While you won’t see barcode or SKU support, the inventory tracking and centralized catalog are still nice. Inventory features include:
Fattmerchant Review
Advertiser Disclosure: Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity.
- Phone Number
- (855) 979-1080
- Date Established
- 2014
- Location
- Orlando, Florida
Pros
- Transparent membership pricing
- No percentage markup rate for transactions
- Next-day funding option available
- Offers Omni integrated payments processing platform
- Month-to-month billing with no long-term contracts
- No early termination fee
- QuickBooks integration
Cons
- US-based merchants only
- Not suitable for low-volume businesses
Fattmerchant Overview
I love a cute cartoon piglet as much as anyone, but I refuse to be manipulated by adorable logos and marketing. A piggy bank is, after all, just as cute when it’s empty as it is when full. My goal then, when reviewing Fattmerchant, was to determine just how much substance was hidden behind its promising claims and clever marketing. I was prepared — as always — to find little of value when I cracked open the ceramic shell. But, as you can probably guess by the company’s rating here, I found more than just IOUs and arcade tokens in there.
Fattmerchant is one of the few providers in the industry to offer membership (also called subscription-based) pricing, which eliminates the percentage markup over interchange in exchange for a higher monthly subscription fee. Account fees are also consolidated into a single monthly fee, making your costs more stable and predictable. Membership pricing is a variation of interchange-plus pricing, except the percentage markup is 0%. If you’re like us, the prospect of a zero percent markup should certainly pique your interest — and maybe trigger your “too good to be true” senses as well.
After running the numbers and talking to business owners, we can say with confidence that Fattmerchant offers an extremely good value for many merchants. For instance, almost all merchant account providers — even very competitive ones — charge a highly inflated rate for eCommerce and phone order accounts. Fattmerchant does not. You’ll get access to a virtual terminal with no added cost and won’t pay a high markup premium for these “card-not-present” transactions. Be aware, however, that the interchange fees for card-not-present transactions are higher than they are for card-present sales.
Since the part of your markup that would usually be assessed as a percentage of your overall volume is just a single flat fee with Fattmerchant, what you pay is both predictable and has volume discounts built-in. The more you process, the less you pay in terms of the percentage of your overall card payment volume. Check out the Fees & Rates section of this review for more information on this.
Fattmerchant Explained
There’s no doubt that this company is part of an exciting and growing trend in payment processing pricing. While it’s not the oldest merchant services provider offering membership pricing, Fattmerchant provides competitive value and service. In many cases, Fattmerchant can offer more value at a lower cost than most of its competitors. This is thanks not only to its 0% markup but also to the company’s high-quality Omni integrated payments platform. This web-based service includes payment processing, advanced invoicing and billing, inventory management, advanced reporting features, and more. You’ll also get access to a growing list of add-ons and integrations through Fattmerchant’s app marketplace.
So it turns out that Fattmerchant delivers the fat wallet it promises, offering both a low cost and a high value. This, along with excellent support and sales practices, earns the company a score of 5 out of 5 stars. It’s not a great value for most low-volume merchants, but that’s really its only major flaw. The company claims to save its merchants an average of 40% on their overall processing costs, and we’ve seen examples of businesses that saved even more.
So give Fattmerchant a shot! There’s no penalty for terminating your account early if you don’t like it. But we think you’ll enjoy the extra heft of your piggy bank.
Table of Contents
Products & Services
Fattmerchant supports just about any business type through a combination of in-house and third-party products. All of Fattmerchant’s membership-based pricing plans come with a full-service merchant account, including 24/7 customer support. However, you’ll have to pick which products you intend to use when you sign up. (You can always add more later!)
Let’s start by breaking down the company’s core services and then we’ll explore some of the perks of Fattmerchant’s Omni integrated platform.
- Merchant Accounts: Unlike payment services providers (PSPs), such as Square (see our review), Fattmerchant offers full-service merchant accounts with a unique merchant ID number for each business. The company is not a direct processor, partnering with Worldpay for actual payment processing.
- Countertop Terminals: For brick-and-mortar merchants, Fattmerchant offers a choice of several Dejavoo terminals for merchants who need a countertop payment device. If you already have a terminal, Fattmerchant will also reprogram it to work with its system for free. You can add a protection plan to get more comprehensive support for your terminals. This is the ideal option if you don’t care about having your terminal integrated with your POS system.
- Integrations: Fattmerchant doesn’t have an extensive list of third-party integrations proudly displayed on its site the way some payment processors do. But you can integrate Fattmerchant’s payment processing into other solutions, including POS systems, and use FM terminals to accept in-person payments.
- Virtual Terminal: If you mostly key-in your payments through a computer (such as in an office environment or by taking phone orders), Fattmerchant’s virtual terminal can be a great deal. You’ll also get access to a customer database, invoicing, and inventory management features, which we’ll talk about shortly. Plus, the virtual terminal can connect to FM’s credit card readers, so you can take advantage of in-person rates. And if you don’t want a full shopping cart but need an easy way to accept payments online, the virtual terminal plan allows for a very basic website payments feature, hosted by Fattmerchant.
- Mobile Processing: The Fattmerchant Mobile app is available for both iOS and Android. You’ll also need either the BBPOS Chipper BT or Chipper 2X BT mobile card reader, both of which connect via Bluetooth and support EMV payments (the 2X model also supports Apple Pay). The mobile plan includes access to other aspects of the FM platform at no additional cost, specifically invoicing and inventory. Check out our Fattmerchant Mobile review for a more detailed look at this platform.
- Shopping Cart: Want to sell online with a no-fuss payments processor? Fattmerchant offers a customizable shopping cart for eCommerce businesses. You’ll keep customers on your site during the entire process, and you have control over the look and feel of your shopping cart. This is more advanced than the website payments feature included with the Fattmerchant virtual terminal.
- Developer Tools: For developers or businesses that would like to use Fattmerchant for processing but have their own custom software needs, the Fattmerchant Payments API allows for easy integration. Fattmerchant just provides the documentation, so BYOD (bring your own developer)! I’m no developer, but I do think Fattmerchant has put some thought into this product. It’s no Stripe (the platform’s not even as open as Square), but you can do quite a lot with it. There’s a JavaScript library for web payments, but if you prefer to skip handling your customers’ card data altogether, the invoice function will direct customers to a Fattmerchant-hosted site. Plus, there’s a mobile SDK for iOS and Android. If you’d like to integrate with terminals rather than going mobile, FM offers an API for Dejavoo terminals.
One of the highlights of Fattmerchant is its Omni integrated payments platform, which centralizes all of your transactional information and provides several other features as well. I’ve already mentioned the customer database, invoicing, and inventory, but there are also some reporting features. Since these are included at no additional charge, and they’ll certainly be valuable for some businesses, let’s take a look at them:
- Centralized Web Portal: Logging into the Omni platform will give you all of the information about any and all of the Fattmerchant services you’re using.
Overall, the Omni portal is fairly easy to use and surprisingly intuitive, but Fattmerchant also offers a relatively basic but explanatory tutorial. I think the tutorials could be fleshed out with more detail for those who are a little more hesitant to go poking around the dashboard. However, it genuinely seems like most of Fattmerchant’s customers have no trouble finding their way around. - Customer Database: The customer database lets you keep track of important details, such as preferred payment methods, purchase history, and any other data. You can also store cards on file so that you don’t need to ask for your customers’ card information every time they make a purchase.
- Inventory Management: Fattmerchant’s inventory system is surprisingly functional, though it’ll never rival a full-scale POS. Still, if you’re using invoicing or website payments, the virtual terminal, or the mobile app, it can be a handy tool.
While you won’t see barcode or SKU support, the inventory tracking and centralized catalog are still nice. Inventory features include:
- Mark item as service
- Low-stock alerts
- Set discounts
- Manage tax rates
- Item categories
- Attach image files
- Invoicing: You can send invoices from the mobile app or the virtual terminal. Unsurprisingly, the invoicing feature syncs with your customer database and item catalog to fill in key details. I like that you can even set recurring invoices and see your scheduled invoices at a glance. It’s not as advanced as PayPal or Square, which admittedly are entry-level compared to full-fledged invoicing solutions, but Fattmerchant will get the job done. However, if you want the ability to require down payments, set up installments, or anything more advanced, you might be better served by an alternative service.
- Reporting: The reporting features (included at no extra charge for merchants processing less than $500,000 per year) are admittedly basic, but they’re not the worst tools I’ve seen. In addition to all your financial data, you’ll get item sales and item category reports and even a projected inventory report. Plus, you can view all the data from multiple sales channels with the Omni report. If you want more information, you’ll need to get on one of Fattmerchant’s enterprise plans or pay an additional $20 per month for the advanced reporting add-on. I’m always a little disappointed to see this practice of charging more for advanced reporting. However, it’s not an uncommon practice — just one that I don’t like.
Fattmerchant’s approach to an integrated, all-in-one platform for payment processing isn’t without its flaws (specifically regarding pricing, which I’ll discuss in the next section). But as far as execution, Fattmerchant has done really well. The centralized platform works, even if it’s not as robust as what you would get with stand-alone software in each category. If I’m honest, I don’t think Fattmerchant is even as robust as Square (those are some mighty big shoes to fill, after all).
But there’s one significant difference between Fattmerchant and Square: Fattmerchant sets its customers up with their own merchant accounts, which translates into greater account stability. For larger businesses that don’t necessarily need all the bells and whistles, Fattmerchant is a great solution. And even for smaller businesses that want stability and an integrated platform, FM makes sense — it just comes at a cost.
Which means it’s time we talk about the piggy-bank-shaped elephant in the room: pricing.
Fees & Rates
As a merchant, you need to understand three important pieces of information concerning Fattmerchant’s pricing:
- First of all, wholesale pricing doesn’t mean that you pay only $0.08 or $0.15 per transaction. You still pay the interchange fees, which are non-negotiable costs that are routed to the card networks. Assuming an average interchange of 1.54% + $0.12 for an in-person transaction, your processing costs would actually be 1.54% + $0.20 per transaction, plus Fattmerchant’s monthly fees.
- Second, Fattmerchant offers its core services (terminals, the virtual terminal, the mobile POS, the shopping cart, integrations, and the API) on an à la carte basis, rather than as an all-in-one platform. (Secondary features, such as invoicing and inventory, do overlap because they’re included as part of the Omni platform.) If you want to use a Fattmerchant terminal for in-person payment processing as well as the virtual terminal for invoicing and manual entry of transactions, you’ll pay $99 per month for each service, bringing your costs up to $198 per month plus transaction fees for merchants processing less than $500,000 annually.
- Fattmerchant’s plans actually scale with volume. The Starter Platform is only for merchants processing less than $500,000 per year. Above that, the price for each service increases by $100 per month for every $500,000 in volume. Businesses processing $500,000-$1,000,000 per year would pay $199 per month, and those processing between $1 million and $1.5 million would pay $299 per month, and so on.
What does this mean for you? First, it means that if you are shopping around for payment processors, it’s not easy to make a direct apples-to-apples comparison of processing costs with flat-rate, pay-as-you-go processors, such as Square. Instead, if you have an idea of your monthly processing volume and average transaction size, you can calculate the effective markup with Fattmerchant and other merchants offering interchange-plus or subscription pricing. That will give you a better idea of whether Fattmerchant will save you money compared to other processing plans.
It also means that Fattmerchant isn’t very cost-effective for small businesses that want an all-in-one payment platform. Without the large volume to deliver cost savings, the monthly fees do add quite a bit to that overall markup, and it’s more pronounced the more services you plan to use. If you’re processing less than $10,000 per month in credit cards (or $120,000 per year), you will probably be better served by finding another platform that offers more affordable pricing for multiple payment channels. Even processing $20,000 per month or less in credit cards, you should do the math and double-check that Fattmerchant’s numbers work well for your business.
The good news is that the monthly subscription fee covers just about everything beyond the payment processing: statements, PCI compliance, customer support, batch fees, and so on. Fattmerchant will even throw in a QuickBooks Online integration for free.
Let’s take a look at the pricing for Fattmerchant’s services on both the Starter and Enterprise plans.
| Fee Name | Fattmerchant Starter Platform (<$500K annually) |
Fattmerchant Enterprise Platform ($500K+ annually) |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Fee | $99 | $199 |
| Markup Rate | 0% | 0% |
| Transaction Fee (Terminal & Integration Plans) | $0.08 | $0.06 |
| Transaction Fee (Virtual Terminal Plan) |
$0.15 | $0.15 |
| Transaction Fee (Shopping Cart, Mobile & API Plans) |
$0.15 | $0.12 |
| Batch Fee | $0 | $0 |
| Gateway Fee (If Needed) | $0 | $0 |
| Monthly Minimum | $0 | $0 |
| Early Termination Fee | $0 | $0 |
| PCI Compliance Fee: | $0 | $0 |
First, please note that you do see some volume savings on the Enterprise plans, despite the increased monthly costs, and at the volumes required for the Enterprise plans, you’re sure to see the cost savings.
Second, note that for the most part, there aren’t any additional fees with Fattmerchant — the only one that might apply is for merchants who wind up needing to use an Authorize.Net (see our review) gateway, which is passed on by Authorize.Net. I’m told you can sometimes get around this fee with the Fattmerchant API.
Fattmerchant Add-On Services
There are just a few features that you can’t access until you reach the second volume tier: specifically, a dedicated account manager, data breach protection, and an automatic account updater for cards on file. Any additional services are available as monthly add-ons:
- Advanced Reporting: If you’d like more detailed reporting, but you don’t have the volume for Fattmerchant’s Enterprise plan, you can still access the advanced data for a $20 monthly fee. I don’t love the idea of charging more for data, but I appreciate that it’s an option if you need the information.
- Same-Day Transfers: If you want your money almost as soon as humanly possible, you’ll be happy to know that Fattmerchant offers same-day funding as an add-on. The cost isn’t disclosed, but let’s assume that, yes, you will pay more for getting your money sooner. You can also assume that not every merchant will qualify for this — especially brand-new businesses.
- Advanced Customization: If you want more control over the look and feel of receipts, invoices, and even your website payments, Fattmerchant’s Advanced Customization service is just $10 per month, which removes the “Omni” branding and allows you to choose your own colors as well as create custom fields for website payments.
- Terminal Protection: For $10 per month per device, you can add expanded hardware protection and technical support beyond what Fattmerchant normally offers, including unlimited replacements in the event of defects, accidents, or the normal wear and tear.
- ACH Payments: Fattmerchant will allow you to accept bank transfers as payment for a $49 monthly fee and $0.25 fee per ACH transaction. ACH is popular with merchants because of the reduced processing costs, but you need customers who will take advantage of this payment option to justify the cost, so it might be best suited to B2B businesses.
I do think Fattmerchant can be a great value for some merchants — I’d even go so far as to say it’s a great value for many merchants. It’s just not a great deal for all merchants, which is true of any processor. So it’s essential that you, as the business owner, do your math and make sure that Fattmerchant’s pricing is right for you. Low payment processing is a major part of the equation, but it also includes the intangible value-adds, too — excellent customer support, the quality of the Omni platform, and the overall ease of use.
Convinced that subscription pricing is worth a shot? Send Fattmerchant a message to get started.
Contract Length & Early Termination Fee
Don’t be confused by the “no contracts” claim on Fattmerchant’s website. Like any other business relationship, your merchant account with Fattmerchant will be covered by a contract. In fact, the company even publishes its Terms and Conditions right on its website — something very few providers will do for you.
I need to point out that the “contract” in question is actually the standard Terms and Conditions published by Worldpay, Fattmerchant’s back-end processor. This is a pretty common arrangement — smaller processing companies using larger ones as back-end processors. In this case, the contract includes a three-year processing term and an early termination fee. However, neither of these will apply to your Fattmerchant agreement. Fattmerchant attaches a separate document, the Merchant Processing Agreement/Application, which lists its own specific terms. It doesn’t share a blank version of this document publicly, but you will have to review it when you finalize your processing agreement. (As always, we encourage you to read your entire contract very thoroughly before signing up.)
All Fattmerchant accounts feature month-to-month billing with no early termination fee. You’ll need to provide thirty days’ notice when you close your account, but that’s it. At the end of the day, the “contract” allows FM to submit your information for approval with the underwriting department but in no way holds you to any monetary obligations. This is exactly what we like to see, and it’s what you should be looking for in a payment processor. There’s no reason to go with any company that locks you into a multi-year contract when there are so many great processors, such as Fattmerchant, that offer month-to-month agreements.
Sales & Advertising Transparency
Your first (or at least second) exposure to Fattmerchant will probably be through the company’s website. As you would expect from a young, tech-focused company, the site is professional looking and easy to navigate. There’s a lot of useful, easy-to-understand information for prospective merchants and clear descriptions of the company’s standardized pricing plans. The fact that Fattmerchant discloses any pricing information puts it ahead of most traditional merchant services providers that operate on a quote-based system and mostly use their websites to entice merchants into contacting their sales department. At the same time, pricing information for the company’s optional add-on services is often not disclosed, obscuring the fact that you’ll have to pay extra to add these features to your account.
Fattmerchant relies on an in-house sales team and an online sign-up process to bring on new merchants. The online setup process is a good choice if you’re in a hurry to get your account activated as soon as possible, and you’re confident the pricing is a perfect fit for your needs. We recommend talking to a sales representative rather than signing up online if you have any doubt about how well Fattmerchant will work for your business. It’s always nice to see that a company has an in-house sales team because using third parties tends to present all sorts of troubles. Fortunately, our information indicates that Fattmerchant’s salespeople are helpful, informative, and truthful — which makes sense when you consider that all of FM’s policies are clearly stated on the website. The sales team is there to answer questions, alleviate concerns, and show you how to get the most out of the FM platform.
That said, the internet continues to provide overly aggressive companies with opportunities to market their services and artificially enhance their online reputation through means that some might reasonably view as misleading — or even unethical. The internet today is a prime information warfare battleground, and “fake news” isn’t confined just to politics. For some useful advice on protecting yourself from false advertising, check out our article on how to spot fake reviews.
Like any technology-focused merchant services company, Fattmerchant has a very active social media presence. Its Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram accounts are frequently updated with new content, along with an active YouTube channel. And as a writer, I am thrilled to see the Fattmerchant blog full of helpful, recent content.
Finally, you can also check out some of Fattmerchant’s existing customers and even testimonials on the Customer page. While I don’t necessarily think that you should decide whether to use a processing company based solely on their client list, it’s always nice to see some big names on the list.
Customer Service & Technical Support
As a merchant, I think it’s important that you look at the self-support resources a payment processor offers. Is there a help center? Is it functional? Can you search for topics, or is navigation more limited? Ideally, you should be able to handle some of the basic questions with the knowledgebase. Fattmerchant delivers in this regard, and I am happy to see a functioning search bar. (You would not believe how rare a functioning search feature is!)
If you do need to reach out to a customer support representative, Fattmerchant offers free 24/7 technical support via telephone and email. You can also submit a request via the ticketing system. All of this is good. Round-the-clock assistance is always great to see.
In the merchant services industry, customer support is an area where companies frequently fall short. And when the service is poor, merchants aren’t afraid to speak up about it, even if they like everything else about a company. Most providers — even some of the really good ones — receive a lot of negative feedback about customer support from frustrated merchants. So it’s quite a good sign that Fattmerchant is apparently doing well above “average” in this area. We specifically see quite a few comments that call out FM for being responsive and helpful and for having great customer service. That’s about as clear and unmistakable praise as you can get.
Have you had any experience with Fattmerchant’s customer service? If so, please leave your impressions in the Comments section below. Thanks!
User Reviews
Negative Reviews & Complaints
I do think it’s a challenge to fairly evaluate companies that have very little chatter from merchants because the user experience is such a major component in the review process. Fattmerchant isn’t a household name like Square or PayPal, and even with a decade of experience searching for all kinds of obscure information (and finding it!), it’s still hard to find something that strikes me as the “mother lode” of reviews about Fattmerchant. But I will say there’s a growing number of reviews from Fattmerchant users — if you know where to look. It’s not a giant cache, but there are enough comments that I can point out some trends.
Fattmerchant is not accredited by the BBB, and currently has an A- rating. The company has had seven complaints in the past three years, only one of which was placed in the past 12 months. Additionally, merchants have left four 1-star reviews on Fattmerchant’s BBB profile. We also have a handful of complaints on our site as well, which you can read in the Comments section below. While it would be ideal to see no complaints at all, the reality of the payment processing industry is that every provider receives complaints of one sort or another. Luckily, Fattmerchant appears to respond to all complaints and offers to resolve the situation. At this time, we don’t see any clear pattern of recurring issues with the company’s products or services.
Positive Reviews & Testimonials
The majority of the reviews concerning Fattmerchant are positive. As I said before, quite a few comments call out FM for having excellent customer support. Also, many of the merchants mention that they are saving money with Fattmerchant. An odd but fairly common comment is that many of these merchants think the concept behind Fattmerchant is great. I see phrases such as “tech-savvy” and “user-friendly” as well as “forward-thinking.” Other merchants have said the “concept is smart and timely” and that Fattmerchant is “ahead of the game.”
It’s really rare to see those kinds of comments, and what that says to us is that Fattmerchant communicates its value well and stands out as different to merchants. I think that alone is a powerful endorsement in an industry where, all too often, there’s not much to distinguish one company from another apart from pricing and contract terms.
If you want to see more praise, you can check out Fattmerchant’s “Our Customers” page on its website. The testimonials — mostly from local businesses in the Orlando area — come across as unscripted and genuine.
Final Verdict
As you might have guessed, we really like Fattmerchant. In addition to the company’s unique take on the membership pricing model, its open, transparent business style is a refreshing change of pace. It’s a genuine relief to find a provider that treats its customers with respect and offers such a flexible and affordable service. We would love to see the success of Fattmerchant and similar providers lead to long-lasting changes throughout the entire processing industry. Will that happen? It’s hard to say for sure, but I’d certainly like to think things have already begun changing.
At the same time, no provider is perfect, even an excellent one such as Fattmerchant. You do need to do some math and compare features to make sure that Fattmerchant is a good match for your business. For one thing, the company does not provide high-risk merchant accounts. Beyond that, Fattmerchant may not be a great value for low-volume merchants, especially ones with small ticket values. Plus, if you plan to combine multiple aspects of the Fattmerchant service, you could end up with quite a costly monthly fee. While the threshold will vary from one business to the next, we’ve generally found that merchants processing less than $10,000 per month will save money overall by using a payment service provider (PSP), such as Square (see our review). However, merchants consistently processing above that amount can save a significant amount of money on credit card processing with Fattmerchant.
Also, you may find that the total value provided by Fattmerchant’s platform — including credit card terminal sales, centralized invoicing, data analytics, inventory management, and other features — makes the service worthwhile, especially combined with the stability of a full-service merchant account.
Even with those caveats, Fattmerchant easily deserves a score of 5 out of 5 stars and our highest recommendation. If you think that the service could be beneficial to your business, by all means, give Fattmerchant a try. Your bank account may gain a bit of “fat” as a result.
As always, we encourage readers who have had personal experience with Fattmerchant — good or bad — to leave a review in the Comments section below. Thanks for your help and feedback!
Melissa Johnson
Melissa Johnson has been writing about payment processing and mobile payments since 2014, and has been quoted in articles for Credit Karma and The Next Web, among others. She graduated from The University of Kansas in 2010 with bachelor's degrees in English and journalism.
Latest posts by Melissa Johnson (see all)
- Square POS VS SumUp: Which Mobile App and Card Reader Is Right For You? - November 25, 2019
- Why PayPal’s Credit Card Processing Isn’t A Merchant Account (And Why Not Understanding The Difference Puts Your Business At Risk) - October 17, 2019
- How To Save On American Express Credit Card Processing With OptBlue Pricing - August 16, 2019
- Your Complete Guide To Credit Card Surcharges - August 7, 2019
- Do You Really Need An EMV Chip Card Terminal? - April 18, 2019
The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆
Fattmerchant  |
|---|
After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Fattmerchant for yourself.
The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆
Fattmerchant |
|---|
After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Fattmerchant for yourself.
Read Next
Organization Name: Six Thirteen Originals
We are a mid-sized company of about $2 million+ in credit card transactions. The fees were certainly lower and easier to understand than most. I’ll give them that.But God help you if something goes wrong.During the transition form our old merchant, settings were incorrect with our gateway, causing them to drop all our Amex transactions. I am now going on four weeks without complete resolution and having to face calling my customers to ask them for the funds directly. The sales contact dropped off the face of the earth when a problem arose, customer service is next to impossible to reach and takes hours, if not days, to respond. What I saved in funds I spent in labor reconciling and nagging them. I therefore cannot in good conscience recommend them.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Online dating site ( romance )
I have an online dating business and I am planning to use fattmerchant as my payment processor.
Please I want to know is online dating categorized as a high risk ?
Do fattmerchant work with online dating business ?
Thank you
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Jay,
Online Dating would be considered high risk and Fattmerchant does not provide high-risk merchant accounts so you’ll be better off looking into one of our top-rated high-risk providers.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Gridiron Auto LLC
Merchant Maverick ought to be ashamed showing this company as having 5 stars when majority of the reviews are from people giving them 1 star. I sat on hold for 15 minutes and told them I wanted to cancel. Then I was put on hold for 15 more minutes before I was hung up on. This company has the worst customer service of any payment processor I’ve used for any of my 3 businesses. I now have to call and wait again to keep them from deducting $99 out of my business account for a service I don’t even want!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Allen,
I’m so sorry for all of the frustration you’ve experienced with Fattmerchant. Hopefully, you were able to get in touch and resolve your issue! We really do take our reader comments into consideration when scoring a provider, after all, we are reviewing these providers to help empower our readers. But- we look at many other factors as well. In terms of evaluating user reviews, our rating and scoring system considers whether “the number of complaints is reasonable in proportion to company size and user base”, among other considerations. I hope that makes sense. We truly are listening and we always encourage our readers to share their experiences, good or bad- in the comments.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Socialeyes optical
Stay away. They charge unauthorized fees hoping you wont notice and then promise to refund but you have to fight for it. Just not a good experience all around. Sent wrong terminals, after specifically discussed ones that we needed. Then took a while to send the right ones. Then all these unknown charges pop up. Not worth .3 of a point. Until they get better.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: The Saul Clinic of Chiropractic
DO not do business with them is my advice. I paid more for processing after being promised a lower fee. I cancelled in July and I have been billed for AQUgust, September, October, November and December despite written and oral notice. I cannot reach anyone to resolve this. So there you have it.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Arizona Hobbies
I inquired about Fattmerchant because of the review on Merchant Maverick. I contacted them and I was advised that my shopping cart provider 3dcart, was a shopping cart Fattmerchant can be set up on. I also have documentation by 3dcart for Fattmerchant. I was scheduled for a call for ‘on-boarding’. I didn’t know this beforehand, but I have to be set up with Authorize.net as part of the set-up with Fattmerchant. OK, that’s fine. My call to on-board accomplished nothing. They claimed to walk me through the set up of my account before this call. The representative couldn’t help at all. My authorize.net files were not ready yet. I received the email regarding authorize.net account setup later that day, not in time for the phone call which was scheduled days in advance. I have spent quite a few precious hours of my time today on this and I’ve gotten a response that 3dcart is not PCI compliant by WorldPay/Fattmerchant which is just false. Also, for help my ‘customer service’ call was forwarded to some other part of the world where I could barely understand the English of the representative and that person’s location was in a noisy call center with way too much background noise/talk. I get so tired of all the the virtual ‘flakes’ providing ‘service’ for Internet related services that never live up to the expectations that they claim. Fattmerchant may be no better or worse than any other payment processor but I’ve been using PayPal Pro with pretty good service and after my Fattmerchant experience it looks like that’s where I will stay. If I had had a good experience with Fattmerchant I would have come here for my experience also because it was Merchant Maverick’s review that lead me to give them a try.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Cloud Navigator
Fattmerchant uses WorldPay. My company has been in business for more than 30 years, and we’ve accepted credit card payments most of that time. We have been a Microsoft reseller for 3.5 years. After our account was opened, WorldPay demanded a signed copy of our reseller agreement, which doesn’t exist. They just decided to terminate our account. They have payments from our customers they are holding and won’t release to us. To summarize, I spent a lot of effort getting set up to accept payments via Fattmerchant, and it has amounted to nothing but a giant problem. I am considering filing a law suit for the money they are holding + damages and legal fees.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
This, and every other 5 star review you see about this company, is a paid review. Yes, PAID. As in, the companies listed on Merchant Maveric, Card Payment Options, and all other review sites have a price that they charge for a company to come in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th place. The google reviews? The company pays their employees to fill those out with as many anonymous gmail accounts as possible ($10 per review without a cap). Just some FYI.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi John,
I am the Founder/CEO of Merchant Maverick. First and foremost I want to thank you for your comment, I really appreciate the honesty and directness. I do, however, want to clarify a couple of points:
1. We do not get paid for placing a company in 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. At the moment, our ranking process is determined by two factors, rating, and performance. If you take a look at our comparison charts, the majority of featured vendors are either 5-star or 4.5-star. We have the occasional 4-star vendor sprinkled in, but for the most part, we only feature the highest-rated companies. If you’re wondering whether we get paid to increase our editorial ratings, that is an absolute “No.” We will never take money in exchange for a rating increase. That’s not how we operate. As you know, the internet is a very transparent place and we understand that eventually our reputation will be tarnished if we manipulate ratings as a way to earn money. God knows we already get accused of manipulation (as evidenced by your comments) without engaging in those types of activities, but that’s part of the business. I’m usually a pretty skeptical person myself, so I can understand your suspicion. With that said, we have considered allowing vendors to pay for the #1 position on our site, and it’s something we may implement in the near future, but we will have contingencies in place to make sure only the best companies are positioned at #1. We will also be very transparent with our readers about our process by adding some commentary to our page “How This Site Makes Money.”
Moving on to our performance metric for ranking…
Considering how many high-rated vendors are on our site, we need some way of giving the right vendors more exposure, while generating revenue for our company. Yes, we do earn money from referrals, so it makes sense for us to grant exposure to the highest-rated vendors that perform the best. High-performance to us is a measure of customer satisfaction, so if a large number of our readers are choosing Fattmerchant and staying with them, then it makes sense for us to give Fattmerchant the most exposure. As a for-profit company, that’s pretty much a no-brainer. Does that mean we’re steering our readers in the wrong direction? Definitely not. We’ve done our research on Fattmerchant and we know they’re a great company. Do they have complaints? Of course, but what company doesn’t have complaints? We look at overall patterns, not single complaints, and we roll those patterns into our own assessment. That’s how we come up with our editorial ratings. High-rated, high-performing partners get the most exposure on our site.
2. I can’t speak to the Google reviews, but user reviews on our website are all transparent, including the company name. They are not anonymous Gmail accounts, and as you can see, some of them are negative reviews. We don’t allow fake reviews on our site, as they’re pretty easy to spot.
With that said, I can see that you’re personally using a gmail account and you haven’t included your full name or business name. I’m curious to know, have you actually used Fattmerchant?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Resin LLC
Probably the worst payment provider I’ve ever used. I wish I could say you get what you pay for, but they don’t even have cheap prices at the end of the day. They just have a different pricing model that focuses on marketing the low transaction rates.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Friends Conference on Religion and Psychology
It all looks great and I was particularly attracted by “no contract.” But when you look at the terms and conditions, there is a contract–it appears you are obligating yourself in perpetuity to the underlying merchant bank/processor, see?: “This Continuing Unlimited Guaranty shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of the parties hereto and their respective heirs, executors, administrators, successors, transferees and assignees.”
When I’m no longer an officer of this organization, I don’t want this obligation to continue following me and my son and grandchildren.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Alliance Textiles
We began using Fatt Merchant and once we had told all of our clients about being able to pay with credit cards now, Fatt merchant started “withholding” all of our funds that we received from our clients. They said they needed to “investigate” as standard procedure to make sure everything was OK with one of the payments. Meanwhile, they withheld ALL of our payments and our cash flow situation became dire. The one payment they felt they needed to “investigate” was a payment by a long time, elderly client who had used the wrong zip code. He himself, had to call them and correct it. We sent in paperwork correcting it and explaining that he has two locations, his home and his church office and he got them mixed up. They said they needed to speak to him again and started leaving him harassing messages when he wasn’t home. Weeks later, they still kept, not just his one payment, all of our payments from all of our clients and would not return my calls. After that situation was finally resolved, costing us financial problems and reputational ones, we cancelled our contract with them a couple of months later. I sent an email and made phone calls and was told it was cancelled. Then I received an “official” closure document in an email that needed to be signed and emailed back, which I did the same day, which was on May 29th. They could have sent me that document weeks earlier but never mentioned needing it. Then they say we must pay them for the month of June, even though we now have a new provider, because we must give a full 30 days notice with payment. So I pay them for the extra month. Then they charge us for July and August , plus an additional fee of $50 for not using our portal during those months. They are a dishonest and incompetent company.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Southwest Cycle Co.
[Fattmerchant] I feel as if you have missed informed me, I started receiving your services back in 2016, I talked to a representative back in November of 2017 told her that our business was closing down for good December 1st 2017. I was told then I needed to call back in April 2018 to cancel our contract instead of renewing it. Now i’m being told that I didn’t have a 2 yr. contract that it is a 3 yr., and it is going to cost me 600.00 to cancel early plus we haven’t used you equipment since October 2017. But I am paying an outrageous amount of money for such equipment rental fees. I feel as thou your company has done me wrong. And I would never use you again, and will tell others about your ways…..
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: BigDiamondsUSA Inc.
I am in the eCommerce jewelry business and most of my transactions are keyed in. Individual sales could range from $4,000 to $40,000. On occasion a customer returns the item they purchased for refund. On these occasions I have noticed that Element and now Vantiv do not return the V/MC interchange fee and keep it for themselves. I read on the Visa website that these interchange fees are refunded to Vantiv and they are to be refunded to my bank account, but Vantiv says NO. This was all brought to my attention because I recently refunded a $37,000 purchase and Vantiv kept $1,568 (4.9% interchange fee). So my question is does FattMerchant refund the full interchange fee to my bank account?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Patrick,
4.9% is too high to be interchange alone, though there are a number of factors that come into play, and we don’t know enough about your situation to say for sure. I highly recommend you contact Fattmerchant directly and ask them about their practices in regard to this. We trust Fattmerchant will answer you honestly.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi, currently looking for a new merchant service since Bank of America is killing us with fees? We are a small food truck vendor, roughly 7-10k revenue per month. Just opened the business end of March. Fattmerchant sounds pretty good. Just wondering, I own my clover go equipment, will it be transferrable to this account? Does Merchantmaverick call business like my own to help them make a decision when switching to a new merchant service…help!
Thank you,
Lisa
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Lisa
Unfortunately, we don’t do phone consultations as that would be a service that we would have to charge for and we prefer to stick with what we do best…writing great free content. With that said, I would generally recommend a company like Square for any business doing less than $10k/mn because, in the long run, you would be saving money despite Square’s high % fee. However, since you already have a Clover system, I think that you may be stuck with going with a processor that works with Clover. Fattmerchant is a great processor, however, their pricing model (subscription) is best suited for high-volume businesses, not low-volume (under $10k/mn). You may be able to talk to Fattmerchant and get them to give you special pricing though.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I am looking to save money
I run what is considered a high-risk account with recurring billing.
currently paying 10% of all revenue
and would like to cut it down to 5% or even better if possible
Can you or FattMerchant refer me to the right people?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi “Compliance”,
We recommend Durango to most high risk merchants generating sales over $10,000/month. If your monthly sales volume is less, I’d suggest Square.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I UNDERSTAND THAT IF A CUSTOMER HAS A DISPUTE THAT THE MERCHANT SHOULD WITHDRAW AND HOLD THE CUSTOMERS MONEY UNTIL THE DISPUTE IS SETTLED BUT FAT MERCHANT HAS HELD ALL FUNDS FOR THE LAST FOUR DAYS TOTALING 9200 AND THE CUSTOMER STILL HAS THE PRODUCT THAT WAS SOLD FOR 7600 THAT’S NOT WRIGHT AND I DON’T KNOW IF I’M GOING TO GET MY DEPOSITS FOR TODAY OR TOMORROW ETC… RB AGE 51 IN BUSINESS FOR 41 YEARS SWITCHED TO FATMERCHANT FOUR MONTHS AGO WILL BE SWITCHING BACK TO MY BANK
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Ricky! I’m sorry to hear about this experience. Thankfully, following the typical procedure for these situations, your funds have been released back into your account. We hate to see you go, so please feel free to reach out to us directly and we would love to speak about your account off-line. Looking forward to making this right and continuing to support your business!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I WOULD LIKE TO SAY AFTER MY REVIEW I HAVE WORKED OUT ALL ISSUES WITH THIS MERCHANT AND HAVE BEEN VERY SATISFIED SINCE
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I don’t get it. This “savings” pricing method seems completely fanciful for a small business. On a $99/mo “plan” – you have to do monthly no less than $70,000 (at the low end) to $140,000 (medium end) BEFORE you see a single penny of savings.
On interchange + markup plans: there are many with mark-ups between 7 and 14 basis points over interchange, i.e., 0.07 to 0.14 % or in decimals (so that we can multiply /divide easily) 0.0007 to 0.0014.
So for any savings – at all – you would have to do sales where 7/100ths of 1% to 14/100ths of 1/% of your monthly sales is more than $99. So for any savings, it would have to be monthly sales greater than $99 = 0.0007(x) or +/- $141,000 / mo; or for the other rate, greater than $99 = 0.0014 (x) or +/- $71,000 / mo.
Sounds to me more like that Gullah proverb: Feed ’em with the corn; ‘n then stuff ’em with the cob!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Tom,
We are in the market for a company that will provide us with online payment options. Fattmerchant seems to fit the bill and the guy I’ve spoken with is great at answering questions quickly. I’m wondering if there are other companies out there that would also be worth a look. We need recurring payment options, one-time billing (for folks who don’t want recurring and occasional extra fees and purchases). Real-Time cash flow, client management and e-invoices as well as a fast turn around to our bank account.
So far I like them, but we’re still shopping around.
Thanks!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
hmm.. when I look at pricing on their website, I don’t see the “Coin” tier on their website. All I see is $69, $79 and $99 tiers.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Clint,
The “Coin” tier is their mobile option. If you take a look right under the featured tiers you will see “Ask us about our mobile reader options”. I hope this helps!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I was working with the company and had issues with charging a card and when I was contacted by the backend department that I cannot receive payments from one of my transactions I was very frustrated then got various charges on my account of -$1220, -$453 and -$1109 on my account that made me go into negative plus fees of $35 EACH transaction and they will not refund me! VERY FRUSTRATEDGood tip just use – Payment Depot. Thank me later
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Tom, what are the pros and cons of accepting e-checks instead of credit cards through a company like this to reduce my monthly costs of interchange and all the other fees that go along with it?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi John,
The biggest trade off is time. eChecks/ACH will take longer to clear than card payments. Some customers may also view it as an inconvenience. The major benefits are much lower cost for you and generally a lower likelihood of fraud. Here’s an article we published about this topic.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi! Does Fattmerchant.com accept MOTO payments?
Thank you!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Yes they do!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
They went up a lot since this review. Check their website. Their plans are $69, $79, and $99 a month.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Thanks for the heads up Jean. We’ll update this.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I’m in the process of getting quotes from Fattmerchant and one of the other 5 star companies. I have been told by Fattmerchant that I will need separate accounts for my brick & mortar and e-commerce site. I noticed on one of the other company reviews (Payment Depot) that at least these two companies are requiring that which I prefer not to do. Is this common? I’ll have to do a cost benefit analysis to figure out what’s right for our organization but would like any additional advice Tom can offer.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
your review doesn’t really mention interchange fees in the fees part of the review, so it is kind of unintentionally(?) misleading. your review says $29 per month + $0.25 per transaction, yet their website states $29 per month + $0.25 per transaction +interchange fees. seems like an important thing to leave out.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Thanks Clint. Fixed.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Sadie,
Would love for you to set this account up!
Thanks,
Lauri
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Restaurant Owner, New York…I switched to FattMerchant a little while ago. They have delivered on every promise. I’m saving right around the 40% they claim on the website. I could not believe it. Invoices that make sense.. I know exactly what I’m being charged for. Really good online reporting tools too which my old processor did not offer. On top of that, they have probably the best customer service I have ever dealt with. The people in the office are really enthusiastic about what they are doing. They respond to my emails within minutes. (this was nearly impossible with my old processor)This company is legit
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.