Is BILL breaching customer trust and profiteering from virtual cards without consent? I’ve seen several LinkedIn posts recently on why businesses are leaving Bill.com. A giant in the payments world, last quarter it posted >$300M of revenue mainly from subscription and transaction volume. 💰 Why are these businesses leaving Bill? Following Bill.com’s partnerships with Marqeta and Adyen for virtual cards, they may have found new ways to monetize. The latest which I understand has been going on for at least 6-12 months, is ignoring the payor’s payment preference. ❌ >>>> E.g. I’m a business that wants to pay my vendor by ACH via Bill.com. Bill then goes out and looks if that vendor has a card portal that doesn’t have any authentication (like some of Stripe’s products or in the services world AffiniPay products such as LawPay or ClientPay). They then generate a virtual card (which as the issuer they receive interchange on) and impersonate the business to pay via card! <<<< Meanwhile, the vendor is also charged a 2-4% all-in fee for accepting payment via a payment method the payor didn’t want… 📉 For many businesses, this may damage vendor relationships when they might have contractually agreed to pay via ACH/wire and instead paid via card. 💢 For me, it could be pretty dishonest too, and a practice several BILL insiders feel uncomfortable with. It’s one reason why many of the large firms we work with have moved their payment portal to Tranch to offer secure, authenticated electronic payments so that clients can pay via their preferred payment, for example via the Real-Time Payment network for free (for both sides). It also means that if a vendor does want to offer card payments via Tranch, it’s authenticated and Bill.com can’t impersonate their clients to pay. If you, or another business you know, has experienced this comment below and we can start the discussion. Thanks Michael Cizmar for reminding me of this ongoing saga. #fintech #bill #bill.com #marqeta #adyen #virtualcard #card #mastercard #visa #rtp #payments #paymentnews Matt Brown Jason Mikula Alex Johnson Erin McCune Don Muir Sai Arora Jamie Parker Guy Shahar Tina Dimitrova
This behavior by BILL tracks with my experience working there. Product leaders optimized (and even championed!) for dark patterns that generate revenue at the expense of user experience and trust. I think BILL is about to learn a lesson that when you mess with peoples money, you’re messing with their emotions. Especially when serving the SMB segment!
This can’t be true. Is it??
Philip Kelvin "Bill then goes out and looks if that vendor has a card portal that doesn’t have any authentication (like some of Stripe’s products or in the services world AffiniPay products such as LawPay or ClientPay). They then generate a virtual card (which as the issuer they receive interchange on) and impersonate the business to pay via card!" I don't think it is possible to "generate a virtual card" for a third-party in an effort to collect interchange fees in this way. The basic reason for that is not even the harm to the vendor who incurs the processing cost; it is a direct harm to payment processors behind the vendor's card portal (such as Stripe or PyaPal) that are being asked to process a fraudulent credit card not authorized by the owner. You are either (1) deeply mistaken in your facts, or (2) this company is engaged in fraudulent conduct, which is not merely unethical but a felony and wire fraud since wire communications are involved. I am not questioning your integrity as far as these accusations, but you need some solid references here. (1) a proof that a virtual card is created without consent? (2) a memo, or an official policy by the company? (3) how exactly do you know this to be true?
PayPal is charging 8% for international payments, ENFORCING the currency exchange (say JPY to USD, GBP to EUR or CHF to AUD) at a 4.5-5.5% spread - which is nuts! So, BILL still looks okay in comparison!
I would agree that this is the business model of many AP companies today. When selecting a payment provider it's important to know their outreach practices, how they deal with contractual payment terms, and how they intend to care for your vendor relationships and choose the model that fits best for you, beyond the potential for interchange revenue. The payment ecosystem should be beneficial for all parties :).
We’ve moved over multiple companies to Topkey from Bill. Lots of people are fed up with the per transaction fees on top of the expensive monthly subscription. All that said, these are some serious allegations, so I’d want to hear more evidence before assuming this is accurate.
I left Bill.com last quarter for Ramp. Not looking back. This paying by card was ridiculous. And they made it impossible to opt out.
Their digitally generated checks never deposit easily when trying to do so remotely, which is ironic😳
It's not just BILL. This is the business model of many AP companies. It's a shady business practice and hurts the vendor who receives 2-3% less than they could have been paid. And the AP customer usually has no idea that their ACH transaction has been converted to a card payment. I've heard of nightmare reconciliation cases where the vendor claims they didn't receive the payment (but they did via virtual card). BILL also does this for check payments. First they initiate an ACH to their "clearing" account, and then they send the check from THAT ACCOUNT to the vendor. This means they earn the interest on that cash until the vendor cashes the check, not their client. At my company, Glean.ai, we keep it simple. Our ACH payments are paid to vendors the next day. Virtual cards are never used. Checks are printed and mailed to vendors. Customers continue to earn interest until the check is cashed.