First American Payment Systems Review
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Expert Analyst & Reviewer
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First American Payment Systems
| Total Rating | 3.0 |
|---|---|
| Products & Services | Good |
| Fees & Rates | Fair |
| Contract Length & Early Termination Fee | Fair |
| Sales & Advertising Transparency | Fair |
| Customer Service | Poor |
| User Reviews | Poor |
Pros
- eCheck processing offered
- PCI-compliant solution
Cons
- Numerous public complaints
- Deceptive sales tactics
- No pricing disclosed online
First American Payment Systems Overview
In this First American Payment Systems review, you’ll find that one of the main issues I have is the company’s overall inconsistency. It employs a sizable sales force of independent agents but does not seem to provide adequate training or support to them. We found dozens of complaints from former sales agents alongside complaints from merchants these agents sold to. It adds up to a lot of unhappy people.
Another issue I have with First American is the company’s confusing branding and subsidiary structure. I’ve heard many reports of First American using a tangle of business names, which can deceive merchants and reduce its operations’ overall transparency. In my experience, companies with many DBAs are usually trying to cover something up and confuse those trying to assess their reputation. First American Payments seems to fit this bill.
So what is First American? It’s been around for decades as a big-player in the industry. Established in 1990, First American Payment Systems (FAPS or First American for short) is a merchant account provider based in Fort Worth, Texas. While First American has never been our favorite provider, the company appeared to be making gradual improvements to its services and reputation. However, that progress seems to have stalled.
FAPS is not an inherently terrible merchant services provider. It has a decent website and doesn’t employ too many overtly deceptive sales gimmicks publicly. The company’s complaints volume, while significant, is not extraordinary for an outfit of this size. But if I am going to rate the brand as a whole, I’d say it’s a gamble at best. It doesn’t offer enough added value to make up for the expense of its contracts, and customer support seems to be lacking.
However, as long as you are willing to advocate for yourself, negotiate, and generally make sure your contract is fair, First American is a capable company that offers a diverse selection of payment-related services, and it could probably be a good provider for some businesses. Just bear in mind that there are plenty of other providers that won’t make you negotiate to get a fair deal — they’ll offer you transparent prices and a month-to-month agreement outright.
For these reasons, First American Payment Systems earns a completely middle-of-the-road 3-star rating out of 5. Check out our full review below, then head over to our comparison chart to see your other options. If you have any experience with FAPS, let us know in the comments!
Table of Contents
Products & Services
First American Payment Systems offers a full range of products and services. Your options include the following:
- POS System & Mobile App: FAPS offers a tablet-based POS system, 1stPayPOS. For mobile payments, it offers 1stPayMobile.
- Next-Day Funding: Next-day funding is an option with your merchant account, but its possible you’ll be charged extra fees to do so.
- Terminal Sales & Leasing: FAPS offers the proprietary Xion countertop terminal, which is EMV-compliant and NFC-capable. Other terminals available include the Ingenico iWL 250/252 and the Verifone Verix Vx520. Leases are provided by Merimac Capital, another First American subsidiary. In my opinion, you should never lease. Merimac’s leases are non-cancellable and extend for 60 months, usually at about $45 per month (plus insurance). That means even if you want to cancel the next day, you will be stuck paying $2,700 to buy out the contract for a machine that you could purchase outright for only a few hundred dollars.
- eCommerce: If you want to sell online, First American offers a full-fledged shopping cart with built-in CRM tools. For a more basic option, there’s also a customized payment page builder. The company bundles its virtual terminal and recurring billing into this suite of software.
- Online Reporting: This comes via First American’s proprietary FirstView reporting system. FirstView allows you to view merchant statements online, generate customized reports, and analyze processing data. It’s also encrypted to ensure the security of your data.
- FirstAdvantage: This offering supports in-house gift cards and a loyalty program designed for small to mid-size businesses.
- ACH & Paper Check Processing: These features are supported through First American’s FirstFund ACH and Secur-Chex solutions, respectively.
- Developer Tools: Developers who want to offer clients an integrated payment system can use First American’s suite of software to provide custom solutions. It also provides dedicated technical support teams through the process.
- Security Suite: As far as payment security goes, First American’s platform includes fraud detection tools as well as encryption and tokenization. You also get data breach insurance and assistance with PCI compliance.
- Merchant Cash Advances: These are available through First American’s Merchant Cash Advance Program. We recommend being wary of merchant cash advances, as they’re not the most competitive funding option, and you certainly have many other options.
While I wouldn’t say any of this is groundbreaking, cutting edge, or industry-leading, it is what you would expect from a mid to large-sized payment processor. It’s just a generally well-rounded feature-set designed to work with many different types of businesses.
Fees & Rates
While First American Payment Systems bombards you with information about all of its wonderful products and features, its website doesn’t mention a word about how much any of this will actually cost you. I couldn’t find a single dollar or percentage sign anywhere on the FAPS site.
For processing rates, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Rates are highly negotiable, and it’s often not practical to try to list all of them on a website. Also, unlike many other processing companies, it’s not trying to lure you in by deceptively quoting a low qualified rate that is much lower than what most of your transactions will cost.
Fees, unfortunately, are another matter entirely. From what I’ve seen in comments from merchants using FAPS, these accounts can be incredibly expensive, with most of the money going directly toward agent profits. First American currently offers merchants a choice between a $95 annual fee or a $25 monthly minimum on its standard contracts. Monthly statement fees are variable but can run as high as $20 per month. There’s also an annual PCI compliance fee of around $120. Finally, First American Payments will offer you a costly tiered-pricing plan if you don’t ask for interchange-plus pricing.
If you do choose to use First American Payments for credit processing, I have three words for you: negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. And be careful! Demand interchange-plus pricing and insist on a month-to-month contract with no early termination fee. If the company won’t do that for you, I recommend you take your business elsewhere.
Compare with Payment Depot:
| Payment Depot  |
|---|
Contract Length & Early Termination Fee
A standard merchant agreement from First American Payment Systems runs for three years. It automatically renews for one-year periods thereafter, unless you provide adequate notice that you wish to end the contract. Early termination fees for breaking your contract are variable but generally run from $300 to $495, unless you negotiate a month-to-month contract with no ETF.
Since FAPS relies heavily on independent resellers and so many subsidiaries, there’s not a whole lot of standardization here. If you don’t see a signed waiver form attached to your contract, chances are there is an early termination fee, no matter what your sales rep says. Verbal agreements aren’t binding in the processing industry, and you’ll have to jump through a lot of hoops and make a lot of complaints to get that ETF refunded if there’s no signed waiver.
Sales & Advertising Transparency
The First American Payment Systems website is fairly attractive, but the information is sparse, and pages are somewhat frustrating to navigate. While I didn’t find any outright lies in the marketing materials, there is a conspicuous absence of any mention of costs and very little educational material about how merchant processing fees work. To quote Shakespeare, I’d like to see “more matter with less art” in the company’s marketing. This is probably done to accommodate a large and diverse pool of resellers that all have the freedom to set up accounts with a wide variety of fees and rates.
While I recognize rates will differ from merchant to merchant, I’d prefer to see some standardization and more transparent disclosure of scheduled fees. This helps to ensure that sales reps are selling fairly priced contracts. Take a look at the great resources offered by companies such as Helcim or Dharma Merchant Services and compare this to First American Payment Systems. It’s like night and day.
In terms of individual sales experiences, First American Payments Systems does not deliver enough consistency or transparency to earn my seal of approval. Its independent agents seem, in some cases, poorly trained and/or poorly regulated. While you could get a great sales agent, you could also get a terrible one. It’s not a wise gamble to take, and unfortunately, the processing industry is rife with these kinds of poorly-trained, minimally-supervised sales agents. If you really do think First American’s processing services are right for you, I suggest contacting the company directly because at least then you’ll be dealing with an in-house team for onboarding.
Customer Service & Technical Support
In our comments section, you can read a number of reviews that cite rude or otherwise unsatisfactory customer service. Corroborating complaints exist across the web. First American Processing does offer 24/7/365 in-house customer service, and it did win the ATSI Call Center of Distinction award in 2013, but not everyone would agree that this adds up to excellent customer support.
Here’s my takeaway: Having a well-staffed call center is a Band-Aid on a bullet wound when sales reps are scamming merchants into signing expensive and unfair contracts. Call centers are often inundated with calls from unhappy merchants when they find out they’re paying fees they weren’t told about. When they don’t get a resolution, they tend to want to try to cancel their accounts, which doesn’t go well when they find out there’s an early termination fee in addition to whatever initially set off the issues. It’s something of a vicious cycle, really — and you see why having 24/7 support doesn’t do much to offset the complaints.
If you’ve had experience with FAPS’s customer service, by all means, drop us a comment and tell us all about it!
User Reviews
Merchant reviews leave less than glowing remarks for First American. By far, most complaints are with billing and collections issues over at the BBB. We recommend proceeding with caution and be aware of what you’re being charged.
Negative Reviews & Complaints
First American Payment Systems earned its BBB accreditation in January 2015 and currently has an A+ rating with the BBB. The company is pretty proud of this, displaying it prominently on its website and including a direct link to the BBB report. I commend the company for being so transparent, as it currently has 72 complaints filed over the past three years, with 20 new complaints filed in the past year.
While this may seem like a lot, and it is troubling, it’s a fairly average number of complaints about a processor of its size. First American had slightly more complaints in our last review in June 2019. The reviews tend to wobble only slightly in either direction, so we can safely say not much has improved.
Unfortunately, the responses from First American to merchant complaints are generally impersonal and not very apologetic. It absolutely will not cancel terminal leases administered through Merimac Capital, but it will sometimes waive early termination fees. Apparently, a lot of merchants haven’t read their contract thoroughly enough to be aware of the early termination fee, and far too many sales agents aren’t discussing it when trying to close a deal.
But seriously, read through the company’s responses to complaints on the BBB website. The tone in these responses is that of a company that does not appreciate criticism.
Here are some of the most common complaints against FAPS:
- Unethical Sales Tactics: Overall, merchants are unsatisfied with the sales experience provided by many FAPS agents. Specifically, complaints include nondisclosure of contract terms and fees as well as receiving misleading information about how credit card processing works and how rates are decided. First American does not provide any useful educational material or rate information on its website, making the sales experience even more confusing and misleading.
- Bad Leasing Agreements: Any company that still pushes the old standard four-year non-cancellable terminal leases should, as a general rule, be avoided like the plague. These companies are desperately looking to make money at your expense and via your lack of industry knowledge. These leases end up costing thousands of dollars just for the pleasure of borrowing a machine that is only worth a few hundred dollars. Don’t do it. Read our article explaining why leases are a bad deal for merchants for more information.
- Overall Cost: Some merchants complain about rate hikes and high percentages of non-qualified transactions. Others bemoan the hefty early termination fees. Others hate finding so many undisclosed fees on their statements.
Positive Reviews & Testimonials
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any positive reviews or testimonials for First American Payment Systems — not even on its website. Honestly, I have no real reason to encourage you to pursue using this company’s services. While I’m sure it has a substantial number of satisfied merchants on its side, FAPS delivers very inconsistent sales and service experiences. With so many other truly exceptional providers out there, why settle for passive-aggressive mediocrity? With sub-par pricing and a completely average product lineup, you could do so much better.
If you disagree, please let me know in a comment. It’s always nice to see positive testimonials for any company we review.
Final Verdict
We give First American Payment Systems 3 out of 5 stars. While this isn’t the worst rating we’ve given out, the company certainly doesn’t earn our recommendation, either. One could argue that a few bad apples ruin the whole bunch or that the negative reviews we find don’t represent the entire company. However, with so many independent sales agents working for this company, we think it is best to approach with extreme caution. For us, it’s the overall level of inconsistency displayed by FAPS’s sales agents that are the most bothersome.
Sadly, the issues don’t end there. I’m not satisfied with First American’s advertising. Its main website is noticeably vague and uninformative. Its business structure, with its numerous DBAs and multiple subsidiary websites, is convoluted and confusing, perhaps deliberately so. I want to see providers educating merchants to help them make a good decision. First American is definitely not doing this, at least not as a rule.
Need an alternative? Consider Payment Depot:
| Payment Depot |
|---|
Complaints against the company include insanely expensive and non-cancellable terminal leases and pricey contracts peddled by dishonest sales reps. Poor customer support, difficulty closing accounts, and expensive early termination fees are also frequently mentioned.
With all of these issues riding against First American, it’s difficult to recommend partnering with it. Not when you’ll find quite a few other providers out there that will offer you interchange-plus pricing with no early termination fees, not to mention outstanding customer service — all for significantly less than FAPS will charge you.
If I were you, I’d take a gander at our comparison chart to see some other options!
Jason Vissers
Expert Analyst & Reviewer at Merchant Maverick
Jason Vissers has been researching, analyzing, and writing about small business software and finance since 2015. His financial expertise has been cited in numerous publications, including The Ladders. Jason graduated with a Political Science degree from San Diego State University in 2001.
View Jason Vissers's professional experience on LinkedIn.
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Read Next
Organization Name: farmers market
My review is very similar to everyone else’s. The sales rep gave us a lot of lip service. We got the machines and they kept breaking. We kept asking them to fix them or send new ones. They didn’t send new ones so we were missing out on a ton of credit card business. They continued to charge us way after we sent in the machines and we had to cancel the account they were automatically taking money out every month and wouldn’t stop. If I could at a picture of my credit they charged me $17,500 after all the money we paid them. The sales agent was corrupt and the company was corrupt. They don’t make money in the transactions they make money getting people under contract and then screwing them over.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Eagle Home Inspection
DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY. They say I never sent a letter closing the account so I have been charged for over a year without using the company. Now, I have to pay $495 for early termination???? Read the contract before signing and you will see that you are making a pact with the devil. Don’t do it, go somewhere else. Don’t walk away, RUN. I should have read some of the the other reviews.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: American Pennant Co
Our business closed in 2019 and after trying many times we finally were given the address to return the equipment . It was mailed 12/31/2019. We continued to be charged monthly and finally we were able to contact an account manager. She acknowledged receiving the equipment but informed us that we needed to sign a paper to close the account. We never received a letter, email or phone message about this. We then received a collections letter demanding $588 in fees. The collections supervisor involved was rude , said it wasn’t her problem and to,pay the amount. Finally we sent them a certified check on March 10,2020. On April 14 we again received two copies of the demand letter for the amount of $588. We called the company, was not given an answer and had to leave a message for the collections department. This is a terrible company to deal with, the account has been closed and paid but we continue to receive threatening letters.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Carroll Family Practice, Inc.
This companies collection department is very rude. I was told I had to pay 803.67 for cancellation of services. I was told months ago I could cancel early for a 495.00 fee. We have been with the company since 2013 and I thought it was a 3 year contract then month to month after that. They argued that our contract was until 11/19/19. I was prepared to let it go even though we were not using the credit card services any longer and was being charged $78 a month for not using the service. I was planning on canceling on 11/19/19 and just eat the $78 every month. Our business went under and we closed our bank account last week. I was prepared to pay the $495 but got a phone call yesterday that I owed 803.67 for cancellation fee plus last payment, plus $30 fee for return payment plus $200 for collection fee. They just tried to take a payment 1 day ago and already turned it to collections. She wanted me to pay the full amount right then with a credit card. I told her I was not comfortable paying with cc over the phone and I would like an invoice with the charges. She was very rude and told me she couldn’t wave the $200 fee if I didn’t pay now. I am willing to pay the cancellation fee but I do not feel I should have to pay the other fees. I was never offered an invoice and a chance to pay the cancellation fee without penalty. I also feel they were very deceptive when signing up for the service by telling be it was a 3 year contract and not a 6 year contract. I should not have to pay $495 fee at all but I was willing to pay it to be done with this company. I was also told this was going against my personal credit. I do not even own this business, I was only a manager.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Tyler Christian preschool
They are still rude!
Worst experience ever.
A rating of 3 from Merchant Maverick makes me question the integrity of MM!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Sam, we are sorry to hear you had a bad experience with First American. We aren’t too fond of their customer service either, which is why we rated their Customer Service, Technical Support, and User Review ratings as “poor”. We do understand your frustration, however, to address your concern about the validity (or integrity) of our reviews, please read our post on negativity bias and how this site makes money to better understand how Merchant Maverick delivers real, unbiased reviews to our readers.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: CPP
They keep doing updates that not only reverse the days credit card transactions but return the total amount to the customer without us ever receiving anything. The customer in turn owes us twice the amount they originally owed. Not getting any follow through from their employees. We will be changing companies as this is the second time this has happened. POOR POOR POOR!!!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Corporate Games, Inc.
I would never recommend this company. After 3 years, I decided to switch service providers, and FAPS not only charged me a fee of $495 to quit their service, they continued to charge me after that payment was made. When I tried to get them to refund the charges made to our bank account after discontinuing the service, the request was “declined”– and there was not one to speak to with any decision making power. The requested refund of a few hundred dollars was nothing compared to all the fees I had paid them for several years. They would not allow me to speak to anyone of authority and would not provide any contact information either. This has left a very bad taste in my mouth.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: OLE PERU IMPORTS
Totally agree with your comments..they are awful…I requested termination in April 2018 after being with them since 1992 – they advised to give notice June 1st otherwise I would be charged $495 termination fee – I have not used them at all this year, instead I use Square now.
Well needless to say I sent letter June 1st to make sure no more monthly charges will go through my bank account – just received statement and again charges went through August 2nd – request credit and was denied – what an awful company!!
There should be someone looking into their transactions as I imagine they make a bundle charging fees even when you want to stop using them!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Metal Gear Armroy
Horrible experience and company. Their affiliate broke contract with me and are attacking my credit unlawfully. Do not do business with blue dog or first american payment systems. Absolutely disgusting business practices. Save yourself and do respectable business else where. DO NOT DO BUSINESS HERE!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
i have done business with several merchant services and this company is by far thee WORST! save yourself adn find another company to process with. I was fraudulently set up by one of their representatives(i clearly provided docs and information showing that i key in more then 75% of my order because i have an internet business) and in order to get my signed up he put 100% swiped. I did not know this until i started processing and then this company help over $4000 for over a week making me provide them with numerous docs in order to release funds that have already cleared my customers banks. This didn’t end here and they continued to keep holding funds. I provided texts and emails showing that i d the rep 75% input and 25% swiped and they told me that that was too bad that i signed the contract so i am responsible. ok…so i found another provider for my inputs and was using this company for my walk -in customers…and then my pin pad stopped working and would not let me swipe cards anymore. so i called and they advised me that the pin pad has gone bad…after 3 months…and i had to pay $75 to replace it! even tho i have had it barley 90 days! i packed this stuff up and sent it back! SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS DO NOT GET INVOLVED WITH THIS NIGHTMARE OF A CREDIT CARD PROCESSOR! WORST COMPANY EVER!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
We only have one ecommerce site that we used their services. When you Call customer service and say you have cancelled but are still getting charged and they ask you to hold. Then come back on the line quoting the annual automatically renewing contract by section and paragraph? Not a company I would recommend or ever do business with again. The automatic monthly charge appears on our account with zero description. My bank has to research the charge to give me information soI could find out who was charging our account. Pretty slippery.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.