Jason Williams 
Your Phone Is The New Card Machine
Jamaica! The Land of Wood, Water, and ‘Card Machine Down’. I’m sure many of you have heard those famous words time and time again. But what if……things didn’t have to be that way? Enter LuniPay! LuniPay aims to fix our constant card machine down problem. How, you ask? Well, what if your phone were the new card machine?
Imagine a customer is ready to pay, and instead of hunting for a POS machine, you simply tap their card against your phone. Payment is accepted instantly. Welcome to the future of Jamaican business. You want the customer to pay ahead of time? Just send them a payment link. Once the payment is done, you will receive a notification. It’s that simple.
Note Well: This article focuses on how to get paid and the features of the platform. Onboarding is not fully discussed; however, the process takes less than 5 minutes. A verification email will be sent to your inbox after signing up. You have to click the link in the email to verify your account. One day after verification, I received an email confirming that I was fully verified.
Accepting Payments
The first thing you will be greeted with after signing up is the LuniPay dashboard. Select Pay Link.
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Enter an amount. The minimum amount you can request is $775 JMD. Let’s take a look at the Payment Link features. You can select One-Time or Reusable. If a customer is on your profile, you can search and assign the payment link to them. Adding a Description will determine the title the customer sees when they open the link.
An expiry time can be set for the customer. LuniPay allows you to either pass the platform fees to the user or absorb them yourself (pretty convenient).
Once the payment link is successfully created, you will see a confirmation page. Send this link to the customer. I created an example link you can check out here.
Send the payment link to your customer. Notice that the company logo is present; if a description were set, it would be where ‘None’ currently is, and the company name is below the description. The Customer payment link requires your name, email, and card details.
Once all the details are filled out, and the customer hits pay, then that’s it! You just received your first payment. An email will be sent confirming the payment while the customer sees a congratulations page.
Easy right? Tell the Card Machine to step aside.
Initiating Payouts
As a new user, your funds are not automatically available for Payout. Payouts usually become available every Friday. As you do more transactions on the platform and build trust, payout time will shorten.
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Use the menu bar to the left to select Payouts. Then select Request Payout.
You need a minimum of 2325 JMD to cash out. If you haven’t already done so, make sure to add a bank account. There is a fee for Payouts.
There are 3 statuses that you should look out for. Pending happens after the initial request. It then moved to In Transit after a day. Finally, the status moves to Paid. It takes 3 business days for the payment to show up in your bank account. In this example, a payment was requested on Friday then it arrived on Wednesday.
Congratulations! You just received your first payout from LuniPay. So what was the net amount received in my bank account? The answer is $2,553.19 JMD. This means that my actual payout fee was $118.26 instead of the estimated $116.02 I saw earlier.
Interview with the Founder
I interviewed Samarieo Brown, the founder of LuniPay, to get some insights about the app. The interview follows a question and format. I decided to write out my questions, then have the full audio clips played. Enjoy!
Jason: How can one get paid using LuniPay?
Sammarieo:
Jason: What was your inspiration for the name?
Sammarieo:
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Jason: Do I need a registered business to use LuniPay?
Sammarieo:
Jason: Is there an iOS and Android app? If not, when can we expect one?
Sammarieo:
Note Well: Sammarieo delivered on his promise, and as such, the mobile is now live. Check out LuniPay on the Google Play and Android App Stores.
Jason: How old is LuniPay?
Sammarieo:
Jason: What if I don’t have a bank account? Can I still get paid?
Sammarieo:
Jason: How secure is LuniPay, and what payment processor do you use?
Sammarieo:
Jason: What’s the current fee for accepting a payment via LuniPay? Can I absorb the cost, or does it have to be a customer?
Sammarieo:
Jason: How quickly does it take for me to get paid(first time sign up)?
Sammarieo:
Jason: When the money is received in my bank account, is an additional fee taken by the bank to receive it?
Sammarieo:
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Jason: Is LuniPay only available in Jamaica? If not, which other countries is it available in?
Sammarieo:
Jason: Can I use LuniPay as a payment processor on my website? If yes, how easy is it to implement?
Sammarieo:
Jason: I notice there is a business profile section on LuniPay. Does this mean my ‘business’ will be listed in a discoverable directory?
Sammarieo:
Jason: Is the payment link only for 1 time use, or can other customers reuse it? Does the link ever expire?
Sammarieo:
Jason: Is there a minimum transaction amount?
Sammarieo:
Jason: What’s the lowest one can charge? For example, $1000 for a product/service?
Sammarieo:
Note Well:
Jason: Can I ‘assign’ a payment link to a particular customer? If yes, is there a section where I can see all my customers?
Sammarieo:
Jason: What’s the maximum number of invoices that can be set?
Sammarieo:
Jason: Is the platform able to create invoices? If yes, how customizable are they?
Sammarieo:
Jason: Am I able to Create Recurring Payments?
Sammarieo:
Jason: Let’s say I notice an issue regarding a payment. Is there any way for me to monitor disputes or protect my money?
Sammarieo:
Jason: Let’s say I’m dedicated to the hustle, so I own 5 businesses. Can I add all of them to LuniPay? What’s the maximum amount I can add to the platform?
Sammarieo:
Jason: Do I receive notifications, for example, in my email when a payment is received?
Sammarieo:
Jason: Can I add LunaPay to Apple and Google Wallet?
Sammarieo:
Jason: What has the response been to LuniPay so far? Do people love it?
Sammarieo:
Jason: Can large businesses use LuniPay?
Sammarieo:
Jason: What are your future plans for LuniPay?
Sammarieo:
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Jason: How can I contact you to report issues or share feedback?
Sammarieo:
Jason: What are your thoughts on Jamaica’s current payment landscape?
Sammarieo:
Jason: What was the hardest technical hurdle you had to overcome before processing your first dollar?
Sammarieo:
Jason: Do you think Jamaica will become a cashless society in the next 10 years?
Sammarieo:
Jason: What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone hesitating to launch their app?
Sammarieo:
Jason: How many users do you currently have, and how much money has been processed?
Sammarieo:
Jason: Do you have any final comments?
Sammarieo:
Wrap Up
The payment space in Jamaica is heating up! This app is well-needed as we have grown tired of depending on card machines. For this country to truly thrive, we need reliable payment gateways. LuniPay arrives in a big way.
The platform is feature rich! You have an amazing dashboard to view payments, a section to manage customers, monitor disputes, and create invoices. While writing this article, the Storefront and Bookings went live. Essentially, you can create a ‘Storefront’ for customers to view your products. The ‘Bookings’ seems ideal if you run a setup similar to a barbershop where your times are shown, and people can book to get a trim.
I tried out the Tap To Pay feature on the Android app, and it worked within minutes. This app is a must have for anyone with a large, medium, or small business. I look forward to seeing what LuniPay will do next.
Have you tried LuniPay yet? How was the payment experience for you? Let me know in the comments below!
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