Merchant One Review
We don't recommend this provider due to its high, deceptive pricing and poor customer service. Keep on reading to find out more.
Merchant One
Total Rating | 2.0 |
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Fees & Rates2.0 | |
Products & Services2.8 | |
Contract1.6 | |
Sales & Advertising Transparency1.8 | |
Customer Service1.8 | |
User Reviews2.4 |
Merchant One At A Glance
- Mid-size merchant services provider offering full lineup of Clover POS products
- Tiered & interchange pricing available (though tiered pricing is incentivized)
- Contract may include early termination fee & various other fees
Pros
- Offers full lineup of Clover terminals and POS systems
- Interchange-plus pricing available
- No automatic renewal clause
Cons
- Tiered pricing offered
- Standard three-year contract
- Expensive early termination fee
- Early termination fee may include liquidated damages
- Extensive use of independent sales agents
- Numerous deceptive advertising practices
- Consistent reports of very poor customer service
Table of Contents
What Is Merchant One?
Merchant One, a merchant services provider, is an independent sales organization (ISO) of several much larger direct processors, including Fiserv (formerly First Data), Vantiv (now FIS Worldpay), and Elavon. With a little over 100,000 customers, the company qualifies as a mid-sized provider.
As a Fiserv reseller, Merchant One offers a complete lineup of the popular Clover credit card terminals, mobile card readers, and point of sale (POS) systems. However, we don’t recommend this provider due to its high, deceptive pricing and poor customer service; your business would be better served by any of these best credit card processing companies.
Products & Services
Products & Services2.8 |
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Software & Services 4.0 |
Hardware & Equipment 1.6 |
Merchant One offers a wide variety of hardware, software, and services — all of which are third-party products that the company re-sells. While the Merchant One website provides hardly any information about these products, product specifications are readily available on the internet from the actual manufacturers. Merchant One earned an OK score from us in the Products & Services department but lost some points due to its expensive, restrictive hardware pricing, and for not providing as good of a value as competing vendors.
Here’s an overview of what’s available by way of Merchant One credit card processing:
- Merchant Accounts: Merchant One is a reseller for Fiserv (formerly First Data), FIS Worldpay, and Elavon. Which back-end processor you’ll be assigned to will probably depend on your choice of hardware. For example, if you want a Clover terminal or POS system, you should expect to be set up with Fiserv. You should also note that none of these processors will work with high-risk merchants.
- Credit Card Terminals: Merchant One currently advertises four “basic” credit card terminals: the Pax S80, Pax S500, VeriFone VX520, and Fiserv FD-130 models. All four models support EMV and NFC-based payments. Also, except for the Pax S500, they’re all available for “Free*.” Like many other merchant services providers today, Merchant One has a terminal placement program that will include one “free” terminal with your new merchant account. It’s important to understand that these terminals are not really free. Any company making this offer will require you to return the terminal immediately if you shut down your account and will charge you the full (and often inflated) price of the equipment if it’s not returned promptly. Merchant One goes one step further and charges merchants $35-$40 per month (about the same as a terminal lease payment) for its supposedly “free” hardware. The only difference between this practice and a traditional terminal lease is that you won’t be saddled with a four-year, noncancelable lease contract that includes an acceleration clause requiring you to pay all of the remaining monthly lease payments if you break your lease. More advanced terminals, such as the Clover Flex, are not included in the terminal placement program.
- Point Of Sale (POS) Systems: As a Fiserv reseller, it’s no surprise that Merchant One offers the complete lineup of Clover POS systems, including the full-featured Clover Station and the smaller Clover Mini. As with advanced credit card terminals, these systems are not available through the company’s terminal placement program, so you’ll most likely have to buy them outright. Merchant One doesn’t list prices for this equipment on its website, suggesting that the company may indeed be offering them through ironclad leasing arrangements — despite its “flexible leases” pledge. For an idea of how much you should expect to pay for a Clover POS, check out our complete guide to Clover pricing.
- Mobile Payments: Completely portable processing systems are very popular today, particularly for businesses that need to take payments in the field. Merchant One offers the Clover Go, the Magtek ADynamo, the BBPOS Chipper, and the Swift B250 SwipeSimple — all of which work with iOS and Android devices. Merchant One’s website does not disclose any pricing information for these models.
- Payment Gateway: Merchant One advertises a payment gateway, which includes a virtual terminal for manually keying in transactions. However, it’s unclear whether it’s offering its proprietary gateway or a white-label version of another third-party gateway, such as Authorize.Net. The gateway includes the standard features you’d expect, including a customer database, support for recurring billing, QuickBooks integration, and a customizable API. The gateway can also integrate with over 175 popular online shopping carts.
- eCheck/ACH Processing: The Merchant One website briefly mentions “check processing services,” but it offers no details. It will probably set you up with Fiserv’s Telecheck service. Expect to pay an additional monthly fee for this service, as it’s not included with a basic merchant account.
- Next-Day Funding: Following another recent trend in the payments industry, Merchant One now offers next day funding, which is supposed to ensure that funds from your transactions are deposited into your account within 24 hours of being submitted. Unfortunately, there are many complaints from merchants who signed up for this service that their deposits still arrived two to three days late. More disturbingly, we’ve also found complaints from merchants who were signed up for this service without their knowledge by unscrupulous sales agents. Naturally, there’s an extra (undisclosed) fee for next-day funding.
Fees & Rates
Fees & Rates2.0 |
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Pricing 2.0 |
Affordability 2.0 |
Merchant One offers both tiered pricing and interchange pricing; the lowest price you might be charged is 0.29% but on most transactions, you’ll be charged a lot more. We rank Merchant One pretty low in this category for its expensive rates and misleading pricing disclosures, though it did earn back a couple points for offering interchange pricing (at least, in theory).
Merchant One uses a quote-based pricing system. For a long time, it didn’t disclose any pricing information on its website. The company now includes a small chart (see below) that, in many ways, is more misleading and dishonest than offering no pricing information at all. Here’s what you’ll currently find on the Merchant One website:
Wondering about that asterisk? Here’s what we found:
*Rates above are for qualifying rates. For full rates, fees, and terms please refer to your merchant processing agreement. Executed merchant processing agreement overrides above fee table.
You might be curious about how well these claims stack up against the experiences of actual merchants who’ve used Merchant One as their provider. Unfortunately, it appears that every claim on this chart is either downright false or only applies in certain specific situations. Let’s break down some of these claims:
- Qualified Rates As Low As 0.29%: Technically, this claim is probably true, but it’s also extremely misleading. While 0.29% probably represents the lowest possible rate, it will only be available to very high-volume merchants and certain types of PIN debit transactions. Low-volume merchants will pay much higher rates than these. The use of the term “qualified” also indicates that Merchant One uses the overpriced tiered pricing model in most cases.
- Low ($13.95) Monthly Fee: This claim is actually true. However, it’s also apparent from merchant reports that Merchant One will tack on as many additional monthly and annual fees as possible. So while your monthly account fee might be low, the total cost of maintaining your account will be much higher.
- Interchange-Plus Pricing Available: This is also true. However, you will almost certainly be offered an initial pricing quote that uses the more expensive tiered pricing model, so you’ll have to negotiate aggressively if you want the transparency and lower overall costs of the interchange-plus model.
Other fees that Merchant One doesn’t talk about, but you can expect to have to pay, include the following:
- Merchants report being charged an early termination fee (ETF) of at least $295 — and often much more.
- Annual account fee ($99+ per year)
- Monthly minimum (typically $25 per month)
- PCI non-compliance fee ($25 per month for every month that your account is out of compliance)
- Gateway fee (typically $25 per month for eCommerce merchants)
Our best advice here is to read your merchant agreement very thoroughly before you sign up for an account. You’ll want to be clear about every rate and fee you’ll be responsible for, and you simply cannot rely on a sales representative to disclose this information fully. You should also check out our complete guide to merchant account rates and fees, so you’ll understand what these fees are for and when you might have to pay them.
Sales & Advertising Transparency
Sales & Advertising Transparency1.8 |
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Sales Practices 1.6 |
Web Presence 2.0 |
Merchant One’s website has a professional appearance and is quite easy to navigate. Unfortunately, that’s because it offers very little in the way of actual content. You also won’t find pricing information, except for the misleading rates we’ve discussed above. Details about the Clover product lineup are also sparse, although you can easily find this information on other websites.
Like many other merchant services providers, Merchant One appears to rely heavily on independent sales agents to market its accounts. Granted, this is a real cost-saver for the company (independent agents are usually paid on a commission-only basis), but it frequently results in a very unsatisfying sales experience for the merchant. While there are some very experienced and ethical independent agents working in the industry, your odds of finding one are not good. It’s much more likely that you’ll find yourself working with someone who hasn’t been adequately trained on the company’s services, prices, and contracts and is just looking to sign you up as quickly as possible and get their commission.
Beware of promises that seem too good to be true, and insist on taking the time to read your entire contract before you agree to sign anything. See our Comments section below for some examples of how badly things can go wrong when working with independent agents.
Like most providers these days, Merchant One has a presence on social media, with accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Unfortunately, content is very sparse, and most of these accounts haven’t been updated in years. The company’s Facebook page appears to be used primarily to re-broadcast its positive reviews on Trustpilot.
Due to the company’s lack of/misleading pricing disclosures and its use of independent sales agents, we did not award Merchant One a very high score for its Sales & Advertising Transparency.
Contract Length & Early Termination Fee
Contract1.6 |
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Commitment 0.6 |
ETF & Other Fees 2.6 |
Merchant One used to claim not to charge an early termination fee (ETF) on its website but has since removed this language, probably because this claim was very misleading at best and downright false in many cases. While it is possible to get an account with no long-term contract and no ETF, you’ll have to either forego the offer of a “free” terminal (which isn’t really free anyway) or negotiate aggressively for a waiver of the ETF. For these reasons, Merchant One did not garner a very high score from us in this area.
Merchant One follows an increasingly common trend within the processing industry of offering merchants a choice between free hardware or flexible contract terms. Unfortunately, this choice isn’t explained very well either on the company’s website or by its sales agents. (The sales agents earn an extra commission if a merchant accepts the “free” terminal and, thus, are very motivated to encourage this option.)
If you choose the free equipment option, you will have to sign an agreement with a standard initial term of three years. One unique aspect of the company’s contracts is that they do not include an automatic renewal clause, which would ordinarily extend your contract for successive one-year periods at the end of the initial term. While this is a nice feature, Merchant One knows full well that if you’re still satisfied with its service after three years, you’re unlikely to go through the hassle of switching providers after that.
Although the company does its best to keep you in the dark about your actual contract terms, those terms are clearly spelled out in the Merchant One Terms and Conditions (Program Guide), which we highly encourage you to review before signing up. Here’s the relevant clause:
If this Agreement is terminated by either party for any reason before the end of the then-current term… you will immediately pay us, as a termination fee, the greater of (i) $295.00 for each year remaining in the then-current term or (ii) the fees (net of Association charges) we would have received based on the average monthly transaction volume during the highest 12 month period prior to termination (annualized in the event such period is less than 12 months) (or the fee we should have received, based on your representations in the Application, if greater) during the months remaining in the then-current term but for such termination.
Application of this provision could potentially cost you as much as $885 or possibly even more if you have a very high-volume business. Your best protection against this kind of provision (other than signing up with a different provider that uses true month-to-month billing and doesn’t charge an ETF) is negotiating a waiver of this clause. While it’s very unlikely that Merchant One will waive this clause if you accept the “free” terminal offer, you should be able to get a waiver if you purchase your equipment outright. Just be sure to get it in writing in case you’re “accidentally” charged the fee later on.
Customer Service & Technical Support
Customer Service1.8 |
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Personal Support 1.5 |
Self-Service 2.0 |
Merchant One advertises 24/7 support via phone and email. Despite this, many merchants report receiving very poor customer service. Previously, the site featured a small FAQ page, but even this seems to have disappeared. The lack of even a rudimentary knowledgebase is troubling. Also, be aware that you’ll likely have to deal with Fiserv’s customer support during non-business hours and with Clover directly for any technical issues.
Providing a more personal customer service experience is one potential advantage that small ISOs such as Merchant One have over the huge direct processors that they work with. Unfortunately, the company hasn’t capitalized on this by putting adequate resources into this aspect of its business. Like far too many other merchant services providers, customers are pretty much on their own after they’ve signed up and are locked into their contracts. The only good news here is that if you have a technical issue with any of the company’s Clover products, plenty of self-help resources are available elsewhere on the web.
Merchant One Support | Availability |
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Phone Support | |
Email Support | |
Support Tickets | |
Live Chat | |
Dedicated Support Representative | |
Knowledge Base or Help Center | |
Videos & Tutorials | |
Company Blog | |
Social Media |
We’ve also seen more recent complaints from merchants who were completely unable to contact the company’s customer service department during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that customer service is almost totally conducted by telephone and over the internet these days, there’s simply no excuse for this kind of failure.
For all of these reasons, we gave Merchant One a fairly low score in the area of Customer Service & Technical Support.
User Reviews
User Reviews2.4 |
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Customer Feedback 1.0 |
Review Site Aggregate 3.0 |
Overall, we gave Merchant One an OK score in the category of User Reviews, as the company has received both glowing reviews as well as numerous complaints online. However, it’s possible (and likely) that many of the positive reviews were solicited by the company.
Negative Merchant One Reviews & Complaints
Merchant One has been accredited by the BBB since 2010, and it currently has an A+ rating. The company has had 58 complaints in the last three years, 21 of which were filed within the previous twelve months. These numbers represent a notable uptick in complaint volume since our last review update in July 2020.
Merchant One has answered most of these complaints, but the majority of them have not been resolved satisfactorily. In fact, responses from company representatives were some of the rudest and most unprofessional that we’ve seen. The company appears to have a policy of strictly enforcing the terms of its contracts, even when it’s clear that a merchant was lied to by their sales agent.
There are also 47 customer reviews posted with an average rating of 3.04 out of 5 stars. However, if you look closely at the reviews themselves, it’s clear that most reviews are either 5-star or 1-star, with very few in between. It’s also pretty evident that many of the 5-star reviews sound like the company’s marketing department could have written them.
Negative Merchant One reviews on the BBB and other consumer-protection websites indicate the following common problems:
- Poor Customer Service: Like far too many other merchant services providers, the quality of customer service drops dramatically as soon as the ink is dry on your contract. Many merchants reported that the customer service representatives they talked to tended to be rude, even when there was an admitted mistake on Merchant One’s part. Customer service appears to have disappeared entirely during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving merchants on their own to resolve any problems with their accounts.
- Undisclosed Early Termination Fee: We’ve discussed this fee in detail above in the Contract Length & Early Termination Fee section and even shown you where to find it in your contract. However, many merchants report that this fee was never disclosed to them by their sales agent during the signup process. Like it or not, it’s ultimately your responsibility to review your contract thoroughly before you sign up for an account. You simply cannot rely on your sales agent to disclose every aspect of your agreement — ever.
- “Hidden” Fees: Again, we found plenty of complaints from merchants about being charged “hidden” or unexpected fees after their accounts were activated and they started processing transactions. While your sales agent should disclose all the major fees that you’re responsible for, you cannot rely on them to actually do this for you. All recurring and incidental fees are disclosed in your contract (although often buried in pages of fine print), so review all contract documents thoroughly to prevent being surprised later on.
Positive Merchant One Reviews & Testimonials
On the company’s home page, you’ll find a section that links to Merchant One credit card processing reviews on Trustpilot. This initially appears quite impressive, as the company has a rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars, based on 3,231 reviews. However, if you navigate over to the Trustpilot website itself, it readily becomes apparent that nearly all of the 5-star reviews are labeled as “verified,” meaning that the reviewer was automatically invited to write a review following their experience with Merchant One.
In other words, they’re not spontaneous reviews posted by genuinely happy customers who were so thrilled with their service that they independently took it upon themselves to post a glowing review of the company. Many of these reviews are barely a single sentence in length, and many call out the customer’s sales agent by name — a clear sign that they were nudged into posting a review by Merchant One.
Now, any company is well within its rights to request a review from its customers. In fact, several of the 1-star reviews of Merchant One on Trustpilot were also solicited by the company. However, it does seem pretty clear that Merchant One is trying to drown out the complaints by burying them under a mountain of low-value positive reviews. In particular, we note that many of the positive reviews appear to have been written by merchants who had only recently signed up for the company’s services.
Unfortunately, the honeymoon tends to wear off pretty quickly when it comes to merchant services, and we don’t feel that there’s any real value in a review left by a merchant who’s only been using a provider’s services for just a few weeks. If you need help distinguishing fake reviews from genuine ones, our article on how to spot fake reviews can help.
Final Verdict
As you’ve probably guessed, our best advice is to run — not walk — away from Merchant One. While the company’s lineup of Clover products, availability of interchange-plus pricing, and lack of an automatic renewal clause are all positive features, they don’t come close to compensating for deceptive sales practices. A merchant account with Merchant One will almost inevitably be much more expensive and difficult to get out of than what you’ll be led to believe during the sales process.
If you’re looking for Clover products, there are many other Clover providers that can offer you this popular hardware brand for less money overall. Likewise, the company’s low monthly account fee won’t save you any money after you’ve paid all the other fees that it charges but doesn’t tell you about beforehand. If you’re looking to save money on credit card processing, check out our article on the cheapest credit card processing companies.
Merchant One ultimately receives a below-average score of just 2 out of 5 stars. Don’t be fooled by all those glowing Trustpilot reviews into thinking that this is a top-notch company — it’s not. Although it’s not the worst provider we’ve found, there are plenty of better alternatives on the market these days.
If you’re looking for a reputable provider that offers the full line of Clover products and services and features completely transparent pricing disclosures, honest sales practices, and high-quality customer service, we highly recommend that you take a look at Dharma Merchant Services. You can also check out our other merchant account reviews for an overview of the best merchant service providers in the industry.
Credit Card Processor Review Methodology
We evaluate and test each payment processor that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on certain key characteristics in order to generate our granular ratings for merchant accounts and credit card processors.
For payment processing reviews, we use a 24-point rubric to evaluate the provider. First, we look at pricing structure – interchange plus, subscription-based, tiered, or hybrid – giving the most points to providers that provide fair, transparent pricing and docking those that rely on tiered models. Then we examine rates, the presence and transparency of early termination fees, and any additional fees.
We also look at contract length and fairness and test out sales staff and customer service channels ourselves to ensure that the company uses reputable, above-the-board sales techniques. Finally, we take the company’s online reputation into account, reading customer reviews and comments.
Read more about how we rate payment processors.
We've done in-depth research on each and confidently recommend them.
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