EPD offers merchant accounts to a wide variety of low-risk and high-risk businesses as well as offshore accounts. Find out if this service is right for your business.
WRITTEN & RESEARCHED BY
Expert Contributor
Last updated onUpdated
REVIEWED BY
Expert Contributor
| Total Rating | 4.1 |
|---|---|
| Fees & Rates4.0 | |
| Products & Services4.5 | |
| Contract3.7 | |
| Sales & Advertising Transparency3.9 | |
| Customer Service4.1 | |
| User Reviews4.0 | |
Table of Contents
Easy Pay Direct (EPD) is a payment gateway and merchant account provider that serves a wide variety of high-risk and low-risk industries in the United States and Canada. The company’s EPD Gateway is its primary product, with merchant accounts provided through partnerships with numerous major US and international processors and banks. However, you can also use the EPD Gateway with your existing merchant account if you already have one.
There’s much to like about Easy Pay Direct, including the EPD Gateway and its extensive integrations with popular online shopping carts and other business services.
Although no provider is perfect, Easy Pay Direct rates better than most of its competitors. The company earns a spot on our list of the best high-risk merchant service providers. If you’re in a high-risk industry and have had difficulty getting approved for a merchant account, it’s definitely a strong contender for your business.
| Products & Services4.5 |
|---|
| Software & Services 4.0 |
| Hardware & Equipment 5.0 |
Easy Pay Direct focuses primarily on serving eCommerce businesses but also can support traditional brick-and-mortar merchants such as restaurants and retail establishments. Easy Pay Direct has a full line of services to fill your needs, including the following features:
| Easy Pay Direct Features | Availability |
|---|---|
| Dedicated Merchant Account | |
| PCI Compliance | |
| High-Risk Accounts | |
| International Accounts | |
| Contactless Payments | |
| ACH Processing | |
| Digital Wallet Acceptance | |
| EBT Acceptance | |
| Virtual Terminal | |
| Mobile POS Reader & App | Mobile payments via browser and card reader (no dedicated mobile app) |
| Hosted Online Store | Hosted checkout pages |
| Payment Links | |
| Payment Gateway Integrations | |
| Shopping Cart Integrations | |
| POS Integrations | |
| BNPL Integrations | Via myAbundant integration (for business coaches & consultants) |
| API Documentation | |
| Currency Conversion | |
| Recurring Billing | |
| Invoicing | |
| Cash Discount Program | |
| Cryptocurrency Processing |
| Fees & Rates4.0 |
|---|
| Pricing 4.0 |
| Affordability 4.0 |
We value transparency from merchant service providers when it comes to pricing. However, as Easy Pay Direct uses many different back-end processors, it’s not practical to list every possible rate and fee the way a processor such as Stripe can.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Pricing Starts At | $34/month |
| Contract Length | 3 years |
| Processing Model | Flat-rate, interchange-plus, tiered |
| Card-present Transaction Fee | 1.59% + $0.17 (high-risk rates may be higher) |
| eCommerce Transaction Fee | 2.44% + $0.34 (high-risk rates may be higher) |
| Keyed-in Transaction Fee | Not disclosed |
| Equipment Cost | Not disclosed |
EPD had previously advertised that interchange-plus pricing was available to all businesses, but we’re not sure if it’s still an option or if it’s available to high-risk companies. Most high-risk providers only offer a more expensive tiered pricing plan to high-risk businesses, so don’t be surprised if that’s what you have to settle for.
| Easy Pay Direct Extra Costs | Price |
|---|---|
| ACH Transactions | 1.6% + $0.29 |
Note that you might also have a separate PCI compliance fee in addition to your monthly account fee.
In any case, we strongly recommend that you review your merchant agreement contract thoroughly to see what other fees you’ll be paying before signing up. We receive frequent complaints from merchants about providers charging “hidden” fees, but the truth is that most (if not all) of them are disclosed in your contract documents. Poring through pages and pages of fine print is never fun, but it can save you from expensive surprises.
Fortunately, Easy Pay Direct’s fees and rates appear to align with industry averages for high-risk merchant account providers. The fact that so few of the company’s 60,000+ customers have complained about them indicates that the prices are reasonable.
| Sales & Advertising Transparency3.9 |
|---|
| Sales Practices 4.0 |
| Web Presence 3.4 |
Easy Pay Direct’s website contains some good information, but it’s laid out in a non-intuitive way, so expect to spend a little time hunting to find what you’re looking for. Nonetheless, the site includes a lot of useful educational information about the various high-risk industries that EPD accepts.
The website also includes numerous ways to communicate with the company’s sales representatives, who include both in-house employees and independent sales agents. While the use of independent agents can often lead to a bad experience for merchants, EPD appears to provide good training and supervision to all its sales team members, as evidenced by the lack of complaints from merchants who’ve signed up with the company.
Easy Pay Direct has an active social media presence, with accounts on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and YouTube. Most of these accounts are updated fairly regularly, and the company’s YouTube channel stands out for its explanations of the high-risk credit card processing industry. Reviews left on EPD’s Facebook page, however, frequently don’t mention Easy Pay Direct at all. Instead, they include a cringey collection of testimonials from people who’ve done “business” with some of the company’s more scammy merchants — including herbal supplement sellers, crypto trading businesses, and purveyors of various get-rich-quick schemes. Caveat emptor.
| Contract3.7 |
|---|
| Commitment 2.8 |
| ETF & Other Fees 4.6 |
Like most providers, Easy Pay Direct doesn’t disclose its contract terms on its website. Most contracts appear to be for three years, which is the industry standard. Depending on which back-end processor you’re set up with, your contract term might be shorter or longer. Also, your contract will likely include an automatic renewal clause, usually for successive one-year periods.
The good news is that the company does not charge an early termination fee (ETF) for most merchants — you won’t be penalized for closing your account before the contract term expires (though the company’s offshore accounts often include ETFs). Closing your account without being penalized can still be challenging, so follow the instructions to the letter before doing this.
| Customer Service4.1 |
|---|
| Personal Support 4.3 |
| Self-Service 3.4 |
| Easy Pay Direct Customer Service | Availability |
|---|---|
| Phone Support | |
| Email Support | |
| Support Tickets | |
| Live Chat | |
| Dedicated Support Representative | |
| Knowledge Base or Help Center | |
| Videos & Tutorials | |
| Company Blog | |
| Social Media |
Poor customer support is a common problem in the processing industry, so it’s good to see that Easy Pay Direct has very few complaints about this issue. Given the size of the company and the number of merchants using its services, this is a good indication that it provides high-quality customer support.
| User Reviews4.0 |
|---|
| Customer Feedback 4.0 |
| Review Site Aggregate 4.0 |
Let’s take a closer look at Easy Pay Direct’s negative and positive testimonials.
Overall, we’re happy to recommend Easy Pay Direct.
The company’s partnership with many different processors means you have a better-than-average chance of getting approved for an account, and the lack of an ETF (in most cases) is also welcome. Interchange-plus pricing, while not available for all clients, is rare in the high-risk sector. We’re also impressed by the EPD Gateway’s features as well as the remarkably clean online reputation the company has maintained despite its size.
Of course, things aren’t perfect. We wish the company offered more information about the credit card terminals it provides — including prices. We’d also like to see a more robust knowledgebase so that merchants could solve the more basic issues without contacting customer support.
Easy Pay Direct scores very well in comparison to similar high-risk merchant account providers. We find the company to be one of the best high-risk merchant processors (and one of the best CBD merchant account providers) in the industry.
Nevertheless, we encourage you to obtain quotes from several providers and compare their overall costs against how well their features match up with your specific business needs. Good luck!
We research, evaluate, and test each high-risk payment processor that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on key characteristics to generate granular ratings for high-risk merchant account providers.
High-risk merchant accounts, by definition, require the provider to take on more risk and liability; they tend to be more expensive overall than traditional merchant accounts, with more fees and limitations. For this reason, our high-risk rating methodology differs from our standard credit card processor rating methodology, so we don’t mislead our readers by comparing apples and oranges. Many businesses in high-risk industries cannot qualify for a normal payment processing account. That said, there are good and bad options available in the high-risk space, and we judge these high-risk providers against each other to provide the most balanced assessment.
High-risk services can be complex, so we use a 24-point rubric to evaluate each provider. First, we look at pricing structure – interchange plus, subscription-based, tiered, or hybrid – giving the most points to providers that provide fair, transparent pricing and docking those that rely on tiered models. Then we examine rates, the presence and transparency of early termination fees, and any additional fees.
We also look at contract length and fairness and test out sales staff and customer service channels ourselves to ensure that the company uses reputable, above-the-board sales techniques. Finally, we take the company’s online reputation into account, reading customer reviews and comments.
Read more about how we rate high-risk merchant account providers.
The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆
Easy Pay Direct |
|---|
After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Easy Pay Direct for yourself.
The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆
Easy Pay Direct |
|---|
After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Easy Pay Direct for yourself.
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The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.
Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone.
Our team of experts spends hours on every review so that we can find the best companies to recommend to our readers. Easy Pay Direct made the cut.
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