Helcim Review

Pros

• Uses interchange-plus pricing exclusively
• No long-term contracts or early termination fees
• Extensive account fee disclosures
• Accepts international payments
• Excellent customer support

Cons

• Does not accept high-risk merchants
• May be expensive for some very low-volume businesses

What Is Helcim?

Helcim is a full-service merchant account provider that works with small businesses in Canada and the United States. The company offers very flexible contract terms, transparent interchange-plus pricing, and a minimum of additional fees. Helcim provides all of the basic merchant services a business would need.

In addition to basic credit and debit card processing, Helcim features a variety of proprietary services, including two credit card readers and an integrated payments platform that can process both in-person and online transactions. Helcim also supports most of the common alternative payment methods in use today, including ACH transfers, payment links, QR code payments, and online invoicing.

Overall, Helcim rates as one of the best credit card processors for small businesses, and we strongly recommend it for most merchants.

Helcim Credit Card Processing Services & Features

Helcim provides a full range of merchant services to enable mobile, in-person, and eCommerce payments with its robust and comprehensive features, including:

• Merchant Accounts: Helcim partners with Elavon for processing services.
• International Payments: You can accept payments from anywhere in the world with built-in payment options, and you won’t have to deal with currency conversion. But be aware that international transactions come with cross-border fees, as set by the card payment brands.
• ACH/EFT Payments: All Helcim accounts include ACH processing (EFT processing in Canada) at no additional cost.

Helcim Fees & Rates

One of the best things about Helcim’s rates for credit card processing is that every merchant — regardless of processing volume or history — is set up with an interchange-plus pricing plan.

As with most providers, Helcim offers lower rates to businesses with a higher monthly processing volume. This feature can save you a significant amount of money on your processing costs as your business grows.

Optionally, you can use Helcim’s free cash discounting plan (“Helcim Fee Saver”) to accept credit card payments in person or online at zero cost to you. Note that your customers will pay a transaction fee and the merchant will pay a transaction fee when customers pay with debit or ACH (see Extra Costs table below).

Pricing Overview

Extra Costs

Unlike most traditional providers, Helcim keeps your additional fees to a bare minimum. It’s eliminated most of the extraneous fees that other providers love to tack on to your bill, including the following:

• No account setup or application fees
• No monthly account fees
• No PCI compliance fees
• No statement fees
• No monthly minimums
• No early termination fees

Additionally Helcim is one of the few providers we’ve found that will refund your chargeback fee if you prevail in the investigation. As a merchant, it’s a good idea to understand how to prevent a chargeback in the first place. For some helpful information, check out our post on how to keep your processor from holding your funds.

Hardware & Software Costs

Helcim’s processing equipment costs $199 - $349, depending on whether you choose the Helcim Card Reader, or the Helcim Smart Terminal. The cost to use Helcim’s POS software (app) is $0/month.

Alternatively, you can use Helcim’s free point of sale app to accept contactless payments using Tap to Pay on iPhone, which brings your software and hardware cost to $0, since no external reader is required with this solution.

Sales & Advertising Transparency

Before you even sign up for Helcim credit card processing, the company website gives full disclosures about pricing and contract terms, as well as what features your merchant account includes. The information on Helcim’s website is perhaps the most thorough and transparent explanation of merchant account pricing we’ve ever seen from a provider. For example, while a few other providers might disclose their interchange-plus processing rates for an entry-level plan, Helcim provides a detailed table of exactly what you’ll pay as your volume increases.

We also think Helcim’s sales team is a good example of how businesses should set up this part of a company. It has a dedicated, full-time sales staff and doesn’t use independent agents. For merchants, this translates to a much more pleasant sales experience. You won’t have to worry about the high-pressure sales tactics and misleading claims that independent agents frequently resort to. We haven’t seen any criticism of the company’s sales practices, but we have seen many positive comments from satisfied merchants.

Helcim also has a thriving social media presence, with regularly updated accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. These accounts mainly distribute material from the company’s blog and feature numerous educational articles that will help you gain a more in-depth understanding of how credit card processing works. The company also has a YouTube channel, which currently features over 200 tutorials and educational videos.

Contract Length & Early Termination Fee

All Helcim merchant accounts feature true month-to-month billing, with no early termination fees or other penalties for closing your account. All you need to do is provide 30 days’ notice, and your account will be closed. This is a much better and more flexible arrangement than the industry standard. Most providers will lock you into a three-year contract with an automatic renewal clause and an early termination fee (typically several hundred dollars) if you close your account before your contract expires.

Because these long-term contracts and cancellation penalties are so unpopular, there is a growing trend within the processing industry to do away with them. While some of the more honest providers (such as Helcim) will eliminate both the multi-year contract term and the early termination fee, most providers will agree to waive the cancellation fee — if you negotiate this waiver when you set up your account.

However, this arrangement is not a true month-to-month contract, as you’re still on the hook for the full three years. While you won’t be penalized if you close your account early, we’ve seen plenty of complaints from merchants who continued to be billed for monthly account fees long after they thought they had closed their accounts.

You won’t have these kinds of problems with Helcim, and it’s good to see that the company is leading the trend toward true month-to-month billing within the industry. Nonetheless, we encourage you to read your contract very carefully before signing up. Pay close attention to the account closure instructions, which you’ll want to follow to the letter to close your account without any problems.

Helcim Customer Service & Technical Support

Helcim offers telephone and email support, and merchants’ feedback indicates that the quality of that support is generally excellent.

Phone support is available Monday through Friday from 7 AM to 5 PM MT and on Saturdays from 9 AM to 5 PM MT. Email support is excellent and also fast. You should expect to receive a response in less than 24 hours.

The company also provides an extensive online knowledgebase that’s very easy to search. If you have questions about Helcim merchant services, you can click on a category and find what you need or do a general search by topic. We love that this part of the site is full of documentation and tutorials for setting up your countertop terminals, using the Helcim Virtual Terminal, running the mobile processing app, and other services. If you’re new to Helcim credit card processing and are having trouble getting everything up and running, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to solve your problem using the knowledgebase.

Helcim User Reviews

Helcim has great user reviews. Let’s take a closer look.

Final Verdict On Helcim Credit Card Processing

Finding a good merchant account provider can be a huge challenge for a small business owner due to the many variables to consider when estimating your costs. Helcim simplifies this process by offering transparent pricing disclosures on its website, and its online calculator can give you a reasonable idea of what your costs will be.

Helcim’s continual sales growth is proof that honesty and transparency can lead to success, even in the highly competitive payments processing industry. Overall, the company earns one of our highest scores, and we strongly recommend it for most small businesses.

While Helcim won’t be an option for those in high-risk industries, it stands out as the best overall Canadian merchant services provider — and one of the best options for US-based businesses as well.