Looking for a user review of Nochex? Looking for a UK alternative to Paypal? Read on.
I’ll give a positive shout here for the Nochex SELLER ACCOUNT. We use it on our site for small orders, but it is limited to £100 per transaction, and UK cards only unless you open the Merchant Account.
DO NOT open a Nochex Merchant Account. We got stung this way when asking them for a larger transaction limit on our seller account (trying to escape the awful Paypal). They ask you your likely monthly turnover, you tell them, and they then want to retain that much forever as security against chargebacks! This means depositing maybe thousands of pounds with them, and then just kissing it goodbye, with no interest even, as long as you want to use the account (ie forever)!
They tried to sting us this way. They don’t tell you all this until you have opened the account and they have had your £50 setup fee. I asked them to revert the account back to seller status when I found this out; they wouldn’t. So I closed it and my wife opened another the same day.
They then held our money in the old account frozen for 6 months in case of a chargeback (that we have never had anyway). Big thumbs down for the Nochex Merchant Account.
However, the basic seller account, for small orders from UK customers below £100 each, is not too bad. That said, there is a £1000 a week withdrawl limit. They charge less fees than Paypal, have a UK call centre, the money is in your account faster, and no account freezing or silly chargebacks like Paypal as well. If you are a small UK seller with UK customers, the SELLER ACCOUNT is just fine.
We use Paypal for some larger and overseas transactions, but currently have hundreds of pounds reversed, frozen or whatever they call it, for spurious chargebacks where we can prove the item was delivered by courier. I am seriously searching for a viable alternative to Paypal, preferably one that doesn’t have the fraudulent chargebacks that Paypal allow people to get away with.
When selling with Paypal, you must accept that there is always the possibility that you will be giving the stuff away. If you can accept that, then Paypal is for you. Why is this? Because they will take your money back at the drop of a hat on the slightest whim of any buyer. If it isnt in your account, they will steal it from any linked accounts. (Hint: never load a Paypal account from a card or account if you are a seller, or if you must, use an empty account, one you intend to close or a card you can cancel or “lose” and get a replacement [with a new number] tomorrow). Paypal WILL steal your money. It’s not a matter of “if” — its a matter of when, how often and how much. Can you afford that risk? I cant.
Also, NEVER leave money you cannot afford to lose in your Paypal account. They WILL freeze (read steal) it! If a business seller, clear it out as soon as it reaches a couple of hundred. Never get complacent and leave £500+ in there. That’s when they find a spurious reason to freeze it. Good luck with the call centre in India trying to get it unfrozen this year.
I have yet to find a serious alternative to Paypal that isn’t without excessive fees or silly restrictions. If you know of one that works in the first world, PLEASE tell me using the comment box.
Its a shame Nochex has the silly UK restrictions and transaction limits on their seller account. They could be so much more. They could be the serious contender to Paypal if they could only wake up and smell the coffee……
Thank you for your review. I am sorry you feel you had a bad experience when you applied for a Nochex Merchant Account. Can you send me the email address you used to apply for your account with Nochex so I can investigate this further? Kind regards, Peter
I didn’t “feel” I had a bad experience, I did have a bad experience. It is a fact that if I say to you that I will turnover £5k a month through the merchant account, you will retain the first £5k of my money as security forever. Paying no interest.
Yet, with a seller account, there is no such funds retention and I can do £4k a month with no such restriction.
My “merchant” account was open two days when you refused to revert it to seller. All you could offer was closure. Then, because it was a “merchant account” (for two days) I had to wait six months to get my money back? Having never ever had a single chargeback in years?
Your only competitor in this field is Paypal. And everyone knows their customer service sucks and they are corrupt and steal peoples money.
The Nochex seller account is simple, reliable, works with other applications, charges are not too bad, money is in the account nice and fast, etc. I love it. But, I cannot take £101 in a transaction? I can’t take a payment from a non-UK card? I can’t have multiple payment email addresses on the account? No Dollar transactions? I can’t even send money to another Nochex user! Why on earth not?
All the above is true; and whilst I appreciate your kind offer of looking into this old problem, we dealt with it by making another account and reverting ourselves back to seller status. If the policies outlined above are still the same, engaging personally would not allow me to move forward with Nochex. I turn many thousands of pounds over through Paypal; I detest Paypal, their corrupt chargeback policies and periodic account freezing. I would dearly love to transact that money through Nochex instead. But, alas, while the policies outlined above are still in effect, I am unable to.
As I said, I like Nochex. But it is clear you have never consulted with any internet sellers to see what they need from a payment processor. An established internet seller could tell you what needs to be done to corner much more of this market. I could show you shopping cart screenshots of failed payments and abandoned shopping carts and tell you exactly why they failed. I have talked customers through the interface and heard their frustration as their payment declined for a third time. Nochex could be so much more if they would only engage with their customers and respond to market needs.
Hello Editor and thanks for the reply. I am new here and I am certainly up for remaking our products to be a better fit for our customers, so I welcome your comments about the relative demerits of the Seller account.
More immediately, I like to think we can provide you with what you want, but it is difficult without being more specific. Can you drop me a line at [noted] so we can discuss?
Thanks, Peter
Sounds more like they need your details to shut your 2nd accnt like paypal do…
Please dont be fooled by Nochex
read the terrible reviews,
you will be sold on a lie. They will tell you they are cheaper than paypal, they are not, if you are turning over 5k or more for sure, we are doing between 7 and 10k monthly andf t this rate paypal are much cheaper.
Alsl you will get an email from nochex tobegin tading. DONT….. they wil hold your money and you will not be abe to withdraw. W are in the process odf taking legal proceedings for mis selling.
SEE THE REVIEWS…..
P
crap company, mis selling sell their prduct and say cheaper than paypal, IF YOU ARE DOING ANY REAL BUSINESS THEY ARE MORE EXPENSVE BY FAR….Im not much for paypal but nochex do lie from the beginning. We know of 3 comnpanies just locally, currently working with the FO regarding Nochex and their policies.
Be very careful with these guys, they will sell you on fasle inforation regarding rates, then hold your funds. Their ticked system is awful and customer service a joke.
Dear ouch and overworked, if you are honest and straightforward then you will never have an issue with Nochex.
Hope this helps,
– Peter (I work for Nochex)
Hello again Peter.
I am still a happy Nochex user, but am still hampered by the silly restrictions Nochex impose between the ‘Seller’ and ‘Merchant’ account. Hence we still only use ‘Seller’ and 80% of our business goes to Paypal.
Last year we had a salesman contact us from Nochex. He wanted us to dump Paypal and use Nochex exclusively. I was genuinely open to that and asked him many questions and gave him a few conditions and policies to match.
I linked him here too, and in moments he told me the email address of my failed Merchant account too – so I know you guys know who is who here.
He went away promising to come back with answers and further dialogue but never did.
Since then, Paypal now remit to the bank in two hours – not days like Nochex. You used to have the edge on that but now you don’t.
Paypal are known to randomly freeze accounts. Not with us – after over a decade with them we have a VIP phone number in Ireland in case of issues. No such support exists for Nochex ‘Seller account’ clients.
Since then, Paypal fee-matched [or maybe beat – I should check] Nochex (for us anyway – probably for others too).
I have always said, Nochex could be so much more. But I think you guys need to really brainstorm with a few big internet sellers who actually know how this stuff works from our side of the fence.
If I were the MD of Nochex, Paypal would be history in the UK by now. As they are in Germany (Google Sofort).
You need to get maybe a half dozen big internet sellers up to your offices (Leeds?) and actually listen to what they have to say to you. Then make some changes based upon that feedback.
Hint: You want the guys doing around £50k a year with you on ‘Seller accounts’ who also run other providers on their shopping carts.
I have been selling on the net since 98. Our e-turnover is a healthy six figures. Nochex gets exactly £52k of that per annum – because that’s the maximum on our account type.
I would be happy to be one of the consultants that helped orchestrate a change in Nochex for the better. I’ll give you a full day of my time, but I want a consultancy fee, and an overnight hotel in Leeds to do it. I suggest you do the same for a few others the same day. Let’s pull the ideas together.
I know your email already from the backside here. Reply if you are interested in doing something like that and I will contact you directly.
For others: Please continue to note here your experiences of Nochex.
crap, stay away, nochex closes accounts and holds fund for 6 months
I was with nochex as a sole trader operating our website online shop.
We grew and went to ltd company status. We were going to leave but were persuaded by nochex to stay as it would be a simple changeover no problem.
We did. After 4 days we noticed we couldnt withdraw and then the trouble started.
They actively try to deceive and then closed our account for no reason with over 1000 pound in the account. We couldn`t withdraw and couldn`t refund the customers.
They said they would release our funds in 60 days.
They then emailed and said 180 days? 6 months???. Scammers.
DO NOT TRUST.
I have started a small claims against them and would urge anyone to do the same. Just google them you will see what they are up to with many companies.
14 day returns policy we have and also we manufacture to order.
Although we have honored the orders.
They are a poor excuse of a company.
You need to take action and report as many complaints as possible so the powers can be can finally see what they are up to.
FOS are useless here although may write a statement after looking at your issue that you could use in court.
Although there are not good here as nochex are under their radar and not governed.
BE WISE, STAY AWAY, GOOGLE THEM BEFORE DECIDING.
YOU WILL HAVE ISSUES AFTER A WHILE
Peter, your full of it mate, full of it. Nothing at all changed for us we just went from sole trader to ltd. and you guys still did it to us. your completely unethical and blindly defend nochex.
You havent a clue how many are queing to take action here pal.
I personally had a meeting with hm revenue, trading standards and FOS all who agree your terms and practice are shocking.
hence the action we are taking
Actually, I have made some progress with Nochex. We are about to expand our eshop considerably and I wanted non Paypal branded international card acceptance capabilities. Paypal pro was the obvious choice, but I dont like all my eggs in one basket and Nochex are a UK outfit (gotta support UK business).
I contacted Peter, who put me onto another chap, I outlined previous issues and eventually they offered me a merchant account on agreeable terms. They have stepped up to the plate for me. Its early days, but the new merchant account seems to be going well.
Johnny, why did they freeze your account simply for going Limited? We are going to be looking at exactly that quite soon and a heads up would be useful.
Hey guys,
was just about to sign up with nochex and also had a chat with Peter on the online chat on their website but I thought I will just google them before going ahead and came up with this..
Just out of curiosity is there more reliable providers with no monthly fee who would accept the cards from all european countries ?
There are other options, but many of them are too expensive to use and/or onerous in other ways. I don’t think a perfect provider exists. Its simply a question of finding one that gels with your way of doing business and what you need from such a service.
This week, as mentioned above, we are switching Nochex on to a large world facing e-shop alongside Paypal. After a few little niggles getting the new merchant account set up, all seems to be OK now.
Despite my past criticism of my previous Nochex Merchant account experience, it seems a little publicity has helped them smell the coffee and be open to reworking their model a bit. I am happy with what they have done for us recently.
I am not terribly convinced by these folks here who speak of account freezing and then don’t elaborate when asked questions. We don’t know what they sell, or if they did something iffy or had loads of chargebacks or what.
Revisiting the whole Nochex subject today Andrew, I would suggest giving them a shot. As long as you play fair with them, and can accept their limitations (like no dollar/euro transactions) and little quirks, they will probably be OK.
Nochex is a dreadful company. They took over £70 out of my account in August for goods that I have not received. I have asked for a refund and, to date, receive nothing than various lame excuses.
The customer service is appalling and I am out of pocket.
I have always previously used paypal who offer excellent customer protection. My experience of dealing with this company is so bad that I seriously considering taking the matter to trading standards and consumer associations.
Nochex do not sell goods. They are a payment provider for those who do. I believe they also do not allow charge backs, which is great for those sellers who are used to being stiffed by item not received fraud.
With Nochex, you are buying e-money, you are not buying goods. The e-money is then used to pay the seller. Similarly, if you bought Euros at the Post Office, you wouldn’t try to blame them if you later bought something with them that was crap.
During checkout with Nochex, you have to tick a box to say you have read and understood this.