Allied Wallet — a reliable online payment service or rip off?

What is Allied Wallet?

Allied Wallet claims to offer highly competitive transaction rates with no hidden costs along with quick, reliable, and efficient processing. However, the contracts’ contents and expenses (for merchants) are subject to changes based on the country and nature of business.

Despite the claims made by Allied Wallet that it gives its customers more freedom by allowing them to accept payments in over a hundred payment methods and better conversion rates, it has not received much online coverage. 

Allied Wallet offers the following payment processing products and services:

• Online Payments service provides safe and fast online payments for businesses of varying scales.
• E-Wallet solution that is suitable for retailers and individuals to pay consumers, associates, and businesses.
• Payment Gateway allows users to make online payments for goods/services globally.
• mPOS and credit card readers allow in-person card payments.
• Merchant accounts. Global merchant services accept payments online securely.
• Prepaid cards. Access your e-wallet balance anytime and anywhere. You can load funds to your wallet, withdraw money via ATMs, or spend at any shop accepting MasterCard.

Last year, the Federal Trade Commission charged the company over fraudulent transactions and helping dubious merchants hide from banks and credit card networks. Currently, it has lost its authorisation license from FCA and has gone into liquidation. Either Allied Wallet will cease its operations or move to another jurisdiction/create a new company. In any case, I will not recommend using this service at all as you are at risk of losing your money. As the company lost its FCA status, it is not a safe service anymore, and you should be highly cautious when contemplating its offerings.

Fees and other charges

Allied Wallet has not listed any prices on its official website. It only states that merchants can benefit from its low rates that start from 1%. There is no verifiable information about equipment lease terms and other charges related to transactions, wire transfer, refund, monthly maintenance, PCI compliance, early termination, and retrieval. Therefore, it would be difficult to say if its rates are more competitive with other payment gateways or not.  

Is Allied Wallet Safe?

Given its international presence and lack of online reputation, I advise merchants to read all the expenses and charges in the contract carefully. Don’t expect a miracle; salespeople use a similar tactic to sign-up more customers when it comes to sales and transparency. The website is not a valuable resource to know about its current status, and its resellers may mislead future users into sign-up. 

Since it is not authorised by the UK’s FCA currently and has gone into liquidation, I don’t recommend it as a secure and reliable service. The company has no online reputation; only a few blogs and websites have reviewed it without any substantial claims or links from the official website. Many merchants have complained about their final contracts being different from what was being discussed by the company’s sales representatives. These factors make it a very dubious business, and you should stay away from signing up with this service.

Conclusion 

I liked that the company has several options to contact customer support- live chat, call, message, along with a comprehensive FAQ page for merchants, consumers, and developers. However, I came across a few complaints where the users had to wait for several weeks and months to receive an unfavourable response. It should follow the industry standard as nobody would like to wait around for their payment problems. I want to highlight that Allied Wallet does not have a noticeable online reputation, and it does not even make an effort to respond to these complaints. The negative feedback mainly cited funds holding or account closure without adequately notifying the user, final contracts different from what was explained during sign-up, unjustified chargebacks, and customer support being unhelpful in providing reasonable answers to extra charges.

The sudden closing of accounts or holding funds typically happens if a merchant is selling high-risk goods or services. You can also refer to the list of prohibited industries to avoid such situations. I would also suggest carefully reading the terms and conditions and the contract before deciding to sign-up with this service. Allied Wallet’s website does not disclose the contract conditions it offers to an average merchant, so it would be difficult to conclude that the terms would have been the same for all.

Allied Wallet is not authorised by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, which means it is not a decent e-commerce option for users, especially merchants. Given this situation and its current insolvency status on the online FCA register, Allied Wallet is not a viable service for online payments.