Helcim Review: Does Helcim Credit Card Processing Offer The Best Of All Worlds?
Helcim is one of the best merchant services providers out there for both Canadian merchants and US-based businesses.
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Expert Analyst & Reviewer
- 242 comments
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Advertiser Disclosure: Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity.
Helcim
| Total Rating | 5.0 |
|---|---|
| Features | Excellent |
| Fees & Rates | Excellent |
| Sales & Advertising Transparency | Excellent |
| Contract Length & Early Termination Fee | Excellent |
| Customer Service | Excellent |
| Reviews | Excellent |
Pros
- Exclusive interchange-plus processing rates
- No long-term contracts or early termination fees
- Extensive account fee disclosures
- Excellent customer support
- Processing costs decrease with business growth
- Accepts international payments
Cons
- Not suitable for high-risk industries
Helcim Merchant Services Overview
Helcim is a Canadian merchant services provider that also operates in the United States. Specializing in serving the small business community, the company offers exclusive interchange-plus pricing (otherwise known as cost-plus), month-to-month billing with no long-term contracts or early termination fees, a fully transparent pricing schedule, and consistently good customer service. It’s one of the very few providers that offers a full-service merchant account with no monthly account fee, making it a great choice for small businesses that might otherwise choose Square.
Helcim’s low fees and reasonable rates make it one of the cheapest options for small businesses looking to begin accepting credit cards. However, it does not accept high-risk merchants. If your business is high-risk, check out our article on the best high-risk merchant account providers for some suggested vendors.
For everyone else, Helcim scores an excellent 5 out of 5 stars and earns our highest recommendation. It’s a great option for small to medium-sized businesses looking for predictable interchange-plus pricing and a full range of features, including POS, mobile, and robust eCommerce solutions.
Read on for more information about what Helcim has to offer!
Table of Contents
Helcim Credit Card Processing Services & Features
Helcim provides a full range of merchant services to enable mobile, in-person, and eCommerce payments with its robust and comprehensive features, including:
- Merchant Accounts: Helcim is not a direct processor and instead partners with Elavon for processing services.
- International Payments: You can accept payments from anywhere in the world with built-in payment options, and you won’t have to deal with currency conversion. But be aware that international transactions come with cross-border fees, as set by the card payment brands.
Processing Hardware For Retail Businesses
- Card Reader: Helcim offers just one credit card terminal: the proprietary Helcim Card Reader. This small, multifunctional device can handle all of your in-person credit card processing needs. In addition to support for magstripe, EMV, and NFC-based payment methods (including Apple Pay and Google Pay), it can sync up with your smartphone, tablet, or laptop/desktop computer. It’s compatible with most of the recent versions of iOS, iPadOS, Android, Windows, and macOS and can connect via a USB cable, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi. This interoperability allows it to function as a fully-featured point of sale (POS) system, countertop terminal, or mobile card reader. It can also work in conjunction with a virtual terminal to accept card-present transactions. You can buy the Helcim Card Reader outright, with the option to add a stand and a receipt printer, for a reasonable price. Rental options are also available in Canada. Our one caution is that the Helcim Card Reader is powered by a rechargeable battery only, so we recommend keeping a charger handy for all-day in-store use.
- Point Of Sale (POS) System: Rather than selling you a clunky, full-sized point of sale (POS) system, Helcim lets you install its Helcim POS software on just about any device you’d like to use. Paired with the Helcim Card Reader for accepting card-present transactions, your business can enjoy full POS functionality without the expensive hardware and costly software subscription fees that come with most traditional POS systems. Software features include the following capabilities:
- Product/service catalog
- Accessing invoices
- Inventory tracking
- Built-in credit and debit card payments
- Unlimited invoice creation
- Custom fields, including drop-down menus
- Discount codes
- Automatic tax calculations
- Automatic email reminders for invoices due
- Virtual terminal for card-not-present sales
Of course, you’ll need to provide the hardware for this setup to work. You may or may not also need to invest in the optional cash drawer or barcode scanner.
- Mobile Payments: The Helcim Card Reader can also provide full mPOS capabilities. Simply install the Helcim Payments app on your iOS or Android device, sync it with the reader, and you’re ready to start taking payments.
Software For eCommerce Businesses
- Online Store: Helcim now offers a fully hosted online shop with customizable templates that you can adjust to fit your brand (e.g., brand colors and logo). You won’t pay extra for web hosting with this service, and you can add your existing inventory to your shop and any other pages to your site that you want (such as a blog). Additionally, you can add a shopping cart with discount codes, tax calculations, and shipping integrations — and the payment flow is built right in. Folks with existing websites can still use these features, but Helcim also offers advanced DNS services if you have more custom needs.
- Hosted Payment Pages: Helcim’s hosted payment page option lets you take payments on an existing site with no programming required. Helcim’s “payment page wizard” enables you to customize the template to add the fields you need, including recurring payments, invoice payments, customer registration, and shopping cart.
- Buy-Now Button: Whether you have a site or not, you can utilize a buy-now button anywhere on the web, including your website, blog, or email, through the hosted payment page feature.
- Online Food Ordering: With this feature, you can opt to have Helcim host your site or embed your menu and order form to your existing website. You’ll get the shopping cart, discount code feature, tax calculations, and tip recommendations. Helcim does offer a demo for this feature, so you can see how it works. Just like the online store, Food Ordering is customizable with branding colors and your logo.
- Helcim API: You’ll have access to development docs so that you can integrate payments and have customizable solutions for whatever you need, including your website, shopping cart, billing system, and application. You can take credit cards, debit cards, other tender transactions, batches, and settlements and have a fully secure card vault to store and charge your customers. You can use it with the features included in your Helcim account or like a traditional payment gateway API. In all, you’ll have 80 different API actions at your disposal.
- Helcim JavaScript: Helcim.js uses (CORS) AJAX (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) to tokenize and process credit cards or bank account information. Used with Helcim API, you can create a fully customizable web presence to take payments securely.
- Virtual Terminal: All Helcim Commerce plans include an integrated virtual terminal. This web-based application allows you to enter credit card transactions manually from any computer and is designed primarily for mail-order or telephone-order businesses. It also works well as a backup solution if your credit card terminal isn’t working correctly. Note that keyed-in payments cost you more to process, so this should only be used if it makes sense to do so as a card-not-present payment option.
Ancillary Services
- Fast & Easy Setup: You can sign up for an online account with Helcim in as little as five minutes. Underwriting to approve and activate your merchant account takes a little longer but usually occurs within 24 hours. While eCommerce businesses can begin accepting payments as soon as their account is approved, retail merchants will have to wait for their Helcim Card Reader to be delivered before they can get started.
- Product & Inventory Manager: This product is built into the Helcim Online Store and automatically syncs sales data across your sales channels. Reporting features are included and can be customized to provide the information you need to run your business.
Helcim Fees & Rates
| Monthly Card Processing Volume | In-Person Payments | Keyed & Online |
|---|---|---|
| Less than $25,000 | INT + 0.30% + $0.08 | INT + 0.50% + $0.25 |
| $25,001-$50,000 | INT + 0.25% + $0.07 | INT + 0.45% + $0.20 |
| $50,001-$100,000 | INT + 0.20% + $0.07 | INT + 0.40% + $0.20 |
| $100,001-$250,000 | INT + 0.18% + $0.06 | INT + 0.35% + $0.15 |
| $250,001-$1,000,000 | INT + 0.15% + $0.06 | INT + 0.30% + $0.15 |
| $1,000,001-$5,000,000 | INT + 0.12% + $0.05 | INT + 0.25% + $0.10 |
| $5,000,001+ | INT + 0.10% + $0.05 | INT + 0.20% + $0.10 |
One of the best things about Helcim’s rates for credit card processing is that every merchant — regardless of processing volume or history — is set up with an interchange-plus pricing plan. Many providers don’t offer interchange-plus at all, while others simply don’t advertise it. Discounted rates are also available for high-volume businesses.
Keep in mind that while interchange-plus pricing clearly separates the interchange rate that you’ll pay to the credit card associations and issuing banks from the markup you’ll pay to your provider, you’ll usually see a lot of variability in the interchange rates themselves, depending on the transaction type and card brand.
As with most providers, Helcim offers lower rates to businesses that have a higher monthly processing volume. This feature can save you a significant amount of money on your processing costs as your business grows.
Check out our article, The Complete Guide To Merchant Account & Credit Card Processing Fees, to understand payment processing costs.
Hardware & Software Costs
The only card terminal/reader currently offered is the Helcim Card Reader, which you can use as a countertop or mobile device. The Helcim Card Reader can also be used with a tablet, laptop, or desktop device to create a full-featured POS system. Helcim currently advertises the following costs for its equipment:
- Helcim Card Reader: $109 per unit (includes free countertop stand)
- ZJ-5809 Lightweight Thermal Printer: $79 per unit
The Helcim Card Reader is also compatible with the OtterBox uniVERSE Case System for tablets and phones (sold separately through OtterBox).
Additional Helcim Fees
Unlike most traditional providers, Helcim keeps your additional fees to a bare minimum. It’s eliminated most of the extraneous fees that other providers love to tack on to your bill, including the following:
- No account setup or application fees
- No monthly account fees
- No PCI compliance fees
- No statement fees
- No monthly minimums
- No early termination fees
Other incidental Helcim fees, some of which you may never encounter, are fully disclosed in your Merchant Agreement and on the company’s website. For example, if you incur a chargeback, you can expect to pay $0 to $15 depending on the outcome.
Helcim is one of the few providers we’ve found that will refund your chargeback fee if you prevail in the investigation. As a merchant, it’s a good idea to understand how to prevent a chargeback in the first place, so bookmark our post, How To Keep Your Payment Processor From Holding Funds Or Terminating Your Account: What Small Businesses Need To Know, for some helpful information.
While Helcim is a very transparent company, we always recommend that merchants read and understand their merchant services agreement to prevent misunderstandings and frustration. Your agreement discloses all fees, including ancillary charges that may come up under certain circumstances (e.g., chargeback fees).
Sales & Advertising Transparency
Before you even sign up for Helcim credit card processing, the company website gives full disclosures about pricing and contract terms, as well as what features your merchant account includes. The information presented on Helcim’s website is perhaps the most thorough and transparent explanation of merchant account pricing we’ve ever seen from a provider. For example, while a few other providers might disclose their interchange-plus processing rates for an entry-level plan, Helcim provides a detailed table of exactly what you’ll pay as your volume increases.
Additionally, we think Helcim’s sales team is a good example of how a business should set this part of the company up. It has a dedicated, full-time sales staff and doesn’t use independent agents. For merchants, this translates to a much more pleasant sales experience. You won’t have to worry about the high-pressure sales tactics and misleading claims that independent agents frequently resort to. We haven’t seen any criticism of the company’s sales practices, but we have seen several positive comments from satisfied merchants.
Helcim also has a thriving social media presence, with regularly updated accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. These accounts mostly distribute material from the company’s blog and feature numerous educational articles that will help you gain a more in-depth understanding of how credit card processing works. The company also has a YouTube channel, which currently features over 200 tutorials and educational videos.
Contract Length & Early Termination Fee
All Helcim merchant accounts feature true month-to-month billing, with no early termination fees or other penalties for closing your account. All you need to do is provide 30 days’ notice, and your account will be closed. This is a much better and more flexible arrangement than the industry standard. Most providers will lock you into a three-year contract that comes with an automatic renewal clause and an early termination fee (typically several hundred dollars) if you close your account before your contract expires.
Because these long-term contracts and cancellation penalties are so unpopular, there is a growing trend within the processing industry to do away with them. While some of the more honest providers (such as Helcim) will eliminate both the multi-year contract term and the early termination fee, most providers will agree to waive the cancellation fee — if you negotiate this waiver when you set up your account. However, this arrangement is not a true month-to-month contract, as you’re still on the hook for the full three years. While you won’t be hit with a penalty if you close your account early, we’ve seen plenty of complaints where merchants continued to be billed for monthly account fees long after they thought they had closed their accounts.
You won’t have these kinds of problems with Helcim credit card processing, and it’s good to see that the company is leading the trend towards true month-to-month billing within the industry. Nonetheless, we encourage you to read your contract very carefully before signing up. Pay close attention to the account closure instructions, which you’ll want to follow to the letter to close your account without any problems.
Helcim Customer Service & Technical Support
Helcim offers 24/7 telephone and email support, and merchants’ feedback indicates that the quality of that support is generally excellent. One word of caution: While you’re likely to talk to an in-house customer service representative during business hours, off-hours support is usually outsourced. Consequently, you can expect better help with technical issues if you call during regular business hours. Email support is excellent and also fast. You should expect to receive a response in less than 24 hours.
The company also provides one of the most extensive, easy to search, and detailed online knowledgebases we’ve seen. If you have any questions about Helcim merchant services, you can click on a category and find what you need or do a general search by topic. We love that this part of the site is full of documentation and tutorials for setting up your countertop terminals, using the Helcim Virtual Terminal, running the mobile processing app, and other services. If you’re new to Helcim credit card processing and are having trouble getting everything up and running, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to solve your problem using the knowledgebase.
Helcim Merchant Services Reviews
Negative Helcim Reviews & Complaints
Helcim has been accredited by the BBB since 2014 and currently has an A+ rating. There has been only one complaint filed against the company within the past three years — a trend that has continued over several of our annual review updates. Feedback from merchants on other review sites has likewise been overwhelmingly positive. Here’s a summary of what we found for Helcim merchant services reviews:
- Trustpilot: 4.3/5 stars (97 reviews)
- G2: 4.4/5 stars (13 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 stars (19 reviews)
Overall, we didn’t see any issues that came up repeatedly enough to indicate a problem. As to the few merchants who had a less-than-perfect experience, Helcim responded to every complaint and offered to resolve the issue.
We did see a few complaints from merchants who either weren’t approved for an account or had difficulties with the “fast & easy” account setup process. As we’ve noted, Helcim does not accept high-risk merchants. However, even low-risk merchants have to go through an underwriting process that is controlled by the company’s backend processor (in this case, Elavon). Issues such as a low personal credit score on the part of the business owner can create unexpected problems in getting an account approved, but this process isn’t entirely under Helcim’s control.
We also saw a complaint or two claiming that the Helcim Card Reader wasn’t easy to use. However, Helcim provides full technical support and training for this proprietary product, so merchants should be able to resolve any problems relatively quickly.
Positive Helcim Reviews & Testimonials
As the majority of Helcim reviews indicate, users are generally quite happy with the level of service they’ve received. Business owners praise the company’s customer service and transparent rates across the board. Helcim also has fully attributed testimonials on its website, which is somewhat rare and a great indication of its trustworthiness.
As noted above, feedback on Helcim from popular consumer review sites is mostly positive, with the majority of users giving the company a 5-star rating. If you’ve had any experience with Helcim — good or bad — please consider leaving a review in the Comments section below. Thanks!
Final Verdict On Helcim Credit Card Processing
Finding a good merchant account provider can be a huge challenge for a small business owner due to the many variables to consider when estimating what your costs will be with any provider. The payment processing industry also has a well-deserved bad reputation for dishonest sales practices, high costs, onerous long-term contracts, and poor customer support, making it even more difficult to choose a good provider.
With Helcim, won’t have to worry about these problems. The company has some of the most transparent disclosures in the industry, with all rates and fees published on its website. With a 400% growth in sales in just the past year, Helcim is proof that honesty and transparency can lead to success, even in the highly competitive payments processing industry.
Overall, Helcim rates a solid 5 out of 5 stars.
It’s the best merchant services provider for Canadian merchants and one of the best options for US-based businesses as well. If you’ve had any personal experience with Helcim credit card processing, let us know how your experience has been so far — we’d love to hear from you. Also, if you want to continue exploring your options, check out our review of another 5-star merchant account provider, KIS Payments.
Frank Kehl
Expert Analyst & Reviewer at Merchant Maverick
Frank Kehl has been researching and analyzing merchant services, payment gateways, and international money transfer services since 2015. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Penn State and a Juris Doctorate from the Ventura College of Law.
View Frank Kehl's professional experience on LinkedIn.
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The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆
Helcim |
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After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Helcim for yourself.
The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆
Helcim |
|---|
After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Helcim for yourself.
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Hello,
I was wondering if you could provide some insight. I’m an online Canadian service vendor that uses monthly recurring subscription billing. I signed up with Helcim, however their in-house system seems to be awful for subscriptions. Their API is pretty incomplete for this part, and they don’t have a very good management for subscriptions out of the box.
I also looked at KIS as merchant maverick recommends, however, they’re a reseller rather than the actual processor, and none of their choices seems to have anything out of the box for subscriptions either.
Do you have any suggestions for a well priced processor in Canada that does a good job at handling subscription management and recurring billing?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Scarlet!
Neither Helcim nor KIS Payments are direct processors, although this won’t affect the quality of service you receive. In fact, these companies typically offer lower prices and much better service than the large direct processors. For a better alternative for recurring billing, Stripe and Authorize.Net are both good options and are available in Canada. You can compare them here. Best of luck to you!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Went with Helcim after this glowing review back in 2019… wish I hadn’t. When they were using their ‘legacy’ system it was good. Their in-house system is terrible. In-person transactions are very slow to process, and time-out frequently, usually during busy times. The merchant hardware is awful – screen is too small (very difficult for customers to read, get at least one complaint a day!), the F-buttons that were required for making selections (they have updated so the actual number buttons can be used in their place) are next to impossible to press (have to use a fingernail or the edge of your credit/debit card). Had to put tape over the bottom front of the unit, as customers would try to insert their card and it would go between the bottom of the unit and stand (that’s a Incognito design flaw). They take their fees out of each batch, not a one time monthly bill, so my bookkeeper *loves* the extra work! And support is lackluster at best, I have never received a response to an online or email support request within 24 hours, ever! My latest follow up today Feb 2 is for a request submitted Jan 13! If you like good pricing, terrible hardware, lackluster performance and lacking support, Helcim is for you!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Helcim
Hello Kevin,
Providing a better payment experience is very important to us – we take feedback seriously and work hard to continually update and improve our merchant’s experience. We apologize for the delay in responding to your January 13th feature request, that is not the experience we strive to provide.
We have many merchants using our service and hardware successfully, and we have been working hard to continually improve the experience. However, we can understand how these updates can be frustrating at times. We appreciate your feedback regarding your customer’s user experience and are incorporating it into our future hardware decisions. We are reviewing the activity on your account, seeing what we can do to help.
Kind regards,
The Helcim Team
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Landsvest
The pricing you show for Helcim is stated as Helcim margins. What is the actual credit card fee charged to a User for volume in excess of $5 Million per month with an average transaction of $1,500 ?
Also for debit cards.
Thanks
BP
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Barry,
There is going to be variability and we can’t calculate the final cost. Unlike a flat-rate system, where the processor’s profits may change and your final cost is consistent, the interchange-plus system is different. In this case, Helcim’s profit is consistent, while the merchant’s cost depends on what the interchange rate is for the transaction. The interchange rate is set by the card brands across the board and varies. We have written a post that helps make sense of interchange rates. I hope that helps!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Metareal Inc.
As a Canadian company, we initially chose Helcim because they’re Canadian, because of the transparent cost structure, and because the platform offers fairly comprehensive subscription management. Unfortunately, although the visual design is clean and elegant, the actual UX of the Helcim portal has turned out to be quite idiosyncratic and rife with bugs, a situation further compounded by the slow, lackadaisical attitude of the support team, who sometimes take several days to respond, and when they do, are often unable to offer any concrete advice or firm ETAs for resolutions to urgent problems.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Helcim
Hello Gareth,
Providing a better payment experience is very important to us – we take feedback seriously and work hard to continually update and improve our merchant’s experience. We understand your frustration that recent updates have disrupted your payments. However, we do have many merchants using our software and subscription payments successfully. It looks like you have been working closely with several members of our support team and our CEO Nicolas to resolve your concerns. We continue to work on addressing the feedback you have submitted to our team and we will work directly with you to improve your payment experience.
Kind regards,
The Helcim Team
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Just signed up a merchant account with Helcim. The application process was user friendly and seamless. I was amazed how quickly I was approved. The rates are great, and the people are very friendly and easy to work with.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Online Navigation Service
We are a small business setup in India offering website navigation services, we are not very familiar with the merchant account and debit/credit card processing mechanism. Nevertheless, payments from some of our overseas customers decline at checkout of our payment gateway. Can Helcim help?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Dipjoy,
I’d actually suggest taking a look at Durango for international/offshore processing.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Pulp Fiction Coffee House
May we have your general assessment of Digitech verses Helcim
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Max,
Unfortunately, we haven’t yet reviewed Digitech, so we can’t give our assessment one way or the other.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: PureLocal Australia
I would recommend avoiding Helcim and using a trusted merchant like Paypal or Stripe. We currently use Paypal and the onboarding process was simple. We joined Helcim because of the customizable forms however since the outset their staff send contradictory emails. One email states the account is active , the other staffmember emails that the account is closed. They have our business documents which were uploaded and I hope they’re deleted. Before trying Helcim , try Paypal or Stripe as they do not waste your time.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Pablo, Stripe and Paypal are much more expensive than Helcim or any other interchange + plus provider. If I had a problem with Helcim, I would just choose another highly rated interchange + plus provider like National Processing or a flat fee option like Payment Depot. Why pay 2.9% when you can pay much less.
Debit cards really expose the difference. Interchange for most debit cards is 0.05%. Paypal and Stripe are making a killing off of their customers by charging 2.9% on those transactions.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.