt you send contains a link encouraging the consumer to leave a review of your business. This is in addition to invoicing via the mobile app or the merchant site.

Linking your Flint account with your QuickBooks Online account is another significant aspect of the program that seeks to cut down on data entering time.

Multi-User Functionality

If you choose Flint Pro or Enterprise, you can add extra users to the account (3 for Pro, 5 for Enterprise). This is excellent for expanding enterprises that need to accept payments simultaneously from several locations. But like the majority of other mPOS apps besides Square, PayPal Here provides this capability for free, with an unlimited number of users.

Customized Invoices

Add a logo, company information, coupons, and extra notes to your email receipts to make them a little more eye-catching. Additionally, you can simplify social media access by printing a link to post Facebook reviews directly on the receipt. However, you should be aware that using the Flint app to print a paper receipt requires accessing the merchant dashboard on a computer, which is not a great workaround.

Adjustable Tip Settings

You can toggle tipping on and off, choose whether to tip in dollars or percentages and define 3 suggested tip amounts.

Adjustable Sales Tax Settings

This is a pretty basic feature. You can define the rate of taxation as well as whether an item is taxable or not.

Safety Components

The Flint program was developed under the PCI DSS rules and regulations, just like its competitors. The corporation implemented a safety measure to validate the transactions: scanning the card. In other words, it is through this that the merchant and the client are both protected from fraudulent purchases by receiving confirmation that the card was present at the mobile point of sale. Information is transferred securely by the firm, which does not store image scans or any other sensitive data on its systems.

Invoicing

Flint enables you to issue invoices from the dashboard online and the mobile app. You can send a client an invoice with a link to pay it using the invoicing tool. Flint further sends automated reminders to clients who owe money on invoices. Additionally, clients are automatically added to your client database, which serves as a list of all the clients you’ve worked with and makes it easier for you to issue bills in the future. If you frequently work with the same clients, this is beneficial.

Flint Mobile Review – Fee, Rates, & Contractual Arrangements

Processing Payments with Stripe

To handle transactions through its app, Flint just uses Stripe. 2.9% plus $0.30 are added to every transaction by Stripe. There are no account-related termination fees, monthly fees, or PCI compliance fees, and this rate remains the same regardless of whether the transaction was swiped or typed. Merchants are free to end at any time and without consequence.

Plans for Flint Pricing

Concerning the number of features that merchants want to employ, Flint offers three annual pricing tiers.

• Free Program: 10 invoices per year, 10 clients in the client database, 1 user, no online sales, unlimited mPOS processing
• Pro Plan ($99.99/year or $9.99/month): Unlimited mPOS processing, unlimited invoices per year, 50 clients in the client database, four users (the owner plus three), and unlimited online sales
• Enterprise Plan (149.99/year or $14.99/month): 6 users (owner plus 5), unlimited mPOS processing, unlimited invoices annually, and unlimited clients in the client database

Length of Contract And Early Cancellation Charges 

The good news is that you get about the same contract conditions as processing through Stripe directly because Flint uses Stripe as its back-end processor. You specifically agree to Stripe’s terms as Stripe is Flint’s payments partner, according to the user agreement. We do suggest reading both Flint’s and Stripe’s user agreements to be informed merchants are empowered, merchants.

It is pay-as-you-go for the processing of payments. If you choose the Pro or Enterprise plan, you can choose to pay for your membership either annually or on a month-to-month basis. You are not required to pay any early termination fees or other penalties if you choose to cancel at any time and just stop using Flint.

Comparatively Costly to Mobile Competitors

The usage of Stripe has raised Flint’s per-transaction price substantially over that of comparable businesses in the market, even though its former incarnation had some of the best mobile processing rates in the industry. The swiped rates of Square, PayPal Here, and Fattmerchant are lower than Flint’s rate of 2.9% + $0.30, and it isn’t much better than the rates paid by those processors for keyed-in transactions.

Holds by Stripe Fund

The Flint contract has one more significant flaw. Like other merchant account aggregators, Stripe typically approves merchants before conducting a thorough analysis of the risk of fraud or criminal activity on the part of the merchant. Later on, this frequently leads to abrupt service termination and significant fund holds for merchants. Therefore, merchants are advised to carefully review the company’s list of banned actions, find out about processing restrictions before registering, and be aware of what to do if Stripe holds their payments.

Flint Mobile Review

Based on real customer reviews, lawsuits, and complaints

Total Average Complaint

At this moment, we can find more than 50 bad evaluations of Flint outside of the BBB, some of which claim the business is a fraud. Numerous requests for private information, fund holds, account termination, subpar customer support, and the company’s unexpected closure in 2016 are among the most common complaints. Although Flint is a developing organization with a very low barrier to entry, it will certainly receive some complaints from untrained or perplexed merchants, even though the company’s total number of complaints has increased since our last report.

The Flint Lawsuits

We were unable to locate any active class actions or FTC complaints brought against Flint. Disgruntled customers who want to take the firm to court should think about reporting the corporation to the appropriate regulatory bodies.

Profile on Better Business Bureau

No History of Complaints:

Flint currently has an “A+” rating from the Better Business Bureau based on 0 complaints but is not BBB-recognized.

An Overall “A”

Companies with a spotless complaint history receive an “A” grade in this category, per the website’s standards. Therefore, we concur with BBB’s assessment. However, businesses should be aware that there are valid arguments against trusting BBB’s rating methodology.

Positive Reviews and Customer Feedback

Again, there hasn’t been much talk about Flint’s relaunch. On the Flint website, you can still discover a few endorsements as well as a list of names, such as NerdWallet, Gigoam, TechCrunch, and Dow Jones. My best guess is that this is a list of clients because they are not linked and there is no text before them. That list’s currentness is unclear, which is a concern for me.

I believe that Flint still has many advantages from before the shutdown. The lack of required hardware makes the software simple to use. In terms of features, Flint is an excellent tiny beginner omnichannel platform.

• Good for a small startup, one customer wrote:

“Simple, affordable, and customizable. This is excellent news for anyone or any small business that has wanted to take credit card payments but has never believed they could.”

Negative Reviews and Customer Feedback

There aren’t many user reviews of Flint’s re-launch, in either direction. Everything, except a few remarks, is from February 2016 or earlier. The most noteworthy criticism is that Flint doesn’t provide good customer service and is unresponsive.

• One unimpressive customer wrote:

“After using Square for a few years, I decided to try flint since I figured it would be simpler and quicker to take a picture. My experience with Flint was terrible; after more than a week, they paid one bill, but the second has still not been paid.

Customer service was contacted, but I never received a response other than the statement that “your funds will be deposited by August 11th.” Since that date has passed and is still being worked on, I am left with no choice but to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, and the state attorney general.

I’ve undeniably learned my lesson and won’t ever work with this firm again! They have serious problems sending you your money, and while they keep it for so long, they accrue interest on it while continuing to charge us fees for the transaction. Never utilize this business as they have many phoney reviews.”

Transparency Marketing & Sales Plan:

No independent sales representatives

Flint seems to rely mostly on traditional advertising and its website to sell its services. There are currently no internet complaints concerning the company’s marketing strategies, and it does not employ a group of outside sales representatives. You can always get a third-party statement audit to double-check the firm if you’re worried that Flint has misrepresented its pricing.

No False Statements

The pricing and details of the contracts are quite clearly disclosed on the Flint website. Even the fact that Stripe is the back-end processor is made quite apparent. The primary services are listed clearly. We have not found any proof that the listed rates for these services are false. Flint offers some of the simplest and most transparent pricing available, and as a result, we have given Flint an “A” grade in this category.

Technical Support and Customer Assistance

Here’s one of the areas where Flint, in my opinion, is understaffed. Currently, a ticket-based email system is the only method available for client help. no live chat or phone help. However, because Stripe has a considerably more effective customer care system, the majority of technical, payment-related difficulties will almost definitely be directed there.

Lack of real-time communication is sometimes a major source of irritation for business owners, but it can also be an expensive investment. If Flint succeeds, I hope to see a live help option in the future.

A self-help knowledge base is an alternate choice for assistance. It does, in my opinion, leave a lot to be desired. How to use Flint’s features isn’t covered in great detail. Although the mPOS isn’t very complicated, I would still anticipate some guidance on how to use some of the various tools and functions.

Our Verdict: An Average Option for Processing Mobile Payments

Comparing Flint to its rivals in the mobile payment space, it ranks as an average choice. The company’s unique scanning feature might not be appealing to all merchants, and its per-transaction price is more expensive than usual compared to the competition.

Nevertheless, in our Flint Mobile review, we found that the app’s core idea offers a fascinating contrast to those of its rivals, and Flint’s pricing is open and competitive. Merchants are advised to contrast Flint’s features and pricing with those of the best mobile credit card processing apps.