Qualpay Review

Qualpay is a San Mateo, California payments company that sells a merchant account and its own payment gateway as a single product, so one account covers online checkout, a virtual terminal, recurring billing, invoicing and text-to-pay, ACH and in-person terminals, with one set of reports running from authorisation to deposit. It was incorporated in October 2013, launched its platform in 2014 and was founded by payments-industry veterans, and its leadership team comes largely from BA Merchant Services and Merchant e-Solutions; Craig Gass has been chief executive since at least 2015. It is a registered ISO of its sponsor bank, which is now Pinnacle Bank, a Tennessee bank, doing business as Synovus Bank: Synovus took a 60% stake and three of five board seats on 1 June 2023, Synovus combined with Pinnacle Financial Partners on 1 January 2026, and Synovus Bank merged into Pinnacle Bank the next day; Pinnacle's filings still list the 60% holding as of March 2026. The merchant agreement is signed by Qualpay, the bank and the merchant, and runs for three years with an early-termination fee equal to your average monthly Qualpay fees multiplied by the months left, with a $150 minimum. Qualpay publishes no rates at all as of September 2026; pricing is quoted after a free statement audit it calls the Savings Challenge. Qualpay says card payments take two to three days to fund. In recent years Qualpay has concentrated on propane and heating-oil dealers, waste haulers, utilities, nonprofits and B2B sellers, and it says its energy-sector volume passed $1 billion in the first quarter of 2025. The main blemish on its record is a 2020 Federal Trade Commission settlement over payment processing for the MOBE business-coaching scheme, which permanently bars it from processing for business-coaching and money-making-method sellers, permanently requires it to screen and monitor its riskier card-not-present clients, and imposes 15 years of compliance reporting and recordkeeping.

What Qualpay is

Qualpay sells a merchant account and a payment gateway as one product. Many merchant-account resellers pair their accounts with a third-party gateway. Qualpay wrote its own, so a card taken online, through the virtual terminal, on a recurring plan, by text or on a Verifone terminal goes through the same account and appears in the same reports. Its help centre describes the company as a registered ISO of its sponsor bank. The merchant agreement is signed by Qualpay, the bank and you, and the bank is the party responsible for paying out your settlement funds, except for American Express transactions.

The company was incorporated in October 2013, according to its BBB file, and launched its platform in 2014, which is the year Qualpay itself gives. Qualpay describes its founders as payments-industry veterans and programmers, and its leadership team comes largely from BA Merchant Services and Merchant e-Solutions. Craig Gass, chief executive since at least 2015, worked at both. Qualpay announced $8 million in total capital commitments after a Series A round in September 2015. Its headquarters is at 4 West 4th Avenue in San Mateo, California.

Ownership: from venture-backed to bank-controlled

Synovus announced a strategic investment in April 2022 and completed it on 1 June 2023, taking 60% of the equity and three of the five board seats. Synovus's annual report puts the price at $7.0 million in cash plus the settlement of $31.1 million Qualpay owed the bank. The same filing says Synovus had previously covered chargebacks for Qualpay when Qualpay's cash reserve account was unavailable to support them. That debt was the bank's exposure going into the deal. On 1 January 2026 Synovus and Pinnacle combined as Pinnacle Financial Partners, and on 2 January Synovus Bank merged into Pinnacle Bank. Pinnacle's list of subsidiaries as of 31 March 2026 still shows a 60% holding in Qualpay, Inc. Qualpay's agreements and site footer now name 'Pinnacle Bank, a Tennessee bank, dba Synovus Bank' as the sponsor bank, and the combined bank says it will trade under both the Pinnacle and Synovus brands until consolidating under Pinnacle in early 2027.

Pricing: nothing published

As of September 2026 Qualpay publishes no processing rates, no monthly fee, and no chargeback, PCI or statement fees. The pricing page it once had now returns a 404. You get a quote after the 'Savings Challenge', a free audit of one of your current statements, which Qualpay says checks whether your transactions are reaching the lowest interchange category they qualify for. That pitch has substance for B2B and government-facing sellers. Level II and Level III data on commercial cards can lower interchange, and Qualpay builds its sales story around it. Still, the audit is how the sales process starts, and a quote from it is not a published price. The agreement itself says the acquirer cannot guarantee any interchange rate, and it may reprice your account without notice if your volume, ticket size or way of doing business differs materially from the application.

The contract is the main drawback

Qualpay's standard Merchant Card Processing Agreement (V4.3) is a traditional ISO contract, and the terms are worth reading before you sign:

• A three-year initial term, starting when you sign or when your first transaction is processed, then continuing until either side gives 60 days' written notice.
• An early-termination fee of the greater of $150 or your average monthly Qualpay fees multiplied by the months remaining. On an account paying Qualpay $200 a month, leaving a year early would cost about $2,400. The fee does not apply in Maryland and is $50 in Arkansas.
• An exclusivity clause: during the term you may not take similar services from another provider without Qualpay's written consent.
• Reserves the acquirer can set up or increase at any time and at its sole discretion, held until one year after the later of termination or your last transaction, or longer if it reasonably decides that is needed, plus the right to hold funds without notice when activity looks unusual.
• The acquirer can end the agreement on 15 days' notice, or immediately on grounds that include a material change in your processing activity. You can leave without the exit fee if the acquirer changes its own fees and you give written notice before the change takes effect, or if it fails to cure a material breach within 30 days.
• Individual binding arbitration in Atlanta under JAMS rules and Georgia law, a class-action waiver, a personal guaranty, and 30 days to dispute any statement.

The term and the exit fee are negotiable in principle. Ask for a month-to-month agreement or a capped termination fee in writing before you sign, and if you cannot get one, weigh the term against the savings the audit promises.

Funding and reporting

Qualpay says card payments take two to three days to fund and ACH payments three to five; funding days are set per account at approval. Its example funding calendar, for a one-day funding delay, shows card batches closed by 9 PM Pacific on Monday arriving on Thursday, and weekend batches arriving on Tuesday or Wednesday. Its ACH example, with a 2 PM Pacific cut-off, shows a Monday batch arriving on Friday. Qualpay publishes no next-day or instant option for merchants; its instant-funding module is sold to sponsor banks. The reporting is the stronger half of the story. There is a daily batch report, a pending-funding report showing what is due to arrive, and a reconciliation report that breaks each deposit into batches, dispute adjustments and fees. For a propane dealer or waste hauler matching hundreds of recurring payments against invoices, that is often the part that decides the choice.

Who it is built for now

Qualpay's recent marketing and partnerships concentrate on propane and heating-oil dealers, waste and recycling haulers, utilities, nonprofits, B2B sellers and home-services companies. It has partnerships with the National Propane Gas Association, the Pennsylvania Petroleum Association and the Southeastern Propane Alliance, it was named an endorsed partner by the National Waste & Recycling Association, it has integrated with energy-industry billing software, and in April 2025 it said its energy-sector processing volume passed $1 billion in the first quarter, up from $500 million a year earlier. It also sells its underwriting, boarding and acquiring modules to software vendors, ISOs and banks as a white-label platform.

The FTC order

In 2020 Qualpay settled a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit over its processing for MOBE, an online business-coaching scheme the FTC had shut down two years earlier. The FTC alleged that Qualpay opened MOBE's accounts in January 2017 and kept processing despite warning signs, including Discover flagging fraudulent activity the following month, excessive chargebacks and questions about where MOBE was based. The complaint says Qualpay processed nearly $80 million for MOBE, its largest-volume customer. The stipulated order, entered by the court on 16 July 2020, imposes a $46.8 million judgment, suspended because of Qualpay's inability to pay. It permanently bars Qualpay from processing for sellers of business-coaching programmes or money-making methods and for merchants on Mastercard's MATCH list for fraud-related reasons, and it permanently requires screening and monitoring of higher-risk card-not-present clients, with compliance notices and recordkeeping for 15 years from entry, into 2035. The order excludes government entities, public utilities, building-maintenance businesses including waste haulers, and companies that predominantly sell oil, gas or propane from that enhanced-screening category, which covers several of the verticals Qualpay now focuses on.

Reputation and support

Qualpay's BBB profile shows an A+ rating, no complaints and no customer reviews as of September 2026, and notes that the company is not BBB-accredited. The profile lists 25 employees, a figure BBB does not verify. Live phone support runs from 6am to 4pm Pacific, Monday to Friday, and Qualpay promises email replies within three hours. The company also describes itself as a PCI DSS Level 1 service provider.

Who should use it

If you run a recurring-billing business in energy, waste, utilities or B2B services, take a lot of commercial cards and have outgrown a flat-rate processor's reporting, Qualpay is worth a quote. The audit is free, and the reconciliation tools are good. Go in knowing what you are signing: unpublished rates, a three-year term with exclusivity and a scaling exit fee, funding in two to three business days, and a permanent FTC order whose reporting obligations run into 2035. If you want month-to-month terms and a price you can see before you apply, this is not the right processor.