Payfully Issues

[Julie131]

Just a head's up.  I don't know if you have gotten notice of this service or not.  But I feel I need to warn you.  

I applied for an advance with this company and they refused it on false pretenses.

a. They said I hadn't been an AirBNB host for more than three months. I've been hosting for over a year almost continuously.

b. They said I didn't sign the paperwork. I did sign the paperwork and have the emails proving I did.

c. They said my bank account was not the one used with AirBNB. It is. It's the only bank account I have.

d. They said my policies are "STRICT" and they are not.

Plus they do not provide a phone for you to reach out to them. Then when I tried to log on, it demanded I link my AirBNB account again, and then said it couldn't because it was linked to another account. I just cancelled and took away their access to my bank account. Just be aware. This is not what it seems.

[Dana83]

I don't understand your issue?

they are advancing you the entire amount to you before the reservation happens as a service.

In order to do that they must charge a percentage fee and then be repaid in full when the money hits your account.  Again you are being pre paid with their money.

Please explain what else you are not clear about as I am new to this forum and so far happy with the process.  Much easier and less costly than credit cards or loan me or clear. And etc.

[Christine455]

I've been dying to find someone who actually CALCULATED that the fees are less than the interest rate on your credit cards.  Could you be so kind and share your calculations?

[Tiffany4]

I agree with Dana.  Your issue makes no sense.   They aren't taking your entire payment.   They have already given your payment to you in advance and simply taking it back with the reservation happens.  

I have used both Clearbanc and Payfully.  Payfully has lower fees and is definitely better structured flow for advances.  Clearbanc would be a better steady option if they didn't gauge you on fees.  I took multiple advances with them and then on my last advance asked them when the "lower fees" they promised from regular good standing clients kicked in.  It didn't.  So I went to Payfully.  What I don't like about Payfully however is their very limiting advance amounts, especially for the amount of future bookings I have reserved.

[Vince-and-Jeff0]

A major WASTE OF MY TIME. First, I am a long standing super host and I have over $1800 in multi pull reservations for the next 2 Weeks starting in a few days. First my water heater starts LEAKING and 2 days later my WHOLE HOUSE Air conditioning decided to stop working. All this just after purchasing 2 cars $$$$$.  I have been trying to set up an account with Pay Fully for days now with NO LUCK. My E-mail states "  Jon will assist you to finish your account setup so you can start requesting instant payment from upcoming reservations. "  So I have been trying to message JON for days on end with NO LUCK.  I was counting on PAY FULLY but it is obvious I will need to make other arrangements now. Air conditioner is scheduled to be fixed in 2 more days but I do have a guest coming tomorrow that I had to partially refund do to the air conditioning issue. I had to write her and let her know about the air conditioning issue and she was OK with a partial refund. PAY FULLY has totally LET ME DOWN by silence from an PERSON CALLED JON who is not doing what he is suppose to. Countless messages with many AUTOMATED RESPONSES and they never get back to you. I WILL JUST MAKE OTHER ARRANGMENTS.

[Vince-and-Jeff0]

Don't count on PAYT FULLY if you need emergency funds within a week like I did. GET THE MONEY SOMEWHERE ELSE! I am a well established AirBNB Superhost and as ALWAYS, I have MULTIPULL up coming reservations totaling over $2000 over the next 3 weeks. First my water heater starts leaking and 2 days later my whole house air conditioning stopped working. Normally this would not be a problem but I had just purchased 2 new Cars, had over 13 Yards of MULCH laid, and then my aunt borrowed money twice in the past week. THEN THE AIR CONDINOER AND WATER HEATER BREAKS DOWN – Murphey's law I guess. I figured I would try PAY FULLY instead of borrowing money for the repairs – BIG MISTAKE. I had set up an account and for a few days I kept getting REVIEWING CASE and I would hear from them in 48 Hours, SO I waited, and I waited, and I waited and three dayts later I started to Chat up JON, he got that fixed. Suddenly I had an offer for $1500 available so I applied for $900 from 2 reservations. once again I was getting CASE BEING REVIEWED. So I chatted with JON again and he assured me the REVIEW would drop off by 4PM EST and I would have the funds the next day (Wed). So I waited and at 6PM I was still getting CASE BEING reviewed on my LOAN OFFERS. So I chat up Jon Again and he said I missed the 3PM Deadline and it would drop off at 3Pm the next day and I would have my funds on Thur ibnstead of WED at the latest. So on Thurs I get a call from PAY FULLY asking me to send them MY ID ??? You have my BANK ACCOUNT INFOMATION AND YOU WANT A COPY OF MY ID? FOR REAL? 2 Broken PROMISES and I am suppose to trust you with my bank account information and a photo ID. Why don't you just ask me to sign a blank check and send it to you? I am so sorry I ever heard of this STARTUP. I am out of time and just made other arrangements to pay for the repairs that would have been done DAYS ago after BROKEN PROMISES from PAY FULLY. I had a guest stay last night and had to do a PARTAIL REFUND because there was no AIRCONDITIONING. I had an entire week to get my problem fixed and I let PAY FULLY STRING ME ALONG to the point that I had no time left. I WAS LIED TO NOT ONCE BUT TWICE – broken promises and no money for needed emergency repairs. SO MY ADVICE - If you need emergency funds for repairs don't couint on PAY FULLY like I did. 

[Austin38]

Not sure what's up with Jeffrey, but Payfully isn't a loan. They charge a one-time fee, which is based on a percentage of the total cost. There's no compound interest or service fee or hidden fee of any kind. 

It's incredibly straightforward. 

[David126]

Personally I would have put it on a Credit Card, not sure if I would use a service like this, did not ABB announce they are offering something similar.

What do you do if you have a late cancellation?

[Austin38]

If you get a cancellation you can either fill it with another booking, or pay them back. They won't advance you all of your future reservations because cancellations do happen 🙂  here's their FAQ https://www.payfully.co/howitworks

The fees are astronomically lower than a credit card or any other sort of money advancement. A friend of mine uses it to get money 3 months in advance, for about 4.5%.  They also support other platforms 

Airbnb has been toying around with it, but it just doesn't make sense for them. They actually outsource their entire payments department to another company because they just want to focus on listings/experiences/whatever new thing they're coming up with next. 

[Christine455]

Very interesting, FINALLY a real number.    IF you get money for 4.5% for 3 months, that's about 18% APR.   However, quite likely the advance is for bookings "next week", in a few weeks, etc., and the APR is actually MUCH MUCH higher.

I know that American schools SUCK, but come on people, you can follow these calculations, right?

For 3% I can use a credit card check or do balance transfers with 0% interest for 12 to 18 months.    I realize that you need good credit for that, but anyone with decent credit can obviously do a whole lot better than Payfully.

[Austin38]

Christine, respectfully you're not understanding what Payfully does. It's not a loan. 

That's a one-time fee, there's no interest charged on these, so your APR calculation doesn't apply.  It's not a loan.  4.5% of a $500 booking would be a $22.50 fee to get paid months in advance. 

[Christine455]

Austin, you wrote "Christine, respectfully you're not understanding what Payfully does. It's not a loan."

Maybe you or someone else can explain to me how the "fee" is in ANY way different from interest.  In my life, money is money and it does not matter whether a check bounces because you paid a "fee" or you paid "interest."

YOUR MONEY IS GONE!

Basically, you take the fee and calculate what interest rate it equates to for the amount of money and the term of the loan.

Austin, why do you think it's not a loan?   Do you think it's a gift?  Or what?

[Austin38]

I'm happy to try and explain this, but I think it'll help everyone if we keep things calm 🙂

Fees and interest are not the same thing.

With a loan, the amount you owe changes over time. You said it yourself, a 4.5% interest rate loan over a few months quickly becomes a high APR. And if you fail to pay it back, it snowballs getting bigger and bigger. 

A fee is a fixed one-time amount. Period. End of story. If they charge you 5% of the total advanced, it doesn't matter if that's for 3 days or 6 months, it's always the same amount. If you read the Payfully terms of service, they don't charge interest on late payments - granted you need to pay it back, but this isn't some sort of predatory payday loan. What you sign up for will always be the amount you have to pay back. That's very different from a loan. 

[David126]

In my head 4.5% equates to c20% APR, so cheap?

[Christine455]

David, it's not cheap for me.   My Discover card interest is around 11% and all my other cards are below 20%.

I do NOT have great credit scores because I owe too much (all at 0% interest and without any fees, applied for promo cards), 730 score or so, but I still get those offers literally evey week.

Not having an EXACT amount of the amounts advanced and the LENGTH of the advance, it's impossible to calculate the real interest rate, but my calculation was for 3 months with the BEST case scenario of only ONE booking financed for 3 months.  

If it was for only ONE month, the "fee" would equate to a  60% APR.   Since most hosts have numerous short term rentals, it's going to be much higher than 20%.

[Austin38]

Again, you're conflating two things.

A) Fixed percent-based one-time fee. That's what Payfully is. There is no interest, just a fee. 

B) A loan with compound interest. 

These are not the same things.