SMB Global Review: Is SMB Global The Best High-Risk Payment Processor?

Pros

• Offers high-risk merchant accounts to a wide variety of industries
• Offers offshore merchant accounts
• Reasonable pricing
• Reasonable contract terms
• Excellent customer service

Cons

• No pricing disclosures

What Is SMB Global

SMB Global is a merchant account provider set up to work exclusively with high-risk merchants and those who need an offshore merchant account.

The company primarily serves eCommerce businesses in the high-risk category. However, since our last review update, it has expanded its products and services for retail merchants. SMB Global continues to be one of the relatively few reputable high-risk specialists we’ve found in the payments processing industry.

Products & Services

Here’s a quick summary of the main services that SMB Global can provide to your business.

Fees & Rates

While Payline Data offers full disclosure of prices and contract terms right on its website, you won’t get the same level of transparency with a high-risk provider such as SMB Global. The company currently offers no disclosures whatsoever regarding processing rate plans or account fees on its site. Unfortunately, there is actually a good reason for doing this. Because SMB Global works with many different banks and processors to get you an account, pricing and contract terms will vary widely from one high-risk merchant to another. There are no standard rates or fees for the company to disclose. You’ll have to get a customized quote from SMB’s sales team and compare it to any quotes you receive from competing providers to see which one can offer you the best overall deal.

Although we highly recommend interchange-plus pricing for any merchant, the fact is that it’s much harder to obtain if you’re in the high-risk category. You’re more likely to be offered a tiered pricing plan instead, but it never hurts to ask for interchange-plus when you’re negotiating the details of your account. Regardless of which type of pricing plan you’re offered, be prepared to pay significantly higher rates than a comparable low-risk business.

Additional Fees

Monthly account fees are also highly variable and will likely be higher than what other merchants pay. You can also expect to pay a PCI compliance fee, a PCI non-compliance fee (which only applies if your account is out of compliance), statement fees, an annual fee, and possibly a one-time account setup fee. eCommerce merchants can also expect to pay a monthly gateway fee to use the NMI or Authorize.Net payment gateways.

One additional expense that non-high-risk merchants usually don’t have to pay (but you will) is a rolling reserve. Although it’s not a fee per se, if you have a rolling reserve imposed on your account, you will have a specified percentage of your funds held every month as a hedge against chargebacks or the possibility of going out of business. While you can eventually pay off the rolling reserve and get your money back, it can create a significant cash flow problem for a new startup. It can even put you out of business altogether if you’re not careful. Be sure to review your contract thoroughly before signing up to see if you have a rolling reserve. If you do, you’ll want to understand how much it is and what you’ll have to do to get it removed.

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Contract Length & Early Termination Fee

Unfortunately, as a high-risk merchant, it’s hard to avoid early termination fees unless you’re a very high-volume business with a strong processing history. Merchant account providers want some sort of guarantee that their relationship with your business will be profitable to them. Many providers see lengthy contracts and early cancellation penalties as an easier way to accomplish this than earning your loyalty by simply providing high-quality service at a fair price.

We can’t tell you with any certainty what kind of contract terms SMB Global imposes on its merchants, as the company doesn’t post any contract documents on its website, and we haven’t received any feedback from customers on this subject. As a high-risk merchant, you should fully expect to be required to sign up for a standard three-year contract with both an automatic renewal clause and an early termination fee (typically around $500).

When negotiating your contract’s terms, clarifying these issues before you sign up for an account is crucial.

Sales & Advertising Transparency

SMB Global’s website is very professional-looking and easy to navigate. It also includes a lot of useful information about how high-risk onboarding works and how your high-risk account will differ from more traditional merchant accounts. While still not nearly as robust as the websites of many low-risk processors, it also doesn’t include any of the misleading sales gimmicks or false advertising claims that are so common in the processing industry.

The company uses independent sales agents to market its accounts and actively recruits them on its website. This practice frequently leads to complaints about poorly-trained agents who fail to disclose essential contract terms and employ unethical, high-pressure sales tactics to sell accounts. The good news is we haven’t heard any complaints from merchants alleging these kinds of problems with SMB Global’s agents. We’re satisfied that the company provides its independent agents with the training and supervision necessary to avoid these types of issues.

SMB Global is still a small company with very little presence on social media. There’s currently no Facebook page, Twitter account, or even a YouTube channel. However, the company has added a LinkedIn profile that is frequently updated with new content. SMB Global also has a blog on its website. Unfortunately, there are only six posts, the most recent of which is over a year old. N

Customer Service & Technical Support

SMB Global offers customer service via telephone and email. The company does not list the hours that phone support is available on its website. The lack of true 24/7 support might be inconvenient for some — especially for international merchants using SMB Global to do business in the United States. The truth, though, is that most merchant account providers outsource their after-hours customer support. Instead of talking to a dedicated representative who works for the company and is authorized to make decisions, you’ll most likely end up talking to someone with little experience in the payments industry and no authority to do much for you beyond writing you a support ticket and passing it on to SMB Global for further action.

We still have yet to receive much feedback — good or bad — about the quality of SMB Global’s customer support. However, the lack of public complaints against the company is a good indicator that SMB Global is doing a satisfactory job in this area and keeping its merchants happy.

SMB Global Payments Reviews & Complaints

Let’s take a closer look at customer reviews.

Final Verdict

When Payline Data offered services to both high-risk and non-high-risk merchants, it always presented a bit of a challenge to review. The company had an excellent reputation based primarily on its extensive disclosures regarding pricing and contract terms.

Consequently, we’re glad to see that the company has spun off its high-risk division into an independent firm. We think this will go a long way toward avoiding the kind of confusion high-risk merchants may have experienced in the past. Of course, there are a few tradeoffs. You won’t get the kind of transparent pricing and flexible contract terms that a non-high-risk merchant can obtain, and you will (in most cases) pay significantly more overall for processing services.

Nonetheless, we’re satisfied that SMB Global does a remarkable job of working with a wide variety of high-risk industries to get you matched up with a bank or processor that can handle your needs and will approve you for an account. We also believe that, although your costs will be higher than average, they’ll still be reasonable under the circumstances. SMB Global continues to perform well enough to earn a coveted spot on our list of the best high-risk merchant account providers. It’s also a good choice for international merchants doing business in the United States.

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.

The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆

SMB Global	Visit Site

After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see SMB Global for yourself.

The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆

SMB Global	Visit Site

After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see SMB Global for yourself.

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