Quick Summary:
Melio Payments lets you simplify invoice payments whilst helping your cash flow, we love their take on B2B payments and giving control back to your business rather than having to make payments based on how your vendor/supplier or contractor wants the payment.
In simple terms, you can make all of your payments through the Melio dashboard, sending them via bank transfer to your suppliers and vendors, they'll get a direct bank transfer or check and they don't need to be a Melio user.
What we like:
- How simple it is to use
- Zero monthly fees and zero fees on bank transfers (ACH bank transfer to ACH bank transfer)
- Option to pay any invoice via credit card, even if your supplier doesn't normally accept them (2.9% fee)
- Allows you to manage your cashflow better
- Their new IOS app means you can use it on the go
- Attractive sign up offer
Things we don't:
- No phone support (there is live chat and email support though)
Don't forget to take advantage of the $100 signup bonus if you're looking to try out Melio Payments.
Updated:
December 30, 2023
By Max
When it comes to paying your suppliers, vendors, contractors or invoices in general it can either be a nice and simple process or somewhat of a pain. This all depends on how the company in question accepts payments and typically you're stuck to using the method they want. Melio Payments gives you another option, simplifying the process and allowing you to pay online via bank transfer or a check no matter how the vendor/supplier normally takes payment.
Melio is essentially a simple and secure way for a business to pay bills as well as giving you the ability to get payments yourself.
In this Melio payment review you'll find everything you need to know about this payment platform, how it works, pricing, competitors and more.
What is Melio payments
Melio Payments is a company that makes you, as a business owner more in control of making payments to your suppliers, be these vendors, contractors, general invoice payments and so on.
They've done this be reinventing the way that businesses pay each other, the platform that they have created allows businesses to save time when making B2B payments but also to amplify cash flow within your business.
No longer do you need to log in to various different platforms to make payments depending on how the business you're dealing with work, Melio Payments gives you the ability to make the payments all from one place.
The payment platform makes paying your invoice payments a lot easier and lets you pay them on your terms, you can simply log into Melio Payments and make the payment for free by ACH bank transfer or with your chosen card. The supplier, vendor or contractor will get the payment straight to their bank account or via paper check. Best of all there is no need for them to sign up to get this!
One big user case is when you want to pay a supplier/vendor with a credit card but they don't accept them, this can cause issues for you as a business, Melio can be used in this scenario allowing you to make a payment via credit card to the business who receives it as a bank transfer.
Benefits of using Melio for payments
Of course, the main benefit is the ability to make payments all in one place to multi vendors but also the ability to make the payment the way you want, however there are various other benefits that you may not have thought about.
Accounting Software Syncing
Melio works with the biggest accounting software such as Xero, Freshbooks, Quickbooks and many more, giving you the ability to very quickly and efficiently sync all of your payments with your bookkeeping software.
Combing payments
One great benefit of Melio is the ability to combine multiple invoice payments at once or to bundle lots of different invoices from the same vendor into one payment. This can save you a lot of time and hassle especially if you work with a business that you send lots of smaller payments to on a regular basis
Splitting payments
You'll have the ability to split payments into multiple payments when using Melio, this can really help with your businesses cash flow.
Setting up approval workflows
One useful feature is that you can create an account within your dashboard for a vendor for example and then give your team access to make payments to it using the roles and permissions feature. Great if you want to be able to let people in your team make certain payments but not others.
What kind of payments can you make?
Typically Melio users will make payments for any B2B invoice they have, whether that is payment for goods or services, rent, utility bills, SaaS tools, inventory and so on. The ability to pay vendors from one hub gives you not only cash flow benefits but can be a great time saver.
Ultimately you can pay any other business using Melio payments but remember that you won't be able to make any B2C payments i.e to customers.
What type of businesses use Melio?
The way that this payment processor has been created from the ground up has meant that it's suitable for basically any business that makes B2B payments, no matter the industry or type of bills that they need to pay.
Mainly down to the fact that every business has a bank account and so Melio can use these to process the payments and if there are any issues they have a fall back option of a physical check.
Having said that they are very popular specifically with businesses who deal with lots of small businesses as well as accountants and those that have lots of clients.
Melio Pricing
You'll be happy to read this section, because the Melio pricing is really simple. There is no monthly subscription and you can make free ACH bank transfers (when it is a ACH to ACH bank transfer), if you want to pay by card there is a small payment fee attached.
The pricing is great if you make the majority of your payments via bank transfer, if you use debit card or credit cards to make payments then you can expect a fee of 2.9% which is inline with many other payment systems.
There are some additional payment fees such as Same-day bank transfer fees which are currently 1% and if you make an international USD transfer there is a $20 fee attached.
Overall the Melio pricing is very competitive, making it a great option for businesses of all sizes however many small businesses often benefit the most from this payment provider due to the ability to be more competitive in terms of fees you pay without needing the volume to get fee discounts.
Melio Payments Sign Up Offer
If you're reading this Melio Payment review and decide it's right for your business, then we've partnered with Melio to be able to offer you an exclusive $100 cashback offer, simply sign up via the unique link that you'll get on the Melio Payments page and they'll be notified that you signed up and our a FounderPass member, you'll then get $100 cashback once you make your first successful payment via Melio Pay of at least $200.
How does Melio make money
We know what you're thinking, if there's no monthly fee and I can send payments via bank transfer for free how does Melio make money? The simple answer is that they are making money from transaction fees when users opt to make payments by credit cards or debit cards.
Customers will often opt to use a credit card to make the payment regardless of the 2.9% transaction fee that Melio charge due to the credit card helping their business's cash flow. The business model for Melio relies on a proportion of customers doing this so that they earn revenue from all of the transaction fees making their business model viable.
Melio Payments on Quickbooks
Chances are if you're a Quickbooks user you may have send a 'Bill Pay powered by Melio' button or option within it, this is because Quickbooks is rolling out this feature to its users. It will essentially let you know if your vendor/supplier has this enabled on their account.
Not only is Melio a great option for the time and money saving benefits but you'll be able to sync Melio with Quickbooks helping give you even more control over your cash flow.
Melio Payments App
They now have an app that is available to iPhone users via the app store, this IOS app means you can now use Melio on the go, before this they didn't have one which was a downside but it's great they have now introduced one. Whats more the site itself is mobile responsive so you can use it via a browser too (great for Android users).
Melio International payments
If your business makes international payments which most companies will do nowadays, whether this is payment for a service or product you'll be able to easily make payments across borders using Melio.
Melio international payments can all be made from the dashboard, the business you're paying does not need a Melio account. Currently, the fee for doing this is a $20 flat fee regardless of the size of the payment.
Melio recurring payments
Sometimes you'll have payments that need to happen on a regular basis and Melio has this covered, within the dashboard you'll be able to set up Melio recurring payments for the vendors you need, adding an amount and a schedule, whether it's weekly or monthly.
You'll also be able to select when the first payment is to be made and add a note so you know what these payments are for as well as a memo for the vendor themselves so they know (this can be used to include an invoice number).
B2B payment solution
Melio also offers you the option of integrating their business2business payment solution right into your current platform, this will allow your clients to use the solution themselves.
This is a pretty powerful application and option for businesses who are looking for something like that and best of all Melio deals with all the compliance, risk and the integration itself meaning less of a headache for you.
Melio Support
As with most software you'll be able to get support when you sign up whether you have any issues or simply need some advice based on the type of payments you want to make.
The support system from Melio is effective and we found we got quick responses based on submitting questions, there's also a great database available with answers to many of the most commonly asked questions.
Are Melio Payments safe?
Obviously whenever payments or money is involved, the safety element of it is critical, as with any payment processor Melio have invested in the security and safety side of their business and they are backed by over $500m in funding to help make sure that this is at the best and most secure it can be.
As with any payment or banking system, often the most vulnerable part is the human element, so almost make sure you have secure passwords and that your associated email is secure as well as making sure to be extra cautious whenever you get any emails as we all know phishing crime is always around and the bigger a company is the more often you may see these types of phishing scams being aimed at you.
Melio does have a big list of trusted companies and customers including J.P Morgan, American Express, Visa, Discover, Quickbooks and many more
Melio payments competitors
There are many different payment processing companies out there including companies everyone has heard of such as Paypal and Stripe to more niche software.
Although Melio are quite unique in their approach it's always worth checking out Melio payment competitors so you're aware of the features they all have, companies such as Bill.com and Airbase are two that could be worth exploring.
Our verdict
There are many Melio payments reviews out there and we hope to give you an overall feel for what the software has to offer. We personally think that it's a fantastic option for businesses who want to make payments on their own terms and for those that want additional control over their cash flow. One downside to the software is if you're wanting different payments amounts on a regular basis as this won't save much time in comparison to normal ways you may do it but there aren't any other options available for these types of ever changing payments.
Don't forget to use the Melio payments coupon for new customers giving you $100 of free cashback when you do your first transaction of $200 or more, this can be found at the start of our review.
Update: We've used Melio for several months now and are really enjoying it as a solution for payments, we've also had good feedback from other customers and therefore the rating has increased to 4.5/5 stars.
If you see a * next to a link it means we are affiliated with the company and therefore may make a small commission if you sign up, this does not affect our reviews or information provided, this simply helps us run FounderPass and help give you the best information possible.
Information we provide is for general information and does not constitute financial advice. Always ensure do your own research when making decisions especially financial ones.