First Data Merchant Services (Now Fiserv) Review

Fiserv offers everything a merchant could need for payment processing, but thanks to high fees and and lengthy contracts, it isn't a great fit for small businesses.

WRITTEN & RESEARCHED BY
Frank Kehl
Senior Staff Writer

Last updated onUpdated October 27, 2023

REVIEWED BY

Senior Staff Writer

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Fiserv (formerly First Data)

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Total Rating	3.0
Products & Services	Excellent
Fees & Rates	Fair
Sales & Advertising Transparency	Fair
Contract Length & Early Termination Fee	Fair
Customer Service	Fair
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Reviews & Complaints	Fair
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Fiserv (formerly First Data) At A Glance

Large, direct processor with well over 100 resellers
Offers full line of Clover terminals & POS systems
Processing rates & account fees not publicly disclosed

Standard contract includes four-year term & early termination fee

Provides overpriced equipment leases through First Data Global Leasing subsidiary

Poor reputation for customer support

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Pros

Offers full line of Clover card readers, terminals, and POS systems
Competitive interchange-plus rates available to high-volume businesses
Extensive online knowledgebase

Cons

Extremely expensive equipment leases
A four-year standard contract with a liquidated damages clause
High recurring account fees

Table of Contents

What Is Fiserv (formerly First Data)?
Products & Services
First Data Credit Card Processing Fees & Rates
Sales & Advertising Transparency
Contract Length & Early Termination Fee
Customer Service & Technical Support
Fiserv Merchant Reviews & Complaints
Final Verdict
Frequently Asked Questions About Fiserv/First Data

What Is Fiserv (formerly First Data)?

First Data, now part of Fiserv following a merger, has built itself into one of the biggest names in credit card processing. Despite its enormous reach and a wide variety of payment tools for businesses, however, the company has never been friendly to small businesses.

While Fiserv has a huge network of independent resellers, this review will focus on its direct sales channel. Contract terms can — and usually do — vary from what you’d receive from a reseller.

Fiserv/First Data rates merely as an average merchant account provider (note that in the processing industry, the “average” is pretty lousy). First Data reviews from merchants point out issues with funding holds, poor customer service, and exorbitant fees. Small businesses that like the First Data product lineup — including the Clover POS line — are better off finding a reputable reseller of First Data’s credit card processing services rather than going to the company directly. We’re awarding it a score of 3 out of 5 stars for now. Be aware that this is an average figure because your experience with them will vary quite a bit, depending on your business’s size. Large businesses will have a much better experience with the company, while smaller ones will likely pay way too much for services they probably don’t need.

Products & Services

Rating: Excellent

As befitting such a huge company, Fiserv offers every conceivable product and service you might need to run your business successfully. These features are all very high-quality, but don’t expect them to be a bargain. You’ll pay full price, but for many merchants, the cost is well worth it in terms of what they can do for your business. Here’s what First Data/Fiserv provides:

Payment Processing Services

Merchant Accounts: Fiserv is a direct processor, so you’ll be dealing with the company for every aspect of maintaining your merchant account. You might not get the personalized customer service that a smaller company can offer, but it provides a measure of stability that a smaller organization can’t always give you.
ACH & eCheck Processing: With Clover Check Acceptance, you can accept both paper checks, echeck payments, and ACH transfers. While paper checks are declining in popularity as a payment method, this is a beneficial service to have if you still have a lot of customers who like to use their checkbooks. Processing costs are also much lower, although this will be offset by the (undisclosed) monthly fee for the service.

Processing Hardware

Mobile Processing: Fiserv/First Data offers the Clover Go mobile payment system, which consists of the free Clover Go app (available for iOS and Android) and a card reader. The card reader supports EMV, magstripe, and NFC-based payment methods. Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay are also supported. The reader connects via Bluetooth, so it will work with newer phones that don’t have headphone jacks.
Credit Card Terminals: The company offers a variety of terminals, including both wired and wireless models. Fiserv’s current lineup includes new terminals (such as the FD150) that support EMV and NFC-based payment methods. The FD150 is an upgraded version of the old First Data FD130 and features a faster processor and twice as much onboard memory. The company also offers the RP10, a PIN Pad terminal that can be used with either the FD150 or a third-party terminal. Ironically, the FD150 has PIN debit functionality built-in, so you really don’t need the RP10 unless you’re using a different terminal. Equipment may be bought outright or leased. While the website does not disclose any pricing, we recommend that you shop around before purchasing a terminal directly from First Data/Fiserv. Many of its resellers can offer you a lower price for this equipment. We also highly recommend that you avoid leasing your equipment, as you’ll get locked into a noncancelable contract, which will cost you many times more than what the equipment is worth over the life of the lease. Unfortunately, First Data leases are handled through its subsidiary, First Data Global Leasing (FDGL), one of the industry’s worst equipment leasing companies.
Mobile POS Systems: First Data also offers the Clover Flex, a portable device that combines point-of-sale functionality with the smaller form factor of a smartphone. It has a 5” color touchscreen, a built-in barcode scanner, and an integrated thermal receipt printer. The Clover Flex can accept magstripe, EMV, and NFC-based payment methods and can also manage your inventory. First Data doesn’t disclose pricing on its website, but Dharma Merchant Services sells this model for as little as $649 plus $15 per month for a wireless data plan.
Point Of Sale (POS) Systems: One of First Data’s most powerful features is the line of Clover point of sale (POS) systems. While the Clover Station (now available in Solo and Duo versions) is the company’s flagship product, a smaller model, the Clover Mini, is also available. These products all boast a very impressive set of capabilities. However, you should be aware that they’re rather expensive compared to the competition. For example, the Clover Station Solo typically costs around $1,699 or more. You’ll also incur a software subscription fee (ranging from $14.95 to $84.95 per month) to use these systems, which is in addition to your monthly merchant account fee. Finally, they’re proprietary products, so you can’t simply swap out the software the way you can with a tablet-based system.

eCommerce Support

Payment Gateway: While Fiserv is now steering eCommerce merchants to its Carat platform, it still supports First Data’s old proprietary Payeezy Gateway for smaller online businesses. Payeezy has every feature you’ll need to accept payments and keep your customers’ data secure, integrating with over 70 different shopping carts and accepting payments by credit or debit card, echeck, or PayPal. It also supports multiple currencies.
Virtual Terminal: If you need to be able to key in transactions manually using a laptop or mobile device, the Clover Virtual Terminal is an easy way to do so. This feature doesn’t require any additional monthly fees to use, and all transactions are processed at the keyed-in rate.
Website Builder: For the budding eCommerce entrepreneur, the Clover Online Store allows you to build your website and integrate it with the Payeezy Gateway. Web hosting and shopping cart integrations are built-in, making it easy to get set up and start selling online.
Integrated Omnichannel Payments Platform: In recent years, payment processors have begun to introduce cloud-based proprietary platforms that integrate in-person and online sales, allowing merchants to monitor every aspect of their business from any web-connected device. Fiserv’s entry into this growing sector is Carat, which offers more than 30 precertified integrations with existing third-party services. Unfortunately, most of the information disclosed about Carat on the Fiserv website consists of empty marketing fluff rather than concrete, detailed information about what Carat can do for your business. It also appears to be aimed at very large commercial enterprises rather than small businesses.

Ancillary Services

Reporting & Analytics: Clover Insights is an app-based reporting solution that offers a variety of analytical data about your business. While this is a standard feature these days, it’s still useful if you want to optimize how you run your business.
Security Features: Clover Security (offered through TransArmor) provides optimal data security through end-to-end encryption, which encrypts every transaction at each processing stage. The Clover Security package includes other features, such as data breach insurance, and costs an extra $19.95 per month.

First Data Canada Merchant Services

First Data/Fiserv is also available to merchants in Canada, and the company maintains a separate Canadian website. Unfortunately, the First Data Canada website isn’t any more informative than the US site. There are a few disclosures regarding rates and fees, but these are limited to information about interchange rates and other pass-through fees that are actually charged by the issuing banks. There’s also some information about the Code of Conduct for the Credit and Debit Industry in Canada, to which Fiserv has pledged to adhere. If you’re a Canadian business owner looking for a merchant account provider that offers excellent service to small businesses, take a look at the best Canadian merchant account providers for small businesses.

First Data Credit Card Processing Fees & Rates

Rating: Fair

First Data’s website offers no pricing disclosures. There’s a reason for this: The company sets prices differently for every customer. The tremendous variability in First Data’s credit card processing fees makes listing them all impossible. Depending on the nature of your business and your processing history, you might be offered a tiered, interchange-plus, or even a flat-rate pricing plan. Even within those broad categories, there are plenty of variabilities.

Account fees, on the other hand, are usually standardized. All merchants normally pay the same amount for a particular fee regardless of their business size. We’d like to see more transparency on the fees that are the same for everyone.

What can you expect to pay in the way of account fees? You may be charged an application fee when you apply for a merchant account and an account setup fee if your application is approved. You’ll almost certainly have to pay a monthly account fee, although the amount could vary quite a bit from one business to another. This is one case where larger businesses generally pay more, although they’ll save money overall due to the lower processing rates. You can also expect to have an annual fee to cover upgrades, etc. Fees for PCI compliance are also very common, although this is often included as part of the Clover Security package ($19.95 per month). Additionally, there are many other incidental fees, such as Address Verification Service (AVS) fees, chargeback fees, etc.

For more information, please read our complete guide to credit card processing rates and fees. Lastly, be sure to review your contract or merchant agreement thoroughly before you sign up. Most (if not all) of the fees you might be liable for will be spelled out somewhere in the fine print of your contract.

Sales & Advertising Transparency

Rating: Fair

Fiserv’s credit card processing information is now fully consolidated on the Fiserv website. The site itself is quite impressive from a web design standpoint, with lots of flashy graphics and animation. However, it doesn’t provide much information that’s useful in making a decision about signing up with the company. It’s also obvious that the company primarily caters to large businesses. Testimonials from users such as Google and Microsoft certainly won’t give you a warm fuzzy that Fiserv cares about you as a small business owner. Like many other merchant services providers in the payments industry, Fiserv’s website serves primarily as a marketing device rather than a source of specific, useful information. While there’s a fair amount of coverage of the Clover product lineup, you won’t find detailed specifications or in-depth information about specific features. Pricing information, of course, is nonexistent.

One positive thing about Fiserv Data payment processing is that the company employs a full-time, in-house sales team, so you won’t have to worry about dealing with independent sales agents if you contact the company directly. You shouldn’t experience the intense sales pressure or the misleading claims you commonly have to deal with when working with independent agents. Nonetheless, you should still negotiate aggressively to get the lowest rates and the best contract terms you can. You should also thoroughly review your entire contract before you sign up for an account.

Contract Length & Early Termination Fee

Rating: Fair

Getting connected to the Fiserv/First Data processing network can be accomplished by either (1) signing up with the company directly or (2) signing up with one of the company’s many Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs, or resellers). First Data’s standard merchant account contracts include an initial contract term of four years, with an automatic renewal clause for successive one-year periods thereafter. However, the contract length is sometimes negotiable, and you might be able to get approval for a shorter initial term. You’re not likely to get month-to-month billing from Fiserv unless you have a large business with an established processing history.

Long-term contracts almost always include an early termination fee (ETF), and First Data is no exception. Its ETF is equal to your monthly minimum, plus your monthly customer service fee and your monthly account fee, multiplied by the number of months remaining in your contract. This type of liquidated damages clause could conceivably cost you over $1,000 if you close your account within the first year or two of your contract. Fortunately, it’s not too difficult to have this clause waived. However, you must negotiate to have it dropped before signing your contract. Be sure to keep a written copy of your waiver.

Fiserv resellers run the gamut from really good to absolutely terrible. An ISO can offer you lower rates and fees than you might be able to obtain by signing up with the company directly. However, they can just as easily charge you higher rates, tack on excessive fees, and lock you into long-term contracts with expensive early termination fees. At the same time, other resellers offer month-to-month billing with no long-term commitment as a standard feature.

Dharma Merchant Services is one of our favorite processors, mostly because it offers transparent interchange-plus pricing, fair account fees, and month-to-month billing. For most businesses (especially small to mid-sized ones), Dharma can provide you with a much better overall deal than you’d receive by signing up with Fiserv directly. Dharma operates under the philosophy that offering your customers services at a lower cost and with fair contract terms will attract and retain more customers overall.

Customer Service & Technical Support

Rating: Fair

Fiserv (formerly First Data) Support	Availability
Phone Support
Email Support
Support Tickets
Live Chat
Dedicated Support Representative
Knowledge Base or Help Center
Videos & Tutorials
Company Blog
Social Media

Very large businesses have a reputation for providing poor, impersonal customer support, and Fiserv/First Data is no exception. While the company offers 24/7 telephone and email support, we’ve received many complaints from small business owners alleging impersonal, unresponsive support from the company’s customer service representatives. Promised follow-up actions fail to happen, forcing merchants to spend hours on hold and repeatedly contacting the company to report a problem that often never gets fixed.

We’re pretty sure big-name clients like Microsoft never have these kinds of problems. Unfortunately, it’s quite clear — even down to how Fiserv’s website is organized — that small business owners are treated as second-class citizens and relegated to the back of the line behind the much larger companies that bring in a greater share of the company’s revenue. Fiserv is certainly not the only large corporation to behave this way, but it’s particularly disappointing given that the company has the resources to do better.

The Fiserv website includes an extensive Merchant Support section, accessible via a ‘Support’ button on the top menu. Here, you’ll find links to Clover support resources (hosted on Clover’s website), FAQs, a video library, and other helpful information.

Fiserv Merchant Reviews & Complaints

Rating: Fair

Fiserv/First Data has a lot of public complaints, but the overall volume is pretty average when you consider its huge size. Fiserv and First Data still have separate BBB profiles, which we’ll address separately.

Negative Reviews & Complaints

Neither Fiserv nor First Data is accredited by the BBB, although both organizations nonetheless have A+ ratings. First Data’s BBB profile currently shows a whopping 555 complaints within the last three years. Of those, 203 were filed within the previous twelve months.

While this is undoubtedly a lot of complaints, it also represents a gradual drop-off in complaint volume since the Fiserv-First Data merger was announced in 2019. Fiserv itself now has 268 complaints over the past three years, with 126 complaints within the past twelve months. We’re also starting to see more merchant services-related complaints on the Fiserv profile as merchants come to understand that this is now the correct place to address processing-related complaints.

It’s also important to compare the overall number of complaints against the company’s client base of 6 million merchants. If you do the math, that means that only 0.014% of them were dissatisfied enough to file a complaint. There are 174 First Data merchant services reviews on the company’s BBB profile, averaging 1.03 out of a possible five stars. Nearly all of the recent reviews have been 1-star ratings. While that’s certainly not good, remember that satisfied merchants rarely take the time to write positive reviews. This is especially true for a site such as the BBB, which is designed primarily to solicit complaints about businesses. The company does deserve credit for responding to every negative review and offering to correct the situation — a practice that not all providers follow.

Complaints on other consumer protection sites tend to be directed at one or more of First Data’s resellers, not the company itself. First Data has little or no control over the business practices of smaller companies that resell its products, so its complaint volume is naturally very inflated. We also found many complaints directed at First Data Global Leasing. Looking at First Data credit card processing reviews from merchants who signed up directly for payment processing, we’ve identified the following common issues:

Overpriced Equipment Leases: Leases from First Data Global Leasing come with noncancelable four-year terms, meaning you’ll still have to make your monthly lease payment, regardless of the circumstances. You could close your account or even sell your business, but you’d continue to be on the hook for those payments. After four years, not only will you have paid far more than what the equipment is worth, but you also still won’t own it. Avoid leasing under any circumstances and buy your terminals. First Data’s terminals and Clover POS systems aren’t cheap, but they’re much less expensive than what a lease will cost you.
Excessive Account Fees: These complaints mainly come from merchants who didn’t read their contracts carefully when they signed up. First Data charges a fee for almost everything, and most of its fees are on the high side of the industry average. The company sees itself as something of a luxury brand, and it charges accordingly for every service it provides. While larger businesses can afford these fees and will save money overall through lower processing rates, that’s not the case for smaller enterprises. You’ve come to the wrong place if you’re a small business owner looking for a cheap merchant account. First Data merchant services are not for you unless you can sign up through a reputable reseller (such as Dharma Merchant Services or National Processing).
Withheld Funds & Account Terminations: Like any processor, First Data may freeze your funds or even terminate your account if it suspects fraud. Our article on avoiding holds, freezes, and terminations offers tips on preventing this from happening to you.

On the positive side, First Data appears to respond to every BBB complaint. It also issues refunds and takes other actions to try to resolve the merchant’s issue.

Positive Reviews & Testimonials

The First Data website used to have an entire section devoted to Client Success Stories, including dozens of video testimonials and case studies from satisfied merchants using its services. The videos were very polished and professional-looking but still came across as authentic. Most of the participating merchants focused on the capabilities that First Data’s POS (Clover) and other services had brought to their business. Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t any mention of the company being the least expensive option for merchant services.

Unfortunately, Client Success Stories is no longer available on the new Fiserv website. In its place, you’ll find case studies from several of Fiserv’s larger corporate clients, including Microsoft and Google. These case studies aren’t particularly relevant to small business owners and don’t include any compelling information about why Fiserv is a better choice than its competitors.

Final Verdict

Let’s be honest: Huge credit card processors like Fiserv/First Data don’t care about your small business. With most credit card processing fees going to the issuing banks as interchange fees, providers like Fiserv usually make just a few pennies on a typical transaction. Those pennies still add up to huge profits with a large corporate client but aren’t worth much at all with a small business. Nonetheless, the small business sector as a whole is too large to ignore. The problem with large, direct processors like Fiserv and others is that they tend not to offer services and prices that are specially designed to meet the needs of their small business clients.

For this reason, we recommend that small businesses steer clear of signing up with Fiserv directly and work with a reputable reseller (such as Dharma or National Processing) instead. You’ll have access to the same great Clover terminals and POS systems but at a much more affordable overall cost. You’ll also have the freedom a month-to-month contract provides and usually much better customer support if problems arise. You can also check out our recommended First Data alternatives for other great small business-friendly providers.

If you’ve already signed up with First Data and now regret that decision, our post on how to cancel your First Data merchant account can help you get out of your contract.

Overall, Fiserv/First Data scores 3 out of 5 stars. This is an average rating because your experience with the company will vary greatly, depending on your business’s size. First Data’s score is slightly higher for large businesses and significantly lower for smaller ones.

Frequently Asked Questions About Fiserv/First Data

How do I cancel First Data?

Canceling a First Data merchant agreement requires multiple steps, including providing adequate notice to the company. If you choose not to wait for your contract cancellation window, you may be subject to early termination fees, which could cost up to $500.

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Frank Kehl

Senior Staff Writer at Merchant Maverick

Frank has been writing about payment processing and business services since 2015. He is a retired Air Force officer and a former practicing attorney. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from The Pennsylvania State University and a Juris Doctorate degree from the Ventura College of Law, and currently resides in Paso Robles, California.

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Sources

Fiserv US website (Accessed 10/26/2023)
Fiserv Canada website (Accessed 10/26/2023)
First Data BBB profile (Accessed 10/26/2023)
Fiserv, Inc. BBB profile (Accessed 10/26/2023)

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