Ecommpay Review

Ecommpay is a London-based online card acquirer and payment platform. Its UK entity, Ecommpay Limited, is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority as a payment institution (FRN 607597) and is a principal member of Visa and Mastercard, so it holds the merchant agreement itself rather than reselling a bank's. EU merchants are served by a sister company under common ownership, ECOMMBX LTD, a Cyprus e-money institution that uses the Ecommpay trademark under licence. Most of Ecommpay's business is quoted, custom pricing for mid-market and enterprise online merchants in travel, digital goods, financial services, mobility and retail. It also publishes a rate card for UK micro-businesses, dated 23 October 2025 and still the version on its site in an archived copy from 5 October 2026: 1.30% + £0.20 on UK consumer cards and 3% + £0.20 on international consumer cards, with no setup or monthly fee, no fixed term, and settlement five business days after each day's batch. Extra fees apply for currency conversion (2.5%), declined authorisations (5p), refunds (50p) and chargebacks (£15). The company is privately held and controlled by its founder, Aleksejs Sjarki, through a Cyprus holding company. Its public review footprint is small but positive. A 2021 article by the Russian outlet The Bell, citing three unnamed sources, named Ecommpay as one of the biggest players in the late-2010s cross-border payments market that it said moved illegal online-gambling money out of Russia. We found no regulator or court finding, lawsuit or enforcement action naming the company.

Estimated annual cost at three realistic processing volumes, using Ecommpay’s published online rate plus monthly fees. Real costs vary with average transaction size, chargeback rate, and any negotiated terms.

What Ecommpay is

Ecommpay is an online payments company that acts as a card acquirer, payment processor and gateway in one. It sells mainly to mid-market and enterprise e-commerce businesses, especially in travel and hospitality, digital goods and services, financial services, mobility and retail. Its pitch is a single integration covering card acquiring, alternative payment methods, open banking and Direct Debit, backed by its own risk engine and a named account team. The company says it was founded in 2012, and its careers site lists about 500 co-workers across the group; the UK company itself averaged 194 staff in the year to June 2025. Its UK operating company, Ecommpay Limited, was incorporated on 24 June 2013 according to Companies House; Ecommpay's own regulatory notice gives 23 June. The business runs from London, with a back-office and technical branch in Riga, Latvia, registered in 2015. Other sources give different founding years, and we have not seen a predecessor company, so we state the company's claim rather than a verified date.

Who you contract with, and who owns it

UK merchants sign with Ecommpay Limited, which the Financial Conduct Authority authorises as a payment institution under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (firm reference number 607597). Its audited accounts for the year to 30 June 2025 describe it as a principal member of Visa and Mastercard, and its platform is certified to PCI DSS Level 1. After Brexit, Ecommpay moved its EU merchants to ECOMMBX LTD, a Cyprus electronic money institution licensed by the Central Bank of Cyprus (licence 115.1.3.20/2018). ECOMMBX is under common control with Ecommpay and provides acquiring under the Ecommpay trademark under licence. Ecommpay Limited now earns referral commission on that EU business rather than booking it as revenue. Ecommpay Limited is wholly owned by Ecommpay Holding Limited of Nicosia, Cyprus. Its accounts name the founder, Aleksejs Sjarki, as the ultimate controlling party, and Companies House lists him as a person with significant control holding 75% or more of the shares, which he holds through the Cyprus parent. He stepped down as a director of the UK company in October 2024. We found no outside investor or acquisition.

Why we list it as an acquirer

We classify Ecommpay as a platform/acquirer because it holds the merchant agreement itself. The merchant terms make Ecommpay Limited the contracting party for gateway, card acquiring and FX services, and the company is a principal member of the card schemes rather than an ISO selling a bank's merchant accounts. It is not a payment facilitator: even small businesses are underwritten individually and contract with Ecommpay directly. It is not a merchant of record either, because the merchant stays the seller. Ecommpay also runs its own gateway and orchestration layer, but the acquiring licence is the deciding fact.

What it costs

Ecommpay publishes prices only for UK micro-businesses and small charities. The rate card and key information statement, dated 23 October 2025 (version 1.0) and still the version on the site in an archived copy from 5 October 2026, lists these fees, all deducted from settlements before payout:

• UK consumer cards: 1.30% + £0.20. A £10.00 sale costs £0.33.
• International (non-UK) consumer cards: 3% + £0.20. A £10.00 sale costs £0.50.
• Commercial and business cards: the UK or international rate plus 0.75%.
• FX markup: 2.5% on top of the transaction fee for any payment not in GBP, converted at an Oanda reference rate.
• Declined authorisation: £0.05 each. Refund: £0.50 each.
• Chargeback: £15 plus the disputed amount. A collaboration request, where the cardholder's bank queries a payment before charging it back, also costs £15.
• No setup fee, no monthly fee and no account opening fee. The rate card does not mention PCI or statement fees, and does not say whether VAT is added.

The 20p fixed fee matters on small baskets. At Ecommpay's own example of a £30 average sale, a UK card payment costs £0.59, or about 2.0%. The bigger cost is overseas customers. Ecommpay's worked example of a €10 international card payment comes to £0.68 in fees on £8.74, about 7.8%, once the FX markup is added. The small-business pricing page shows the international rate as 3.00% + €0.20, but the rate card, which takes priority under the merchant terms, says 3% + £0.20. Mid-market and enterprise merchants are quoted per account. Ecommpay's own guides describe the interchange++ and blended models it uses, but it publishes no rates for them. Its terms say fee changes require at least two months' notice.

How it works and what you get

Larger merchants apply, are assigned a client manager, and integrate through the hosted payment page, web and mobile SDKs, CMS plugins (WooCommerce, Magento/Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce, commercetools) or the payments API, testing first in a separate environment. Ecommpay says integration takes anywhere from hours to weeks. The card product supports 3-D Secure 2, address verification, network tokens and account updater, recurring and one-click payments, delayed capture and cascading between routes. Ecommpay says merchants can accept more than 130 currencies, with local acquiring through partners in the UK, Europe, Latin America, the US and Canada. Around cards it offers digital wallets including Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and Mastercard Click to Pay, open banking, Bacs and SEPA Direct Debit, buy now, pay later options, payouts, payment links and a virtual terminal. The website advertises more than 100 alternative payment methods, while the 2025 accounts refer to over 70 payment methods integrated. The small-business plan is narrower: cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay through the hosted page, plus payment links, QR codes, subscriptions, refunds and a Xero integration. It has WooCommerce and Magento plugins but no native Shopify integration. Ecommpay is online only and sells no card terminals.

Settlement, holds and reserves

On the small-business plan, transactions are batched at a 9:00 pm UK cut-off and settle five business days later (T+5) to your own UK business bank account. Weekend and bank-holiday payments count from the next business day. Ecommpay provides a daily financial statement. It does not publish settlement terms for larger merchants. The holdback rights are broad. The rate card says Ecommpay may hold funds after unusual activity, sudden spikes or breaches of its chargeback and fraud thresholds. Clause 16 of the merchant terms lets it hold back settlements as collateral, demand a guarantee or cash reserve within 30 days, or impose a fixed or rolling reserve whenever it reasonably judges its risk exposure too high. It can keep that money until it is satisfied. It can also set fees, chargebacks and card-scheme fines off against settlements without notice. Ecommpay's annual accounts likewise describe holding back merchant funds as its protection against chargebacks and scheme fines.

Contract terms

The small-business plan is pay-as-you-go. You can leave on 30 days' notice to customer support, while Ecommpay must give 90 days' notice. The rate card says it can terminate immediately in limited cases such as fraud, money laundering or serious legal breaches, and that you are then liable for its losses; clause 20.4 of the merchant terms lists further grounds, including inaccurate information and unsatisfactory know-your-customer checks. Ecommpay's published Payment Services Agreement terms for larger merchants, as archived in August 2026, let either party terminate for convenience on 90 calendar days' written notice. They also allow holdbacks set in each merchant's service order. The merchant terms also provide for minimum volume commitments and minimum fees where a rate card includes them, and minimum fees for the rest of a fixed fee term fall due if the agreement ends early other than on the permitted grounds; the small-business rate card includes neither. Both sets of terms are governed by English law. Ecommpay's liability in a contract year is capped at roughly the fees you paid it over the previous year, though the cap does not apply to its obligation to pay your settlements. Complaints go to complaints@ecommpay.com and then, for eligible businesses, to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Which businesses it takes

Ecommpay's 2025 accounts list its merchant base as digital goods and services (advertising, online education, gaming, telecoms), financial services (crowdfunding, remittance, virtual and crypto asset services), mobility (car rental, private aviation, taxis, ticketing), retail and e-commerce, and travel and hospitality. Several of those sectors are higher-risk by card-scheme standards, and its developer documentation supports the card-scheme flags for cryptocurrency purchases. The same accounts describe a deliberate policy of 'derisking': Ecommpay turns away business outside its risk appetite and refers it to partner acquirers for a commission. The small-business plan is limited to a published list of mainstream eligible sectors. Ecommpay's current website does not advertise gambling processing.

Reputation

As of 20 October 2026, Ecommpay's claimed Trustpilot profile shows a TrustScore of 4.6 from 30 reviews. The star split works out to about 4.4: 84% five-star, 3% three-star and 13% one-star. Recent reviews praise responsive account managers and reliable processing. The one-star reviews include a 2024 complaint from a merchant about onboarding delays and repeated refusals to release a 5% reserve held for 90 days under its agreement, and a 2025 complaint from a consumer whose card issuer flagged the payment page. The company's history attracts more scrutiny than its current reviews. On 1 August 2021 the Russian business outlet The Bell published an article on how illegal online-gambling money left Russia. It said three unnamed sources named Ecommpay as one of the biggest and most sophisticated players in the cross-border payments market of the late 2010s, and that more than 60% of Ecommpay's website traffic over the previous 12 months came from Russia. The article noted that the company has said Russia is far from its only market; it did not report a response from Ecommpay to the allegations. This is press reporting from unnamed sources, not a finding against the company. No regulator or court finding followed that we could find. Our searches found no lawsuit, fine or enforcement action naming Ecommpay Limited or ECOMMBX. The UK company files full audited accounts, and its auditor reported no material uncertainty over its going concern status for the year to June 2025. That year the company reported €15.6m of revenue (down from €27.2m as EU merchants moved to ECOMMBX), €7.8m of mainly referral income and a profit of €0.2m. It reported processing volume up 45% and transaction count down 7%.

Who should use Ecommpay

Ecommpay makes most sense for an established online business that sells across several countries and wants a regulated acquirer offering local payment methods and hands-on account and risk management. That includes travel operators, digital-services firms, subscription businesses and cross-border retailers. Get the quote in interchange++ form so you can see the margin, and ask for settlement timing, reserve terms and any minimum volume commitment in writing before you sign. For a UK micro-business, the small-business plan is an unusually transparent, contract-free way to take cards and wallets online. It is not cheap, though, for overseas or non-sterling sales, and five-day settlement is slow, so check that your cash flow can absorb it. Businesses that need in-person payments, next-day funding or Shopify should look elsewhere.