Bank Of America Merchant Services Review
Bank Of America Merchant Services has undergone many welcome changes in the past two years, including no more long-term contracts and predictable flat-rate pricing.
Bank Of America Merchant Services
Total Rating | 4.0 |
---|---|
Fees & Rates4.1 | |
Products & Services3.8 | |
Contract4.6 | |
Sales & Advertising Transparency3.8 | |
Customer Service3.5 | |
User Reviews3.0 |
Bank Of America Merchant Services At A Glance
- Requires Bank of America business checking account
- Offers full-service merchant accounts with no long-term contracts or early termination fees
- Flat-rate or customized pricing options available
Pros
- Predictable flat-rate pricing offered
- Custom pricing available
- No long-term contracts or early termination fees
- Next-day funding available to all users
Cons
- Requires Bank of America business checking account
- Reports of poor customer support
Table of Contents
What Is Bank Of America Merchant Services?
Bank of America Merchant Services (BAMS) is the merchant services division of Bank of America (BofA), and one of the largest payment processors. BAMS offers an array of merchant services, including credit card processing, processing hardware, and support for eCommerce businesses.
The company now advertises merchant accounts that come without long-term contracts and no early termination fees (a vast improvement over its previous contracts through Fiserv/First Data which it recently split from).
With its completely revamped product lineup and more flexible contract terms, Bank of America Merchant Services appears to be moving in a positive direction. Is this enough to place it among the best credit card processing providers? Read on to find out.
Products & Services
Products & Services3.8 |
---|
Software & Services 4.3 |
Hardware & Equipment 3.2 |
Bank Of America Merchant Services earns solid scores in the Products and Services category, though these marks could be higher if BofA disclosed more information about its eCommerce services.
BAMS provides a full line of products and services for retail, eCommerce, and omnichannel businesses, including the following key features:
Fees & Rates
Fees & Rates4.1 |
---|
Pricing 5.0 |
Affordability 3.2 |
BAMS offers flat-rate credit card processing fees for small businesses, with processing rates fully disclosed on its website. Customized, quote-based pricing is also available if you ask for it. Overall, BofA’s solid score in this category disclosed rates are in line with industry averages, and we appreciate the transparency shown. The flat rates are slightly higher than those of Square, however.
Sales & Advertising Transparency
Sales & Advertising Transparency3.8 |
---|
Sales Practices 4.4 |
Web Presence 2.9 |
BAMS earns a respectable score in this category, as the company has been heading in the right direction regarding disclosures of fees and other aspects of its merchant account services. There’s still room for improvement, however — particularly regarding its ancillary fees and its eCommerce offerings.
Bank of America Merchant Services has recently redesigned its website from the ground up, and it’s a tremendous improvement over the old one. The new site features extensive pricing disclosures, including processing rates for merchants on a simplified pricing plan and prices for the company’s many card readers, terminals, and peripherals.
However, there’s very little information about recurring or incidental fees, other than a footnote mentioning that POS systems require a monthly subscription fee and a vague claim of “no hidden fees.”
BAMS continues to use an in-house sales team to market and set up its accounts, which should lead to a positive sales experience in most cases. The company does state on its website that you will be presented with a complete fee schedule and all relevant contract documents and that you’ll be allowed to review them before signing up for an account. We strongly encourage you to thoroughly read all of your contract documents and clarify any lingering questions with your sales agent before signing up.
While the BAMS website includes links to all of the major social media sites, these accounts are for the main Bank of America organization, and finding information relevant to merchant services on any of them is quite challenging.
Contract Length & Early Termination Fee
Contract4.6 |
---|
Commitment 5.0 |
ETF & Other Fees 4.2 |
BAMS prominently advertises on its website that its merchant accounts come with no long-term contracts and no early termination fees (ETFs). This is a welcome change from its previous practices when it was primarily a reseller for Fiserv, where three-year contracts and expensive cancellation penalties were the norm. Accordingly, BAMS now earns a great score in this category.
Note that there are still plenty of older online complaints from merchants who had to pay an ETF, but this appears to only apply to merchants whose accounts were underwritten by Fiserv prior to 2020.
We have yet to see any recent complaints from merchants regarding long-term contracts or early termination penalties, so we’re inclined to believe that BAMS is being honest about its contracts. Nonetheless, we strongly encourage you to read your contract documents thoroughly before signing up. BAMS doesn’t advertise any “free terminal” offers on its site, but it’s become common practice in the payments industry in recent years to pressure merchants to accept a free terminal in exchange for signing up for a long-term contract.
Customer Service & Technical Support
Customer Service3.5 |
---|
Personal Support 3.8 |
Self-Service 3.2 |
Like other aspects of BAMS’ services, customer support has been extensively revamped in the wake of the company’s split from being a Fiserv reseller to running an independent merchant services organization. Overall, these changes appear to be positive, leading to BAMS receiving a decent score in this category.
Bank Of America Merchant Services Support | Availability |
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Phone Support | |
Email Support | |
Support Tickets | |
Live Chat | |
Dedicated Support Representative | |
Knowledge Base or Help Center | |
Videos & Tutorials | |
Company Blog | |
Social Media |
True 24/7 phone and email support are now available, and you won’t have to contact a third-party partner to get help. At the same time, there’s still no live chat option.
Perhaps the biggest improvement is the launch of a new Merchant Help Center, an extensive online knowledgebase full of technical support discussions, product documentation, and other helpful resources. The Help Center includes a search function, which should make it easier to find the specific information you’re looking for.
The real question is how good the quality of BAMS’ customer service is, and at this point, we don’t have adequate feedback from merchants to assess this area. The company previously received many complaints from users alleging poor or ineffective customer support, but now that BAMS is handling this critical function in-house, we’re hopeful that it will lead to improvements in this area.
User Reviews
User Reviews3.0 |
---|
Customer Feedback 3.0 |
Review Site Aggregate 3.0 |
Merchant feedback regarding the current iteration of BAMS is quite hard to come by. At the very least, the complaint volume has dropped, but positive feedback is nearly nonexistent as well. BAMS’s user review rating reflects this ambiguity.
Final Verdict
Since splitting with Fiserv/First Data in 2020, Bank of America Merchant Services has taken several positive steps to improve both the quality of its services and its reputation among merchants. It’s done away with long-term contracts, eliminated early termination fees, and introduced a flat-rate pricing plan with no monthly fees. It’s also instituted 24/7 customer support and completely revamped its hardware lineup, eliminating Clover products and replacing them with universal devices that can be reprogrammed if necessary.
Plus, while we can’t say for certain that BAMS has completely eliminated terminal leases, it’s clearly moved away from them by disclosing the prices for buying them outright.
These are all very welcome changes, especially in an industry where the biggest players tend to offer the worst services and pricing to small business owners.
While we have lingering concerns about the quality of the company’s customer service and are still waiting for more recent feedback from merchants to determine how these changes have actually improved the overall user experience, we’re comfortable with stating that BAMS has made some major improvements over the past few years.
If you’re already a Bank of America customer (or are willing to become one), it’s definitely worth your time to check out Bank of America Merchant Services and compare what it has to offer against other providers.
Credit Card Processor Review Methodology
We evaluate and test each payment processor that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on certain key characteristics in order to generate our granular ratings for merchant accounts and credit card processors.
For payment processing reviews, we use a 24-point rubric to evaluate the provider. First, we look at pricing structure – interchange plus, subscription-based, tiered, or hybrid – giving the most points to providers that provide fair, transparent pricing and docking those that rely on tiered models. Then we examine rates, the presence and transparency of early termination fees, and any additional fees.
We also look at contract length and fairness and test out sales staff and customer service channels ourselves to ensure that the company uses reputable, above-the-board sales techniques. Finally, we take the company’s online reputation into account, reading customer reviews and comments.
Read more about how we rate payment processors.
We've done in-depth research on each and confidently recommend them.
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