Lucy gateway is a cloud-based software that provides secure payment processing for various businesses. It covers all kinds of credit cards, electronic payments, debit cards, electronic checks, and ACH for enterprises, startups, and SMEs. Cynergy Data launched Lucy gateway as their service in 2008. Lucy gateway provides services for all kinds of businesses and claims to be the fastest gateway with 99.99% uptime and removes all IT complications. Lucy gateway has a virtual terminal, allowing electronic payments for merchants. Lucy gateway reviews reveal that it lacks some features that major gateways provide. Still, it is considered an affordable and secure start for new businesses. It offers robust services like fraud management, reporting, virtual terminal, and integration service.
Services
Lucy gateway offers a mobile payment solution for merchants. It has a virtual terminal and online payment processing as its service. The virtual terminal helps enter the card information manually, so ideal for mail or phone orders. Recurring billing is also not excluded from service. Lucy gateway is suitable for businesses with weekly or monthly subscriptions or clubs. As in reviews of Lucy gateway, it provides a secure and smooth recurring service. According to the reviews, one of the most likeable features is that it offers real-time reporting. Reports and progress of your businesses are always in front of your eyes. Merchants can take recurring transactions from almost all major credit card organizations. Multiple integrated solutions are available on this platform, making it easy for the users. It also supports QuickBooks, and the integration is quick and smooth.
Pricing
Like most of the gateways, Lucy also doesn’t reveal pricing information. For the pricing and subscription information, you have to contact the service. It provides monthly and yearly subscriptions with no free trial.
Security Management
Lucy gateway provides the best security with several levels of check verification, authentication service, and customer identity checking. It has several fraud management methods, like Visa card security program and Mastercard compliant service. Their service monitors the activity 24/7 in case of any hacking activity and provides SSL encryption to protect the data. Users in reviews expressed that Lucy is reliable because it fulfils all kinds of security standards in the payment card industry.
Device Supported
Currently, Lucy gateway is operatable on desktop through the internet, and it has a mobile application for android only. According to the latest information, Windows, Mac, and IOS operating systems are out of their range. However, API is available for inter desktop connections.
Customer Support
An option of Email and Phone support is available on Lucy, but it does not provide Live support. There is no feature that helps merchants better understand their features. Users demand in reviews that video training can solve many of their problems. However, an online user manual is available for the users.
Weak Points of Lucy Gateway
Lucy is one of the younger providers in the payment industry. While newer providers have their strong points, they also have some weak points because of having a newer setup. Below is a review of some of the weak areas of Lucy gateway;
No Hosted Checkout Support
Most payment gateway providers offer a hosted checkout page. A hosted checkout page adds a checkout button to the merchant’s eCommerce website. When the customers have made a purchase, the button transfers the client to another website. All the customer’s purchase information is transferred too. It creates a seamless experience for customers to pay for their purchases. Lucy gateway does not support a hosted checkout, causing a decrease in customer and merchant satisfaction, especially in eCommerce applications.
Multi-Currencies Not Supported
Most payment gateways offer support for businesses and customers outside the US. But for this, the payment gateway should support multiple currencies. This allows customers to make payments in a foreign currency and businesses outside the US to sell to US clients. However, there is no such support for multiple currencies in Lucy Gateway. Therefore, business operations are restricted within the US.
No Electronic Invoicing
Electronic invoices are ways to bill customers remotely through electronic means. Electronic invoices usually allow buyers to use the invoice directly in the payment application to proceed with the payment. Sometimes merchants scan physical invoices and send them over email; those aren’t proper electronic invoices.
Electronic invoices are very beneficial for both the merchant and the customer. They allow customers to automate their buying process and prevent errors, losses and frauds. They also reduce the processing costs for merchants. Lucy does not support e-invoicing, which is a major setback to their services. Electronic invoices are very popular in modern remote payment methods. This reduces customer satisfaction and can lead to negative reviews of the merchant.
Final Thoughts
Lucy claims to be one of the fastest and simplest payment gateway providers in the market today. The immediate authorization times and negligible glitches should be standard in the payment industry today. There is not much information about the processors compatible with Lucy; you will have to check that separately.
But considering some of the more sophisticated gateways in the market today, Lucy lags in features that help streamline businesses. Most of the major drawbacks are discussed in the Lucy Gateway review above. And things like the lack of e-invoicing, no hosted checkout page and lack of support for foreign currencies can be a dealbreaker. While Lucy provides the essentials that a business needs when starting up, it might not be a good gateway for growing or established businesses.
