Worldpay from FIS (formerly Vantiv) Review: Is It Right for Your Business?
Meaghan has provided content and guidance for indie retailers as the editor for a number of retail publications and a speaker at trade shows. She is Fit Small Business’s authority on retail and ecommerce.
Anna’s experience in business and finance led her to work for a US risk mitigation company in Singapore. She has contributed to POS and payments topics in the Retail section across Fit Small Business.
This article is part of a larger series on Payments.
When to Use Worldpay from FIS
Worldpay is a credit card and payment processor that often shows up in our research for POS and payment systems. It’s a major player in payment processing, but we cannot give it a strong recommendation because it has so many complaints against it for billing, including a lawsuit (now settled) for hidden fees. FIS has said it’s looking into the billing process, so this may change under the new ownership.
In particular, Worldpay is best for:
- Large businesses: If you are a large business doing high-volume sales, you are more likely to negotiate a better deal from Worldpay.
- International businesses: Worldpay was founded in the U.K. and is the leading merchant services provider for Europe. It can handle transactions in 126 currencies.
When Worldpay from FIS May Not Be a Good Fit
- New businesses: Worldpay’s pricing schedules and bills are not simple, and many business owners have complained of being charged for services they did not ask for. If you are not used to payment processing contracts, you could find yourself surprised by unexpected fees. Instead, opt for Square, or one of our other recommended free merchant accounts that does not come with monthly or other additional fees.
- Small businesses: If you don’t need international payment processing, other payment processors offer merchant services with more straightforward pricing. Square and PayPal are popular options for new businesses, while Payment Depot offers low, straightforward pricing for established businesses.
Why You Shouldn’t Use Worldpay
Based on my research, we cannot recommend this merchant service for small businesses, particularly those just starting out or with narrow profit margins. Worldpay faced two class-action lawsuits in 2018 for hidden fees, which it settled. According to an article on CardFellow, the fees were hidden in the interchange rates, which, as seen on one fee schedule, are given a huge range. When FIS acquired the company in 2019, it said it would look into its practices. Nonetheless, Worldpay continues to get bad reviews, mostly around its billing and fees.
It is the largest merchant service in the world, with over a trillion dollars in transactions annually, so it does have satisfied customers. However, we believe larger companies and those with experience in negotiating contracts and knowing what to look for in their payment processing bill would fare better with this type of company.
Not sure what to look for?
Check out our article on what a merchant service should do for you. Also, look at our reviews of the best merchant services for small businesses for more options.
Worldpay from FIS Overview
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| 126 currencies in 146 countries | Non-transparent pricing |
| Integrates with nearly 250 third-party applications | Virtual terminal costs extra |
| Programs for business funding, quick deposit of payments, and more | Numerous customer complaints; lawsuits over hidden fees |
Signing up for a merchant account with Worldpay starts by clicking on the “Get Started” button on its website. If you want to accept payments online, signing up for a virtual terminal can be done on the website and only takes a few minutes. From there, you get access to an online payments dashboard that you can use to test Worldpay’s tools. To activate your account, you will need to fill out an application form to get a free internet merchant account or update the settings to specify that you already have a Worldpay merchant account.
Worldpay from FIS Deciding Factors
- Monthly fee: Not disclosed
- Payment processing model: Tiered and interchange plus
- Ecommerce processing: 2.7% + 30 cents
- ACH Processing: Custom
- Virtual terminal: Setup fee of $150, $30 monthly fee, 8 cents per transaction
- Contract length: One to three years
- Application and approval process: One to three business days
- Payment types: Card-present, card-not-present, online, ACH, invoice, and recurring payments
- Cancellation/early termination fee: $95–$295
- Chargeback fee: $10–$50
- Deposit speed: Two business days for credit cards, eight business days for ACH; same-day available for a fee
Note: Worldpay fees are highly customized and vary widely depending on your business setup and the type of service you need.
Worldpay Alternatives & Fees Comparison
 |  |  |  | |
Best for | Businesses processing $10,000+ monthly | Transparent pricing, small businesses processing over $10,000 monthly | High-volume sales ($20,000+ monthly) | Small businesses, especially those with low sales |
Monthly fee | $59–$99 | $25 | $99–$199 | $0 |
Card-present transaction fee | Interchange + 7–15 cents | Interchange + 0.15% + 8 cents | Interchange + 8 cents or Interchange + 6 cents | 2.6% + 10 cents |
Keyed transaction fee | Interchange + 7–15 cents | Interchange + + 0.15% + 8 cents | Interchange + 15 cents or Interchange + 12 cents | 3.5% + 15 cents |
Ecommerce transaction fee | Interchange + 7–15 cents | Interchange + 0.2% + 11 cents | Interchange + 8 cents or Interchange + 6 cents | 2.9% + 30 cents |
Looking for the lowest rates?
The payment processing rates you will pay can vary based on your business’s size, type, and average order value. To find the most affordable option and compare multiple processing rates, read our guide on the cheapest credit card processing.
Worldpay Pricing
Since Our Last Update:
Though not one of our recommended payment processors, we wanted to look further into Worldpay’s contracts and pricing. We also wanted to highlight key features that make Wordplay a strong payment processor and suggest alternatives that can offer the same.
It’s not easy to get clear pricing for Worldpay. Even the website differs depending on the country, with the US site providing no information but inviting you to call for a custom quote and the U.K. website offering three small business plans with some monthly pricing plus unspecified “transaction fees.”
In addition to transaction fees, Worldpay has a three-year contract with a one-year automatic renewal clause (although some customers report getting a one-year contract) and a hefty early termination fee of up to $295. Worldpay also charges what you might consider “hidden fees,” including an annual PCI compliance fee ($19.95 per month), support fees (custom), and varied data and reports retrieval fees. CardPaymentOptions.com also reports that Worldpay charges reporting fees for accessing 1099 documents.
Other fees you may find:
- Fraud protection (OmniShield): $9.95/month
- Retrieval fee: $2.50/occurrence
- NSF fee: $15/occurrence
- Voice Authorization fee: $0.60/occurrence
- Voice Address Verification Service fee: $0.60/occurrence
You’ll also need to pay extra monthly fees to access your cloud dashboard, virtual terminal, and payment gateway. These are all on top of a standard monthly fee that Worldpay charges every account.
We’ve researched and written about payment providers for years at Fit Small Business, and we’ve found Worldpay to have one of the most complex and hard-to-understand billing practices.
Using Worldpay’s virtual terminal will cost you a monthly fee or a minimum service charge.
(Source: Worldpay)
Worldpay From FIS Hardware
Worldpay offers its own line of POS hardware, called the Smartpay Series. Each terminal is designed to accommodate unique business needs, such as mobility for large stores and tableside payments, as well as a variety of hardware accessories and software applications for countertops.
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Call Worldpay sales for pricing
Worldpay integrates with many POS systems, so you can choose your own hardware if desired. In addition, it offers the Smartpay series of payment processing devices that can include accessories. The included software has bundled packages of apps for everything from sales to scheduling, inventory tracking, and even payroll. Naturally, all the devices accept swipe, chip, or tap payments. Prices are not listed on the website or brochures.
Worldpay offers several countertop and mobile card terminals by Ingenico as well. Ingenico is a popular manufacturer of card machines, and several of the models that are offered by Worldpay have user reviews of 3 or 4 out of 5 stars on retail sites like Amazon.
Hardware lease agreements typically run 12–48 months, with monthly charges that can vary based on your credit score. I recommend partnering with a merchant service provider that lets you purchase equipment outright (so it can be reprogrammed later if needed) or through an interest-free payment plan.
Worldpay from FIS Features
Contract & Merchant Agreement
Merchant agreement terms vary depending on the type of service you sign up for, but the required documentation and personal information collected by Worldpay would most likely be the same. The rates you find on a Worldpay contract will always depend on the information you provided on your business profile, such as estimated sales volume, average ticket size, and even the method by which you accept payments.
Like other merchant services providers, expect Worldpay to make changes to your agreed transaction rates if your sales do not fall within these specifications. If your sales volume figures change dramatically throughout the year for any reason, consider an alternative merchant service provider that offers automatic volume based pricing like Helcim, so you don’t always have to keep negotiating your rates and disrupting your business operations.
Transaction rates specified on your merchant agreement contract will depend on your declared estimated sales volume and average ticket size.
(Source: Law Insider)
Direct Processor
As a direct processor, Worldpay provides you with a dedicated merchant account rather than working with a third party. Working with a direct processor allows you access to more payment processing features at a lower cost—sometimes even at no extra cost.
Some of the advantages of working with a direct processor are:
- Enterprise-level security for your small business
- Being able to accept multiple currencies
- Faster turnaround time for your deposits to reach your bank
- Access to a large list of partner integrations
There are only a handful of direct processors in the market, and Worldpay is as good as any. However, you might find alternatives like Chase Payment Solutions more open with their pricing and fees.
Chargeback & Risk Monitoring
Worldpay has programs to monitor transactions for fraud, keep customer data secure, maintain PCI compliance, and prevent chargebacks. It mainly offers point-to-point encryption of data and indemnification of up to $100,000 of costs associated with a data breach but also has other fraud prevention tools available; some are required for businesses that Worldpay may consider as a higher risk to fraudulent transactions than others.
Other Worldpay security services are:
- OmniShield Assure: Provides merchants with multilevel payment security features such as PCI compliance assistance, security breach assistance, EMV support services, and encryption services.
- eProtect: Provides security for card-not-present transactions from the moment of capture of payment details, processing, and approval of payments.
Set the level of acceptable risk for your online payments from your Worldpay ecommerce dashboard.
(Source: Law Insider)
Payment Gateways
Use Authorize.net or Worldpay’s payment gateway with Pay360 by Capita to process online transactions. This feature allows you to create payment links and checkout pages that you can easily add to your website in minutes. Also, Worldpay’s payment gateway allows you to accept international payments in over 120 currencies, which is why most of Worldpay’s merchant account holders are large, international B2B businesses.
Not all payment processors can work with PayPal, but Worldpay does. Worldpay can arrange for the setup of your PayPal account and integrate it to Worldpay’s gateway. And while your fees will reflect PayPal’s rates, Worldpay will help you with the reporting and settlement of your PayPal transactions.
Create a checkout page and accept over 120 currencies with Worldpay’s payment gateway.
(Source: Law Insider)
Virtual Terminal
As a payment provider, Worldpay is easy to use. Once integrated into your systems, it works just like any payment provider for processing chip, swipe, or tap payments, as well as online payments and ACH. Worldpay Online payments offer real-time data on orders and conversions, and creating reports takes only a couple of clicks.
The virtual terminal is clean and straightforward.
(Source: Law Insider)
Reports & Analysis
Worldpay iQ is a desktop and mobile application that lets you see your payment transactions, view trends, reconcile statements, and view payment history for up to 18 months. Worldpay also offers analytics through BizShields and Insights powered by Womply, which can help you compare performance and get insights for customer retention.
Worldpay iQ lets you search your transaction history for specific transactions using unique payment IDs or search parameters to generate a set of transactions.
(Source: Law Insider)
Business Funding
Worldpay Working Capital can provide funding based on your business potential in terms of an advance on anticipated profits. You pay a fixed charge based on a percentage of the advance you receive, and payment is taken each month as a percentage of your card transactions, so that in busy times, you pay off more, and in slower months, your obligation is less.
FastAccess Funding
Worldpay ISOs can use this program to pay their customers in as fast as 30 minutes. Worldpay targets this program to the gaming industry where game operators and players get funds sent directly to paycards.
Worldpay from FIS Ease of Use
Worldpay Point of Sale, Ecommerce & Other Software Integrations
Worldpay integrates with nearly 250 third-party applications and has direct partnerships with over a dozen. It also provides well-documented APIs for developers wanting to customize the look and feel of their checkouts.
Below are some examples:
- Accounting: KashFlow, Xero, QuickBooks
- Booking/Ticketing: EventSmart, SimpleTix, Ticketing.events
- CRM: Asperto, LimeLight CRM, SAP Anywhere
- ERP: Swan Retail, CardIntegra, AgilPay
- Invoicing: Orders2Cash, Spindle Invoice Payments, HealthAsyst, AcceptEasy
- POS Software: Oracle, Revel, Lightspeed
- Shopping Carts: BigCommerce, Wix, X-Cart
- Subscription Management: Piano, Zoho, Recurly
- Taxation: Avalara Avatax, RBOS Retail
You can customize Worldpay’s API tutorials based on the type of transaction and processes you want to include during checkout.
(Source: Law Insider)
Customer Support
Worldpay customer support is available 24/7 year-round, with a choice of phone numbers for different departments. In addition, you can find support guides and FAQs on its support page. It also offers informational and how-to videos on its YouTube channel, Worldpay TV. These videos are simple, direct, and numerous. They cover everything from how to install a terminal to how to take payments over the phone or generate reports.
What Users Think of Worldpay
The Better Business Bureau lists over 270 complaints against Worldpay in the last three years, 72 of which have been resolved in the past 12 months. Of those, 108 directly concerned billing and collections, and 151 addressed “problems with the product or service.” The BBB website does not show specific complaints about this company, however. There are about 10 reviews on the BBB website, which warn users away. Comments included “deceptive tactics” and “hidden fees.” Nearly all had to do with billing and overcharges.
Other user review sites offer mixed feedback. Customers praise Worldpay’s ease of use and call out the reporting and analytics (Worldpay iQ). However, those who complain almost always cite its expense or problems with their bills. Customer service got good marks for setup, but horrible ones when it came to resolving billing issues. A common theme was “they said they’d resolved the problem, but the next month, I was billed again.” Some review sites have an abundance of generic, one-line “good service” reviews that are sometimes a sign of spam.
- Capterra: 3.7 out of 5 stars with around 15 reviews
- Trustpilot: 2.3 out of 5 stars with more than 2,800 reviews
- G2: 3.6 out of 5 stars with over 30 reviews
Bottom Line
Worldpay is an international payment processor that can handle in-person, online, and ACH payment processing. A direct processor, it can handle payments in more than 120 currencies and integrates with 248 sales and financial applications. It’s part of Fidelity Information Services’ suite of products to help merchants with their payment processing needs. It’s had a difficult history of customer complaints and accusations of hidden fees, but if this payment processor interests you, contact its team and get a clear explanation of the fees and charges that may be associated with your account.
