In this article we'll cover some of the most common payments related questions. These include:
- Who Processes Payments in SimpleGym?
- How Charges Appear on Your Gym Members Credit Card Statement?
- How Do I Change My Gym's Payment Descriptor?
- Who is Eligible to Use SimpleGym Payments?
- How Are Member Payments Deposited Into My Gym's Bank Account?
- Why Do I Have To Confirm My Identity Before Using SimpleGym Payments?
- What If I Fail To Confirm My Identity With SimpleGym Payments?
- Do I Have To Use SimpleGym Payments To Use SimpleGym Software?
- Do I Have To Enter My Gym Members' Billing Email Addresses?
Who Processes Payments in SimpleGym?
We love building software designed to help gyms thrive and grow. We don't love managing payments. Thankfully, we've partnered with Chase Bank's WePay, who are global leaders in integrated payment processing. WePay, a Chase Bank company, is integrated with SimpleGym software to seamlessly processes your gym members’ payments.
What Will My Gym Members Credit Card Statement Look Like?
When a credit or debit card payment is processed via SimpleGym, the customer's credit or debit card statement will appear in the form of "WPY*account_name". Here, "account_name" is the account name you selected for your gym when you created your SimpleGym account. Typically, the character limit on a credit card statement is 14-20 characters, so on some customer's credit card statement only the first 10-17 characters of your gym name will appear.
Note: While a credit card is in the authorized state (but not yet the captured state) most banks will display the Merchant Of Record's name on the credit card statement, which means the customer's credit card statement will temporarily say "WEPAY, INC." for 2-3 days after the charge is made, after which it will switch to the "WPY*account_name" format.
How Do I Change My Gym's Payment Descriptor (What Appears On My Gym Members Credit Card Statement)?
When you create a SimpleGym account, the account name you selected for your gym will be what appears on the customer's credit or debit card statement, in the form of "WPY*account_name". Typically, the character limit on a credit card statement is 14-20 characters. If you want to change how your gym name appears on your member's credit and debit card statements, you simply need to request a change by submitting a request to WePay.
Who Is Eligible To Use SimpleGym Payments?
Payments are a standard feature, included on both SimpleGym's Free Plan and SimpleGym Pro.
All SimpleGym customers whose gyms are located in the US are required to use our integrated payments platform, powered by WePay, subject to WePay approval, as their payment processor and use all of the integrated payment features in SimpleGym.
Gyms located outside the US will need to contact us for payment processing alternatives.
How Are Member Payments Deposited Into My Gym's Bank Account?
After you accept gym members' payments via SimpleGym, those funds will be automatically deposited into your bank account, or, if you prefer, you can request to be paid via paper check.
Note: Before you can receive deposits, the gym owner must verify your identity.
To enable automatic deposits, you can connect your gym’s bank account to WePay, SimpleGym's integrated payment partner, and will receive automatic electronic deposits. If you connect your bank account, WePay will deposit your funds daily or on the schedule you choose (weekly or monthly). Funds take 1-2 business days to appear in your bank account. If you choose to receive paper checks, your funds will arrive 5-7 business days after you request a check.
Why Do I Have To Confirm My Identity?
When you sign up for SimpleGym you will be asked to verify the identity of the gym's owner(s). This identity verification step is accomplished by answering a few questions about the gym owner(s) during the SimpleGym signup process, and by confirming your email address.
US Federal Law, known as KYC (Know Your Customer), requires that before funds can be deposited into the gym's bank account, the gym owner must verify their identity. Once the gym owner has verified their identity, any money your gym collects can be automatically deposited into the designated bank account.
Note: You will typically only need to complete this identity verification step once. After you have completed this step, all funds will be automatically settled to your gym's bank account on a regular basis, and you can choose how often these deposits happen (daily, weekly, or monthly).
What If I Fail To Confirm My Identity?
Until you verify your identity, you will still be able to accept payments, however, deposits to your gym's bank account will be on hold, and there will be a few additional restrictions:
- Your can only accept funds up to 90 days without confirming your identity.
- Your account will be deleted 14 days after you accept their first payment, unless you confirm your identity.
- You can only accept up to $100,000, unless you confirm your identity.
If your restricted account is deleted, for failure to confirm your identity in the allowable time, all accepted payments will be refunded to your gym's customers.
Do I Have To Use SimpleGym's Payments To Use SimpleGym?
Yes. Our billing system is fully integrated with SimpleGym software. That enables SimpleGym to track your member's payments automatically. Meaning you won't have to ever manually enter payments. You'll automatically know who has paid their bill, whose payment failed, whether your gym's revenue is up or down and why, etc. It's all done, automatically, by virtue of our fully integrated billing.
Unfortunately, you can't use alternative payment processors or third party payments providers (such as Stripe, Square, PayPal or Authorize.net) and also have access to that integration and automation, and therefore, we require SimpleGym users to use the integrated payments / billing system.
Do I Have To Enter My Gym Members' Billing Email Addresses?
Yes. We require gym owners to enter their member's email address (or a parent's email address when a minor) for a few reasons.
- SimpleGym's payments automatically send electronic receipts, notices of failed payments, and other important payment related emails to gym members, simplifying payment management for gym owners.
- SimpleGym Communications, which enables gym owners to send marketing and gym event related emails to gym members, requires member email addresses.
- SimpleGym's matches billing email addresses to the cardholder's listed email address to prevent payment fraud. Thus, while some gym owners use a 'dummy' email address when a member does not have an email, this can lead to increased failed payments.