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Join For FreeWe rate Dharma Merchant Services as among the best when it comes to providing honest merchant services and high-quality service at a fair price.
Total Rating | 5.0 |
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Fees & Rates5.0 | |
Products & Services5.0 | |
Contract5.0 | |
Sales & Advertising Transparency5.0 | |
Customer Service4.8 | |
User Reviews4.7 |
Table of Contents
Dharma Merchant Services is a merchant services provider that combines expert processing industry know-how with highly ethical business practices to meet the unique needs of small businesses, restaurants, and nonprofit organizations. The company’s pricing is fair, predictable, and fully disclosed on its website. You can also expect high-quality, friendly, personalized service and support from the Dharma team.
Dharma Merchant Services is one of our highest-rated merchant services providers. However, it’s not for everyone — high-risk businesses and those processing less than $10,000 per month will usually need to look elsewhere. For most merchants, though, Dharma offers the best overall value of just about any provider in the industry, and we recommend Dharma to you with zero hesitation.
Products & Services5.0 |
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Software & Services 5.0 |
Hardware & Equipment 5.0 |
Dharma Merchant Services provides a complete lineup of essential products and services for retail and eCommerce merchants, including the following:
Fees & Rates5.0 |
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Pricing 5.0 |
Affordability 5.0 |
Credit card processing fees and rates can be very complex, but Dharma Merchant Services offers one of the most transparent and fair pricing structures in the industry. All costs are fully disclosed right on its website. Interchange-plus pricing is provided exclusively for every account, so you won’t have to negotiate to get it.
Item | Value |
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Pricing Starts At | $15/month |
Contract Length | Month-to-month |
Processing Model | Interchange-plus |
Card-present Transaction Fee | Interchange + 0.10-0.30% + $0.08-$0.11 |
eCommerce Transaction Fee | Interchange + 0.10-0.30% + $0.08-$0.11 |
Keyed-in Transaction Fee | Interchange + 0.10-0.30% + $0.08-$0.11 |
Equipment Cost | $295+ |
Note that your transaction fees will vary based on your plan, transaction type, and type of card used—for example, card-not-present, Amex, and B2B transactions are billed at the higher end of the given range, while high-volume, card-present, and nonprofit transactions trend toward the lower end of the range.
Dharma Merchant Services Plans | Price | When To Use |
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Storefront (Retail) | $20/month | For retail, services, and other small businesses. |
Restaurants & Quick Service | $20/month | For any size food business. (Reduced fees for restaurants with a low average ticket of less than $25.) |
Virtual & Online | $20/month | For businesses that take online and card-not-present payments via a virtual terminal terminal or eCommerce website. |
Business to Business | $20/month | For online or in-person B2B payment acceptance. (Discounted interchange rates for Level 2 and Level 3 B2B payments.) |
Healthcare & Medical | $20/month | For healthcare, medical and veterinary credit card transactions. |
Lodging & Hospitality | $20/month | For hotels and other hospitality merchants. |
Nonprofit | $15/month | For registered nonprofit organizations. |
High-Volume | $15/month | For merchants processing more than $100,000 or 5,000 transactions per month, or for restaurants with a low average ticket of less than $25. |
The company separates its pricing plans by business categories rather than processing volume levels (with the exception of the high-volume plan), so it’s effortless to decide which plan is best for your business. Pricing plans include options for storefront and eCommerce merchants as well as a discounted rate plan exclusively for restaurants with low average ticket size. Discounted rates are available for qualified nonprofit organizations and high-volume businesses.
Dharma Merchant Services Extra Costs | Price |
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Account Closure Fee | $49 |
Chargebacks | $25/instance |
Clover POS Fees | Varies depending on Clover software plan |
ACH Processing | $25/month and 0-0.20% + $0.40/transaction |
Authorize.Net Gateway | $10/month and $0.05/transaction |
Recurring Billing (via MX Merchant) | $10/month |
Level 2/Level 3 Processing (via MX Merchant) | $20/month |
Credit Card Surcharging (via MX Advantage) | $25/month |
EBT Transactions | + $0.10/transaction |
Like any other provider, Dharma also occasionally charges incidental fees, as well as fees for optional services like ACH and Authorize.Net’s payment gateway service. Unlike most providers, however, the company discloses these fees in advance on its website. Also, Dharma does not charge account setup fees, annual fees, or PCI compliance fees. None of its accounts require a monthly minimum, and there is no early termination fee if you close your account.
In terms of payment gateway fees, Dharma gives you a choice between its proprietary MX Merchant gateway and Authorize.Net. While the MX Merchant gateway is included for free with your account, you’ll have to pay extra for recurring billing and for Level 2/Level 3 processing. If you want to use Authorize.Net instead of MX Merchant, you’ll pay a small fee, but it includes recurring billing and Level 2 processing for no additional charge. (Note that Authorize.Net does not support Level 3 processing.)
Sales & Advertising Transparency5.0 |
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Sales Practices 5.0 |
Web Presence 5.0 |
Often, the sales experience is one of the worst aspects of setting up a merchant account. That’s not the case with Dharma. The site is well laid out, and it’s easy to find the information you need. All fees, rates, and contract terms are explained in detail, and the company lists the actual cost of every service and piece of equipment it provides.
Dharma uses in-house sales representatives exclusively, so you won’t experience any of the misleading claims and high-pressure sales tactics that independent agents at other companies commonly employ.
With Dharma’s standardized pricing plans and lack of long-term contracts, there won’t be much left to negotiate when you finally talk with one of the sales representatives. They’ll still provide friendly and helpful service, of course, but you’ll already know most of what you need before you ever talk to a representative. Frankly, we wish a lot more providers would offer the same level of transparency that Dharma does. The company has set a very high standard in this area, and there aren’t many other providers in the processing industry that come even close to matching it.
Dharma also gets the word out about its services via social media. The company has active accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. A YouTube channel provides several educational videos, and Dharma has posted some marketing videos separately on the site that include excellent testimonials from satisfied clients.
Contract5.0 |
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Commitment 5.0 |
ETF & Other Fees 5.0 |
Dharma offers true month-to-month billing with no long-term contract and no early termination fee on all of its merchant accounts. While you can close your account at any time, be sure to follow the procedure specified in your contract to avoid being charged beyond your intended closure date.
While it doesn’t charge an early termination fee, the company does impose an account closure fee when you permanently close your account. Like all merchant account providers, Dharma is required by law to keep your account on file for a minimum of six months after closure to guard against late-filed chargebacks. This fee merely recoups the cost of this necessary record-keeping. Note that if you are a seasonal business, you will not be charged this fee when you suspend your account for the off-season.
Customer Service4.8 |
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Personal Support 5.0 |
Self-Service 4.6 |
In-house telephone support that’s available 24/7, 365 days a year, is the gold standard in the processing industry, but it’s something that only the largest providers can offer. In most cases, companies provide in-house support during business hours and rely on outsourced support staff to cover the rest of the time. If you have an issue come up at 9 PM on a Saturday, for example, you’ll often find yourself talking to a call center employee who can do little more than file a support ticket on your behalf. The actual resolution of your problem will have to wait until Monday morning.
Dharma compromises, providing superb in-house telephone-based support from knowledgeable and supportive staff during business hours, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM Pacific Time, Monday through Friday. Support is also available via email 24 hours/day, and you can submit a ticket directly from the company’s website. Outside of regular business hours, Dharma will direct you to the appropriate party, depending on the nature of the issue and your back-end processor.
Dharma’s website also includes an outstanding knowledgebase — one of the best we’ve ever seen — that provides answers to a wide variety of questions you might have about how credit card processing works. All the information the company provides is beneficial, accurate, and, overall, quite impressive.
Dharma Merchant Services Customer Service | Availability |
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Phone Support | |
Email Support | |
Support Tickets | |
Live Chat | |
Dedicated Support Representative | |
Knowledge Base or Help Center | |
Videos & Tutorials | |
Company Blog | |
Social Media |
User Reviews4.7 |
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Customer Feedback 5.0 |
Review Site Aggregate 4.5 |
Dharma is one of the very few companies we’ve seen in the processing industry that has more positive feedback than complaints on the web. In fact, in surveying Dharma credit card processing reviews, the most common criticism of the company appears to come from merchants who’ve been turned down for an account for one reason or another.
Dharma Merchant Services offers high-quality merchant services at a fair price and ranks among the best of the best when it comes to honesty and transparency. The company excels at saving merchants money and providing a headache-free processing experience. If your business is a good fit for what Dharma offers, we can’t recommend it highly enough. Dharma may not always be the least expensive provider (although it’s pretty close!), but it does provide the best overall value around. The total value of the services a provider can deliver is more important in the long run than simply being the cheapest available option.
Of course, not all merchants will be a good fit for Dharma’s business model. Dharma is only available to merchants operating in the United States, and it doesn’t accept high-risk merchants. If your processing volume is currently less than $10,000 per month, Dharma recommends Square or PayPal as more affordable options.
In fact, Dharma now provides an online calculator that allows you to compare your anticipated costs using either Dharma or Square. We can’t think of any other provider in the industry that gives you the chance to compare your costs with a competitor in this way. It’s an excellent choice for the following entities:
Dharma is one of our highest-rated credit card processors and earns our highest endorsement.
We evaluate and test each payment processor that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on certain key characteristics in order to generate our granular ratings for merchant accounts and credit card processors.
For payment processing reviews, we use a 24-point rubric to evaluate the provider. First, we look at pricing structure – interchange plus, subscription-based, tiered, or hybrid – giving the most points to providers that provide fair, transparent pricing and docking those that rely on tiered models. Then we examine rates, the presence and transparency of early termination fees, and any additional fees.
We also look at contract length and fairness and test out sales staff and customer service channels ourselves to ensure that the company uses reputable, above-the-board sales techniques. Finally, we take the company’s online reputation into account, reading customer reviews and comments.
Read more about how we rate payment processors.
The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆
Dharma Merchant Services |
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After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Dharma Merchant Services for yourself.
The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆
Dharma Merchant Services |
---|
After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Dharma Merchant Services for yourself.
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The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.
Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone.
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