CDGcommerce Review
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- Date Established
- 1998
- Location
- Chesapeake, Virginia
Pros
- Interchange-plus pricing offered
- Free payment gateway and virtual terminal
- No account setup or application fees
- Month-to-month billing with no early termination fees
- Excellent customer service and support
Cons
- Mobile card reader is not EMV-compatible
- Only available to US-based merchants
Overview
CDGcommerce is a merchant account provider with main headquarters in Chesapeake, Virginia and a west coast office in San Pedro, California. Founded in 1998, the company has twenty years of experience offering top-notch merchant account services to small and medium-sized businesses. While their services are geared more toward eCommerce businesses, they also provide a full range of offerings for retail merchants as well.
The company currently serves over 20,000 merchants, putting it in the mid-sized category for merchant services providers. More importantly, CDGcommerce has maintained a client retention rate of over 97% for more than a decade. Not many providers can claim this, and it’s a good indication that you’re most likely to have a positive experience with them.
In evaluating merchant account providers, there are certain features that we really like to see. First, we look favorably on providers who offer true month-to-month billing with no long-term contracts and no early termination fees. This arrangement gives you the flexibility to change providers quickly and easily if you need to, with no penalty. It also creates a great incentive for your provider to continuously offer solid customer support, as you can easily leave if you’re not happy for any reason.
We also prefer to see providers offer interchange-plus pricing, as it’s the most transparent (and affordable) pricing model for all but the smallest of businesses. If your business processes less than $10,000 per month, flat-rate pricing may be a better alternative, as your processing costs will be much more predictable.
For retail merchants, we like to see providers who don’t trap their customers in expensive, noncancelable terminal leases. These leasing arrangements can end up costing thousands of dollars for a piece of equipment that’s only worth a few hundred dollars at most.
Fortunately, CDGcommerce scores very highly on all these criteria. All their contracts are month-to-month, so you can cancel at any time without having to pay a penalty. They offer interchange-plus pricing plans to businesses processing over $10,000 per month. For smaller businesses that process less than $10,000 per month, they offer a simplified pricing plan that combines features of flat-rate and tiered pricing. While we’re generally not fans of tiered pricing plans, the company’s rates are fully disclosed and also quite reasonable. You won’t experience the kind of sticker shock that merchants on traditional tiered plans often suffer when they look at their monthly processing statement. Credit card terminals are included with your account, although you’ll have to pay a $79 annual fee for terminal insurance. This works out to much less than a typical monthly terminal leasing fee, and all you have to do is return your equipment if you decide to close your account.
It gets even better. CDGcommerce has also eliminated many of the excessive fees that other providers charge, including account setup fees, PCI compliance fees, and monthly minimums. For eCommerce merchants, they’ll also include the use of either their proprietary Quantum payment gateway or Authorize.Net (see our review) for free. Finally, they back everything up with excellent customer service and support.
With so many outstanding features, it should come as no surprise that CDGcommerce earns an excellent 5 out of 5 stars rating. We recommend them very highly, and when you learn about all they have to offer, we’re sure you’ll agree.
Table of Contents
Products & Services
The company’s line of products and services covers all the bases, but they’re particularly focused on eCommerce and small to mid-sized businesses. Their one-step PCI compliance program and robust optional cdg360 security features come in handy for eCommerce and beyond, and their free additional account tools will help you get the most out of your processing experience. CDGcommerce’s offerings include the following:
- Merchant Accounts: Like most merchant account providers, CDGcommerce is not a direct processor. Instead, they partner with one or more backend processors to handle processing your transactions and getting the money to you. Your backend processor will be identified in your contract documents when you set up your account. It’s also very important to note that one of the ways CDGcommerce keeps their costs so affordable is by not accepting high-risk merchants. If you’re not sure whether your business falls in the high-risk category, consult with one of the company’s sales representatives before applying.
- Payment Gateway: eCommerce users can choose between either the company’s proprietary Quantum payment gateway or Authorize.Net (see our review). Either gateway is completely free to use – there’s no setup fee, no monthly gateway fee, and no extra per-transaction processing charge. This is a huge savings over signing up with Authorize.Net directly, as they charge a $49.00 setup fee, a $25.00 per month gateway fee, and an additional $0.10 per transaction for processing.
- Virtual Terminal: All accounts come with free virtual terminal access, allowing you to process transactions from any internet-connected computer instead of a traditional credit card terminal. You can key in transactions manually or swipe them with an optional, USB-connected card reader that CDGcommerce will provide to you for free.
- Credit Card Terminals: Getting a credit card terminal for your business often involves a choice between buying your equipment or leasing a terminal from your merchant account provider. We usually encourage buying, as most terminal leasing arrangements include long-term, noncancelable contracts that end up costing you many times more than the actual value of the equipment. CDGcommerce offers a third alternative, and it’s an excellent choice for businesses that only need one terminal. Each retail merchant account comes with one credit card terminal, and all you pay is a $79.00 annual insurance fee to cover loss, damage, and upgrades. You also have to return the equipment if you close your account, obviously. This works out to about $6.58 per month – a fraction of what a traditional terminal lease will cost. CDGcommerce currently offers the Verifone Vx520 and PAX S90 terminals. Both terminals are EMV-compliant and support NFC-based payment methods. The S90 is a wireless model, so you’ll have to pay an additional $20.00 per month for the data plan, plus an extra $0.05 per transaction.
- Mobile Payments: If you need to process payments anywhere, but don’t want to deal with the expense of a wireless terminal, CDGcommerce offers the ProcessNow app and card reader. The app is available for both iOS and Android and works with a variety of smartphones and tablets. Both the app and the card reader are free. ProcessNow features single screen payment entry, automatic tip calculation, and inventory management capability. Customer receipts can be emailed or printed with a compatible Bluetooth-connected receipt printer. Unfortunately, the current card reader is magstripe-only and doesn’t support EMV. It also plugs into a headphone jack, so it won’t work with many of the latest smartphones.
- Point-Of-Sale (POS) Systems: CDGcommerce offers their proprietary CDG POS+ system, which uses the Harbortouch Echo terminal. The CDG POS+ equipment package includes a terminal with a 13.3” touchscreen display, a cash drawer, and a thermal receipt printer. All security features of the cdg360 security package (normally $15.00 per month) are also included. This equipment is provided for free, but you’ll have to pay a monthly fee of $39.00 and an annual $79.00 fee for complete equipment replacement protection. A barcode scanner is also available as an additional option. If you’d like to accept Apple Pay, an EMV/NFC Apple Pay reader is also available. While it’s free for merchants processing over $10,000 per month, those under this amount will have to pay either a one-time fee of $149 or a $10.00 per month rental fee. Overall, the CDG POS+ package represents significant savings over traditional Point-of-Sale systems, even with all the bells and whistles included.
- Security Service: Called cdg360, this $15.00 per month optional feature includes $100,000 in data breach insurance, PCI-DSS vulnerability scans, customized security alerts, staff awareness training, and a Merchant Trust seal for your website. For this low of a price, the $100,000 insurance alone could be well worth it.
- Merchant Reporting & Control: While almost all merchant account providers now include online reporting tools, CDG goes above and beyond the industry standard here. Features include detailed account information, chargeback/fraud warnings, automated alerts, real-time reporting, historical trends and graphs, QuickBooks integration, and a number of other useful tools.
Fees & Rates
One of the first things you’ll notice on CDGcommerce’s home page is a Pricing tab, prominently displayed in the top menu. This is your first clue that CDGcommerce is different from most other companies in the processing industry, which usually avoid divulging any pricing information whatsoever on their websites. You’ll want to take a close look at the information presented here, as the company offers a variety of rates and pricing plans for different types of businesses. You’ll start by choosing between two primary types of pricing: simplified and advanced. Simplified pricing, while available to all merchants regardless of monthly processing volume, is primarily designed for small businesses processing less than $10,000 per month. Advanced pricing, which is only available to businesses processing over $10,000 per month, offers interchange-plus pricing and discounted rates to merchants with higher processing volumes. While most providers that offer interchange-plus rates will provide a discount for larger businesses, you’ll usually have to negotiate for it, and they certainly don’t advertise their lower rates.
Simplified Pricing
Every merchant using simplified pricing pays one of two possible rates for each transaction. These rates include both a qualified rate and a non-qualified rate. Non-qualified rates are a hallmark of tiered pricing plans, which we generally don’t like. Many merchant account providers mislead you by advertising only their qualified rates, and often only the lowest possible qualified rate at that. CDGcommerce doesn’t play this type of game. Not only do they fully disclose their non-qualified rates, but they also provide examples of the types of transactions for which a non-qualified rate will apply. We should also point out that even their non-qualified rates are about the same as what you’d pay with a payment service provider such as Square (see our review). In actual practice, you’ll most often have to pay a higher, non-qualified rate when a customer uses a rewards card that offers cash back or airline miles. Here’s an overview of the rates for CDGcommerce’s simplified pricing plans:
- Online: 1.95% + $0.30 per transaction (2.95% + $0.30 per non-qualified transaction (international, corporate cards and premium cards))
- Retail (swipe): 1.70% + $0.25 per transaction (2.90% + $0.30 per non-qualified transaction (keyed-in sales, international and premium cards))
- POS: 1.70% + $0.25 per transaction (2.90% + $0.30 per non-qualified transaction (keyed-in sales, international and premium cards))
- Mobile: 1.70% + $0.25 per transaction (2.90% + $0.30 per non-qualified transaction (keyed-in sales, international and premium cards))
Advanced Pricing
Advanced pricing offers discounts for nonprofits and businesses with processing volumes over $10,000 per month. Here’s a summary of CDGcommerce’s published advanced pricing rates, which apply to all online and retail merchants (including swipe, POS, and mobile users):
- $10,000 – $25,000: interchange + 0.30% + $0.10 per transaction
- $25,001 – $50,000: interchange + 0.25% + $0.10 per transaction
- $50,001 – $100,000: interchange + 0.20% + $0.10 per transaction
- Non-profit: interchange + 0.20% + $0.10 per transaction (regardless of monthly processing volume)
If your business processes over $100,000 per month, you’ll have to contact CDGcommerce directly for a custom pricing quote. You can expect to pay lower rates than those quoted here. If you’re switching to CDGcommerce from a competing provider, the company will offer lower rates than those quoted above to match what your current provider is charging you.
While these are certainly very competitive rates, you can’t evaluate the actual cost of your merchant account without also factoring in the numerous monthly and annual fees you’ll have to pay to maintain your account. This is where CDGcommerce really blows away the competition, as they have one of the most affordable fee schedules in the industry. Every account requires an account support fee of just $10.00 per month. If you opt for the cdg360 security package (which we highly recommend for all but the smallest businesses), you’ll pay an additional $15.00 per month. For online merchants, use of either the Quantum gateway or Authorize.Net is completely free.
What’s most notable about CDGcommerce’s fee schedule is the long list of things they don’t charge you for at all, including the following:
- No account setup fee
- No annual fee
- No gateway fee
- No monthly minimum (this is particularly valuable to very small or seasonal businesses)
- No PCI compliance fee
- No Address Verification Service (AVS) fees (saves $0.05 per transaction)
- No TIN/1099K IRS reporting fees
- No early termination fee
For a small business, this can add up to a very significant savings over what you would pay with a traditional merchant account provider. Account setup fees can be $100 or more. Gateway fees usually run between $15.00 and $25.00 per month, plus there’s usually an additional per-transaction charge. PCI compliance fees typically run around $99.00 per year, but can be higher. Early termination fees, although they only apply if you close your account early, can run between $300 and $500 – or even more.
Of course, providers are far more likely to advertise the fees they don’t charge you, without necessarily mentioning the other costs you’ll still have to pay. For example, all providers will bill you for chargebacks. While CDGcommerce doesn’t disclose their chargeback fee, you can expect it to be between $15.00 and $25.00 per occurrence. As always, it’s imperative that you review all contract documents thoroughly before signing up, even with a highly reputable provider like CDGcommerce.
Contract Length & Early Termination Fee
True month-to-month billing with no long-term contract and no early termination fee is the best arrangement you could ask for, and that’s exactly what CDGcommerce provides for all its merchants. In the processing industry, the typical merchant account contract runs for an initial term of two to four years, with three years being the most common length. These agreements also contain an automatic renewal clause which will extend your contract for an additional year at a time unless you close your account within a very narrow window at the end of the term.
Most providers include these terms in their standard contracts, although some will now waive the early termination fee – but only if you negotiate aggressively to have it removed. Even then, you’re still on the hook for three years or more, and you might continue to be billed for monthly fees after you’ve stopped using your account and thought it was closed. Always thoroughly review your contract terms before signing up with any provider, and follow the instructions for closing your account to the letter to avoid difficulties.
Sales & Advertising Transparency
CDGcommerce has a beautiful, easy-to-navigate website that provides most of the information you need to make an informed decision about the company. In fact, it discloses far more details about its pricing and contract terms than most of its competitors. Read carefully, however, as the “free” terminals and POS systems it provides with its retail accounts aren’t entirely without cost to you. Fortunately, the $79 annual insurance fee and $39.00 per month fee for a POS system are prominently disclosed.
The company also uses a full-time, in-house sales staff rather than relying on independent sales agents. The use of independent agents by many other providers has resulted in a huge volume of complaints from merchants. Independent agents usually receive inadequate training and are poorly supervised. Combined with the need to make a sale in order to earn a commission, these agents frequently resort to dishonest (and sometimes unethical) sales practices. You won’t have to worry about this problem with CDGcommerce. With most of their pricing and contract terms already disclosed online, there’s simply no reason for your sales representative to lie to you.
The company also has a reasonable presence on social media, with accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Unfortunately, none of these profiles seem to have been updated recently with new content.
Customer Service & Technical Support
CDGcommerce offers 24/7 telephone support through a toll-free phone number. Live chat is also available through their website, but only during regular business hours. You can also contact the company via email, and you should expect a response within 24 hours. Reports from merchants indicate that the quality of CDGcommerce’s customer support is very high.
For self-help, their E-Commerce Resource Center offers several useful documents for setting up their Quantum Gateway (or Authorize.Net). They also offer a few educational articles, including a detailed breakdown of merchant account fees. We’d like to see this section of their website expanded into a more thorough knowledgebase in the future.
User Reviews
Negative Reviews & Complaints
CDGcommerce has been accredited by the BBB since 2007 and currently has an A+ rating. The company has received only five complaints within the past three years. This total is quite small for a provider of this size. There is also only a single complaint against the company on Ripoff Report. CDGcommerce currently has a 3.0 out of 5 stars rating on their Facebook page, with two reviewers giving them a 5-star and a 1-star rating, respectively.
The majority of complaints we found against CDGcommerce come from merchants who have experienced a funding hold. While it’s quite unpleasant to not receive your funds for a transaction (and they’re often very large transactions), merchants need to understand that this situation is not the fault of CDGcommerce. They’re not a direct processor, and the decision to withhold funds is solely at the discretion of the backend processor. In fact, CDGcommerce is much more proactive than many providers in trying to resolve funding holds. After all, they don’t get their money until the funds are released, either. So, before you make a fool of yourself on the internet by filing angry complaints and making pointless threats to sue the company, educate yourself on why funding holds are issued, how they’re resolved, and how you can avoid them in the first place. Our article How to Avoid Merchant Account Holds, Freezes, and Terminations is a good place to start.
We’ve also found a few complaints from merchants whose accounts were terminated after the company determined that their businesses were high-risk. While CDGcommerce could do a better job of more prominently advertising their policy of not accepting such businesses, it’s equally important that merchants be completely honest about the nature of their businesses when submitting their merchant account application. There isn’t a provider in the industry that won’t shut your account down immediately if they find out that your business isn’t really what you said it was when you applied for an account.
Positive Reviews & Testimonials
CDGcommerce offers a Client Interviews and Testimonials page on their website, where you’ll find three videos and eight written testimonials from satisfied merchants. They’re all quite compelling and include enough information about the business to verify their authenticity.
You’ll also find several positive reviews in our Comments section, as well as on other independent review sites. It’s relatively uncommon for satisfied customers to go to the trouble of writing a review. In fact, merchants are far more likely to complain than to praise. While this is probably true in any line of business, it’s especially true in the credit card processing industry.
Final Verdict
For a small business looking to accept credit cards with a full-service merchant account rather than relying on Square (see our review), CDGcommerce is one of the best (and most affordable) choices you can make. If you can do without the optional bells and whistles, you can have a true merchant account for a mere $10.00 per month. This includes eCommerce merchants, who usually have to shell out extra just to connect their website to a payment gateway.
As your business grows, CDGcommerce’s services and pricing can grow with you. It’s easy to add data breach insurance and other important security features through the cdg360 add-on service. You’ll also qualify for lower interchange-plus processing rates as your monthly processing volume increases. Because CDGcommerce doesn’t charge gateway fees, PCI compliance fees, or monthly minimums, your cost to maintain your account will always be low – and predictable.
We’re also very impressed with the company’s unique way of supplying credit card terminals. The equipment is provided for free, and all you have to pay is a reasonable annual fee to insure and maintain it. This is the one instance where we would recommend renting your terminal rather than buying one outright. Remember, this is not a lease – you can cancel your account and return your terminal at any time. It’s a good way to avoid the risk of being stuck with an obsolete terminal in the future.
If there’s one catch in CDGcommerce’s service, it’s that they’re only available to US-based merchants. The company goes out of their way to remind you of this on their contract documents, but some people still occasionally try to sign up without noticing this restriction. We’d also like to see an EMV-compliant card reader for their mobile payments system. More and more providers are introducing EMV-compliant mobile card readers, and CDGcommerce needs to catch up as this capability is quickly becoming the industry standard.
Overall, CDGcommerce easily scores a 5 out of 5 stars rating. Their combination of high-quality service and low pricing makes them one of the best processors we’ve found, and we highly recommend that you check them out. If you’ve had any personal experience with CDGcommerce, be sure to leave a review in the comments section below.
Frank Kehl
Frank Kehl has been writing about merchant services, payment gateways, and international money transfer services since 2015. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Penn State and a Juris Doctorate from the Ventura College of Law. After a long and enjoyable career of traveling around the world as an Air Force navigator, he’s comfortably settled down in the wine country town of Paso Robles in California’s scenic Central Coast region. He enjoys reading, photography, hiking, and numerous other outdoor pursuits.
Latest posts by Frank Kehl (see all)
- How To Detect (And Prevent) Online Credit Card Fraud — And Why You Need A Solid Strategy To Manage Fraud For Your eCommerce Business To Succeed - November 18, 2019
- Don’t Fall Into The Trap Of Leasing Credit Card Machines & Terminals: 4 Smart Alternatives For Getting Payment Processing Hardware - October 21, 2019
- The Complete Guide To Online Credit Card Processing With A Payment Gateway - October 16, 2019
- Everything You Need To Know About Merchant Services - October 16, 2019
- Why Tiered Pricing for Credit Card Processing Is The Most Expensive Option (And How To Avoid Overpaying) - October 14, 2019
To learn more about how we score our reviews, see our Credit Card Processor Rating Criteria.
Organization Name: Wild Apples
Closing an account with CDG Commerce was a very frustrating and costly procedure. On their Merchant Cancellation form they give you an incorrect Fax # and tell you that if you do not get a confirmation # after 48 hours, your fax got “lost” . While your cancellation form gets lost, they of course charge you their monthly fees etc. I feel that CDG Commerce is not an honest company and I would not recommend them
Organization Name: The BayLou Group, LLC
Excellent analysis. And while this comment appears on the CDGCommerce articles, kudos to the entire series. The writer goes through painstaking detail to set forth his reasons for assigning certain ratings. And yes, I will be selecting one of the features companies; most likely CDGCommerce or FattMerchant. This site is a wonderful resource. Best wishes for continued success.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Cdgcommerce used to be awesome. They were super customer service based. Now they are just like every other company. They use a huge outfit (transfirst) to do all of thier customer service. They are nothing but a middle man marking up the price. If you, ask them why they say customer service. Hahahahaha. Thier service sucks. I have been working with them for years. They used to have real employees that answered the phone that’s actually cared. They dropped them for a big name company to answer thier phones. I used to call and Marquis or Amanda always answred the phone. Willing to help. Now it is a 3rd party service that doesnt even know who cdgcommerce is when you ask them to transfer you or grumpy men who don’t care at all and aren’t willing to help. Cdg used to be great – read the reviews- now it sucks. Waiting for our fiscal year to end and we will be dropping cdg so fast. Just another corporate company chasing the dollar. Want help refunding? They will send you the instructions via email. Need help with your statement? Let me send you to a 3rd party. Owner: gain sight of focus. Drop your call center and bring back employees that care and remember your name when you call. The women you had on staff were awesome. Everyone sounds so depressed to work there. Where did all the happy people go?!Hopefully with darma (who we are switching to) we will get better service, happy voices, and a add-on program we keep getting charged for.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: HVAC Energy Products Inc.
Easy to use and navigate- good customer service, transparent fee structure; switched from a mega merchant provider and now a happy customer-
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
We closed 2 business Account in 2015. Your company claiming that we closed one only, which is not true. No reach out to us, no account activities, no statements, no E-Mail 1st Data charged for 2 years a total of $ 638.50. My 1st statement was delivered on sept 2017. I found out about the charges I called the very unprofessional customer service and was able to get a copy of the statements. My contact with your company was only a waste of my time. I called the ethics hot line and file a complaint nobody ever tried to contact me back.That’s what we call fraudulent activities and my recommendation to any business trying to open an account with 1st data or Santander Bank: Think twice, check their reviews and do not make the same mistake we made.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Continued – Based on one of my monthly statements – charges were $9088 and interchange fees were $214. Since the total fees were $458, the non-interchange fees were 458-214 = $244. At the time of bill , I was paying 60 basis points (they have now lowered to 40) . If I am calculating this correctly, this would be .0060 x 9088 = $54.53. Apparently, the basis points are a small part of the total merchant charges. Its all the other stuff they add on. I am considering switching to GDC if my total monthly cost will be enough less than now which is around 4-5% – which would mean all the add-on costs would need to be less.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Gail,
Thank you for your inquiry, I am happy to help you with this. Unless you are a high risk merchant, 4-5% is pretty high, you want to fall around 2.6%. I would definitely give your monthly statements to CDGcommerce to take a look at and see if they can work with you on it. I hope this helps and I would encourage you to use the green “visit site” button within our review if you would like to support our work. If you have further questions please let me know.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Thanks.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Maybe you answered this somewhere – but here is my question. I currently am with Flagship / Authorize and pay Flagship a total fee of 4%, sometimes 5%: Calculated by dividing fees/income. I have an online home decor biz (9 years), no physical terminal, good credit, nothing unusual. Can you give an idea of what best % total fees is realistic?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Our nonprofit that works with two National Park Service units was about to sign up with CDGcommerce based on the good reports here and on other consumer sites. After chats and email exchanges with their underwriting staff, we learned that each terminal/location requires a separate account that incurs a monthly charge of $10 for the first terminal and $7.50 for additional terminals, which would mean our monthly charge would increase from the $10 for all locations/terminals with our current (and previous) processors to $40/mo. for four terminals and website plus the $79/yr. insurance for each terminal. The representative said that their bank’s agreement with Visa and MasterCard requires the separate charges, so she wondered why that wasn’t the case for our current processor with whom we signed up through the Michigan Nonprofit Association. Can you explain what’s going on here?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I went to CDG’s website, clicked the links in their menu for information. Each link led to a sales inquiry application form. I thought that was a bit odd. I filled out the form anyway. Instead of routing me to a page for CDG, I was routed to a notice that a representative of Durango, which I assume is a subsidiary or affiliated company, would contact me. Nowhere on the site was there any indication that I would be routed to a third party. Nor was there any indication as to why I was automatically routed to a third party. Of course I was suspicious. It was deceptive. I’ll be looking elsewhere.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Lee,
If you click on the green “visit site” button within our review, you will be redirected to a page where you will be able to find any information you need. I hope this helps and if you have further questions please let me know.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
The reason you were directed to our International Merchant Inquiry page is that you visited our Web site from an IP address in Greek. As a courtesy to our international guests and since CDGcommerce can not directly underwrite non-USA merchants, we immediately allow them to fill out a form to learn about other processing partner options to obtain a merchant account in their country.In the past it was a frustration for international visitors because they would often begin filling out the online application for a US merchant account despite not being eligible to do so. This happened on a daily basis which is why we changed our Web site to more accurately direct people to the best area to assist them.I understand that in your case, your business is actually based in the USA and we would be happy to help you out here but I wanted to clarify that the reason you were presented with the international page was due to your IP address as 99% of the time this is a valid method for determining a merchant’s geographic location.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
First – I just wanted to thank you for all of your extremely helpful articles on this site. It REALLY helps out a solo entrepreneur trying to get a small retail shop launched on their own.After a lot of research and reading many of your articles, I decided to go with CDG Commerce for my new retail shop (since it will be primarily e-commerce sales to start).I signed up with them last May and it couldn’t have been an easier process. Extremely simple and they even came out to my home for the inspection of my home based business.It integrated beautifully with my BigCommerce site and I have had no troubles whatsoever. Setting it up in BigCommerce was very easy.I do want to shed some light on an additional (minor) monthly fee. It is NOT a fee that comes from CDG Commerce, but rather, a third-party fee…good to know if you plan on processing credit cards and weren’t aware.My current account cost is actually $12.00 per month: $10 monthly service fee from CDG Commerce$2.00 FANF (Fixed Acquirer Network Fee)-APR. I believe this goes to VISA (from what I understand of it http://www.clearent.com/resources/visafanf/)Shortly after signing up, I ran a test sale on my website. On the statement, a $2 fee appeared in addition to the $10 monthly fee.After the test transaction, I actually put my business set-up on hold (had a baby), but I decided to keep my CDG account active since the monthly fee was minimal. For the next several months, I didn’t process any sales. The monthly fee ever since that test transaction has been $12 ($10 + $2 as outlined above) – so it is there even if you don’t process sales.Beyond that $2 fee, I’m still trying to learn everything that goes into interchange rates. It’s still very fuzzy to me, but hopefully will become more clear as I start processing a lot more sales. For example…on that single transaction test for a $14.99 sale, it was initially scary how much that test “cost” me when I received my monthly statement ($13.02). Then I took a closer look.The $10 statement fee of course is there per month, so I’m not going to count that.The $2 FANF fee I wasn’t expecting to see, but now that I see it’s part of the monthly fee, I understand that is separate too.Fees I WAS expecting to see (both were exactly as they should have been):$.15 transaction$.25 batch closeThen in addition, there were the following:ASSOC KILOBYTE/BASE II FEES $0.02VISA ASSOC APF FEE $0.02VISA BUS ENH CNP $0.52At the bottom of the statement, there was another fee labeled “Discount $0.04″The $0.60 is what I was guessing comprised interchange + 0.30%. If that’s the case, the rate is apprx. 4% (60¢ fees on $14.99). That seems high to me, but again I’m still learning what interchange + rates equate to. From what I understand, e-commerce transactions are considered keyed transactions so they will always have higher rates.Of course, I don’t anticipate such low volume sales, but it was interesting to see exactly how one $14.99 test transaction amounted to a statement of $13.02 in fees.I’m just finally getting my business set-up finalized. With the handful of sales I’ve had thus far, everything has been extremely smooth with CDG Commerce. I’ll be adding on Mobile Processing with them shortly.Now that I’m starting to go into production, I’ll be starting to see the CC processing and fees in the coming months. So far this month, all of my sales from online have been depositing very quickly into my bank account (2 business days after the day received).I contacted them today to add mobile processing (hopefully at the slightly lower than online rates displayed in this article.) They said underwriting will be contacting me shortly to add this to my account.As I start ramping up more sales and garner more experience with CGD, I’ll report back. So far I’m thrilled to have them! I am just going to keep an eye on what the average interchange + rate equates to over time. If it stays at that 4% range, then it will be much more cost effective for me to exclusively switch over to the other processor I use (Quickbooks Payments). Since I anticipate my average e-commerce sale size to be between $50 – $75, it might make more sense to switch over.Since I currently use Quickbooks Payments Pay-As-You-Go, there is no monthly fee and the Keyed rate is 3.4% + 25¢. At a transaction of around $17 and up, the Quickbooks Payment rate is lower…so it make make sense for me to switch over.Furthermore, if I were to switch to Quickbooks Payments monthly, it’s $19.95 per month and keyed drops down to 3.2% + 25¢. There are also no other fees (i.e. batch close) with Quickbooks…so that is a factor as well. However, time will tell what the average CDG rate comes out to be with interchange + 0.30% + 15¢. I’ll be receiving my June statement soon, so I’ll assess and decide.Thanks again for all the helpful, insightful advice!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Stay far away from these crooks. They processed me through Transfirst. Went through all the underwriting including site inspection. Almost immediately after I started processing transactions on my website they put hold on all money. Over $600 they are holding. The first excuse they gave me is that they tried to contact me and couldnt get a hold of me. Checked my call history, voicemail an email on file. No such attempt to contact me. Then they said some nonsense about all of my transactions were debit and prepaid cards and needed invoices for transactions. So I sent them order details for every single transaction. Including the customers contact info and billing address. Then they gave me the same old song and dance they probably give everyone else by saying it will take 48 hours to review this.This company is no different then those companies that dont do any underwriting ahead of time and wait for your money to get in their pockets and come up with every excuse to hold your money for 6 months. Its a big float game. Its amazing how I go through their underwriting process, including a site inspection and all of a sudden they need to do it again. And then they act like they dont know anything about my business at all even though its on their application that i provided to them. I told them I dont have time for all this nonsense I have a business to run. You know what Chrystal the supervisor working at the risk department at trans first told me? We have a business to run too. Oh you mean that “business” of taking off the top the profits of real businesses. You know the ones that actually created a service or product and work 16 hours a day 7 days a week. Chrystal here is a heads up for you. You dont run a business you work a job because you havent put your money where you mouth is and actually created a business. I am so tired of listening some bum who is hired to answer a phone and has the power to put a strangle hold on my business.I am going to sue these crooks. They can cry contract all they want but I guarantee you through a little discovery through legal proceedings that they do this to a lot more people than just me. They are playing the old float game. Well, I will be refunding all the transactions before I allow these crooks to hold my money on their float. I asked for their legal department contact info and she refused to give it to me.STAY FAR AWAY FROM THESE CROOKS. I DONT CARE WHAT THESE OTHER PEOPLE TELL YOU. THEY WILL SCREW YOU!!!!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
CDGcommerce makes every possible effort to approve as many merchant categories as possible but there are certain unacceptable merchant types – which we list on our Web site – that are exclusionary business categories.In the event that a merchant is determined to be operating an excluded business category, the merchant is notified and the account is subsequently closed. This is true for ANY merchant processor. Unfortunately, Web sites can be quickly changed and so sometimes it can take longer than the initial approval “snapshot” to see if the underlying business is different than what it was initially understood to be.In addition – and very importantly – contrary to what a recent poster indicated, there is no “float” earned by an ISO on funds on hold with risk. Very few CDGcommerce merchants ever enter into the risk queue but for this that do, in the event of any held funds – all funds are held in NON-interest bearing security escrow accounts at the bank. No one profits from this. Risk issues are a COST center, not a PROFIT center, for ISO’s. Risk issues require staff and cost money and time and in a perfect world, there wouldn’t be a need for a risk department at all.While we are never at the liberty to discuss the specifics of any individual merchant because of the confidentiality that we hold with them, we can certainly say that the circumstances portrayed here are far from the reality of the situation. CDGcommerce has been in business since 1998 and we welcome many thousands of new clients each year to our family of merchants. We consistently receive great reviews because we put our merchant’s first.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
You mentioned that “…there are certain unacceptable merchant types – which we list on our Web site – that are exclusionary business categories.” It would be great if you could hotlink the “which we list on our Web site” part of that answer, because I have not been able to find your list of unacceptable merchant types.
I am starting up a mobile food service business for fairs and carnivals. While most of my business will be cash, I have decided to accept credit cards for purchases over $10. I’m guessing the bulk of my credit card sales will be in the $10 to $50 range. Is carnival food an “exclusionary business category” for you?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I don’t think there is really a way to find out which one will come out cheaper for us, I have intuit online who says the charge is so low they do not offer debit card processing and I payment charges a 9.99 miscellaneous fee, huh? when was that on paper?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
CDG Commerce has utterly failed with out Magento CE store. CDG repeats that they do not support their plugin in any technical way. We have a professional developer who has helped us create the Magento store on a dedicated Magento host. All the plugin’s we have bought work flawlessly. But the CDG Commerce plugin does not work. The processing part goes through, but the Magento install does not get critical info from the CDG plugin.We have now missed the Holiday season due to this and we cannot recommend CDG Commerce for a Magento store at all. We went with them largely due to the review on this site, but so far, CDG Commerce has completely failed to work for us. We are now looking into other processors, which is not fun as they are expensive and ligitous and have horrible contract terms, but perhaps TransFirst will at least function.My review is to avoid CDG Commerce for Magento CE. Complete waste of time which has cost us thousands in development costs and lost sales.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Carla,I just became aware of your post here. Normally, QuantumGateway works great with most popular 3rd party applications but please note that in the event that you ever run into bumps, we are now offering a FREE Authorize.Net gateway option for you at no cost to you while we work out any technical integration issues that may exist.If this would be beneficial for you, please let us know and we would be happy to do this for you to help you out. This issue may have already been resolved from the time of your post but if not – we’re here to help and we will gladly assist you on this. Thanks!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Tom, we are a new business (less than 6 months) and are currently using Braintree through BigCommerce. We are a retail kayak store with a current volume of less than 10K per month. We are looking at different merchant account options and CDG looks like it would be a decent fit. I do have a couple of concerns that I hope you can address. First, what is your opinion of their Quantum Gateway? Second, there seem to be some recent negative reviews. What do you make of this and are there other processors that would be a better fit? Thank you for the great site and reviews. Extremely helpful.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Eric,
Thank you for the kind words about our site. I think that for your volume (>$10K) CDG will be a good option, but something like Stripe might be even better. You’d have to do the math, but anything under $10K month and you start benefiting from the pay-as-you-go feature from companies like Stripe and Square. I imagine you’re trying to save as much money as possible, so avoiding and monthly fees would be a smart move.
With that said, the free gateway (Quantum) will definitely be a plus as well, but I just don’t think the fixed monthly fees associated with a traditional merchant account are ideal when you’re at low volumes.
As for our opinion of Quantum; it’s a good gateway. It covers pretty much all the bases, but it’s not the most aesthetically pleasing interface. Considering that you probably won’t be spending too much time in the admin section of the gateway, you probably don’t need to worry about it.
And lastly, complaints are common, positive reviews are not. Although CDG has recently had a string of negative comments I don’t see any reason why you should count them out. My advice is to look at those negative reviews and use the information to prepare yourself for the unexpected.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Amad, thank you for the response. Very helpful.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I explained everything to this company upfront about my business before switching over from Braintree and they stated that everything was ok there was no issue I was new to processing and their were no issues to process due to the fact that I sell some electronics on my website. Since switching over this has been a total nightmare from the start. Now a month in they have held every single transaction over 15k in orders and refused to release it after I submitted numerous documentation and they even sent a guy to do an onsite inspection. You can even google my business and pull up plenty of information but these people are to retarded to do that. After all that they still said I was too risky and they needed to hold 20 thousand dollars and 25% of all transactions. These people are insane. I have had to refund all my customers today and tell them to reorder tomorrow smh. The reps are always “not in the office” or “out of town”. They do not return emails or calls once they have your money. Im going back to my previous merchant I should have never switched. Glad they took care of me and will have me up and running by this afternoon. NEVER AGAIN!!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I am fairly new with CDGcommerce but the beginning of our relationship has started off very rocky. Please do not choose this company based on their ability to approve your account quickly. The quick approval is nothing more than pre-approval and the real approval process does not start until after you run your first transaction. The very next day the risk department will contact you stating they need to verify cardholder information. Also while they verify cardholder information you also need to submit documentation, invoices, bank statement, etc. Then the agent will tell you this verification process will take 3 business days and they will then contact you with an update at that time. Mind you, these were not large transaction at all. a total of 3 transactions totaling $167Well my update took over a week and by that time i had already established another merchant account with another provider, processed transactions, and was funded before CDGcommerce had gotten back to me. I can’t blame CDG totally because my processor was TransFirst, but through this entire process CDG was no help as they could not give me any answer on what was going on. So please do not choose this merchant because they can offer you quick approvals.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Just ran my very first transaction with them and I got approval and shipped the order. I am a small home based business and explained everything I do up front. I have been in this line of business since 1989 and have had my own business since 2008. I used to use another company and came here because of some reviews I read stating this company was a good one. I just got a phone call from them asking for an invoice to go with my charge. No problem sent it right over. The lady spoke to me as if I have never done this before in just a tone that one would reprimand a child. Asking the same questions I was asked upon setting up the account. She asked how soon after I run the credit card does the customer get the goods. I stated I ship UPS and depending on where in the country they are depends on travel time and I run the CC the day it leaves my place. Then she made a remark about this being a residential area. I have spoken with underwriting and they are pleasant, but I feel getting a call from the “Risk department” on my first charge with them is uncalled for. I spoke with underwriting again and she is supposed to call me back tomorrow but I think they need to get people with a better attitude. I am sure I would not be in business since 2008 if I was doing anything fraudulent.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Well this is a surprise. After all the praise I’ve read about CDG, I finally made the switch to this company. To my shock I am actually paying more compared to my older company (salesvu). For example the bill from CDG is $41.12 on $868.97 in sales. The biggest fees of which were:MONTHLY SERVICE FEE 10.00FIXED ACQUIRER NETWORK FEE (FANF)-APR 2.00TRANSACTION/NETWORK ACCESS FEE 4.80BATCH CLOSE FEE 4.50+ a half dozen or more misc fees from different credit card types (I assume)$41.12 in fees on $869 comes out to roughly 4.75% if I had charged the same through salesvu, which offers a flat rate of 2.6% +0.25c per transaction, it would have only cost me appx $30.35 (31 transactions this month) which would have only been roughly 3.5%. With salesvu i had no batch close fees, no network access fees, no fixed acquirer fees etc. this interchange plus that CDG offers might be less than companies that just offer a flat rate, but CDG makes up for it by charging all these extra misc fees. And when you look at it from that perspective, total amount deducted per month, I’m not sure how CDG gets such high praise compared to other companies that offer flat rates.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Clint,
Most of the fees you are referring to are actually part of the assessments. That money goes directly to the card networks, and is not part of CDG’s profits. Here’s an article on the FANF fee. It is not charged every month, and it goes directly to Visa.
The network access fee is also an assessment fee and is not part of CDG’s markup. It goes directly to the card network.
The batch fee is only charged when you close a batch (usually once a day). This fee is listed in the fee schedule. It’s only about $0.10 or $0.20 each time I think. All merchant account providers charge this.
Having a merchant account versus a PSP account can be more expensive for low volume users. When your volume gets over $5K per month, the savings really start to show though. The real benefit of this type of account for low volume users is the reliability, not necessarily lower overall cost.
Hope this helps. I really appreciate your comments and hope that you’ll find CDG a good solution in coming months. If not, you have no commitment and can freely cancel. Let me know if you have any other fee questions.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Tom,
We are a small sized company who previously had a merchant account but never used the merchant account. Currently we have a client who would like to make payments via a credit card. I am guessing that they may be using a rewards card. We will probably be billing them twice a month. Each invoice will vary between $1,500 – $10,000. I am a Quickbooks user. Can you make a recommendation based on this? Thanks for your help.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Ruth,
We recently launched a tool to help our readers find the right merchant account for their business. Please give it a try and let us know what you think.
Take care,
Amad
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
They advertise 1.70% on each transaction and 2.90% for keyed-in sales, international cards and Premium cards.However, we’ve just received our first statement and 7 of 8 transactions got to the rate of 2.90%. Immediately contacted CDG and their answer was that we took 7 reward cards. Now where in the contract or the application says that rewards cards are premium cards? I even asked the CDG rep to show me a list of “Premium cards” and he said that they don’t have one. This sounds like a rip off to me. Switched from Squareup.com with 2.75% and now we are at 2.90%. What happen to the 1.70% they advertised. Do I really need to get into my customer wallets and pick a non premium reward card in order to get the 1.70% each time they want to pay us. AMEX has always been 2.90% or even 3% I can live with that because is AMEX.Any feedback would be appreciated.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Dave,
This is part of why we recommend using interchange-plus instead of a tiered plan. With interchange-plus, you pay the actual cost charged by the credit card companies plus a small mark up from the processor. It’s a much more transparent way of pricing. We actually have a special arrangement with CDGcommerce to ensure anyone signing up with them via this review will get a standardized interchange-plus quote.
But with that said, we’ve always known CDG to be a fair and honest service provider. The fact is that rewards cards actually do cost more to process, about 1% more in many cases. But there are dozens of different rates depending on the card and your business type. CDG offers a tiered pricing system to simplify this and turn all of those dozens of card categories into just two simple price points. This can make bookkeeping and prediction of cost easier. But in many cases it does end up being a bit more expensive. (Except for AMEX. They have their own pricing independent from the other card brands, and it will always be more expensive no matter what pricing plan you have.)
If you’d like to lower your rates with CDG, you can ask about switching to an interchange-plus plan. Worst case scenario, if you are not satisfied with their service they do not charge an early termination fee, so you are free to leave. But I’d bet they’ll be willing to work with you.
Good luck,
Tom
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
actually what i would find more useful is an attempt to get a bit more realistic and hands-on in terms of what it means to work with a provider such as cdg. as a user, the following questions seem obvious, but are not addressed here (from what i have read so far in the comments):1) how can you tie your ach transactions to your daily transaction batch settlements? this is almost impossible to do, and is not automated.2) why are batch settlement reports keyed in manually by cdg? i have found several (large) discrepancies, and the answer is alway: mistakes can happen3) why is it the fee structure that you are told by customer support different from the fee structure that is listed on your own “home page” account at cdg (your actual “rates” are much higher than what you think you are getting)4) it is almost impossible to tell what is being charged, given how ACH processing deposit occur asynchronously in your commercial checking account, sometimes with the fees front loaded, other times with ach debits that come without warning (apart from the regular $15 per month charge by cdg)5) there is a significant lag time (particularly over a weekend) between when a charge event occurs at your store, and when you see it hit in your actual bank account, and also when you see it actually appear in the cdg report — again making all this very hard to reconcile from an accounting perspective6) why do some of the chart reports on cdg simply not work?7) watch out for Amex — significant transaction costs, well well outside the norm — again very difficult to track, so better to just decline amexthe more general and obvious question is, why is is determining the true cost of credit card processing so complex? the obvious answer, which i hope is not the case, is that the obfuscation is to cloud the ability of ability of the average non technical, busy store owner (who cannot afford to have high accounting-related expenses) to assess what he or she is really paying.say it ain’t so, joe.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Joe,
These are good questions, some of which I can give you insight on, while others you will have to ask CDG about directly. I have always found their representatives to be responsive.
ACH transactions are processed by a separate entity, on a separate network, and take way longer to go through than card transactions no matter who you process with. If I recall, CDG charges 1% on ACH transactions. So knowing how much you are being charged should be fairly simple – way simpler than on card payments, anyway.
Funding time is tracked in terms of business days, so batches occurring on or directly before non-business days will take longer to process. This is true of all payment processors.
The fee structure you are told by customer support should be in-line with your actual fees. If you have an interchange-plus plan, then you will be charged a flat markup plus an authorization fee on top of the actual interchange cost of the transactions. If you are on a tiered plan, you should be charged flat rates depending on the type of transaction. I have not heard of other complaints about such discrepancies. If you believe you are being overcharged, I would absolutely encourage you to have CDG review your account.
If you are having trouble with CDG’s reporting software, you will need to ask them about this. Certainly there should not be broken report features.
CDG has no control over AMEX costs. (Although AMEX recently launched a new pricing system that changes this to some extent.) No matter who you process with, American Express will be more expensive to accept. There is no reason why this should be difficult to track. All of this information is in your processing statement.
In general fees and cost should not be difficult to track. If you are having trouble understanding the information on your statement, customer service will be glad to assist you and explain any charges. To make accounting easier, you might consider linking a Quickbooks account.
We have been directing merchants to CDGcommerce for years, and have seen countless satisfied merchants with very few complaints. In my experience CDG’s pricing is very straightforward and fair. I would encourage you to reach out to CDG regarding your questions. If in the end you are not satisfied with the service, there is no penalty for closing your account and switching to a new provider.
Best,
Tom
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
well… one thing that would be helpful would be a cdg manual that specifies exactly how to reconcile your reports. none exist. learning how to reconcile various reports via chat or phone or email is not the greatest approach, when you consider that:
1) your ach report will often not match your settlement report (they will differ by date, and the aggregate sums, including some transactions that appear in your ach report will be completely absent in your settlement report, due to manual rekeying by cdg )
2) your ach report (which actually original from your terminal processor) will be also be different from your online bank statement reports, again by date and aggregate amounts (or batches)
this is completely non-trivial to reconcile, depending on your sales volume, and to handwave and say an accounting package (which comes with its own set of problems, incluing vendor lock-in, lack of bacward compatibility, and many other issues, which any user of these solutions is all too familiar with) and magically solves this problem is false — in my experience. you actually have to figure it out for yourself; accounting packages will not do this for you: import to quickbooks or spreadsheets is just the begining of the reconciliation process; there is no add-on or plug-in that does this for you.
not to mention that you also then have to double check what you are actually being charged in terms of fees, by verifying the amounts deducted (the whole qualified vs non qualified charges, for example, which can occur both pre and post posting to your merchant account, and is in and of itself another fairly substantial headache and all rather opaque). I am not saying it cannot be done. But it is not child’s play.
many startups cannot afford sophisticated backend / front end integrated POS systems synched up to barcoded inventory and OFX/Direct Connect integration that automatically producing accurate reports that match all your store’s credit card transactions to what you see in your merchant checking account, so all this can get to be very time-consuming (unless you can afford a good accountant, who will charge you by the hour) to manually verify and reconcile — particularly since the average small business retailer will probably not really understand the math behind the so-called tiered pricing systems most vendors like cdg use to market their services, and the relationship of these pricing models to the actual, multilayered cc processing charges from visa mc etc on the backend, which are incredibly complex and murky, and require much homework to understand.
at least that is how I see it, as someone who is actually doing this stuff. Any other opinions, thoughts, or solution/ideas re these issues would be most welcome in my book, as i can always use tips and tricks to try to make my job easier.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Tom,
We’re a bit larger of a business than most of the replies pertain to, but I still need help if you can point me in the right direction? We’re an HVAC company with 12 Technicians in the field, installing AC units here in Florida. We really want them to have mobile card readers to avoid the practice of writing card numbers on invoices and authorizing them later. With a company that does more than $50k a month in card transactions now, would you recommend CDGcommerce still? Our current merchant account has great rates, but lacks the technology for mobile card readers and iphone/Android apps. Your thoughts?
Respectfully,
Rob
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Rob,
You definitely stand to save a substantial amount by converting those keyed-in payments to swiped payment via a mobile app. Whether or not a processor will be able to set you up with a mobile app that works with a swiper depends largely on which payment gateways they use. CDGcommerce will have no trouble setting you up with rates that match or potentially undercut your current rates at that volume. They’ll also be able to help you figure out the best solution for your particular mobile processing needs. They have some flexibility in terms of which gateway and processing app they set you up with, so there’s a good chance that they can find a workable setup for you.
So I think CDG is a good starting place as you look to switch. Get in touch with them and see how it goes. If it doesn’t seem like they can offer what you’re looking for, come back and we’ll figure out the next best option.
Good luck,
Tom
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Tom,Thank you for the timely reply. You mention CDG as a good starting place. Should I be comparing them to another viable option in your opinion?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Rob,
Unless there is a feature that you need that CDG can’t provide, there’s no reason not to use them. They will be able to set you up with rates as low as you’re likely to find anywhere else, especially considering that you already have an established processing history with a substantial payment volume. Your processing rates and fees are going to make up the vast majority of your bill. Even if you need to pay an extra fee for a different mobile POS app or a different payment gateway, this will only be a small percentage of your total cost. If you want to make sure that you’re getting the lowest rates and fees possible, you can always get a few different quotes. Most processors (include CDG) will be willing to match any quote you get, so you will have your pick. But CDG is tried and true in my experience.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Tom — I have a question. I’m looking for merchant processing that has the option to download transactions into Quicken. Have been using PayPal and need to switch but must have the download option. Would appreciate any help you can provide.
Thanks,
Pat
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Pat,
Most merchant services providers don’t have a simple way to import data to Quicken because Quicken is usually used for personal finance rather than business bookkeeping. Have you considered switching software? Quickbooks (also offered through Intuit, like Quicken) might serve you better. Many of our favorite processors integrate well with Quickbooks. Check out CDGcommerce for a good compatible payment processor.
Good luck,
Tom
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I am running my own business of online computer support and website services started business on 13th of feb.2015.Am i able to get your merchant and gateway?
Expected monthly sale will be $15000
And average ticket will be $200
and highest ticket will be $500
Do CDG commerce provide merchant and gateway for these type of business?
Rply As Soon As possible.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Steven,
Your business might be considered high-risk. I would suggest talking to Payline Data or Durango Merchant Services about setting up an account. CDG may or may not be able to set this up.
Good luck!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Tom, Because of your excellent review and the comments people have left, I decided to go with CDG, but noticed the discrepancy about the 0.00 transaction fee on the initial fill-in-your-info page. I emailed them about that and this was their immediate response: “It looks like you found us through Merchant Maverick, so you would qualify for our special pricing plan that is as follows:Interchange Cost + 0.30% + $0.15 per transaction.The first page of the application says 0.30% + $0.00 because we are not adding an extra per item fee to your transaction cost. There will be a $0.15 authorization fee if you are using Quantum Gateway or ProcessNow Mobile. There will be a $0.20 authorization fee if you are using Authorize.net gateway.You will see one of these fees on the last step before you are prompted to eSign the application online. As for batching, the system is set up to automatically run at the end of each day. There will be a $0.25 batch fee and you do not need to manually batch out.”
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Thank you for passing this along! That makes sense to me. They’re trying to differentiate between a markup on per-transaction fee (which they do not charge) and an authorization fee (which is charged depending on the gateway). They don’t want people to think that they will be charged for both, but also want to make it clear that the $0.15 authorization fee exists (add $0.05 for Authorize.Net). This is why they advertise it on the opening page instead of just putting into the fee schedule without another disclosure.
Thank you again for sharing this. Keep us posted on your experience with CDG.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
when i clicked on the referral link, i saw the advertised rate of 0.30% plus .15 Per Transaction. but when I proceeded to register, it changed to “Congratulations! You are eligible for the low qualified rate of 0.30% and a $0.00 per item fee”
Not sure why the difference.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Clint,
I’m not sure about that either. This is the first such report I’m hearing. I’m unable to recreate this. Does this come up after you enter your contact details? Please let us know if you get more info, especially if it was an error.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
hi, i clicked on the referral link, then selected quantum gateway (the big blue box). the i filled out the Online Merchant Application info, that message appeared. Maybe there are differences depending on which box a person chooses?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Thank you for the additional info. It could be that some mix between the processing option you chose and the application info you provided qualified you for a lower fee. As long as it’s lower than the advertised price, I’m okay with that. But please let us know if there is any problem whatsoever.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I’ve filled out the info and the final page more or less reflects the referral link quote, but since this is mostly greek to me, I’m not exactly sure.
discount rate 0.30%
Auth. Fee $0.15
Monthly Service Fee: $10.00
Batch Close Fee: $0.25
Voice/ARU Auth Fee: $0.75 (no idea what this means)
Chargeback Fee: $25.00
Retrieval Fee: $15.00 (no idea what this means)
ACH Return: $25.00
(no other fees that I can see)
also down the list is this category:
Transaction Central/Transaction Express Processing Services
TC, TC Plus, TXP, ACH
(not sure what any of that means but txp is the only one checked)
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Auth. Fee – This is charged on every transaction to authorize the card. It is ostensibly the same thing as a transaction fee.
Batch Close Fee – Charged on every batch of transactions, probably once per business day.
Voice/ARU Auth Fee – This is charged in the rare instance that a voice authorization is needed to complete a transaction.
Retrieval Fee – This is charged during the initiation of a chargeback (hopefully never occurs). It covers the retrieval of paperwork for the bank.
The TXP etc. section outlines the type of virtual terminal you will be issued based on the info provided in the application. They are really very similar from what I remember. The TXP means that you will have the Transaction Express virtual terminal.
So it looks like the transaction fee is there after all. Not sure why it came up as $0 on the other page for you.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
CDG is an absolute joke. I recently purchased a well established (3+ years old), US based ecommerce brand selling laptop bags to working professionals, with over $100k in annual sales. After almost 2 weeks of back & forth with my account contact who requested an insulting amount of documentation between my business & suppliers (upon request from their underwriting bank) I finally decided decided they weren’t worth the effort. I’ll gladly pay more to work with a better, and more credible institution.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Update…I went to Helcim & am up and running in 48 hours. CDG must have a dysfunctional relationship with their bank or something. Anyway, helcim has been great so far!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Shelby,CDG is actually one of the -fastest- merchant processors in the country to approve the vast majority of merchants who apply with us. Naturally – in certain cases, additional documentation is necessary. In the case of a business (like yours) which sells branded laptop bags – it is important for us to be able to verify that there is a reseller/license agreement in place to allow those brands to be sold. There are legal and compliance reasons why this is important and severe penalties that can be assessed to a merchant processor and/or business if a logo is used without a legal license to do so.As such, it is far better to verify this in advance and allow for smooth, uninterrupted processing than for a merchant to get quickly approved for such an account only to have their account (and funds) placed on hold later at usually the worst possible moment in time for their business.We see this all of the time in the industry and don’t want our merchants to experience the same so we take the time to verify that they do have agreements in place for their own protection when they market these various name brand logos etc. Especially since you acquired this business, this is definitely something that you want to verify anyways.From speaking with our team I believe we were actually very close to completing your account approval so if you ever run into issues with that other processor please feel free to let us know and we’ll be happy to assist you. In either case, best of luck with your processing and your future endeavors!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Tom,
I’ve been trying to seek the best mobile payment processor for my organization to accept credit cards via mobile swipe. I have extensively reviewed your analysis and customer testimonials for 3 companies so far: Square, Flint, CDGcommerce. I clicked on your CDGcommerce review link which you included as a response to one of the customers’ questions about Flint, and a scenario in which sales are very seasonal and certain transactions may be more than $1,000 each. I did not see comparable monthly maximums in this review for CDGcommerce for mobile swipes before funds are held for 30-90 days, or is there something I’m not understanding in regards to CDGcommerce not being comparable apples-to-apples with companies such as Square and Flint? Thank you very much for your time.
Ken
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Ken,
CDGcommerce is very flexible. Based on your needs and your business type, they will provide you with limits specifically decided for your unique business.
Square and Flint will not charge any monthly fees, which is good for a seasonal or sporadic business. But the good news with CDG is that they will be able to provide you with seasonal downtime, meaning that during your off season they can suspend your account and won’t charge you any monthly fees during that time. They will also provide you with a virtual terminal and other useful tools.
CDG us what we call a traditional merchant account provider, while companies like Flint and Square are called payment service providers. Check out this article for some more information about the differences between these classes. While holds and freezes can happen with any providers, traditional accounts are generally more stable.
Good luck!
-Tom
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Thank you very much Tom for your very helpful response. Just a couple follow-up questions:
(1) In your article link that you provided for me in your response, you have Flint listed as an example of a “Standard Mobile Processing Providers” when it seemed like they fell under the “Mobile Processing Aggregators” category as described in your Flint review here: http://www.merchantmaverick.com/reviews/flint-mobile-review/
Would you say then that Flint offers the best of both worlds?
(2) My final question is, would you currently recommend Elavon under any situation given that there are so many competiors out there with attractive offerings?
Happy Friday!
Ken
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Ken,
That is an excellent question, and one that I didn’t address more comprehensively because the answer is somewhat complicated and to some extent not public information. The short answer is that Flint does, as you suggested, provide the best of both worlds. Flint accounts have the stability associated with a traditional merchant account coupled with the low baseline costs associated with aggregating providers. The service has some limitations, but is a good option for low-volume businesses especially.
Elavon is not a bad company. In fact Helcim, one of our favorite providers, uses Elavon as their backend processor. Meaning that when you sign up for Helcim, you are processing with Elavon. You just have to be careful to negotiate your rates and contract terms sufficiently to get the best deal. Or you can sign up with a company like Helcim that has already done the negotiating for you.
Hope this helps.
-Tom
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Thank you guys for all your reviews here.
I am just starting out and in the process of learning the ropes.
You mentioned here that CDG is not suited for eCommerce that are not US based. well I’m trying to start an on-line shop in France (Adress, Bank account, the works – all in France).
Can you please recommend some merchant account/gateways that would will be great for european based shops?
No need to go for the whole “Top 10″… one or two good one should do the trick.
Appreciate it
Dany
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Dany,
Take a look at Braintree. They’d be my first choice for you. If not them, then consider Stripe. Both offer similar services, but I prefer Braintree.
Good luck!
Tom
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
What a nightmare!! I cannot recommend CDGcommerce at all. They complete messed up my setup and my first 9 transactions were caught in limbo. After numerous three way calls with CDGcommerce (Actually its TransFirst LLC NOT CDGcommerce that you actually have an account with) they finally got the batched settled. But even when the batch settles they put all my money on hold. The do risk analysis AFTER the approval which is a very backwards approach. I have been with them for 12 days and I still have no money! They have also informed me that if any of my sales go over a certain amount they will hold those funds as well until they receive some type of documentation from me. What a mistake I have made with choosing this company.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Trish,
That’s certainly frustrating. CDG is generally very reliable, and we rarely hear negative experiences.
Since CDGcommerce is not a direct processor, they may set up accounts with a number of different processors (including TransFirst) depending on the needs of the merchant.
Regardless, it’s disappointing to hear that your setup was a hassle, and now you are faced with a hold on your very first deposit with them. There are many reasons why something like this can happen, especially early on. Without knowing all of the specifics of the situation it’s hard to say what could have been done to avoid it. But based on all of our experience with CDG over a number of years I can fairly confidently say that they are doing everything they can to get this resolved as quickly as possible for your business. I’ll be hoping that this is fixed soon.
Please keep us posted to let us know how this goes.
Best,
Tom
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
This company looks interesting, but I am confused by how the advertised rates on their website differ vs. the merchantmaverick ‘exclusive offer’. For example the CDG website advertises (one example) swipe/mobile: 1.70% +0.25c
the mm offer advertises: .30% + 15c
but I am not sure what the .30% is added to. would it come out to be 1.70% +.30% +15c?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Clint,
The public standardized rate quote that CDG provides is for a tiered pricing structure. We like to encourage our readers to use interchange-plus for the best value, so we have personally arranged a deal with CDG to provide a standardized interchange-plus plan for our readers.
The 0.30% + $0.15 is added to the actual rates that the credit card companies charge all processors to run the transactions. This charge will vary based on the type of transaction (card-present is lower, card-not-present is higher) and the type of card (debit is lower, business rewards cards are higher). The interchange rates are published publicly by the credit card networks. (Here are Visa’s.)
We find that processors tend to overcharge merchants when using a flat rate, tiered system. By using interchange-plus, you are able to see the processor’s markup in clear terms, so you can know you are not being overcharged. You don’t have to worry about any non-qualified surcharges.
The actual rates card networks charge for swiped transactions range from 0.05% (for most debit) to 2.3% (for specialty rewards cards). (Keyed-in will be higher.) This means that with 0.3% interchange-plus, you’ll pay between 0.35% and 2.6% plus transaction fees, which almost always works out to a savings for the merchant when compared to a tiered system.
If for whatever reason you prefer the simplicity of a tiered system and are willing to perhaps be paying a little more than necessary in some instance, then the 0.30% + $0.15 will not apply.
Hope this helps. Feel free to send another email my way if there is anything else I can help you with!
Best,
Tom
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi, a few additional questions if you don’t mind.
according to that link, there are 2 categories. exempt, and regulated. But I’m not sure what that means.
Also, can you give an example of how the fee would be calculated based on that link for visa interchange? Would this be accurate?
Original fee: 1.60% + 15c
mm offer w/ cdg .30% +15c
so total would be 1.60% +.30% + 15c + 15c = 1.90% +30c?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
No problem! It definitely can be confusing.
Regulated debit transactions are those that come through big banks, like Bank of America or Chase. Non-regulated is debit that comes through a bank that has less than $10 billion in assets. Most debit transactions are regulated debit, because statistically speaking the big banks have a much larger share of debit accounts overall.
And your math is correct. The total cost of the transaction is the interchange, plus the markup. There is actually one more number to include in Visa/Mastercard transactions called the “assessment” fee. This is another fee charged directly by the card network and which the processor does not profit from. This will add about another 0.11% + $0.02 to the transaction. For an interchange cost of 1.60% + $0.15 plus 0.11% + $0.02 in assessments plus a markup of 0.30% + $0.15, the overall cost would be about 2.01% + $0.32.
This might sound higher than a tiered plan for some transactions, but for most businesses when you look at their regulated debit volume and the percentage of potentially non-qualified transactions, the result is a savings.
-TD
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
could you tell me what is the difference between a company like CDG and a credit card aggregator? I don’t know for sure, but I think one requires a merchant account? I know this is a silly question but how can I tell if I have a merchant account already set up? We are currently with TSYS, would I need to ask them about it? If a person already has a merchant account open do they need to open a new, different one if they switch companies (like to cdg?)
Also, do you happen to know what acquirer(s) cdg uses?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Clint,
You can read this article for a detailed explanation of the differences between aggregated accounts (via a Payment Service Provider) and traditional merchant accounts. If you are currently with TSYS, you almost certainly have a traditional merchant account open. The exception to this would be if you signed up for TSYS for a mobile processing account, in which case they might have gone a different route.
If you have an aggregated account, you will generally have relatively high flat rates (2.75%+ for swiped) alongside no (or low) monthly fees. Some providers may start you out on an aggregated account, but then switch you to a standard account if your volume increases (they can’t do this without you knowing). The contract terms and boarding process also differ, but you generally won’t need to look that far into it to tell.
When you switch providers, you must open a new merchant account. The process of opening the new account is taken care of by your new provider.
Since CDG is not a direct processor, they are free to use a number of different processors depending on the needs of the applicant. I’m not sure who they use primarily these days, but they are very good at setting up the best account for the individual needs of the applicant. Since your customer service will be provided by CDG, you will likely never even have contact with the processor.
Best,
Tom
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
They seem well reviewed but their website doesn’t function. I try to click the menu nav items and only displays the page requesting all my info, no matter where I want to navigate to. For example when you click on ‘Pricing’ and submenu ‘Online’, nothing happens. Same for all the others… Doesn’t sound like a company I would entrust with millions of dollars in transactions.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Michael,No one else has reported any errors with the Web site and applications have been coming through consistently at their normal pace. You may want to clear your cache and/or restart your browser and try again as there does not appear to be any issue at all on the CDG side.In addition, all payment systems from CDG and our affiliate solutions are always monitored 24x7x365 and have an uptime ratio well in excess of 99.99%+. All of our primary payment systems have automatic fail-over technologies and multiple, geographically independent data centers to ensure that our merchants are always able to process reliably, safely and securely.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
@Chris West, I am experiencing the same issue Michael mentioned.
So now you have two reports of this issue.
I first visited through the link for the “special offer” posted on this article. I suspect that the behavior must be related to that.
With such a great review I would love to browse your website.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Conrado,
I’m looking into this and am not able to recreate the problem on my end. When I click the offer link I am still able to use the nav bar links. Do you have a different result when using this link versus this link? Does restarting the browser and/or clearing the cache correct the issue?
Thank you for your help,
Tom
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Was able to charge cust through quatntum hypercloud and since friday we are not able to contact quantum
Martin(not answering phone)
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
The CDG partnered with TransFirst :(.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
They are in Chesapeak, Virginia, not in San Pedro, CA.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Kate,
Thank you for writing in. CDGcommerce has an east coast office and a west coast office, in Chesapeake VA and San Pedro CA respectively. But since their primary office does appear to be the east coast building, I’m updating our info now.
Best,
Tom
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
We’ve been with CDG since 2009 and recent issue resulted we decided to leave CDG.
1. When there was an issue, the customer service was terrible. When I asked to talk to supervisor who handle our case, she send us directly to voice mail (repeatedly and intentionally).
2. They told us we were flag by customer’s bank for fraud charge. Our customer called with their bank rep on 3 way call. They told us they have never file anything against us. It is CDG holding the fund and refuse to told us who they talk to said that we made the fraud charge.
3. After start looking at other commerce, we found out CDG charge us big rate 4.1% on corp-card. and add other fees that other companies no longer charge.
4. Where there is issue, CDG will treat you like a criminal instead of helping to resolve the issue. After more than 2 weeks of talking to them. I decided to file complaint again this company through BBB and other web review site.
Brian
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Our furnished corporate apartment business, http://www.TheHomeCollectionCLT.com, has used CDG commerce for more than 3 years, and we’ve been exceedingly happy with everything about the company–responsiveness, transparency, rates/fees, etc. As our transaction volume has grown, they’ve been proactive in ensuring our increasingly larger transactions have gone through without issues, reaching out to us prior to any issues arising. Their customer service is great, and they respond promptly to any questions. Their rates are not the absolute rock-bottom, though they are extremely competitive, without a bunch of junk fees, and the fact that things have gone so smoothly for 3+ years by far makes up for the fact that we could save a very small amount of money elsewhere. We do 99% of our business online through Quantum Gateway portal, and have never had any issues.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi James,
Thank you for the kind words about our business. I am very happy to hear that our service has been working out well for your business over the years and we look forward to working with you and your business for many more years to come!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
The rates and virtually no set-up fees are great…but that is where it ends.The service is terrible. As an organization that simply resells and bills another companies service you would expect them to be great at the customer service portion since that is essentially their biggest job. Nearly 100% of the time that I have needed to interact with them I was unable to get anyone on the chat or by phone and was sent a voicemail box and email panel. When I did get a chance to interface with live individuals they were typically rude and not very knowledgeable. Right before I made the decision to convert our company from CDG we experienced an ethical issue that arose form them not allowing a transaction to go through and yet still charging the transaction fees as if it did. We have worked with many processors through the years as I own a multitude of companies and have never had any thing like this before. They will not be missed.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I have to agree with the commenters below that customer service is terrible. It took two weeks to get set up; they kept requesting re-sends of documents because they were too fuzzy. Now, these were PDF’s that they generated, all was needed were my initials, then I scanned and sent back. Fuzzy PDF’s? Seriously? There’s lots of language incongruence: the welcome email gives just user: xxxxxxxxx for number, yet you’re asked for your Merchant ID to sign in. I, according to their instructions, changed the temporary password, which then only worked on half of their site. Now, I can’t log on, and there’s been no response. Contrary to the above article, customer service is not 24/7 – the live chat (the only hint of an interactive experience) is closed after 5, and my original attempt responded in an ‘error message’ that said my request would be sent as an email instead. Despite my details in the query, I got one email that asked what my problem was, and then my response was never replied to. In the meantime, I have customers making payments, but I can’t figure out where they are going. If I could give them less than one star, I would. I’m going back to paypal.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Dear Greg,Regarding your concerns, there is definitely a disconnect somewhere here and I would like to find out where. We help many thousands of ours merchants with their questions and needs every month and they have all found our team to be readily accessible and quite expedient in terms of response and resolution times – so I would like to find out where the difficulty started here for you and solve it.Our customer support services are available 24x7x365 for all terminal support needs. Emergency support for e-commerce payment processing is also 24x7x365. For regular e-commerce and mail order support, we offer both our toll-free support number and our live chat and help desk system during normal business hours.In terms of any payment processing issues or question on what you have on file with us for a bank account, our support team will be more than happy to help but without knowing what your account is, it is difficult to assist much further. That said, if you could please call us or e-mail our support team and request that your matter be escalated to Chris West per my request, I will personally address it for you.Whereas PayPal does not offer merchants the benefit of phone support or related services, CDGcommerce certainly does and our customer service has been the primary reason why we have maintained an excellent reputation over the past 19 years. I would like the opportunity to directly help you resolve whatever issue you are experiencing here, please let us know. Your satisfaction is very important to us and I’d like to figure out what we can do to assist you.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hello Jeremy,
I’m not sure to begin with addressing this post but I would be more than happy to assist you directly and speak with you on any of this. This is definitely not what a typical merchant experiences with our company. I am not sure what “ethical issue” on a transaction you are referring to but I am sure that there was a reason behind the circumstances if a transaction was not allowed.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
If you are a retail business with zero risk of charge backs than this company might be ok for you. But if you are an online business or any type of company that has even the slightest chance of charge backs, do NOT use this company. Even if you are below the Visa/MC min. of 1%, they will freeze your funds, hold your money and basically hold your business hostage. This processor seems to have a zero tolerance for any risk at all. So if your selling slices of pizza go for it, but if your a e-business run and dont look back. Their customer service is very dry and there is no room for negotiations with them after they freeze and hold your money. Even if you do not get more charge backs and stay below the 1% threshold, they will hold your money for at LEAST 180 days after they terminate your account. All in all, i dont recommend this processor at all. I quickly found a different company and have been running my exact same business with the new company with no issues at all. I would recommend CDGcommerce to anyone.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Please tell me who you changed over to, CDG has been holding our funds hostage for 30+ days and it is destroying my business.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Dan,
Our company does -not- have a policy of suspending accounts just because they have a month over 1% on their chargeback ratios. Over the past 17 years in business with many, many thousands of merchants it is quite common for an account to briefly go over that ratio if they have a larger ticket chargeback, for example.
Our risk team is quite honestly one of the most lenient and business friendly in the industry. We don’t hold onto any funds any longer than is absolutely necessary and our average risk issue is resolved in 24-72 hours.
Without knowing the details and looking up the detailed notes that are retained for any risk issues it is hard for me to assess anything further but I am happy to speak with you if you would like.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Chris, Can I apply for a merchant account at CDG? I am a very small USA domestic merchant:
Monthly transaction amount: $2200-2500
Average transaction amount:’ $19.95 (Fixed amount)
Total number of transactions: 100-120
Total charge-back amount per month: $50, but have never exceeded $100 in any given month.
Charge-back ratio: 2%. Generally 2% most of the months in an year, and sometimes peak to 3% in non-consecutive 2-3 months in an year.
Refund ratio: 5-8%. Generally 5% but sometimes peak to 8% for non-consecutive 2-3 months in a year.
I already have an account with Stripe and Braintree, but now I am looking for a real merchant account.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Ankit,
You should head over to the CDG website and fill out a preliminary application. Your approval will depend on other specific information about your business, but I can tell you that CDG has a high approval rate, as long as you are a US-based business and do not fall into any of their restricted, high-risk business types. The only way to find out for sure is to initiate the application process. Good luck, and check back to let us know how it’s going!
-Tom
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
As a follow-up to my last post, I received an email 6 hours later. Here is what they said:
Thank you for your inquiry! Per your request, we have submitted a quote below for Interchange Plus pricing. We would be able to offer you V/MC/D Interchange pricing + 0.30% + $0.15 per transaction.
Here is a fee schedule that would apply to your account:
++Setup/Application fee: $0.00
++V/MC/D Credit: Wholesale cost + 0.30% + $0.15
NOTE: This applies to all credit transactions including keyed, B2B, Rewards, etc.
++PCI compliance/non-compliance fees: $0.00
++Statement fees: $0.00
++Monthly Service fee: $10.00
NOTE: This fee includes an online back office area called the MerchantPortal where you can manage your account, view live reports, update banking information, live chat support and much more.
++AVS fees: $0.00
++Chargeback fee: $20.00
++Batch fee: $0.25
++IRS Reporting fee: $0.00
++Termination/Cancellation fee: $0.00
++Mandatory contract length: N/A
++Monthly minimum: N/A
Also, you could be saving an entire layer of gateway fees by utilizing a FREE Payment gateway called Quantum Gateway.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I’m in the process of seeing if CDG is for us. I clicked on their “click to call” button to talk to a service rep. Their system immediately called me, and I was talking to a service rep in seconds. I asked about their Interchange-Plus Pricing, the service rep asked what my average monthly revenues are, and then she told me she needed to have “upper management” contact me. So, I’m waiting for their phone call, and I will return and report when they get back to me, and what they said.
As a side note, their website states very clearly that the business must be U.S. based owned by U.S. citizens with valid SSN. Just saying…
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Sheri,
Thanks for the review. 🙂 We do try to respond quickly to all phone calls.
And yes you are correct in that we are restricted by Visa/MasterCard to only be able to approve U.S.-based businesses with U.S. owners with a valid SSN.
We would certainly like to be able to approve and work with businesses in other countries but as a USA-based ISO/MSP we simply aren’t allowed to. Not a choice for us but a mandate from the banks.
The only way for an ISO/MSP to register and work with merchants in other countries would be to have a sponsoring bank relationship in those various foreign country and in many cases, those banks do not want to part with any marketshare and often there are far fewer banks in the first place unlike the United States that has thousands upon thousands of competing banks.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Is it possible for quantum to integrate with shopify?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Not at the moment Roman, but I believe they’re working on it. Stay tuned. If you need to you can get CDGcommerce to set you up with Authorize.Net and that gateway definitely integrates.
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I am thinking of become an agent for jst Merchant Services. They are located at 5727 N 7th St STE 401, Phoenix, AZ 85014. Any information would be appreciated.
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Verona,
Unfortunately I don’t have any info on them. Any of my high rated processors would probably be a good place to work.
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Can you compare CDG with Evolution? Evolution seems to have a good rate structure. Thanks
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Read the notice in their application about non-acceptable merchant types. You can’t miss it, it’s all in red. It’s apparent by the first items listed that this company is anti-second amendment.
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Thank you so much for your reviews and awsome job. I have read all the reviews, and it helped me a lot. I have decided to work with CDG after I read all the comments and reviews on this website.
Thank you very much.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Max,
Thanks for the nice words and glad you signed up with us. Please let us know if we can ever do anything to assist you and we’ll be happy to do so. 🙂
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I started through the process of filling out the application online and noticed towards the end that CDG has and additional $25 fee for statement fees and other things. Is this typical? After reading the reviews I was lead to believe, right or wrong, that CDG was very low on their fee structure….this caught me off guard.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
FNE,
I believe the $25 fee that you’re referring to is a combination of the $10/month merchant fee and the $15/month cdg360 service. You can find more information about cdg360 on their homepage. The monthly merchant fee is pretty standard, but the cdg360 fee is completely optional, as you can see on this page. If you tell your rep that you don’t want cdg360, then you won’t be charged the $15/month. If you want, I can chat with them for you. Just email me.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi FNE,
There aren’t any additional $25 fees. There is only the $10 statement fee and the (optional) $15 cdg360 value-added service fee. The total of both would be $25.
You are not required to use cdg360 so if you just wanted the basic account and nothing more your monthly cost from us would just be the $10. Sorry for any confusion on that – we just wanted to be clear to our merchants that both services together cost $25/month but it is only $10/month for the basic account.
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I have used cdg commerce for the past 5 years and have never had a problem. The customer service team is great. I have only had to call 4 times in 5 years and it was for minor issues. No waiting on the phone. I use thier wireless terminal and it never fails. If you want a great merchant service with low fees, this is the way to go.
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Hello Kelly,
Thanks for the review of our service. I’m glad it is all working out well for you and we appreciate your business. 🙂
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After a few minutes of researching I found a negative review regarding CDG Commerce’s Quantum Gateway.
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?567702-UnitedBankService-(authorize-net)-vs-CDG-Commerce-(Quantum-gateway)
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I’m not sure if that was really a “negative review” as a lot of supporters of CDG did comment positively on that thread. It is also a very dated one from around 2008. 🙂 I think that the OP on that thread also confused CDG with another business in part as well.
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Hello, i am starting a ecomerce with magento and i dont see neither CDGCommerce or Quantum Gateway in the payment method. can you help me out with this issue?
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Melhem,
Quantum actually does have gateway modules for Magento. They are a bit tough to find, but you can find them here and here.
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I’m pasting below the contents of my Yelp review. This is the first business I’ve been mad enough to write a Yelp review about:
These people would not cancel my account when asked to, until they had written cancellation. Meantime they were still billing me for the account, and then when I did send them written cancellation via two separate fax systems and via email, they claimed they didn’t receive it. I replied to that email and attached it again, after which they wrote me that they couldn’t give me a refund until they received the form, and they only received it yesterday, so they wouldn’t give me a refund. In other words, they planned to screw me from the beginning no matter what I did.
DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THESE PEOPLE. Find someone else. Anyone else — you can’t possibly do worse.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
UPDATE: the company has since done the right thing and refunded my money. Doesn’t look I can delete this, but I am satisfied now with the outcome.
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John,
Thanks for updating the thread here with that. We always work hard to do the right thing for our merchants. Every one of our merchants is important to us and that has been the case since 1998 and it is equally true today. 🙂
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It looks like CDG commerce doesn’t have a lot of complaints. In plus, those complaints are not the worst ones. That’s a good sign.
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I am looking for some advise I have worked in the merchant business before and really enjoyed that type of sales can anyone direct me to a good company to work for in the merchant industry everyone that’s offering me a position has a bad review and I really want to provide a customers a honest and fair deal.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
i am trying to find the best merchant services out there. so far, by reading all threads here, i think i’m going to check CDGcommerce. i was looking at flagship, merchant warehouse, central paymnet (almost got me in, until i saw the bbb reviews) and payjunction of their trinity. my concern is the best for the merchant who just starting, cash only, etc, especially always looking for cheapest and best customer services. #1, on top, cheapest, wow…
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These guys are incredibly unprofessional. We started talking with them on Feb 3, 2012 and in my first communications I told them that the majority of my customers would be Canadians, even though we’re a US company. Then after negotiating over the rates, getting the application, and waiting 11 days on their underwriting department (they said it’d take 24-48 business hours) they denied us on March 9, 2012. They denied us because “they cannot accept merchants who will have a majority of foreign sales” and that it was against their banks policy. They wasted 37 days, knowing that my business practices were against their policies, for the slight chance that they could land another customer. Like I said, incredibly unprofessional.
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Thanks
The information MM gave me was very helpful
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Will CDG accept collection/billing companies? I am looking for the best option and this site is great. If you have any suggestions for a merchant that is reliable and will cater to a collections agency please let me know. Thanks in Advance!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
You should take another look at CDG Commerce. They offer a “free” wireless terminal but require a $79.00 PER YEAR replacement fee + $20.00 monthly fee in addition to other regular fees. Not sure your rating of them is accurate.
But still, thanks for the great website!
Thanks.
Chris
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Thanks for the comment Chris, I appreciate your insight. I agree with you that “free” is not the best word to be using in this situation, but I think that detail is minor considering the upside to this company.
Btw, can you tell me where you found the $20/month? I only see a $10/month merchant fee. I hope I’m not missing it somewhere.
In regards to the other regular fees that they charge, I have to say that they are much lower than other companies that I’ve reviewed.
No annual fee.
No setup fee.
No monthly minimum.
No contract.
No cancellation fee.
No payment gateway fee.
No AVS fee.
That’s hard to beat!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi,
The $20. monthly fee was for a wireless terminal and that’s what I need as a DJ. If it is $20. , really not too bad for wireless. Maybe I’m mistaken? please see link.
http://www.cdgcommerce.com/wireless-services.php
Thanks
Chris
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Chris,
I apologize for the delay. You’re right, the $20 is for wireless.
Thanks!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
One quick note to add to this. The $20 fee is only if it is a wireless terminal that requires cellular service. That is actually a pass-through cost without any markup from us.
The less expensive option these days is to use our Mobile app and swiper which works on all major devices including iOS and Android, etc. There is NO additional monthly cost for that solution at all. 🙂
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I had a terrible experience with this company. These guys are discriminative, xenophobic and not man enough to come out and say it.I’m a US citizen with a US bank account living and operating a business in the US for a US audience. After I fulfilled all their requirements with flying colors they denied my application because I was born in a foreign country. They kept claiming that my domain name is registered under a non-US address, which is simply not true.The truth is they are suspicious of me because my name sounds foreign to them and they’re not open minded enough to admit that they think of immigrants as second class citizens.CDG Commerce prides itself on being American but their prejudice, xenophobia and dishonesty is distinctively anti-American. Boycott them: say no to hatred and discrimination.
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Could U be more specific abt what they did or didn’t do to warrant such a bad review from U.
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I am really at a bit of a loss on this posting and have no idea as to the basis for the statements made the poster on this one. Our company works with an incredible diverse clientele including many, many immigrants. We are not in the business of denying applications unless there is a real reason to do so – we only succeed when our clients succeed.
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I too do not recommend CDG Commerce. After the extensive application (see my first entry). I was denied because my business has foreign customers. Like the entry above, I too have perfect credit. It really is not so much their company that’s bad, but their bank. As stated in a recent email from them, it was because their bank is VERY CONSERVATIVE. They really should have let their applicants know that ahead of time, instead of wasting our time filing for an application that may have a potential in being denied. I am so disappointed in CDG Commerce and if you have foreign customers, I DO NOT recommend using them!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I must say that I am very disappointed in CDG commerce. I filled out an extensive application and the processing took a lot longer than they originally said it would. I also was DENIED because they decided I was a life coach and financial advisor and they do not approve those categories. I am a licensed psychologist with an excellent reputation, perfect credit, an office with staff and have been in business for 25 years!!!! If you are a psychologist, forget applying with them as they apparently have no understanding of the business !!!!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Dr. Gresham,
I can understand your frustrations on this. The issue on your application was not related to you being a licensed psychologist as CDG works with a large number of doctors in all categories.
The problem was the -financial coach- portion. That is an issue for many banks and back in 2011 when you applied it was an issue for our primary sponsoring bank. It is listed as an unacceptable merchant type on our Web site and a link on the application page to let merchants know before applying but I can honestly see how that could have been overlooked.
It is certainly never our intention to have someone apply with us if they aren’t a merchant type that we can approve and work with. And again – we work with many psychologists and doctors of all medical professions so that is a non-issue for us… the financial coaching part is where it can be a no-go or a grey area depending on the circumstances.
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I really appreciate your website. It has helped so much with my search for the perfect merchant service providers.I went ahead and am currently signing up with CDG Commerce, however I would just like to point out that although their prices are spot on, their customer service and response to emails have been less than stellar. It took them around 2 days to respond to some emails and no one ever seems to be available when I call. They also do not have support on the weekends, so if anyone ever plans on asking questions, it’s best to do so during M-F.Like with any other provider, before you sign with them, make sure you read and fully understand their contract before submitting anything. I haven’t spotted any fees out of the ordinary and their prices really are very competitive especially with Quantum Gateway. I’ll be doing the AIM Emulator, because my hosting provider requires it, so I may provide an update on the ease of set-up. Also they advertise they can set you up in 5 minutes. That is so not the case! Given that you need to fill out the application online then wait for them to reply and they then send you list of instructions to do and you must fill out and fax/scan and email the official application/contract…..this whole process will definitely take you more than 5 minutes. Also make sure to do it on a weekday because if you have any questions, they cannot be reached during the weekend (even through email). Its definitely not an “Instant Activation,” but with their great prices I’m more than willing to overlook their mediocre customer service and application process.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Fauve,
Thanks for the review on our service!
Back when you signed up, the Instant Activation / 5 minute Setup was for a free Quantum Gateway account to be provisioned and provided to our merchants while waiting for their merchant accounts to go through the approval process. This way – they could get a head start with integration so that once they had their live MID – they could plug it in and start processing.
Since then it has actually become even faster and we now offer actual end-to-end merchant activations from Application to Live Processing in just 1 Hour for a high % of those who apply. So – while in 2011 you would get a gateway account right away… a high % of merchants applying today with CDG in 2014 actually are able to start processing live credit cards in about an hours time. 🙂
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Thanks to your website, I had merchant services companies for my retail location narrowed down to CDG and a local bank. I spoke with somebody from CDG through the live support and email, and he was very helpful and quick to reply. – CDG only uses qualified and non qualified rates – transactions that would normally be processed at the mid qualifying level are processed at the non qualifying rate.-CDG’s non qualifying rate is a SURCHARGE, that is, you would be paying the qualifying rate in addition to the non qualifying rate for those transactions. This is pretty important, and being new to this, something I didn’t know to look out for until I did some more research. Although CDG may still be very cost effective for some companies out there, I’m expecting to process a good number of rewards cards that would rack up fees, and my local bank is giving me a better offer.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Trina,
Thank you for the fair and objective review of our business. You are correct that our standard rate structure is tiered, it is a lot easier for merchants to read the statements and as you mentioned in your review, we do explain this to them.
For merchants who anticipate a higher % of rewards or other more expensive cards, we are happy to provide an Interchange Plus or a special blended rate designed for that kind of business. Our pricing is not set in stone and if a merchant has specific concerns or needs we’re always happy to discuss it with them. 🙂
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I am a new CDG Customer and so far I love the service. I’m an Artist and work shows in the fall and I have not had one problem. The easy access to the Quantum Gateway allows for ease of input as well as access to data and reports.
Great so far. Thanks!
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Helen, I just want to ensure you’re still satisfied- I’m really trying to pick a provider to go with and CDG seems good. Any recent feedback would be great. I’m really concerned about hidden fees.
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I am very pleased with CDG. I was also worried about hidden fees but have not had a problem. I love the ease of technology! I take payments on my iPad. Love it. Helen
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Helen,We are working on finding a POS App that will integrate with CDG Commerce on the iPad. Do you use a particular app or do you just go to the website to process your cards?Are you able to swipe or do you manually key in the cards?Thanks,Larry
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Larry,
CDGcommerce offers both their own Quantum Gateway and Authorize.NET. Most of the POS software vendors (e.g. Vend, Shopkeep, POSE, Zing Checkout) that we’ve reviewed on our site integrate with Authorize.NET, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding one that integrates. If you need our help with your search, let us know.
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Hi Helen,
Thanks for the review and kind words about our business! 🙂 Glad everything is working well and we look forward to continuing to work with you for many years ahead.
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I would highly recommend CDG commerce. I have moved away from Elavon\Auth.net to CDG\Quantum and it should save us $750-1000 annually. They were very helpful throughout the signup process and I was approved and setup in 48 hours.
Thanks also to this website for their helpful guidance.
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Hi Andrew,
Thanks for the nice words about our business. Glad we were able to help you out and look forward to working with you for many years ahead. 🙂
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Just wondering if CDGCommerce offered data portability, which seemed to be important to merchants writing comments for other providers.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hello Steve,
Yes – we do. And you bring up a very important point as not all providers offer data portability. It is important to know if your business ever needs to change, you will own your data and be able to take it with you. 🙂
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Called them twice today during their business hours. Was on hold for more than 5 minutes. At the end, phone systems said, “All of our agents our busy helping customers, at the tone, please leave a message.”
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
That would turn me off reeeeeal fast!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Same thing happened to me. I really like their website and got a response from live chat pretty fast, but not being able to reach a person on the phone would be a real show-stopper for me. I didn’t try to leave a message to see if they would respond, but my experience with other CC processing companies is that they NEVER call back.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi John,
I know that your post here is from 2010. Over the past 17 years we have had the occasional growing pains. I know we were ramping up staff in 2010 to cover increased volumes and so there some times when call times were higher than desired.
Fortunately, today in 2014 none of these issues exist and our call times have never been better. 🙂
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I just called during normal business hours to set up a merchant account today. I, too, got the message that no one was available to take my call. I also tried to access live chat support and got a message saying no agents were available. It seems these issues have NOT been resolved!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Good site!
Question: If CDG has 5 starts, why aren’t they in your Top 10?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I’m not sure I understand you here Joe. Technically, I don’t have a top 10. I do have a comparison chart where the providers are ranked based on their rating (1 to 5), and CDGCommerce is right there on that page.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Thanks for the website as well as well as your quick correspondence, this definitely made my searching easier.
Been looking around and found that CDG seems like a good and overall cheap company, been kind of paranoid about hidden costs, but this company seems to only charge 10 dollars a month for everything (excluding charge costs). even the $79 fee for the “free” CC machine (amazon cost $398) was less than other total costs from some banks I was looking at. Though may buy my own alternative terminal so the 79 isn’t charged.
One negative though is when I called them the first time, I was told that their terminal doesn’t accept multiple-users (phone sales), the second time that no CC machine accepts multiple-users (online sales chat), then the last time that it does accept multiple users (phone technical support).
– The terminal actually does, it appears to be maybe the only 3 hypercom that has this ability per the hypercom webpage. A cheaper option for this is the T7 Plus, an older but still useful machine at $180 (main neg. is no IP connector) that supports up to 20 merchant accounts.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Great site! We’re launching a new company and the thorough information that your site provides is very helpful.
One thing – you gave kudos to CDG for Twitter and Facebook pages, yet neither is really that engaged. They’ve tweeted once with only 6 followers, and their Facebook page is a ‘friend’ page rather than a business page (and only has 11 friends).
I may have missed something, but was a bit confused.
It doesn’t matter much to their processing, but I agree with your attitude that having a social media presence allows their customers to be fully engaged and their service transparent.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Thanks for the kind words. Glad to help.
I agree with you, CDG should definitely step their game up in that department. 🙂
Feel free to call or email if you have any questions.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Thanks for the great website, this is the best comparison resource I have found! (I tried to click the main contact button but that page isn’t loading for some reason.)
One suggestion as to a tip you might add…I have been researching the best payment solution for a non-profit theatre company, and it took me a while to find out that none of the “special deals” you see for non-profits offer a custom payment solution — all of them involve leaving the main website to go to a “donation page” on the provider’s website. I kept hoping that there might be a custom payment solution with a discounted rate for non-profits, but no such luck. (Since it is a professional theatre company with a good percentage of older patrons, we really want people to stay on the site).
So, my advice to non-profits in a similar situation would be to go with a provider that uses QuantumGateway, since they seem to offer slightly better rates than Authorize.net, although I think some of the 5-star companies on this site that use Authorize.net would probably be great also. I like how QuantumGateway keeps it simple (we have our own database, so we don’t really need a fancy API, though they offer one if you want it), e.g. http://www.quantumgateway.com/view_developer.php?Cat1=1 and http://www.quantumgateway.com/view_developer.php?Cat1=3.
I think we will probably go with CDG Commerce. Thanks again!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Matt,
Thank you for the great post! As this site gains a following, it will be comments like yours that will help make our reviews even better. I definitely plan on adding industry specific criteria to my reviews in the near future, but as of now, I’m just trying to keep up with the number of MSPs that are out there. That’s a full time job in itself.
Again, thanks for the great post. Please check back and let us know how it went with CDGCommerce. It would be great if we could hear your experience with them in the following sequence: Initial Setup, Mid-Term and Long-Term. I know that relationships can last for years, and problems can come up at any time during your relationship with your provider, but if we know that you’re still happy with their customer service 6-months or 1-year into your relationship with them, then that’s great info for all of us.
Take Care. 🙂
Btw, I fixed the contact page issue…oops!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I’ve been think of CDG Commerce as a reseller for my clients. I am really interested in the Quantum Gateway. Thanks for the review and I now leaning their way!
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Robert,
Thanks for the comment. Glad to know that I was able to help. Let us know how it goes. 🙂
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
What is the Quantum Gateway?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
The Quantum Gateway would be CDGcommerce’ equivalent of Authorize.Net. It’s their own in-house payment gateway, which they offer for free.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Based on most internet review, CDG does seem to be really good. How is cdg compared to flagship merchant services which uses authorization.net? Flagship was rated as 10 out of 10 in Gold top10 review, the curious thing here, cdg is not mentioned here. Am i missing something here?
Thank you
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.