Payvus Review

You may have heard of Payvus, the company that claims it can ease cashflow concerns while providing a line of credit and seamless credit card acceptance. But the company isn’t a credit card processor itself, so what is it? In this Payvus review, we’ll dive into how it works, compatibility, costs, and more. 

Payvus History

The company was founded in 2020 and owned by Aliaswire, a business credit card issuer, until the summer of 2023, when it was sold to Onboard Partners.

Payvus Basics

Payvus is not a credit card processing company itself, but instead a business offering that essentially integrates a business credit card with your payment processing solution. 

In an introductory video, Payvus describes how it combines card acceptance with a business credit card – you’ll opt to send a percentage of your card sales settlement to your Payvus card. The video doesn’t get into the nitty gritty, so let’s dig into that a little more.

How Payvus Works

First, you’ll need to have a credit card processing solution for your business. If you need help finding one, be sure to sign up for a free CardFellow account to compare real pricing from credit card processors. A way to accept credit cards is necessary because you’ll contribute money to your business card from your settled card transactions.

As noted earlier, when you use Payvus, you’ll send a percentage of your credit card sales settlement amount to the Payvus card. You’ll have a choice of what percentage to send (minimum of 10%) and can change it at any time. 

The business card is a line of credit in your company’s name (with no personal guarantee) up to $10,000, though reviewers online sometimes report very low initial credit limits. You can apply for credit line increases after three months, and in the meantime you can ‘increase’ the limit by diverting higher percentages of your credit card sales to the card. Note that it isn’t an actual increase, but rather credit on the card – a negative balance, essentially.

When you divert settlement funds to the card, two things happen: One, Payvus pays a residual to your credit card processor and the processor (should) provide a portion to you, thus ‘lowering’ your overall processing costs. However, Payvus does not provide any detail on the percentage of the residual to your processor or any amounts they are required to pass to you.

Two, the amounts that are diverted post as credits to your card, increasing the credit limit, and are available for immediate use. In that sense, the card is a secured business credit card, even though it is officially an unsecured card. If you have made purchases on the card, the funds go to paying the balance.

Essentially, you’re pre-paying your credit card for a higher limit when you don’t carry a balance, and automatically paying the balance from settlement funds if you do have posted charges to the account. Whether that is helpful for your business depends on a number of factors, including ability to access other lines of credit.

Payvus provides a digital portal where users can access their card’s purchase history, see daily credit card sales settlements, and adjust the portion of settlement that goes to the Payvus card. You can also choose to make additional payments if you have made purchases that exceeded your credits and tapped into your default line of credit. Alternately, if your credits are building up, you can transfer money from your Payvus card to your checking account.

Benefits of Payvus

There are several good things about Payvus, especially for smaller businesses or businesses with little credit history:

• The line of credit in your business’s name will help you build business credit
• Payvus boasts a 99% approval rating with many same-day approvals
• There’s no personal guarantee required, and no hard credit check
• Directing a portion of your settlement money to the card results in a cash residual, defraying processing costs
• Automatic payments toward the card balance (through settlement percentages diverted to the card) limit the need to make large month-end credit card payments

Downsides of Payvus

However, Payvus may not be right for everyone. By directing a portion of your settlement to your business card, you’re getting less overall cash to your business – instead, you have more capacity on your business credit card. In some cases, that may be fine. Perhaps you use your credit card for most purchases. But if you need the cash on hand or for expenses that can’t be paid by credit card, you wouldn’t want to divert large percentages to your Payvus card. 

That said, you can transfer cash from your Payvus card to your checking account, so you do still have flexibility if you need that cash.

Is this different than a merchant cash advance?

It’s very similar, but in reverse. With a merchant cash advance, a company provides you with a lump sum upfront that you then repay through a percentage of your daily credit card sales. With Payvus, you’re “paying” for a higher credit line through a percentage of your daily credit card sales; you just don’t get a lump sum up front. Instead, every “payment” that you make from your daily card sales increases your credit availability on the card. In that sense, it’s more like a savings account than credit.

Merchant cash advances also have fees built in so that you repay more than borrowed. Payvus does not have such fees, as it has less risk by not providing upfront cash.

Rates and Fees

Payvus is not the credit card processor and does not set the rates and fees that you’ll pay for credit card processing. Those are set by your processor. 

For the business credit card, there is an interest rate. For purchases that haven’t been paid off (either through the automated payments from settlement or a manual payment) you can expect 15.49% + prime interest rate. 

Compatibility

Payvus claims compatibility with all major processing platforms, including First Data (now Fiserv), Worldpay, TSYS, Vantiv, Global Payments, and more. If you have an existing relationship with a credit card processor, you can check to see if they offer Payvus through their solution.

Equipment

There is no special equipment needed to use Payvus. Since the company is not the credit card processor, it does not sell machines or even need to integrate with credit card machines or POS systems. 

Reviews

For a company that is a few years old, there’s relatively little in the way of consumer reviews about Payvus. While there are plenty of press releases or blog articles touting the benefits of Payvus from processing companies that offer it, there isn’t much from actual business owners who have the card. That’s somewhat surprising, given Payvus’s press release claims of 100% growth month over month in new cardholders. 

What there are for reviews tend to show up more in small business forum discussions, which are unverified. Some reviewers complain of very low (a few hundred dollar) credit lines and almost non-existent customer support, though others are happy with the fast approval process and the option of an easily-obtainable business credit card with no personal guarantee.

At the end of the day, Payvus is a financial tool and like other financial tools, it can be beneficial for some businesses and not for others. 

Have you used Payvus at your business? What did you think? Let us know in the reviews!