Dharma Merchant Services Review

Pros

• Interchange-plus pricing offered exclusively
• No annual fee or monthly minimum
• Month-to-month billing with no early termination fees
• Discounted pricing for qualified nonprofit companies
• Outstanding sales transparency and highly ethical business practices

Cons

• Not recommended for businesses processing less than $10,000 per month
• No support for high-risk or international merchants

What Is Dharma Merchant Services?

Disclosure: This video is sponsored by Dharma Merchant Services and is included for informational purposes.

Dharma Merchant Services is a merchant services provider that combines expert processing industry know-how with highly ethical business practices to meet the unique needs of small businesses, restaurants, and nonprofit organizations. The company’s pricing is fair, predictable, and fully disclosed on its website. You can also expect high-quality, friendly, personalized service and support from the Dharma team.

Dharma Merchant Services is one of our highest-rated merchant services providers. However, it’s not for everyone — high-risk businesses and those processing less than $10,000 per month will usually need to look elsewhere. For most merchants, though, Dharma offers the best overall value of just about any provider in the industry, and we recommend Dharma to you with zero hesitation.

Products & Services

Dharma Merchant Services provides a complete lineup of essential products and services for retail and eCommerce merchants, including the following:

Dharma Credit Card Processing Rates & Fees

Credit card processing fees and rates can be very complex, but Dharma Merchant Services offers one of the most transparent and fair pricing structures in the industry. All costs are fully disclosed right on its website. Interchange-plus pricing is provided exclusively for every account, so you won’t have to negotiate to get it.

Pricing Overview

Note that your transaction fees will vary based on your plan, transaction type, and type of card used—for example, card-not-present, Amex, and B2B transactions are billed at the higher end of the given range, while high-volume, card-present, and nonprofit transactions trend toward the lower end of the range.

Monthly Plans

The company separates its pricing plans by business categories rather than processing volume levels (with the exception of the high-volume plan), so it’s effortless to decide which plan is best for your business. Pricing plans include options for storefront and eCommerce merchants as well as a discounted rate plan exclusively for restaurants with low average ticket size. Discounted rates are available for qualified nonprofit organizations and high-volume businesses.

Extra Costs

Like any other provider, Dharma also occasionally charges incidental fees, as well as fees for optional services like ACH and Authorize.Net’s payment gateway service. Unlike most providers, however, the company discloses these fees in advance on its website. Also, Dharma does not charge account setup fees, annual fees, or PCI compliance fees. None of its accounts require a monthly minimum, and there is no early termination fee if you close your account.

In terms of payment gateway fees, Dharma gives you a choice between its proprietary MX Merchant gateway and Authorize.Net. While the MX Merchant gateway is included for free with your account, you’ll have to pay extra for recurring billing and for Level 2/Level 3 processing. If you want to use Authorize.Net instead of MX Merchant, you’ll pay a small fee, but it includes recurring billing and Level 2 processing for no additional charge. (Note that Authorize.Net does not support Level 3 processing.)

Sales & Advertising Transparency

Often, the sales experience is one of the worst aspects of setting up a merchant account. That’s not the case with Dharma. The site is well laid out, and it’s easy to find the information you need. All fees, rates, and contract terms are explained in detail, and the company lists the actual cost of every service and piece of equipment it provides.

Dharma uses in-house sales representatives exclusively, so you won’t experience any of the misleading claims and high-pressure sales tactics that independent agents at other companies commonly employ.

With Dharma’s standardized pricing plans and lack of long-term contracts, there won’t be much left to negotiate when you finally talk with one of the sales representatives. They’ll still provide friendly and helpful service, of course, but you’ll already know most of what you need before you ever talk to a representative. Frankly, we wish a lot more providers would offer the same level of transparency that Dharma does. The company has set a very high standard in this area, and there aren’t many other providers in the processing industry that come even close to matching it.

Dharma also gets the word out about its services via social media. The company has active accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. A YouTube channel provides several educational videos, and Dharma has posted some marketing videos separately on the site that include excellent testimonials from satisfied clients.

Contract Length & Early Termination Fee

Dharma offers true month-to-month billing with no long-term contract and no early termination fee on all of its merchant accounts. While you can close your account at any time, be sure to follow the procedure specified in your contract to avoid being charged beyond your intended closure date.

While it doesn’t charge an early termination fee, the company does impose an account closure fee when you permanently close your account. Like all merchant account providers, Dharma is required by law to keep your account on file for a minimum of six months after closure to guard against late-filed chargebacks. This fee merely recoups the cost of this necessary record-keeping. Note that if you are a seasonal business, you will not be charged this fee when you suspend your account for the off-season.

Customer Service & Technical Support

In-house telephone support that’s available 24/7, 365 days a year, is the gold standard in the processing industry, but it’s something that only the largest providers can offer. In most cases, companies provide in-house support during business hours and rely on outsourced support staff to cover the rest of the time. If you have an issue come up at 9 PM on a Saturday, for example, you’ll often find yourself talking to a call center employee who can do little more than file a support ticket on your behalf. The actual resolution of your problem will have to wait until Monday morning.

Dharma compromises, providing superb in-house telephone-based support from knowledgeable and supportive staff during business hours, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM Pacific Time, Monday through Friday. Support is also available via email 24 hours/day, and you can submit a ticket directly from the company’s website. Outside of regular business hours, Dharma will direct you to the appropriate party, depending on the nature of the issue and your back-end processor.

Dharma’s website also includes an outstanding knowledgebase — one of the best we’ve ever seen — that provides answers to a wide variety of questions you might have about how credit card processing works. All the information the company provides is beneficial, accurate, and, overall, quite impressive.

Dharma Merchant Services Reviews & Complaints

Dharma is one of the very few companies we’ve seen in the processing industry that has more positive feedback than complaints on the web. In fact, in surveying Dharma credit card processing reviews, the most common criticism of the company appears to come from merchants who’ve been turned down for an account for one reason or another.

Final Verdict On Credit Card Processing By Dharma Merchant Services

Dharma Merchant Services offers high-quality merchant services at a fair price and ranks among the best of the best when it comes to honesty and transparency. The company excels at saving merchants money and providing a headache-free processing experience. If your business is a good fit for what Dharma offers, we can’t recommend it highly enough. Dharma may not always be the least expensive provider (although it’s pretty close!), but it does provide the best overall value around. The total value of the services a provider can deliver is more important in the long run than simply being the cheapest available option.

Of course, not all merchants will be a good fit for Dharma’s business model. Dharma is only available to merchants operating in the United States, and it doesn’t accept high-risk merchants. If your processing volume is currently less than $10,000 per month, Dharma recommends Square or PayPal as more affordable options.

In fact, Dharma now provides an online calculator that allows you to compare your anticipated costs using either Dharma or Square. We can’t think of any other provider in the industry that gives you the chance to compare your costs with a competitor in this way. It’s an excellent choice for the following entities:

• Brick-and-mortar retailers
• eCommerce retailers
• Restaurants
• Nonprofit organizations

Dharma is one of our highest-rated credit card processors and earns our highest endorsement.