Hacker News Reader

Comment by staunch | Hacker News Reader

The big turn off for me with Braintree was the ridiculous application requirements. You could imigrate into the US five times and provide less documentation.

I know why they ask for that info (to cover their asses), but it was enough for me to avoid them.

A really simple (and fast!) application process could be a very big selling point. People are impulsive, and when evaluating processors I'd probably go for the easiest/fastest all other things being roughly equal.

"Start processing credit cards today (really, seriously)!"

View on HN

For application requirements, we (Braintree) work with Visa, MasterCard and the sponsoring banks to make sure that all our merchants are in compliance. There are other payment providers that will turn a blind eye to these requirements in addition to postponing proper due diligence and underwriting until it's a problem for a merchant. We regularly have merchants approach us that are in some sort of bind (e.g. violation of card association rules, account was frozen / shut down) because their previous payments provider didn't do things correctly. The payments industry is very complex with a lot of layers and nuances. We try our best to do things right even if it means more upfront effort.

An example: "With increased revenue, the merchant bank became concerned with the increase in liability. So, the bank closed the merchant account." And because they couldn't get their credit card data back, they had to ask all their customers to enter their payment information again. http://blog.recurly.com/2010/05/credit-card-portability/

Additional Info:

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/running_small_business/...

http://whiteelephantmedia.com/

http://www.braintreepaymentsolutions.com/blog/paypal-reserve...

People are impulsive, but businesses aren't. If you're some guy wanting to start transaction, you might need a smaller solution. For businesses, I think they want a big set up process because it makes the managers feel safer.

Businesses are run by people.

Small businesses are run by people.

Large businesses are run by processes and paperwork.

I had some small amount of issues getting started with Braintree as well, because of my business model. We had to provide a ton of documentation... but the end result is worth it. It's been great after that initial hump.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com