eMerchantBroker Review

Pros

• High-risk eCommerce specialist
• Full range of services and third-party integrations
• Accepts CBD merchants
• Very high merchant acceptance rate

Cons

• Expensive compared to other high-risk providers
• Offers tiered pricing exclusively
• Uses long-term contracts with expensive early termination fees

What Is eMerchantBroker?

eMerchantBroker is a merchant account provider that specializes in offering credit card processing services to industries classified as high-risk by traditional banks and credit card processors.

The company is generally more transparent and honest in dealing with merchants than most high-risk providers. At the same time, eMerchantBroker is usually not the least expensive option if you’re in the high-risk category and need a merchant account.

eMerchantBroker stands out from other high-risk specialists by having a very short list of prohibited industries that it simply cannot support. Unless your business is clearly illegal, you’ll most likely get approved for an account. In fact, the company boasts a 95% approval rate for all applicants. It’s one of the few providers that will approve CBD businesses but no longer offers credit card processing to medical marijuana dispensaries due to legal limitations.

While you’ll almost certainly pay more for eMerchantBroker’s services, it’s still a good choice for merchants who have had difficulty getting approved for an account elsewhere. The company scores quite well overall and earns our recommendation based on the higher-than-average quality of service it provides to its merchants.

Products & Services

eMerchantBroker focuses almost entirely on supporting eCommerce businesses, with no direct support for retail establishments. Primary features include the following:

One thing that eMerchantBroker doesn’t appear to offer is processing hardware for traditional brick-and-mortar businesses. There’s no mention of credit card terminals, POS systems, or mobile processing systems on the company’s website. Retail businesses will want to inquire about EMB’s integration with Square and Shopify for in-person payment support. Be aware, however, that neither of these two companies offers much support for high-risk merchants.

Fees & Rates

eMerchantBroker, like most merchant account providers, doesn’t disclose any pricing information on its website. You can expect that the rates and fees you end up paying will depend on various factors, including your credit history, monthly processing volume, processing history (if any), and your ability to negotiate a better deal than what you’re first offered.

eMerchant Broker claims on its website that its processing rates are “as low as 2.99% for high-risk industries.” This claim is a little misleading, as it only refers to the lowest qualified rate of a tiered pricing plan. The company does, however, offer the following explanation:

*2.99% pricing applies to qualified merchants. Mid-qualified and non-qualified rates can be higher. Contact us to get a free quote.

eMerchantBroker deserves some credit for this disclosure, even though it’s incomplete. Under a tiered pricing plan, every sale you process will be classified as either a qualified, mid-qualified, or non-qualified transaction.

Mid-qualified and non-qualified transactions are charged significantly higher rates, and for most merchants, these will represent the majority of your transactions. Also, remember that the 2.99% qualified rate is the lowest the company offers, meaning it’s usually reserved for merchants with a high processing volume and a lengthy, stable processing history.

This rate quote also neglects to mention that you will inevitably pay a per-transaction fee (technically called an authorization fee) in addition to the processing rate. These fees can represent a significant additional expense, especially for merchants who process a lot of small-ticket transactions per month. eMerchantBroker’s processing rates actually average around 3% to 4% (or higher), with an additional $0.15 to $0.25 per transaction fee.

While the company primarily uses tiered pricing, some merchants might be able to get an interchange-plus pricing plan with a bit of negotiation.

eMerchantBroker Integration Pricing

Merchant services providers are increasingly offering integrated payment platforms that combine your processing hardware and a payment gateway to give you a cloud-based service that allows you to monitor your business from any device with a web browser.

As a small company, eMerchantBroker doesn’t currently offer such a product. Instead, it partners with other merchant services providers that can integrate their services and products directly into your EMB merchant account. While this is a convenient feature, it isn’t free. EMB offers both Pro and Enterprise Integration plans, which include the following:

eMerchantBroker doesn’t disclose information about standard account fees on its website. Again, there will be a lot of variabilities here because the company uses many different processors to set up accounts. Nonetheless, you can expect to pay a $49 monthly account fee in most cases. There will also be extra fees for using the payment gateway, PCI compliance (usually charged annually), and per-occurrence fees for chargebacks.

On the bright side, the company doesn’t charge an application fee, account setup fee, or annual fee.

With so much variability in rates and fees, it’s doubly important that you (a) negotiate the terms in your contract wherever possible and (b) carefully review all your contract documents before you sign up for an account.

Sales & Advertising Transparency

eMerchantBroker has a clean, professional-looking website that’s easy to navigate. The company does a good job of informing potential customers about its services and includes a lot of extra information about special features, such as its extensive chargeback prevention features. The site also includes dedicated pages with additional information tailored to specific business sectors often considered high-risk, such as CBD merchants, credit repair companies, and offshore tech support.

At the same time, there’s almost no disclosure of account fees or processing rates. With so much variability in pricing, it’s particularly important that you read your contract documents thoroughly and negotiate firmly for the best deal you can get.

The EMB website includes links to an online application designed to gather information about your business and send it to a sales representative. Some merchants might be put off because the application requires you to set up a password. While this application will give you an account you can log back into later, it’s not a merchant account.

Whatever you do, never provide your bank account information to any merchant account provider until you’ve negotiated the terms of your contract, reviewed all contract documents, and signed them. While eMerchantBroker isn’t doing anything unethical here, some merchant account providers have been known to lock you into a merchant account contract and start charging you as soon as they have your bank account information.

The company relies on a combination of in-house sales representatives and independent agents to market and set up its accounts. We’re normally very leery of independent agents, as they have a well-deserved reputation throughout the industry for being poorly trained and loosely supervised. Often working on a commission-only basis, they’re under tremendous pressure to close the deal and will often neglect to mention pertinent details about the contracts they’re trying to sell.

Fortunately, this doesn’t appear to be the case with eMerchantBroker. We’ve found no complaints alleging misleading or unethical behavior on the part of its sales agents, which is a good sign. You’ll still want to work with an in-house agent if at all possible, as they generally have a lower turnover rate than independent agents.

eMerchantBroker has an active social media presence, with accounts on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and Instagram. These accounts are regularly updated with informative articles about processing and merchant accounts. EMB also has a YouTube channel, but it hasn’t been updated with new content in five years.

Contract Length & Early Termination Fee

Because eMerchantBroker partners with many third-party processors to provide its merchant accounts, the company doesn’t have a standard contract with a standard length. Instead, contract terms vary from as little as one year to as many as three years in length. You can also expect your contract to have an automatic renewal clause that will automatically extend your contract — usually for one-year periods — after the expiration of the initial term.

Review your contract carefully to understand the requirements for closing your account. The company will usually require at least 30 days’ notice, but it could be as many as 90 days. Automatic renewal clauses usually operate without providing any notice to you that the contract has been extended, so mark your calendar ahead of time!

Contracts with eMerchantBroker also include an early termination fee if you close your account without proper notice before the expiration of the contract’s term. This fee can vary from as little as $295 to as much as $595, with the lower fees usually applying to one-year contracts and the higher fees applying to three-year contracts.

With so many merchant account providers now offering month-to-month contracts without multi-year terms or early termination fees, it might seem that this is an issue you can negotiate your way out of. While it certainly doesn’t hurt to ask, be aware that, as a high-risk merchant, you have very little leverage on this issue. Because EMB is taking on the additional risk of providing you with a merchant account, it’s unlikely to budge on this issue.

Customer Service & Technical Support

eMerchantBroker provides customer service via telephone, email, and live chat. Telephone service and live chat are available during normal business hours (Monday-Friday, 7:00 AM – 4:30 PM Pacific time). After-hours telephone support is also available, although it won’t usually be provided by an in-house customer support team. Outside of normal business hours, there is an increased chance that the representative you talk to won’t have the authority or training to solve complex problems.

Another important thing to remember about eMerchantBroker is that the company provides merchant accounts through third-party processors, and many issues that come up will have to be handled by your actual processor. If your account is suspended, payment is held, or you have a chargeback, you will, in most cases, have to rely on your processor for help. eMerchantBroker doesn’t have authority over these issues.

User feedback on the quality of eMerchantBroker’s customer service is mixed. While there are some positive reviews from merchants who praised the quality of support they received, there are also a few complaints alleging long wait times on hold and an inability of company representatives to resolve problems.

User Reviews

Let’s take a closer look at eMerchantBroker’s reviews.

Final Verdict

Finding a good, reputable merchant account provider is particularly difficult if you’re a high-risk merchant, and you’ll usually have to seek out a provider that specializes in high-risk accounts.

eMerchantBroker, while neither the cheapest nor the most transparent high-risk specialist, has several features that distinguish it from many of its competitors. The company is willing to work with some of the more challenging high-risk business categories, meaning your chances of getting approved for an account are better than with other providers. At the same time, EMB’s processing rates and account fees are generally higher than what other high-risk providers can offer.

The company also gets high marks for top-notch customer support and a reputable sales team — essential but often overlooked factors in selecting a good merchant services provider. Overall, eMerchantBroker scores quite well and is a solid choice for payment processing, particularly if you’ve had trouble getting approved because you’re in the high-risk category.

At the same time, we encourage you to check out some of our top-rated high-risk providers before deciding. Unless you’re in a category that’s unusually difficult to approve, the best high-risk specialists can often get you an account that won’t be as expensive.

High-Risk Merchant Account Ratings Methodology

We research, evaluate, and test each high-risk payment processor that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on key characteristics to generate granular ratings for high-risk merchant account providers.

High-risk merchant accounts, by definition, require the provider to take on more risk and liability; they tend to be more expensive overall than traditional merchant accounts, with more fees and limitations. For this reason, our high-risk rating methodology differs from our standard credit card processor rating methodology, so we don’t mislead our readers by comparing apples and oranges. Many businesses in high-risk industries cannot qualify for a normal payment processing account. That said, there are good and bad options available in the high-risk space, and we judge these high-risk providers against each other to provide the most balanced assessment.

High-risk services can be complex, so we use a 24-point rubric to evaluate each 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 high-risk merchant account providers.

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