For the past three years, many of our clients have preferred to pay their personal financial planning fees using our online payment facility, which until now made use of the Amazon Pay system. Well, a few days ago the good folks at Amazon Pay suspended our account with no prior notice after deciding that “regulated financial service” companies were not acceptable for their platform. Apparently, they feared legal liability related to providing a service possibly subject to securities regulations. So, effective immediately we are using AdvicePay to process our clients’ direct bank account and credit card payments. We have researched AdvicePay carefully and are confident that the system is secure and appropriate. In fact, AdvicePay is only available to “regulated financial service” companies and is designed specifically to comply with securities regulatory requirements. In addition, our new system will allow us to bill client accounts monthly if desired.
The process will be slightly different going forward. After our services are discussed and agreed to our office will complete the initial setup for an AdvicePay account for our client. Our client will then receive an email link to a secure website to provide the remaining setup information and will receive an invoice for the service. We have tested the AdvicePay online payment service and believe it to be easy to use.
Amazon Pay’s timing has been less than convenient for us. One of our client’s online fee payments is currently in Amazon Pay limbo. We are confident that it will be refunded, but we are frustrated and disappointed with the way Amazon Pay handled this situation. In addition, we suspect that a few prospective new clients may have tried to pay online per our instruction only to find that they could not.
Here’s the bottom line: As you might have guessed, I’m unhappy with Amazon Pay. However, we now have an online payment system established which will be better. Amen.