Sadly, Braintree's letter is not going to have much impact.

Most of the bigger providers care more about their own interests than those of their customers.

I'm not sure Braintree is being all that different.

I've heard nothing but good things about them ... except that their minimum transaction level is high enough many/most/all??? startups can't meet it. So the latter obviously go to Paypal and when/if larger Auth.net.

Braintree is asking those companies to make it easier to "graduate" to Braintree. Since Braintree provides one of the highest quality services in this field, they're obviously not worried about too many customers defecting, or at least not until they get so big they bring it in house.

Which in the current startup capital climate is going to be very rare, I suspect.

>> Braintree is asking those companies to make it easier to "graduate" to Braintree.

I think you hit the nail on the head.

I just looked at their pricing and we cant afford them, so we are stuck with paypal for now.

By the time we grow enough we will be locked into paypal.

For merchants processing less than 1-2k a month, Braintree probably is a bit more expensive (~$50 a month) but I think it's worth it, knowing you'll get great customer service, clean APIs, bundled services, data portability, and no hidden fees. For me it's a no brainer.

@bshep: A bit offtopic, but how has your experience been with PayPal so far?

I'm investigating payment gateways for a SAAS offering (I'm based in Canada), and despite all the negativity surrounding PayPal, it seems to be the easiest way to go. I can't afford to go with Braintree, and I'm not quite sure they even deal with Canadian companies.

You might want to consider Beanstream -- they're based out of Victoria and offer services broadly similar to Braintree (data vault for CCs, etc).

IIRC, it is possible for a Canadian company to use Braintree and other US based payment processors, but you need: a) A US EIN number b) A US chequing account

The US chequing account is easy -- you can get that through Harris (www.harrisbank.com). They are actually a subsidiary of BMO, and so are used to opening US accounts for Canadian individuals and companies. You can work with them entirely by mail/e-mail (including the account opening process). I know foreign companies can apply for an EIN -- but it's not something we've done, so I can't speak from experience there.

I have a personal US bank account with Harris. Very easy to setup for Canadians and great customer service.

>I can't afford to go with Braintree, and I'm not quite sure they even deal with Canadian companies.

There's a link (it's an ajaxy modal window or I'd give the link) on their pricing page for people outside of the US. If you don't have a legal US presence "you can work with one of their partners for a merchant account" but you have to be "processing at least 3 million in volume or will meet those thresholds within 12-18 months." So even less of an option.

FWIW I've been quite pleased with PayPal, both standard and "pro." They get a bad rap (somewhat deserved), but for ease of setup and low barriers to entry, they're the best I've found.

For one customer (a music festival) I set up paypal integration for ticket sales three years ago and haven't had to change anything since.

I've also had a good experience with paypal. I've also tried google wallet (much cheaper) but google does not allow for subscriptions which I need for my business.

The only thing with paypal is that if they decide your business is somehow in a legal gray area they will take your paypal balance and you have very little recourse. At least this is what I have always heard in Paypal horror stories.

Have you ever integrated PayPal in a way that requires a PayPal account for purchase (ie: turning the "PayPal account optional" setting off)? How many people bounce when they have to pay with their PayPal account? I was looking into their Adaptive Payments API, but it requires both sender and receiver(s) to have a PayPal account. I'm not sure if that's a good idea.

I'm not brave enough for that. Everything we do is about reducing friction.

Unfortunately, Braintree's services are only available to US companies.

Their open letter on the other hand is relevant to the entire credit card industry.

Another happy BrainTree user here. Their backing bank was a bit of a pain, but BrainTree themselves were great.

I'm glad to see them trying to make moves like this. It's one of the reasons that our business is with them.

Seconded. Braintree is probably the best vendor I've ever worked with.

We (Braintree) have no contracts and no termination fees. Merchants can leave whenever they want and for whatever reason without penalty. Some of our sponsoring banks unfortunately have cancellation fee language (that we don't control and are trying to get removed) but we provide an addendum to every customer that states they will never be responsible for any cancellation fees.

I see on your application page that you have that addendum. I'm sorry for the incorrect statement, the rep I worked with last year didn't do a good job of communicating requirements (also was very inflexible with monthly fees).

I will be sure to keep Braintree in mind for my next venture

Braintree has gone out of their way to help my company out, they are extremely startup friendly.

My customer service rep at Braintree handles regular billing inquiries and has also helped me with some coding issues - that speaks volumes in my book.