Authorize.Net Review
Pros
- Broad support for multiple currencies
- Robust security and anti-fraud features
- Month-to-month billing with no long-term contracts
- Predictable flat-rate pricing
- Excellent customer support and service
Cons
- All-in-one option may confuse some customers
- High flat-rate pricing rates for optional merchant account
- May be more expensive than using Authorize.Net gateway with another provider
Authorize.Net Overview
Authorize.Net is one of the oldest and most popular payment gateway providers for eCommerce. It’s one of the most recognizable name brands in the eCommerce sector and has spawned many imitators. In fact, most proprietary payment gateways offered by other merchant services providers frequently include an “Authorize.Net emulator mode” to ensure compatibility with the company’s gateway.
Before we delve into all of Authorize.Net’s services, let’s clear up a common misconception: Authorize.Net is not a merchant account provider. The company’s primary product is the Authorize.Net payment gateway, and it also offers several ancillary products and services that integrate with it. While it can set you up with a merchant account if you don’t already have one, a third-party processor provides that account.
You can get a payment gateway from Authorize.Net in one of two ways. First, you can sign up directly with Authorize.Net for a gateway-only account. This works best if you already have a merchant account through a provider that doesn’t partner with Authorize.Net. Second, you can get a merchant account through one of the many merchant account providers that do partner with the company. There are a lot of them, including Payment Depot (see our review) and CDGcommerce (see our review), two of our most highly-rated providers. Which option is best for you will depend on the nature and size of your business, as well as whatever existing merchant account services you’re already using. For many merchants, getting an Authorize.Net gateway through their existing merchant account provider will be less expensive, as many providers can offer lower monthly gateway fees and lower per-transaction charges for using the gateway.
Regardless of how you get your payment gateway, Authorize.Net provides a reliable service. In addition to a basic payment gateway, you’ll get a simplified checkout system, support for automated recurring billing, a customer information manager, and QuickBooks support – all for one low monthly fee. Advanced fraud detection and eCheck processing are also available at an additional cost.
You can also turn your computer into a virtual terminal with Authorize.Net’s free Virtual Point of Sale (VPOS) software and a compatible card reader. Card reader options now include models that support both EMV and NFC-based payment methods and connect via either Bluetooth or USB. While the high-end models are a little pricey, they can be a worthwhile investment if you’re selling both online and through a retail location. Virtual terminals allow you to process credit cards without the need for a countertop terminal or dedicated POS system, while still qualifying for card-present processing rates.
Overall, Authorize.Net scores a solid 4.5 out of 5 stars. Its service performs well and offers several additional features that make its gateway more than just a way to accept credit cards over the internet. It also backs up its service with excellent customer service and support.
If you’d like to consider several other highly-rated alternatives, check out our article, The Best Payment Gateways For Online Payment Processing.
Get Started With Authorize.Net
Table of Contents
Countries Served
Authorize.Net is available to merchants in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia.
Products & Services
Here are all the standard and optional features that Authorize.Net offers:
- Payment Gateway: Naturally, every account with Authorize.Net includes access to its payment gateway. For more information on how gateways work, see our article, The Complete Guide To Online Credit Card Processing With A Payment Gateway.
- Merchant Account: While Authorize.Net is designed to work with your existing merchant account, it can also set you up with a full-service merchant account if you don’t already have one. You’ll get flat-rate pricing, which might work in your favor but often isn’t the best rate for higher-volume businesses. If your business processes more than $500,000 per year, customized pricing is available, and includes an option for interchange-plus pricing. The company currently partners with Global Payments and EVO Payments to provide merchant accounts for businesses that need them. It also has a partner directory on its website that lists almost two dozen merchant services providers you can choose from for your merchant account.
- Virtual Terminal: The browser-based Virtual Point-Of-Sale (VPOS) software acts as a virtual terminal, allowing you to manually key-in transactions on your laptop or desktop computer. This feature is free and is included as part of your Authorize.Net payment gateway. However, you’ll need to purchase a compatible card reader to process card-present transactions. VPOS uses the BBPOS Chipper 2X card reader to accept EMV, NFC-based, and magstripe payment methods. Two versions of this card reader are available: a $35 model that connects via a headphone jack, and an $80 model that connects via Bluetooth (we highly recommend the latter to future-proof your payment system). A USB-connected reader (the ID Tech Augusta) is also available for $184. Unfortunately, VPOS is only available on Windows PCs and Surface tablets.
- Mobile Payments: Like just about everyone these days, the company has an app that can accept mobile payments in conjunction with a smartphone or tablet and a compatible card reader. The Authorize.Net app is available for both iOS and Android. While the app is free, and this feature is included with your account, you’ll have to purchase a card reader. Choices include the two BBPOS Chipper 2X card readers mentioned above. Again, we recommend the more expensive Bluetooth version, as headphone jacks are rapidly disappearing from newer smartphones and tablets.
- Simple Checkout: Although Authorize.Net’s ability to integrate with a vast number of third-party online shopping carts is one of its stronger features, many merchants don’t need something that powerful. Simple Checkout lets you generate HTML code snippets for “Buy Now” and “Donate” buttons to add to your website.
- Automated Recurring Billing (ARB): Subscription-based billing is more popular than ever, and ARB allows you to customize not only pricing but also features such as free trial periods and installment payments. Unlike many gateway providers, recurring billing is a standard gateway feature and doesn’t require paying an additional fee.
- Customer Information Manager (CIM): The CIM, one of Authorize.Net’s most powerful standard features, allows you to securely store customer information, such as billing address, shipping address, and payment method information. Because this includes your customers’ sensitive credit card information, the data is securely encrypted. As we’ve noted, however, this security comes at the expense of data portability (see Negative Reviews & Complaints).
- Sync For QuickBooks: While QuickBooks integration is fairly standard these days, it’s still nice to have and will keep your accountant happy, especially if that accountant is you.
- Phone Payments: You can accept payments over the phone using the aforementioned Virtual Terminal.
- Advanced Fraud Detection Suite (AFDS): This feature consists of a set of thirteen filters that you can customize to your own needs to help flag and block potentially fraudulent transactions. This feature helps to prevent inventory loss due to fraud and lowers your liability for chargebacks.
- Account Updater: This optional feature automatically updates the information stored in your Customer Information Manager, including changes to billing or shipping addresses, as well as changes to payment card information such as updated card expiration dates.
- eCheck.Net: This is also an optional feature. You can add eCheck processing to your existing merchant account or sign up for the eCheck Only Pricing Plan. Pricing is 0.75% per eCheck, a much lower rate than you’ll pay for credit or debit card transactions.
Authorize.Net Fees & Rates
Before we dig into what you’ll pay for an Authorize.Net gateway, let’s clarify one important thing: The rates quoted below are only applicable if you sign up directly with Authorize.Net.
Many merchant account providers not only offer access to the Authorize.Net payment gateway, but they’re also able to waive some fees and negotiate lower rates and fees than what you’d pay if you signed up directly with Authorize.Net. In other words, the pricing below represents the full retail price for Authorize.Net’s services. If your merchant account provider wants to charge you higher rates than those listed below, don’t do it.
Authorize.Net features two pricing options on its website:
- The All-in-One option includes both a merchant account and a payment gateway.
- The Gateway-Only option is for merchants that already have their own merchant account. If you’ve already signed up with a merchant account provider, be aware that it might be more cost-effective to get an Authorize.Net gateway through your existing provider if they offer it.
If you need a merchant account, Authorize.Net can set you up with a flat-rate pricing plan. However, it might be more affordable to find one of Authorize.Net’s partner resellers rather than having Authorize.Net set up your merchant account, especially if you’re already doing a reasonable volume of sales. Going directly through Authorize.Net for a merchant account is a competitive option for online payment processing for new and low-volume businesses. Also, businesses processing more than $500,000 per year can obtain customized pricing (including interchange-plus pricing) with Authorize.Net.
One recent change in the company’s standard pricing is that it no longer charges an account setup fee. This fee, which used to be $49.00, applied to both the gateway-only and all-in-one options. However, many third-party providers that offered the Authorize.Net gateway didn’t charge this fee, so it was probably dropped to avoid putting the company at a competitive disadvantage relative to those other providers.
Here are the listed prices for both options:
Payment Gateway Only Option
- $25 per month gateway fee
- $0.10 per transaction processing fee (this is in addition to any fee charged by your merchant account provider)
- $0.10 daily batch fee
All-In-One (Payment Gateway + Merchant Account) Option
- $25 per month gateway fee
- 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction processing fee
The single flat processing rate for the All-in-One option can be either a good or bad deal, depending on how you take payments and your average ticket size. It’s not the most competitive rate for card-present virtual terminal transactions, but conversely, it’s very competitive for card-not-present transactions. That said, the $0.30 per transaction fee will also add up very quickly if you process a lot of small transactions (less than $20 in particular). You’ll want to carefully compare these rates against what your current merchant account provider is charging you before choosing either of these pricing plan options.
There is also a $25 per occurrence fee for chargebacks. International transactions will pay an additional 1.5% cross-border assessment. Every account through Authorize.Net includes the Advanced Fraud Detection Suite, Automated Recurring Billing, Customer Information Manager, and QuickBooks integration features for free. eCheck processing, if you need it, is 0.75% per transaction. Use of the Account Updater feature is billed on a per-update basis rather than paying a fixed monthly fee.
Get Started With Authorize.Net
Supported Payment Types & Currency
Authorize.Net supports Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, JCB, PayPal, Visa Click To Pay, Apple Pay, Chase Pay, and eCheck payment types.
Authorize.Net can handle transactions in American, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand dollars; Swiss francs; Danish and Norwegian krone; Swedish krona; euros; British pounds; and Polish zloty. Just be aware that supported currencies may vary depending on your business location. For example, a US-based business would have currency support for US and Canadian dollars.
Ease Of Use
Once again, this applies to services purchased directly from Authorize.Net; your third-party interface and experience may differ.
Authorize.Net provides a Merchant Interface website for accessing your payment gateway account, managing transactions, viewing reports, etc., that you can access from any computer with an internet connection and browser. Once you activate your account through this portal, things become a little more complicated. Your account will be placed in “Test Mode,” which allows you to submit test transactions to see if your connection works.
Depending on whether you’re using a prefab shopping cart, software integration, or your website, you may or may not need a developer to help test your connection. (Authorize.Net will point you in the direction of a developer if you need one.) In either case, you’ll want to factor those costs into your calculations.
Authorize.Net provides a pretty detailed walkthrough of how to get and use your API Login ID and relevant keys, but there are quite a few steps involved.
Once you’re up and running, however, Authorize.Net should be fairly straightforward to use.
Contract Length & Early Termination Fee
Authorize.Net advertises “no long-term contracts” and “no cancellation fees” on its website, and for the most part, this is true. Use of the Authorize.Net gateway is on a month-to-month basis, and you can cancel at any time without penalty.
If you also go through Authorize.Net for your merchant account, be aware that things might be different. While many of its resellers (especially Dharma Merchant Services (see our review) and Merchant Focus) will honor these guarantees, others are free to set additional terms and conditions, and some of them might impose a standard three-year contract with an early termination fee. Once again, you’re probably better off going directly through your merchant account provider to get an Authorize.Net gateway and not the other way around. You’ll have more room to negotiate, and you can probably get a better deal than the standard fixed-price 2.9% + $0.30 processing rate. In any event, be sure to review your contract thoroughly before signing it.
Sales & Advertising Transparency
As a tech-focused company, it should come as no surprise that Authorize.Net has an excellent website. The design is clean, and the layout makes it easy to navigate. There’s even a site map and a search function if you’re having trouble finding information on a topic. Best of all, it doesn’t come off as overly “salesy” the way so many other websites in the payments industry often do.
One possible point of confusion that still occasionally comes up in complaints is that Authorize.Net is a gateway provider only, not a merchant account provider. To the company’s credit, it takes pains to explain the difference between a merchant account and a payment gateway on its website.
If you need a merchant account, it will set you up with one of its resellers to provide this service. While the company points this out on its website, it probably could be a little clearer about explaining this. At the moment, Global Payments and EVO Payments are the two primary partners that Authorize.Net uses to provide merchant accounts. We do not recommend either of these providers for a typical small business. Instead, take a look at the Reseller Directory on the Authorize.Net website for a much wider selection of providers.
Like many companies in the payments industry, Authorize.Net now offers an online signup process where merchants can submit the basic required information about their business and get approved for an account very quickly. While this option allows you to get up and running in a short amount of time (particularly if you’re eCommerce-only and don’t need to wait for your processing equipment to arrive in the mail), it’s also an easy way to trap yourself in a long-term commitment without adequately reviewing your contract documents.
We recommend that you only use the online signup option if you already have a merchant account and just need the Gateway-Only option. If you need the All-In-One option, you’ll want to contact the company’s sales department directly and carefully research which merchant account provider you want to work with before signing any contracts.
Customer Service & Technical Support
Authorize.Net provides numerous avenues of support to customers, including:
- Telephone Support: Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week (except major holidays).
- Support Center: Authorize.Net maintains an excellent knowledgebase on its website as well as numerous articles, white papers, and video tutorials.
- Live Chat: Existing users can chat with the Authorize.Net support team or submit an online support request. You’ll have to be signed in to use this option.
- Social Media: Authorize.Net has an active social media presence, with accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The latter includes network status updates, so you’ll want to follow them to keep up with any outages. It also has a YouTube channel, which features both tutorials and customer testimonials.
Authorize.Net has a great reputation for excellent customer support and won the Ace Award for achievement in customer excellence for the last 12 consecutive years. However, one thing to be aware of is that Authorize.Net’s customer support is for its payment gateway only. If you’re having a problem with your merchant account, you’ll have to go through your merchant account provider.
User Reviews
Negative Reviews & Complaints
Authorize.Net has been accredited by the BBB since 2009 and has an A+ rating. It currently has 70 complaints filed within the last three years, 26 of which were filed within the last twelve months. If this sounds like a lot, remember that it’s the most popular payment gateway provider in the country. With such a large customer base, it’s bound to have some unhappy campers, and this number is actually quite reasonable under the circumstances. And the company’s overall complaint volume has also been steadily dropping over the course of our last few review updates.
While the decreasing complaint volume is encouraging, it’s apparent that far too many merchants still do not understand that Authorize.Net is not a merchant account provider. The company does not and cannot help you if you experience a chargeback or a hold, freeze, or termination of your merchant account. These issues need to be addressed with your merchant account provider, and not with a gateway provider like Authorize.Net.
Despite being mistakenly blamed for problems that it has no control over, the company is very thorough in offering detailed explanations of what went wrong and tries to correct the situation whenever possible. So, let’s be clear: If you have an issue that doesn’t involve the payment gateway itself (e.g., account holds or terminations), you need to address those complaints to your actual merchant account provider, not Authorize.Net. It can’t help you, and misdirecting the complaint against the company lets the real offender (i.e., the merchant account provider) off the hook.
With that said, here are some common legitimate complaints against Authorize.Net:
- Billing Issues: Many of the complaints revolve around the timing of monthly payments and cancellations, with customers feeling like they were wrongfully billed for services they didn’t subscribe to. Like most subscription-based services, you’ll want to double-check and make sure the service has been terminated when you’re ready to quit. Unfortunately, Authorize.Net’s online signup service makes it way too easy to get approved for an account, at which point you’ll start being billed $25.00 per month in gateway fees – whether you ever use the gateway or not.
- Monthly Fees Are Generally Non-Refundable: This isn’t so much a valid complaint as a general policy. Authorize.Net usually won’t issue a refund unless there was a genuine mistake on the company’s part. Again, the issues that lead to a customer wanting a refund in the first place are usually the fault of the merchant account provider, not Authorize.Net. Merchants also seem to be unaware that if they register for an account on Authorize.Net’s website, they’ll be issued a gateway account automatically and charged the first month’s gateway fee. The company is generally pretty good about closing these accounts and issuing a refund when requested. However, it could also do a better job of warning merchants in advance of the commitment they’re undertaking by signing up for an account online.
- Data Portability: Authorize.Net had developed a reputation for being difficult to migrate from. It looks like it has simplified the process, and I have not seen that many complaints about it post-2018, but be aware that it has been an issue in the past. The company now advertises “data migration assistance” as a feature for merchants on a customized pricing plan, but doesn’t provide any details.
Positive Reviews & Testimonials
Customers who are very satisfied with the quality of service they receive from a provider rarely take the time to leave positive feedback on their own initiative. So, it’s often left to the providers themselves to “blow their own horn” by posting testimonials from satisfied merchants on their websites. Often, these testimonials are less than convincing.
That’s not the case with Authorize.Net. It has put together a very compelling series of video testimonials and case studies (both videos and articles) from customers around the country and posted it on its website and YouTube channel. While some of the videos come across as overly scripted, the case studies really shine by tying specific features of Authorize.Net’s service to the needs of the merchant providing the testimonial.
Some common themes emerge about Authorize.Net’s strengths:
- Customer Service: While there are always exceptions, most merchants seem to be satisfied with Authorize.Net’s customer service.
- Recurring Billing Support: Several users found Authorize.Net’s recurring billing to be easy to set up and use. We particularly like that this is included as a standard feature with all accounts. Many other gateway providers charge an additional fee for this service.
- User-Friendly API: Several users found the API relatively easy to work with and versatile.
Final Verdict
Authorize.Net follows the maxim of doing one thing and doing it well. It provides a payment gateway and numerous ancillary services to support that gateway – and that’s it. While you may or may not need options such as eCheck processing or mobile payments, it’s nice to know they’re available and perform well for merchants who require them. Basic features of its gateway service, such as the fraud prevention filters, will be useful to everyone using its service.
Since we last checked in, Authorize.Net has done away with its setup fees and appears to have at least partially addressed some of the data migration issues. While it’s still possible that you’ll get a better monthly fee deal with Authorize.Net through one of its resellers, the removal of the setup fee does make directly signing up with the service a more reasonable option than it was in the past. The flat processing rate for the All-In-One gateway + merchant account combo is still high, however, so you’ll want to shop around if you’re also in the market for a merchant account.
With broad support among merchant account providers and a host of standard features included at no extra charge, we highly recommend the Authorize.Net payment gateway for your eCommerce business or sales channel. The company scores a very commendable 4.5 out of 5 stars, and is clearly one of the best choices on the market for a payment gateway. However, it’s not the only game in town by any means. Stripe Payments offers many of the same features and similar processing rates and includes payment processing services built-in (and without the need for a separate merchant account). Check out our Stripe vs. Authorize.Net matchup to see which provider is a better choice for your business.
The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆
Authorize.Net |
---|
After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Authorize.Net for yourself.
The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆
Authorize.Net |
---|
After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Authorize.Net for yourself.
Read Next
Organization Name: Grayhound Trash Removal Inc
This company came recommended from a colleague who spoke highly of them. Our time with Auho.net has been a nightmare. We have process credit card payments that never went through, though they appeared to have processed. Most recently we invoiced client who paid said invoice of $92,000. Autho.net has taken our clients money, closed our account, and is holding the funds for 180 days. If we want the funds we have to request them from autho.net after 180 days. What level of foolishness is this. Needless to say I will close the account we have with autho.net and share this experience with as many as I can so they do not suffer the same fate.
Organization Name: Honey Monsoon
So far so good and I have been using it for 2 years. Website is outdated and it’s hard to use the website on mobile. I accidentally signed up for eCheck.net with a minimum monthly fee of $10 and all they could do is refund me for current and previous month; even though I never processed a check. To the author of this article:They started charging for the Advanced Fraud Detection Suite starting in December 2019 and it is no longer free. The Monthly Fee is $7.50. It’s a good thing that they kept the basic Enhanced AVS Handling Filter, and the Enhanced CCV Handling Filter free of charge.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Sublime Payroll Services Inc
Horrible company. Terrible communication. Don’t use this provider.You risk your reputation in front of customers and your money too much.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Progranet
Es una porqueria, Nunca atienden en español para empezar, nunca pude usarlo porque son unos Tramposos. Siempre me cobran por algo que no utilizo incluso una vez, Cancelado es una porqueria.It’s a crap, They never attend in Spanish to start, I could never use it because they are cheaters. They always charge me for something I do not use even once, Canceled is a crap.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: McTernan Logistics Inc
Absolutely piss-poor organization, worst time and effort spent dealing with a company. Highly recommend using anybody other than these people. Shit policy, unorganized and unreliable,
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I would like to hear more people’s experiences with authorize.net and if there are better companies out there. I got rejected by PayPal Pro and Stripe because of the type of services I offer – healings. I need a payment gateway and merchant account provider. Any recommendations for companies that accept esoteric type of services? I have excellent credit, 0 debt, and no one has ever asked for a refund. Please help!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hello! Who did you end up going with? I have a similar business.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I wish I could give a -5They will charge you 49.99 even if you’re declined. !What a SCAM….!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
What do you recommend for a non profit school who accepts very little credit/debit cards a month?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Jenna,
Square is great for low/varying sales volume and works well for smaller nonprofits.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Wish I could give this company a minus rating!!! I signed up with them after a lengthy conversation with their rep who assured me no monthly or cancellation charges. After seeing not only a 30+ monthly charge and other erroneous charges for “non-compliance” I called to cancel. The rude customer agent NEVER mentioned the $300 cancellation fee which I found on my credit card statement later. When I discussed this with them, they said “It’s in your contract” and since it was breached, I was responsible for the charges. In less than 4 months, this company robbed me of over $600 and even though I filed a complaint with the BBB and other places, it was time wasted. I literally despise this company and hope with more people getting ripped off, something will happen to them!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Horrible company. I used them for less than a year and was unhappy the entire time. Hard to work with, no true support and horrible customer service. I have changed to Stripe and I’m really happy. It’s very easy to use and I have had no problems.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
TAKE CARE WITH GATEWAY.NET , BY ONLY STARTING THE APPLICATION – THEY WILL CHARGE YOU $49 EVEN YOU DONT FINISH YOUR APPLICATION!!!!. THEY ARE NOT RELIABLE!!! IF THEY DONT WORK FAIR BEFORE YOU BECOME A CLIENT WHAT ARE THE CHANCES THEY BE FAIR DURING THEIR SERVICES WHEN YOU ARE A CLIENT???!!!!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
The sales staff is ignorant and pushy. Their lead generating software collects minimal information and they doesn’t take the time to understand your needs. The sales stuff hung up on me after I confronted them on this issues. He also told me, and I quote, “I am 24 and I make over 150k a year. I looked up your tax records and you don’t make that much money. You need to listen to me”. Sounds about right eh? I would highly recommend blocking them.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
This company is by far one of the worst to deal with. As others have stated their fees are outrageous their support is terrible and absolutely DO NOT store any information in their CIM system as it will be impossible to export that data. DO NOT USE or you will regret it. They simply do not care about their customers!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Terrible communication or lack thereof. Don’t use this provider.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Be careful, they charge you for the service you never asked for or used; without your permission and if you contact them they will say “it is your responsibility to check your card and make sure no one stills your money”
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
old dying dinosaur – if you want an “extraction” of your own customer’s data – they charge $250/hour and it’s a minimum charge of $1000
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
DO NOT TRUST AUTHORIZE.NET DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR BANK INFORMATION! By all means do not trust these scum called Authorize.net. When you apply for an account, DO NOT LEAVE ANY BANK ACCOUNT INFORMATION! Whether your approved or not, they will start debiting fees from your bank account left and right. You call them up, get a letter saying the account is closed or you have no account with Authorize.net, they will start debiting your bank account the second you sign that paper, merchant account or no merchant account. They will approve you and then in a matter of hours close your account for the sole reason to debit your bank account. Make sure if you do use them to put a personal checking account with them so you can dispute the fees! With a business banking account you cant, and that’s what they do. These scumbags say the $50 is non refundable, even if they dont approve you for an account, and they so called will refer to 3 other merchant providers, which are even bigger scumbags them Authorize.net. 3 Months ago we signed up with them and for no reason got disapproved the same day, and to this date, they are still debit our bank account even though we have a letter from them saying its closed. Scum bags debited my account or attempted to 3x since November, luckily i know my bank and they just kicked back the charges.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Terrible communication and poor customer service.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
AUTHORIZE NET is completely rubbish – it may be ok in the US but they recently (2016) attempted to enter the austalian market – HAD MY ACCOUNT SET UP FOUR TIMES after their “sales” persons screwed up over and over and over again!1) you cant get hold of anyone in their “sales” department which is also responsibile for setting up your australian account unless it is 2am in the morning australian time (if you are lucky)2) they dont have a clue about what banks operate in australia or how our merchant services providers work or even the basics in customer service: I dont know if it is the same in the US, but australian accounts have to rely on “the sales team” to connect your merchant account to them for you/ set currencies / or make any changes to your account (you can do all this yourself if you use other companies, such as Stripe for example – so if a small error is made you can just fix it yourself ) Over a period of several frustrating weeks (which I was billed for – what a CHEEK ):a) they set up my account incorrectly tying me to the wrong merchant acc (so customers couldnt pay)b) they set my currency on USD instead of AUD (so customers couldnt pay)c) the sales team inputted the banks coding incorrectly so while the transactions “processed successfully on their end (so they could wash their hands of it) – the money got lost in the bank’s holding account and took over a week of calls – even a conference call on two phones between the bank and the authorize net “SUPPORT” because they kept blaming eachother D) their “sales team” in Australia claims to be open until 10am in Australia on their telephone answering machine – but you can phone at any time of the day and you just get this same message and the call drops. They tell you to emial them – and then they dont replyMY BANK EVENTUALLY FOUND THE money BUT WANTED AUTHORIZENET TO fix their coding mistake so they could allocate the funds – AUTHORIZE NET SALES NEVER REPLIED TO MY EMAIL REQUESTING THEM TO DO THIS – and STILL WONT PICK UP THE F****KING PHONE! MOST USELES PAYMENT PROCESSOR =sales rep by the name of WADE – was completely arrogant and obviously not interested in doing anything if he can help it – including picking up the phoneLAST ONE – i WAS TOld that payments are processed within 48 hours into your designated bank account – then later told it would be over 5 days – to day i HAVE BEEN waiting for three weeks and have yet to receive ANY OF THE FUNDS PROCESSED WITH AUTHORIZENET TO ACTUALLY LAND IN MY BANK ACC – AVOID LIKE THE PLAgue!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I have been with Authorize.net for about 5 years, in my opinion, these people are truly bad news and their practices are questionable. Do yourself a favor and look into other options, you will be very happy you did. Please note the following:
1. Their technology and options is outdated.
2. Most of the newer system will automatically update a credit card expiration date, however as far as I know, this is either not an option on Authorize or they don’t appear promote it.
3. Their in-house merchant bank charges significantly more than the competition.
4. The service is bad, they appear to really not care.
5. I once had a security issue that was reported by their own system, they didn’t even have a security department to review it, they blew it off and I was not sure if there was a security breach or not to this day.
6. This is the worst, when you leave and want you re-occurring credit card data, they will charge you a minimum of $1000, at least as of the date I am writing this. I was told by a former employee that it takes them half hour at most to extract this data, but their rates are $250/hour with a 4 hour minimum. I was further told they do this to make it very difficult to leave.
My opinion is that this is really a horrible company in every-way, there is almost nothing good about them. They just don’t seem to care and will seam to stick it to you when they can. I highly recommend to stay away, my experience and opinion tells me you are not dealing with highly ethical people.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Almost impossible to contact a representative.A large number of additional and mysterious charges, sometimes in excess of $120 per statement, and whenever you succeed to get somebody to answer the phone usually they can’t answer what the fees are.Avoid at any cost!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I agree! They are the worst! Please take caution!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
1st batch. Sent to risk management. Provided documentation. A week later called back. Brady in CS completely rude, unsympathetic. Sent me to vm for his manager, Rick so I called back. Brady angered. “RICK” is out of the office. Don’t they know I am the customer? Look elsewhere. They don’t care.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I have nothing but challenges since I started processing with them. About 1 out of 3 transactions go thru completed and the others end up cancelled and I have to call the clients for payment. I have spoken to their company many times and they say ohhhh we just updated and it should be better now. Or they always have an excuse. If this is not bad enough then Authorize.net goes down for a day or two and my customers get errors and cant process. I do not have time to call everyone that wants to purchase and get their credit card info and do it for them. Some people just do not want to buy something that bad to go thru that. I hear rave reviews about Stripe, do any of you have experience with them? Also, Pay pal is an option and both are cheaper than Authorize.net. I am disappointed in them because my credit card processing company recommended them.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Terrible. Customer support. Company changed security on website, didn’t inform of the change and have spent last two days trying to get up and running. I would seriously consider other options.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I agree!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
This company has the absolute worst sales and support staff in history. They are disrespectful and arrogant. They don’t reply to emails. You can’t get a question answered by anyone. All they do is say it’s another department’s problem and transfer you without your input. They rarely understand the reason you’re calling.And this is during the pre-customer wooing stage when most companies are the most responsive.I’m glad we haven’t signed a contract seeing the note about their downtime.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Authorize.net was reliable perhaps 7 years ago when we started with them. As of the last year they go down nearly monthly. I’m SO fed up with them. Please avoid. We are undertaking a massive redo of our technology – both online and in-store to avoid this single point of failure bottleneck. Why they don’t have backups in place is beyond me. What a terribly run company to just have outage after outage and act like nothing happened. They have repeatedly covered up their outages too by not reporting them many times.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Thanks for the review Tom.
I’m trying to decide between Authorize and BeanSteam for my website right now. Bean has a little better pricing, yet does not accept all credit cards like Authorize does. I will be selling a course online and would like as much of an all in one shopping cart – gateway -merchant account as I can find. It seems as these two are fairly comparable in terms of their reviews. Do you have any other thoughts on this matter??
Thank you!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Check out Stripe!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Why would they want to waste the time giving all the card info when they know that their customer is changing gateways? Sure is just easy to say they cant do it. Time is money right?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.