There are so many processing companies, they all seem to be doing more or less the same thing, and they all have both glowing testimonials and terrible complaints. How are you supposed to choose the best company under these circumstances? Who can you trust? Read on to find out.
While merchant account fees are definitely irritating (and expensive!), they're often an inevitable cost of doing business. Even if you sign up with a payment service provider like Square that doesn't charge monthly fees, you'll still be paying the costs associated with maintaining your account in the form of higher transaction processing rates.
Credit card surcharging has rapidly gained in popularity in recent years as court decisions, and legislative changes have gradually removed legal barriers to the practice. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has greatly accelerated this trend. Nonetheless, the question remains: Should you add a surcharge?
There's a lot to love about Helcim. What we love is that you won't have to worry about the bait-and-switch tactics and long-term, binding contracts that plague the industry. Helcim distinguishes itself from many other providers by offering no binding contracts, exclusive interchange-plus pricing, consistently good customer service, and low account fees.
Choosing a high-risk merchant account provider isn’t the same as working with other payment processors. You can expect different pricing and contract terms — but you shouldn’t compromise on customer service. Here are six great providers that offer great service, fair pricing, and reasonable contracts for small businesses.
Easy Pay Direct is a payment gateway and merchant account provider that serves a wide variety of high-risk and low-risk industries.
SumUp’s free mobile processing app isn’t a good substitute for a full POS system, but for small businesses that only need basic POS features and on-the-go credit card processing, it’s definitely a contender.
PaymentCloud provides payment processing solutions for eCommerce, mail order/telephone order (MOTO), and other generally high-risk businesses. Although PaymentCloud serves lower-risk and brick-and-mortar establishments, this merchant services provider shines in the eCommerce and mid-to-high-risk space.
eMerchantBroker is a merchant account provider that specializes in offering credit card processing services to a wide variety of industries that are usually classified as being high-risk by traditional banks and credit card processors.
While many of the more reputable merchant account providers have abandoned terminal leases altogether in favor of selling the terminals directly (or allowing you to reuse your existing equipment), there are still plenty of other providers that are still pushing terminal leases. Check out the best credit card processing companies for some good options that let you buy your credit card terminal at an affordable price.
Host Merchant Services offers a full range of products and services for just about any type of business.
Of course, everyone’s experience with a particular processor won’t be the same. It’s important to weigh the complaint volume of a company against its processing volume. A processor serving a hundred thousand merchants with 100 complaints is a much different scenario from a processor serving ten thousand merchants with 100 complaints. That being said, a processor with a lot of complaints about the same issue should be an immediate red flag.
Is Square’s free card reader really the best out there? See how Square’s hardware stacks up against its competitors with our in-depth comparison.
Square’s merchant services are powerful and well priced — but they aren’t the same as having your own dedicated merchant account to accept credit card payments. See how Square’s credit card processing compares to top-tier merchant accounts in terms of pricing, support, overall value, and more.
There’s a lot to love about Helcim. What we love is that you won’t have to worry about the bait-and-switch tactics and long-term, binding contracts that plague the industry. Helcim distinguishes itself from many other providers by offering no binding contracts, exclusive interchange-plus pricing, consistently good customer service, and low account fees.
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Our team of experts spends hours on every review so that we can find the best companies to recommend to our readers. Easy Pay Direct made the cut.
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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.
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Our team of experts spends hours on every review so that we can find the best companies to recommend to our readers. Easy Pay Direct made the cut.
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