The Worst Credit Card Terminal Leasing Companies

First Data Global Leasing is a subsidiary of mammoth Fiserv, which is probably the largest merchant account provider in the United States. Although we’ve haven’t reviewed Fiserv very favorably, we gave First Data Global Leasing an even lower rating. With expensive, non-cancelable leases ranging from 24 to 48 months in length, FDGL has generated a huge number of complaints from merchants for its business practices.

FDGL primarily leases proprietary Clover credit card terminals and POS systems, including the very popular Clover Station POS. While Fiserv’s hardware offerings are all solid products, it’s much more affordable in the long run to buy them rather than leasing them.

Ripoff Report has an additional 106 complaints filed against FDGL, including several merchants alleging that FDGL’s sales agents forged their signatures on leasing contract documents. At ConsumerAffairs.com, you’ll find another 411 1-star reviews from merchants who have been abused by this company. There’s even a Facebook group called “First Data Global Leasing Victims,” where merchants have posted complaints about FDGL and its leasing contracts.

When shopping around for a merchant account, you need to be aware that Fiserv has a very extensive network of resellers, some of whom use FDGL to lease their equipment. Some Fiserv/Clover resellers to avoid because they will lock you into a long-term terminal lease include Leaders and Merchant One.

Want to buy a Clover credit card machine from a reputable provider? Check out our list of the best Clover merchant services providers.

LADCO Global Leasing Solutions is a subsidiary of Elavon, one of the largest merchant account providers in the United States. While Elavon provides a decent line of products and services for merchants, the same cannot be said about LADCO. Like all our other worst-rated leasing companies, the company relies on noncancelable, four-year leases to extract far more money from their merchants than what their equipment is worth.

While LADCO and other leasing companies go to great lengths to keep merchants from fully reading their contracts, we’ve found copies of them on the internet. Even a brief look at LADCO’s Equipment Finance Lease Terms reveals how one-sided these contracts are. The first thing you’ll (hopefully) notice is that the word noncancelable is right in the title of the agreement. Merchants often don’t understand just how strictly this term is enforced. What this means is that you are liable for the full cost of all 48 monthly payments (and possibly more) from the moment you sign your merchant account provider contract—even if you close your business entirely.

You should also note that LADCO, like most other leasing companies, provides their equipment on an “as is” basis, with no warranties or guarantees whatsoever. In other words, if your equipment doesn’t work, it’s up to you to contact the manufacturer and get it fixed – which you have to pay for. The fact that your monthly lease payments also include charges for “insurance” that won’t do you any good just makes it that much worse.

LADCO does not have a separate profile with the BBB, but you can find plenty of complaints against them under Elavon’s profile for their Knoxville location. While the profile shows 132 complaints over the last three years, some of them refer to problems with leased equipment and many others refer to other aspects of Elavon’s merchant account services. There are also 162 reports on Ripoff Report alleging similar problems with LADCO.

Needless to say, if you’re considering signing up with Elavon for a merchant account, you’ll want to avoid being stuck with a terminal lease through LADCO. Be aware that many of Elavon’s re-sellers, including Costco Merchant Services, also use the company to furnish leased equipment. Helcim, one of our favorite providers, uses Elavon as a processor but sells terminals directly rather than offering leases through LADCO. U.S. Bank Merchant Services is another recommended provider that uses Elavon as a backend processor but doesn’t require a hardware lease—instead, U.S. Bank lets merchants rent or purchase a terminal outright.

If you think FDGL is a terrible company, I have bad news: there are even worse leasing companies out there that you need to avoid at all costs.

Based in New York City, New York, Northern Leasing Systems, Inc. has been in business since 1991. In that time, the company has managed to build such a terrible reputation with merchants that it’s resorted to doing business under numerous DBAs and through various subsidiaries, including Golden Eagle Leasing LLC, Lease Finance Group LLC, MBF Leasing LLC, Lease Source-LSI, LLC, and others.

In fact, Northern Leasing has been court-ordered to dissolve numerous times and had to pay out millions of dollars in restitutions to small businesses, but nevertheless continues to respawn under different aliases so that it can keep defrauding small businesses.

So what is so terrible about this company? Like most terminal leasing companies, Northern Leasing uses a standard contract that runs for four years and is utterly non-cancelable. But in addition to trapping small business owners in overpriced, uncancellable credit card terminal leases, the New York Office of the Attorney General found that also found that Northern Leasing abused the court process by suing to collect on those leases in the state of New York—while most of its customers were located in other states.

At the time of publishing, it’s unclear whether Northern Leasing Systems is still in operation—the latest names it tried to do business as are “NLS EF” and “LEC.” However, we would be wholly unsurprised if Northern Leasing was found to be operating under yet another business name.

Northern Leasing is not accredited by the BBB and currently has an F rating. It’s so bad that the BBB has posted a “Pattern of Complaint” notice at the top of their profile that reads, “BBB files indicate a pattern of complaints concerning the sales practices, contracts, and customer service of this company …” (You can read the full notice on Northern Leasing’s BBB profile.)

Northern Leasing also has 330 complaints on Ripoff Reports, with the same allegations being raised. You can also find many other complaints on the web.

In the past, some merchant account providers that have used Northern Leasing or one of its affiliates to provide leased terminals to their merchants include Central Payments (CPAY), Elite Pay Global, TransFirst, Velocity Merchant Services, and many others. We’re not sure whether any of these processors continue to use one of Northern Leasing’s affiliates (or if Northern Leasing is still operating in any capacity all after the latest multimillion-dollar judgment they’ve been ordered to pay), but we would advise you not to sign a terminal leasing contract with any of these credit card processors.