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Yeah, I was referred to Braintree when I was building http://limelightapp.com/ http://limelightapp.com/ and I really liked them. However, using them required ge

by aculver 15y ago

Yeah, I was referred to Braintree when I was building http://limelightapp.com/ http://limelightapp.com/ and I really liked them. However, using them required getting a merchant account, and getting a merchant account required getting a business license, and getting a business license cost $60 and a few hours going on a trip to City Hall and the Court House. Once I had that, Braintree still had to take a couple days to get the underwriting approved for my merchant account. To their credit, the crazy thing is that this is actually an awesome experience compared to working with other payment gateways. If I could have, I definitely would have done this instead. This is like Square for web apps.

marcamillion 15y ago
Definitely agree. Braintree is by far the best of a very, very bad lot of merchant account providers. Try getting an account with Authorize.net...I nearly killed myself when I tried that. Braintree was a breath of fresh air after I went the 'traditional' way. But, even then...as you said, I still had to jump through tons of hoops and even though they were very, very helpful and super attentive - they even bent over backwards for me by going to multiple underwriting banks to increase the likelihood that my business would be underwritten. When one of the banks rejected my application, their decision to go to multiple ones definitely seemed prescient. But even then, the entire process still took at least a week - with LOTS of paperwork back and forth being printed out, scanned, emailed, etc. Little did I know...I didn't NEED a merchant account. I just want to accept credit cards securely and not be gauged by the fees. Stripe does both perfectly...the fees are pretty competitive - no monthly and no merchant account headache. Avoid it if you can, at all costs, and just go straight to Stripe.

by aculver 15y ago

marcamillion 15y ago

Definitely agree. Braintree is by far the best of a very, very bad lot of merchant account providers. Try getting an account with Authorize.net...I nearly killed myself when I tried that. Braintree was a breath of fresh air after I went the 'traditional' way. But, even then...as you said, I still had to jump through tons of hoops and even though they were very, very helpful and super attentive - they even bent over backwards for me by going to multiple underwriting banks to increase the likelihood that my business would be underwritten. When one of the banks rejected my application, their decision to go to multiple ones definitely seemed prescient. But even then, the entire process still took at least a week - with LOTS of paperwork back and forth being printed out, scanned, emailed, etc. Little did I know...I didn't NEED a merchant account. I just want to accept credit cards securely and not be gauged by the fees. Stripe does both perfectly...the fees are pretty competitive - no monthly and no merchant account headache. Avoid it if you can, at all costs, and just go straight to Stripe.