Best for
Payments by Wave is best for small U.S. businesses that would like to integrate their payment processing with their Wave accounting software smoothly.
Specializes in
Payments by Wave is a reseller of Vantiv merchant account services and is accessible to merchants through the Wave accounting software. The company's offerings are intended to integrate payment processing with the company software's invoicing functionality.
Pricing Summary
Setup Fee: None
Monthly Fee: None
Swipe Rate: 2.9% + $0.30
Keyed-in Rate: 2.9% + $0.30
Early Termination Fee : None
Contract Terms:
Payments by Wave is a reseller of Vantiv, which uses Fifth Third Bank, N.A., of Cincinnati, Ohio, as its acquiring bank.
Wave Accounting was founded in 2009 with headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The company's CEO is co-founder Kirk Simpson.
Kirk Simpson co-founded Payments by Wave in 2009 as a more intuitive accounting software alternative to QuickBooks for small businesses. With company headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Wave has branched into numerous accounting tertiary services for small businesses, mainly for free, such as Wave Invoices and Wave Receipts. The company also offers low-cost solutions for Payroll, Tax, and Accounting advisory, Wave Money, an online bank that integrates all its offerings.
Since about 2012, Payments by Wave has been offered as a reseller of Vantiv's payment processing solutions for US-based small businesses. The service is ideal for companies that would need to integrate payment processing with the Wave Accounting software seamlessly. The company offers flat fees and month-to-month billing terms without locking clients into long-term billing contracts. The company does not charge merchants for PCI compliance fee, nor does it carry an early termination fee.
Payments by Wave is accredited with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) since 2013 and carries an A+ rating.
The company has had 51 complaints filed against it in the last 36 months and 24 complaints in the previous 12 months.
Head Quarters
Toronto, Canada
Year Founded
2009
CEO
Kirk Simpson
Employees
205
Merchant Provider Risk Tolerance
Free
Easy to use
Numerous features
Cloud-based
Good support materials
Help from expert accountants available
Limited mobile apps
Unsuited for large businesses
Poor customer support
Payment Processing: Payments by Wave resells merchant account services for Vantiv, primarily for merchants to integrate the services into the company's accounting software's invoice functionality.
Tertiary: Wave is an accounting software company that offers the following;
Wave Accounting – Free accounting software for small businesses to easily integrate with bank accounts, payment processing, and other accounting operations.
Wave Invoicing – highly versatile software that can easily send out one-time and recurring invoices with modification of logo, color scheme, currency, templates, and much more via desktop and mobile devices and can quickly integrate to Wave Accounting
Wave Receipts –Scan and post receipts of business expenses which can seamlessly sync with Wave Accounting.
Wave Payroll – Process employee and contractor pay, tax filings, workers comp, and direct deposits while automatically posting journal entries and managing an employee portal for paystubs, W2 forms, and personal details.
Wave Money – an online bank account that syncs with Wave accounting and processes all back-end bookkeeping and reconciliation of transactions
Wave Advisor – Professional advisors on matters of bookkeeping, tax, and accounting.
Discloses All Important Terms
Yes
Public Pricing Available
Yes
Payments by Wave resells payment processing services of First Data and Chase Merchant Services. Below is the detail we found about pricing;
Keyed rate: 2.9% + $0.30
ACH rate: Higher of 1% or $1
Monthly PCI Compliance Fee: None
Annual Fee: None
Early Termination Fee: None
Monthly Minimum: None
Pricing Model
Flat Rate
Swiped Rate
2.9% + $0.30
Keyed-in Rate
2.9% + $0.30
Mobile Payment Rate
Virtual Terminal Rate
2.9% + $0.30
Monthly Fee
None
Payment Gateway Fee
None
Batch Fee
None
Early Termination Fee
None
PCI Compliance Fee
None
Equipment Lease Terms
N/A
Address Verification Service (AVS)
Application Fee
Account Setup Fee
None
Gateway Setup Fee
None
Annual Fee
Monthly Minimum
None
Statement Fee
Payments by Wave is very transparent regarding contract terms. The company offers a flat fee of 2.9% + $0.30. The company does not have a long-term contract, does not charge an early termination fee nor a PCI compliance fee. Payments by Wave resells merchant accounts services of Vantiv and offers very competitive terms compared to Vantiv itself.
Contract Length
No Contract RequiredMonth-to-month
Early Termination Fee
None
Payments by Wave is accredited with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) since 2013 and currently given an A+ rating. There have been 51 complaints against the company in the past three years and 24 complaints in the last twelve months. The complaints have been mainly for billing and collection disputes, such as account reserves. It's important to note that chargebacks and account reserves are standard in the industry. The company explicitly details the practice in its Terms of Service, both in legal terms and plain English.
There aren't any class action lawsuits that have been filed against Payments by Wave, nor any FTC complaints against the company.
BBB
A+(38 complaints)
2.8 Stars / 90 Reviews
No Reviews yet
Yelp
N/A
Total Online Reviews
20+
Total Online Complaints
Lawsuits
None
If you're in the market for a merchant account provider, be sure to check out our user reviews, our merchant accounts guide and our top popular merchant provider picks