Forte Payment Systems Review

Overview:

You may have heard the term “omnichannel payments” thrown around lately, and maybe you’re wondering if it’s a solution you need or just a marketing buzzword to get you to sign up for more services. Well – I guess it’s a little of both, and Forte Payments is a prime example of omnichannel payment processing in action. Formerly known as ACH Direct, established in 1998, this company rebranded itself as Forte Payment Systems – stylized as { forte } – in 2013 as part of a new marketing direction and service offering. At one point they also did business as Federal Payments, but I’m not sure where that fits in the timeline. All of the following web addresses are currently linked to the main Forte site:

• PaymentsGateway.net
• ACHdirect.com
• FederalPayments.com

Forte uses the term “omnichannel” to describe their multi-faceted approach to providing payments. All of their users get access to a payment gateway, shopping cart, virtual terminal, and mobile processing app, allowing merchants to accept payments on the go, in person and online at with no additional fees.

Aside from card payments, users can also accept e-check payments (ACH) via every channel, even mobile. (I particularly like being able to accept ACH payments in a mobile app, so big kudos for this.) Along with this, Forte provides tools for verifying ACH accounts and resubmitting bounced transactions to collect on payments that don’t go through, making ACH payment safer for merchants. They also offer a bill presentment service where customers can pay online, via mobile, or through an IVR (Interactive Voice Recognition) system. This comes at an extra cost but could be worthwhile especially due to ease of integration.

Overall, I’m not crazy about user interface offered by Forte (which comes through the paymentsgateway.net domain). Furthermore, developer-friendly services like this (a la Stripe, Braintree, Balanced) tend to thrive based on the community of developers that use them. Forte doesn’t have a very active community at the moment, which is somewhat worrisome to me. I haven’t been able to get in touch with developers using Forte yet. If you have developer-end experience with Forte, let us know!

Forte has two things I don’t care for: an application fee ($75) and an early termination fee ($99). The $99 early termination fee isn’t terrible, especially with just a one-year term, but I’d much prefer no early termination fee at all. Their pricing is fair enough, though not the standard interchange-plus we prefer to see across the board.

Forte really does shine in at least one sense, however: quantity of offerings, of true value-added services that add value but not expense. Forte’s forte is its “omnichannel” payments experience, allowing merchants to accept and collect payments reliably and securely through basically any avenue you could want. If you are going to utilize these offerings, I think Forte could be well worth it. Their pricing is fair and their products have good potential.

This has earned Forte Payment Systems a solid 4 stars for this initial review. I’ll look forward to revisiting them soon to see how the Forte brand shapes up! See more information below, check out our top rated merchants, and please comment with your insights!

Products & Services:

For some services, Forte provides a ton of useful public information. But for others – it seems like things are still under construction. To get the most up to date and accurate information, it’s always important to ask a representative from the company. Here are the essential details about Forte’s payment offerings:

• Credit card/ACH processing: Forte is not a direct processor, and uses a few different processing companies depending on the merchant’s needs.
• Payment gateway: Called PaymentsGateway.Net, this is the keystone for Forte Payments. It includes access to a virtual terminal for accepting payments from any internet-connected computer, plus recurring billing capabilities. You can get a gateway-only account, but it will cost you $50 per month plus a per transaction fee. It will generally make more sense to use Forte’s payment processing instead.
• Mobile payments: Forte’s payment app (named Forte Mobile Payments) has some nice features, but isn’t too fancy. My favorite thing about it is its ability to process e-checks. You can run a transaction using your customer’s routing and account numbers, no scanning required. If you use their “Merchant+” plan, e-checks process for just $0.25. You also have the option of charging a convenience fee, either as a percentage or a fixed amount. No free card reader here, though. You’ll have to buy an iDynamo reader for $99 to swipe transactions(or check out our suggestions).
• Shopping cart: Forte offers Checkout at no additional charge, including support for integration using their API.
• Check verification: This validates the bank account information at the point of capture, and costs $0.25 per transaction.
• NSF check recovery: Included at no extra charge, this service will reattempt to collect on ACH transactions returned due to non-sufficient funds. After the transaction bounces the first time, it will be processed again twice more in the following weeks.
• Bill presentment: Branded as BillPayIt, this billing system allows customers to pay via mobile, online, or through hosted IVR (Interactive Voice Recognition).

Other Features:

• Online reporting
• Payment tokenization
• Identity Verification

Fees & Rates:

There are good things about the Forte pricing model, but also some not-so-good things. First and foremost, I don’t like that they charge an Application Fee of $75. On one level I totally get this – processing an application costs them money (with no guarantees of profit), so they are trying to minimize their risk here. But on the other hand, most providers don’t charge application fees these days, so it’s kind of hard to stomach a $75 fee in this case. Forte Payments offers two different plans:

Standard (tiered pricing)

• $24.95 monthly fee
• Gateway included
• Card: 2.75% (3.50% for American Express) + $0.25
• eCheck processing at $0.25 per transaction

Select+ (interchange-plus)

• Cost-plus pricing
• Gateway included
• Fees and rates vary

Other fees
I’ve seen a few complaints about what appears to be a standard 10% cash reserve withheld by Forte at all times, releasing these funds after 90 days.

• PCI compliance fee – $7.99 monthly
• PCI non-compliance fee – $29.99 monthly

You can avoid the non-compliance fee by completing the self-assessment questionnaire and following all of the necessary PCI compliance guidelines outlined there.

Contract Length & Early Termination Fee:

To quote the site:

We do charge a $99 early termination fee, but you’ll probably never see this since there’s never any reason to leave!

Cute… but not exactly what I’m looking for. So the early termination fee is $99, and the contract term is just one year. While no early termination fee is ideal, I think that this is fairly reasonable for most merchants, and much better than the industry standard. You can try to get it waived, but this will depend on your sales rep and your business.

Sales & Advertising Transparency:

Overall I really like the contemporary look and trustworthy feel of Forte’s website and marketing. It’s laid back and not at all pushy, inviting you to learn more but not trying to coerce you in any way. I do have one gripe, though. While basically all of the important information is accessible, some of it is tucked away in an FAQ listed below the upfront pricing info. It’s in this FAQ section that they bring up the application fee, early termination fee, and tiered pricing surcharges. But on the bright side at least they do bring these considerations up in a relatively accessible way. Also when you speak with a sales rep, they will go over all of this information with you.

Some of the marketing is mildly deceptive and not very useful. For instance, their comparison chart featuring PayAnywhere, Intuit Payments, PayPal and Square versus Forte leaves out important pricing information such as surcharges, monthly fees, and other pricing options. Also Forte uses its qualified swiped and keyed rates in this chart when in reality its flat rate 2.9% + $0.25 would make more sense when compared to pay-as-you-go mobile processors like Square. The PCI compliance and non-compliance fees ($8 and $30 per month, respectively) are not disclosed at all in the public marketing. I’d like to see these fees mentioned at least in the FAQ. I do like the fact that the PCI fee is prorated monthly though.

Customer Service & Technical Support:

Based on the lack of complaints around the web, I believe that Forte Payment Systems is doing a good job of keeping customers happy and addressing complaints and issues effectively. The only way to keep a good reputation these days is to nip complaints in the bud as soon as the customer expresses dissatisfaction.

Forte offers live customer service by phone, email, or chat. I tested all three and was met with useful, fairly speedy answers on all counts. We are not able to test out customer service for complex account specific issues, so I’d love to hear from you if you’ve dealt with Forte’s customer service in-depth! Just leave us a comment. You can also find Forte via social media. They have a very active Twitter account, which can serve as a great quick point of public contact.

Negative Reviews & Complaints:

Forte Payment Systems has 6 complaints at the Better Business Bureau in the last three years, with only two of those complaints occurring in the last year. I consider this a very clean track record for a business of this size. You can find a few other complaints around the web under the Forte’s former ACH Direct brand name, but nothing serious. Overall I liked that a company representative is always on the scene with a fairly kind and reasonable response to complaints. The company is not ignoring negative reviews, and I consider that a very good sign in terms of overall customer satisfaction.

The complaints themselves cited billing issues and withheld funds.

Positive Reviews & Testimonials:

While I couldn’t find any positive reviews or testimonials for Forte Payment Systems, their website does advertise a few of Forte’s more prominent clients, including LA Fitness, Virgin, Geico, Progressive, Verizon Wireless, and NEC. Of course, most of these merchants probably began processing with this company before it was called Forte. In fact, the recent name change, new marketing approach, and rebranding make locating accurate and up to date reviews somewhat difficult. If you have used Forte either in their current incarnation or when they were called ACH Direct, or even as Federal Payments, please leave us a comment with your review or your impressions. Our readers help us to keep these reviews as complete and as accurate as possible!

Final Verdict:

Forte Payment Systems provides an above-average processing experience with reasonable costs. I’m not crazy about their $75 application fee or the $99 early termination fee (1-year term), but I’m not altogether horrified by these fees either. If you’re serious about bringing your business to Forte, you may be able to negotiate these fees away. And while the idea of tiered pricing makes me a little uneasy, Forte’s rates aren’t outrageous. Depending on your volume, you may qualify for their interchange-plus pricing (Enterprise).

The rates from Forte are fine, but the real draw for this company is its service offerings. Forte gives a true omnichannel experience for sales via mobile, online store, and in-store. These services come at no additional cost (aside from hardware). Bill presentment is another nice feature, with payment options via online, mobile and the IVR (Interactive Voice Recognition) system. I’m also a fan of Forte’s e-check (ACH) acceptance features, including account verification and NSF check recovery. The fact that you can accept ACH payments within the mobile app is a nice bonus. I’m eager to hear from developers who have used Forte’s documentation and gone through the integration process. Right now, it seems like other developer-friendly options (like Stripe and Braintree) have more intensive support, but I’m certainly not writing off Forte just yet.

This company has some very unique offerings and I’m excited to see how things shape up over the next year. With a strong initial rating of 4 stars, I’m comfortable telling you to go check them out or find a processor that better meets your needs! Let us know how it goes. Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to comment with your insights.

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