North American Bancard Review
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- Date Established
- 1992
- Location
- Troy, MI
Pros
- Month-to-month contracts available
- EMV-compliant mobile card reader available
Cons
- Numerous misleading advertising claims
- Extensive use of independent sales agents
- Free terminal offer requires long-term contract
- Early termination fee based on liquidated damages
- Poor customer service and support
Overview
Originally founded in 1992, North American Bancard (NAB) is a merchant services provider headquartered in Troy, Michigan (a suburb of Detroit). The company has experienced steady growth over its 26 years in business, currently serving over 250,000 merchants and processing over $34 billion worth of transactions annually. Although it’s a very large company in its own right, NAB relies on First Data (see our review) and Global Payments (see our review) for credit card processing services. Everything else, including customer support and equipment, is handled by NAB or one of its subsidiaries.
As the company has grown, it’s bought out other, smaller providers along the way. Its most recent acquisition is Total Merchant Services (see our review), which it acquired in 2017. Today, North American Bancard has over 1,000 employees and more than 3,000 independent sales agents who sell the company’s services throughout the United States. Unfortunately, these independent agents are also a major source of complaints against the company. We’ve seen countless horror stories from merchants whose independent agents misled them, failed to disclose important contract terms, or outright lied to them about the terms and conditions of their merchant accounts. Independent agents are often hired with little or no sales experience, are given inadequate training, and then sent out to sink or swim with little support from the provider. Often paid on a commission-only basis, these agents suffer a high turnover rate and rarely provide merchants with any support after the sale.
NAB’s contracts can be confusing, and we encourage you to review the terms of your agreement thoroughly before signing up. The company now advertises month-to-month agreements with no early termination fee (ETF). However, it’s clear from the continuing stream of complaints that at least some merchants are still being signed up for a standard three-year contract that includes a particularly expensive ETF. It appears that merchants who accept the company’s offer of a “free” terminal will have to agree to a three-year contract, but this isn’t always the case. In any event, what they call “month-to-month billing” appears to be merely a standard contract with a waiver of the early termination fee. This waiver requires a separate, signed addendum to your contract. You’ll definitely want to keep a copy of this waiver, as we’ve seen reports of merchants who were inadvertently charged an ETF despite having an exemption.
At the same time, NAB has experienced a dramatic drop in merchant complaints within the last two years. While there are still quite a few complaints, it’s no longer an unusually high amount in relation to the number of merchants they serve. We have to attribute this decrease to the relaxed contract terms, as there don’t appear to be any other significant changes in their products, services, or pricing that would account for it.
For now, we’re awarding North American Bancard a very average rating of 3 out of 5 stars. While it’s nice to see that they’re following the industry trend of moving away from long-term contracts and dropping the early termination fee, the company still suffers from a significant lack of transparency regarding its fees and pricing structure. They’re also continuing to use several highly misleading sales gimmicks, which we’ll explain below. If you have a medium-sized or larger business and are experienced at negotiating with sales agents, you might very well be able to get a good deal with NAB. While they’re nowhere near being the best provider on the market, you’ll have more leverage to negotiate favorable contract terms and lower processing rates. Small business owners, on the other hand, should steer clear of NAB. You’ll end up overpaying for processing services and might – despite the company’s advertising claims – end up in a long-term contract with a very hefty penalty if you try to cancel. Instead, check out our Merchant Account Comparison Chart for a survey of the best 5-star providers we’ve found.
Table of Contents
Products & Services
North American Bancard offers all the standard features you would expect from a large merchant services provider. While they provide services to support eCommerce merchants, it’s clear from their advertising that their primary focus is on the retail sector. Here’s an overview of what they have to offer:
- Merchant accounts: As noted above, NAB uses both First Data (see our review) and Global Payments (see our review) as their backend processors. You’ll want to be clear as to which processor is servicing your account, as you might have to contact them in the event of a transaction processing issue. All other customer service issues will be handled by NAB.
- Credit card terminals: The company offers a variety of terminals, including models that support both EMV (chip) and NFC-based payment methods such as Apple Pay or Google Pay. These terminals are prominently advertised as being “free,” but you can rest assured that they’re not going to give you a $200+ terminal with no strings attached. At best, you’ll receive one terminal and be allowed to use it as long as you maintain your merchant account with NAB. At worst, “free” means there’s no upfront cost, but you’ll be signed up for a ridiculously expensive terminal lease. You might also have to agree to a standard three-year contract in exchange for your “free” equipment. We highly recommend that you purchase your equipment outright, either through NAB or a third party. In the latter case, you’ll need to pay a reprogramming fee to have the appropriate software load installed on your terminal.
- Mobile payments: NAB uses PayAnywhere (see our review) as their mobile processing solution, although you’ll still see some advertising for their now-discontinued Phone Swipe system on their website. PayAnywhere runs on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, and uses a Bluetooth-enabled card reader that can accept magstripe, EMV, and NFC-based payments methods. Processing rates start at 1.69% under the Standard plan (which also includes a monthly fee) or 2.69% for the Pay-As-You-Go plan (which doesn’t have a monthly fee). Pricing for the card reader is not disclosed. Check out the PayAnywhere User Agreement for more details.
- Point-of-sale (POS) system: The company offers the PayAnywhere Storefront POS system, which includes the PayAnywhere app, a 10” tablet with a stand, and a card reader. NAB advertises this as a “free” feature on their website, but you can be guaranteed that it’s not really free. At best, you might be able to “borrow” this system at no cost for as long as you keep your merchant account open, but you’ll have to return it promptly if you close your account. You’ll also probably have to agree to a three-year contract (with a hefty early termination fee). Check the fine print on this offer very carefully before you sign up.
- Payment gateway: While North American Bancard appears to gear their services mainly toward the retail sector, they also offer some support for eCommerce merchants as well. Their proprietary payment gateway is provided by Inovio, now an NAB subsidiary. It includes all the standard features you’d expect, including online reporting, recurring billing support, multi-currency support, automated chargeback mitigation features, and security features that include both tokenization and encryption. I wasn’t impressed by their claim that their gateway features “military grade” encryption. This term is both misleading and meaningless, and they don’t elaborate on it or offer any specifics. Unfortunately, it’s part of a broad pattern of deceptive advertising and misleading claims that runs throughout NAB’s marketing efforts.
- Virtual terminal: NAB also offers the Inovio Virtual Point-of-Sale (VPOS) virtual terminal, which is web-based and won’t require any software to download or install on your computer. Transactions can be entered manually or swiped/dipped with an optional card reader.
- Reporting and analytics: Your merchant account from NAB comes with access to MyBizPerks Insights, a web-based analytics tool that can help you monitor your business. While it’s advertised as a free feature, numerous complaints from merchants indicate that it’s only free for the first 60 days after you open your account. After that, you’ll be automatically charged a monthly fee for this service.
- Merchant cash advances: NAB offers loans of up to $500,000 through Rapid Capital Funding. These kinds of loans can be very tempting, especially for a small business that’s just getting started. However, they’re not always a good deal, and sometimes can seriously harm your business. If you’re considering a cash advance, check out our article How to Get a Good Deal On a Cash Advance Loan first before signing up.
Fees & Rates
North American Bancard discloses almost no information about account fees or processing rates on their website. The one concrete number you will see is a claim that rates are “as low as 0.29%.” Although this partial rate quote (the per-transaction charge is not mentioned) is repeated in numerous places on the company’s website, you should pay no attention to it. Like many merchant account providers, NAB has a mix of tiered and interchange-plus pricing plans available, and your monthly processing volume is the most significant factor in determining which rate plan you’ll receive. Put simply, the more you process each month, the lower the rates you could qualify for. Smaller businesses that process a few thousand dollars a month will end up paying the highest rates, while only large businesses that process hundreds of thousands of dollars (or even more) a month will qualify for the lowest rate. So, you can safely assume that the 0.29% rate quoted will only be available to the largest businesses. Even then, it probably only applies to certain debit card transactions, as rates for credit cards are usually much higher. Remember that a merchant services provider is never going to charge you less than the interchange rate for any transaction, as they have to pay that portion of the processing charge to the credit card associations before they can take their markup.
I’m particularly disappointed – but not surprised – that NAB doesn’t discuss tiered or interchange-plus pricing anywhere on their website. This in itself is a good indication that the company prefers to saddle unsuspecting merchants with a tiered pricing plan, which is generally more expensive than the interchange-plus alternative. How do you know that you’re being offered a tiered plan? Look for separate rates quoted as qualified, mid-qualified, and non-qualified. Sometimes sales agents will try to fool you by only quoting the qualified rate, which is much lower than the other two. Unfortunately, most transactions these days will fall into either the mid-qualified or non-qualified tiers, and those rates will be two or even three times higher than the qualified ones. Our best recommendation is to insist on an interchange-plus pricing plan when negotiating the details of your merchant account contract. While the actual interchange rates themselves are very complicated, you’ll be able to see the markup your processor is taking for each transaction very clearly.
If you’re just using the PayAnywhere mobile payments system, you’ll be under a flat-rate pricing system that is disclosed in the FAQ of the PayAnywhere website. Pricing is as follows:
Pay-As-You-Go Plan
- 69% per transaction for card-present transactions
- 49% + $0.19 per transaction for card-not-present transactions
- No monthly fee ($3.99 per month inactivity fee if you don’t process any transactions for over twelve months)
- Recommended for merchants processing less than $10,000 per month
Standard Plan
- 69% per transaction for card-present transactions
- 69% per transaction for commercial or rewards cards
- 69% + $0.19 per transaction for card-not-present transactions
- $12.95 monthly basic service fee
- $3.99 per month inactivity fee if you don’t process any transactions for over twelve months
- $79.00 per month minimum volume fee if monthly credit card sales are at or below $5,000
- Recommended for merchants processing over $10,000 per month, but less than $30,000 per month
If you process over $30,000 per month, you’ll have to contact a sales representative for a custom pricing quote.
Contract Length & Early Termination Fee
North American Bancard touts the availability of month-to-month billing with no early termination fee throughout their website. This is a fairly recent change, as they previously had an industry-standard contract with a three-year term, an automatic renewal clause for one-year periods after that, and an early termination fee (ETF). The ETF was particularly egregious, as you would essentially have to pay the monthly fees for every month remaining in your contract, with a minimum charge of $295. This is essentially a liquidated damages clause, something you want to avoid if at all possible.
Despite the advertised change in contract terms, we were able to find numerous complaints from merchants who were charged a high ETF when they tried to close their account. While these complaints have tapered off over the past year or two, they’re still coming in. NAB doesn’t disclose its contract terms, but we believe that what they’re doing is offering a waiver of the ETF to merchants who don’t take advantage of their “free” equipment offer. If you buy your own equipment or already have a compatible terminal, you can get a waiver to the ETF. If you want to have a terminal provided for your use, you’ll need to sign up for the full three years and be subject to the ETF if you close your account early.
If you do obtain a waiver to the ETF clause in your contract, be sure to keep a copy of it for your records. Providers have a way of “losing” these waivers when it comes time for you to close your account, and you’ll need it to prove that you’re not subject to the ETF. Also, don’t confuse this arrangement for true month-to-month billing. If only the ETF is waived, you’ll still be legally obligated to maintain your account for three years, even if the termination penalty has been removed. We’ve seen many complaints from merchants who continued to be charged monthly fees for months (or even years) after they had closed their accounts.
One nice unadvertised feature of NAB’s contracts is that they will generally release you from your contract with no penalty if you cancel within the first 45 days of service and return all equipment promptly. While actually taking advantage of this policy might not always go smoothly, it’s still a better proposition than most providers offer.
Unless otherwise stated in your contract, you’ll have to provide 90 days’ notice to cancel your account. This is significantly longer than most providers require, and much more than the 30 days’ notice requirement of a true month-to-month billing arrangement.
Sales & Advertising Transparency
North American Bancard actually has two websites: a main North American Bancard site for their merchant services, and a North American Bancard Holdings site that provides information about the company’s network of subsidiaries. While the latter site is not aimed at merchants, you can still find some useful information about services such as the Inovio payment gateway.
Overall, I’m not impressed with NAB’s main website. The first thing you’ll see on their home page are these three claims:
- Rates as low as 0.29%
- Free EMV and NFC equipment
- No long-term contracts
As we’ve discussed above, all three of these claims are highly misleading. The rate quote is only available to the largest businesses, and even then, it will only apply to a very small number of transactions. The “free” equipment and “no long-term” contracts claims are essentially mutually exclusive. You can have one of these features, but not both of them at the same time.
Unfortunately, the rest of the website isn’t much better. While NAB does reveal more information about their products and services, they don’t offer much in the way of specifics. They also repeat the same misleading claims found on the home page throughout the site. Remember the old adage: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Beyond the website, the sales experience at NAB has even more serious problems. As we’ve noted above, the company has over 1,000 employees, but maintains a sales force of over 3,000 independent agents. Why would a company need to have three times as many sales agents as they do employees? This fact alone suggests that they’re far more interested in selling new accounts than they are in maintaining good relationships with their existing customers. Independent agents – not just at NAB, but throughout the processing industry – have a terrible reputation for being poorly trained before being sent out to look for customers. They also receive little or no supervision from their company, meaning that dishonest or unethical sales practices are rarely corrected. Usually working on a commission-only basis, independent agents are under intense pressure to set up new accounts, and they’ll often say just about anything to get you to sign up for a merchant account. Our best advice is never to trust anything promised to you by an independent agent. Get everything in writing and insist on reviewing every word of your contract before you decide to sign up for an account.
NAB has a robust social media presence, with accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. They also have a YouTube channel and several videos uploaded to Vimeo. While the Facebook and Twitter accounts mostly mirror content posted on their blog, the YouTube and Vimeo content is a little more useful. Besides the usual sales pitches, you’ll find testimonials from satisfied customers and some helpful tutorials.
Customer Service & Technical Support
NAB offers customer support through both telephone and email. They’ve also recently added a live chat feature. Telephone support is available 24/7/365, and you should receive a response to email inquiries within 24 hours. Note that they have separate phone numbers for customer support and tech support, so be sure to call the appropriate number based on the type of problem you’re experiencing.
Unfortunately, we haven’t found a lot of positive feedback regarding the quality of customer support at NAB. As with most processors, the helpfulness of the company’s customer support representatives often depends on the nature of your problem. Technical problems tend to receive much better support than angry customers complaining about an account freeze or trying to cancel their accounts.
Negative Reviews & Complaints
North American Bancard has been accredited by the BBB since 2001, and currently has an A+ rating. This might come as a bit of a surprise, given that the company has 136 complaints filed within the last three years, 30 of which were filed within the last twelve months. However, this is not an unusually high complaint volume for an organization that serves over 250,000 merchants. We’re more concerned with the fact that only 17 of those complaints were resolved to the merchant’s satisfaction. We also note that 33 out of 36 reviews left by merchants were negative. Nonetheless, NAB does appear to respond to every merchant complaint, even if their track record of resolving issues is pretty spotty.
We’d also note that this complaint volume represents a significant decrease from our previous review update, when NAB had 200 complaints filed against it. In the year before that, the complaint volume stood at 244, so there’s definitely a downward trend in BBB complaints. We attribute this decrease primarily to the recent availability of month-to-month contracts with no early termination fee. While this provision comes with strings attached, and not all merchants will be able to take advantage of it, it’s a step in the right direction and follows a trend within the processing industry to move away from unpopular long-term contracts.
We also found an additional 80 complaints on Ripoff Report, although many of them are duplicates of complaints filed with the BBB. While this represents a slight increase in complaints from our last review update (74 complaints), remember that Ripoff Report never takes down complaints. Many of these complaints date back several years, and the number of recent complaints has tapered off.
Common issues in merchant complaints include the following:
- High early termination fee: Although NAB now waives their early termination fee (ETF) for merchants who don’t need a free terminal or POS system, there are still many merchants who are liable for this fee. While some are merchants who have been with the company for many years and signed up before the waiver became available, others have been the victims of independent agents who falsely assured them that they wouldn’t have to pay an ETF. As always, we strongly advise you to review your contract documents thoroughly before signing up for an account. Never rely on the verbal assurances of a sales agent, independent or otherwise.
- Undisclosed PCI compliance fee: Most providers charge a PCI compliance fee, either as an annual fee, a monthly fee, or bundled in with your monthly account maintenance fee. Although NAB only charges $79 per year for PCI compliance (the industry average is around $99 per year), this fee has nonetheless come as an unpleasant surprise to some merchants. Again, review your contract documents and don’t rely on your agent to disclose this or any other fees. Also, be sure your provider is actually offering valuable services such as security scans or data breach insurance in exchange for this fee.
- Automatic sign-up with MyBizPerks: This additional service is advertised as being free with your merchant account, but it only means you won’t be billed for the first 60 days. After that, you’ll automatically be charged $10.00 per month unless you contact NAB to cancel it. This kind of charge is easy to miss unless you get in the habit of carefully reviewing your merchant account statement every month – which you obviously should do.
- Difficulty closing account: This complaint seems to come up with every provider that waives your early termination fee rather than putting you on a true month-to-month billing contract. Merchants think they’ve provided adequate notice and filled out all the necessary paperwork to close their accounts, only to find that they’re still being billed for monthly fees long after they’ve stopped using their account. This issue currently seems to be affecting many merchants who were customers of Total Merchant Services (see our review), which NAB acquired in 2017.
Positive Reviews & Testimonials
We found two positive reviews of NAB on their BBB profile, although neither offers any useful information. This isn’t that surprising, as the BBB and other consumer protection websites are designed specifically to collect negative information about businesses, not positive reviews.
The company’s YouTube channel and Vimeo videos also include some fairly useful testimonials from actual customers. While they’re a little scripted, they still come across as genuine. Unsurprisingly, most of the positive testimonials come from business owners in the greater Detroit area.
Final Verdict
Overall, I’m simply not impressed by North American Bancard. While you could get a good deal on processing with them under the right conditions, the odds are that you won’t. Their underlying products and services are quite good, but most merchants will probably end up paying more than necessary to access them.
While the company’s extensive use of pricey tiered rate plans is a big strike against them, their sales and marketing tactics are their biggest weakness. Their website is littered with just about every misleading sales gimmick in the book, and their reliance on independent sales agents all but guarantees that you’ll end up with a deal that’s far less attractive than what you were expecting. With promises of unrealistically low rates that you’ll never see, free equipment that isn’t really free, and a month-to-month billing provision that you might not qualify for, NAB usually delivers a lot less than what they promise.
I’m particularly concerned with the fact that the company’s independent sales agents outnumber its actual employees by a 3:1 ratio. This fact says a lot about where NAB’s efforts are really focused (hint: it’s not on serving their current customers). It also suggests that they’re relying on a “hiring mill” strategy, where agents are brought on without regard to education or previous sales experience and then sent out with little training to try their hand at selling accounts. With this kind of poor preparation, most agents will be unsuccessful and will end up leaving the company in short order – only to be replaced by someone else with the same lack of qualifications and training.
At the same time, I’m pleased to see that NAB has dropped their expensive early termination fee (ETF), even if this offer does come with some strings attached. If you’re tempted by this feature, be sure to buy your own equipment and keep a copy of your ETF waiver. Also, don’t confuse a lack of an ETF with an actual month-to-month billing arrangement. True month-to-month billing provisions include an initial term of just one month, with the contract automatically renewed for one-month periods after that. You can cancel your contract at any time with no penalty upon giving 30 days’ notice.
Overall, North American Bancard earns a very average 3 out of 5 stars. While this may seem like a high rating for a provider with such significant problems, it’s mainly a reflection of the fact that the “industry average” in the processing business isn’t that great. If you own a large, successful business and are comfortable negotiating your own terms, you can probably get a good deal (and low processing rates) with a company like NAB. Smaller businesses with less leverage and more vulnerability to high account fees should probably steer well clear of NAB and other large providers like them. For a quick comparison of some of our best 5-star providers that are actually a good deal for small business owners, check out our Merchant Account Comparison Chart.
Frank Kehl
Frank Kehl has been writing about 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. After a long and enjoyable career of traveling around the world as an Air Force navigator, he’s comfortably settled down in the wine country town of Paso Robles in California’s scenic Central Coast region. He enjoys reading, photography, hiking, and numerous other outdoor pursuits.
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Organization Name: JJ Industries of Conn., INC.
Absolutely horrible company! I would never do business with them again! I have been trying to cancel my account since 10/24/18 and it is 5/8/20. I can cancel but with lots of fees and they conveniently don’t get back to me until our contract has been auto renewed. I originally wanted to cancel because the portal I had to use was not as good as my previous portal. I would advise anyone looking at using them, that unless you plan to be with them for the rest of your existence, then don’t sign their contracts!!
Absolutely, the worst. I’ve been fighting with them for over a week trying to get my system to process credit cards, a week! At first they said it would take 2 days for it to update and start working again, 5 days later – still nothing. I’ve been on the phone with them for hours at a time, excuse after excuse. Now they want me to call the credit card companies (Visa, Master Card and American Express) and set up new accounts. Then everything is set up and working on their side, it’s their sister company that has caused the problem. Or, the account number was put in wrong, when I suggested they just put it in correctly (whatever that means) the guy said they can’t because that’s not how it works. Well, excuse me sir, but typically when you forget to put in the complete account number, you just go back and type in the correct number. Simple as that. And through all this nonsense I’m still not able to process a single credit card.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: T&T's Auction
MID2115842 TMS# 10885192 8 years i’ve been with this service and never a problem that took this long. 10 days an no analyst has looked at my bank statements yet, i continue to get the same excuse everyday i call for an update, on 11/13, 11/14 and 11/15. I was told on 11/14 an even assured i would have an update on 11/15. still nothing just the same excuses i cannot be in business with a company that continues to do this. i will post this complaint daily on every social media page, review site, blog, news, bbb, anything until i receive a phone call, an apology and my funds, I will not process another payment with you folks. -T. Shaw
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I was transferred as a customer to North American Bancard through CareCredit. They have the worst customer service. I called 5 times in 10 days to resolve one issue, getting into their portal. After several hours on the phone trying to resolve my issue. The tech services consultant, Floyd, told me he cant see everything on their end to alter a communication email setting. The tech staff is not properly trained to resolve issues. The portal is not easy to pull detailed reports or information. The information about the credit card processing fees is complex. After several hours on the phone and time wasted, I am ready to give up and move to another merchant services provider. If you are looking for a good merchant services provider, I would not recommend this company. If I could give them zero stars, I would.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Community Commerce Partners LLC
Is there a -0- Start rating? Should be.I was introduced to this company by a independent agent and I felt I was done a disservice.Terribly run system for merchant processing.Firsty, they took almost 2 months to “approve” me Because I was a “consultant”. I never had more than a day for approval from any other company.2nd- their Virtual Terminal may be the worst terminal portal Ive ever seen.Difficult to maneuver, data was either unavailable or incomplete most of the time and invoicing was unwieldy.Lastly, the held funds for about 4 months with out warning or a legitimate reason why. No notification or any communication. At this point I would rather not even take CC payments then have to deal with a company like this again.My advice is NOT use an independent agent or broker for merchant services but go through your payroll company like Paychex or even through your bank.You re going to pay through the nose for processing no matter how you slice it, but at least you can get better service or attention
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Formyflex
My company had the sour experience of dealing with North American credit card processing services and one of it’s agents: Sekure. Despite having offered them ALL preliminary information about our company’s background and 100% export sales activity, their poor experience to offer international card processing transactions resulted in unnecessary delays, excessive inquiries on int’l transactions and inadequate and/or inefficient procedures to properly validate our (merchant) impeccable record. The above conditions resulted in their unexpected decision to close our account only after 6 months of opening it–without justification, charge-back, customer complaint, or cause whatsoever. Even worst, they pushed their small letter policy about holding funds from pre-approved sales transactions for 180 days after closing our account. Their risk department has the worst human resource training, evidnece of this was a call from one of their representatives who had absolutely no experience in dealing with int’l (only) businesses. Worst customer service experience my business have had In our 25 years history.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: fashion nails and spa
North American Bancard is a rip-off. Don’t ever sign up with North American Bancard. The two Man are Horrible, They were stolen our terminal. We were paying incredibly high fees, fees that were undisclosed (such as non-compliance fees) and statements that were impossible to understand. The industry as a whole is about as shady as it gets by completely baffling people with their idiotic interchange fees, discount fees, minimum transaction fees, it’s complete chaos and that’s what they want. Since you don’t understand it, they charge what they want to charge, increase the fees when they see fit. It’s incredible! We tried to cancel their services, sent back their credit card machines and they continued to charge us fees (i.e non-compliance, minimum transaction, machine lease) for over a year!! Their explanation was that we didn’t cancel our contract in writing even though we notified our account rep to close our account. I guess it’s a legal way to steal from people. Stay away from North American Bancard!!!!!!!!!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Coblentz Equipment LTD
THE SAME HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE !!! THEY ARE DAY LIGHT THIEVES!! RUN AND SUE THEM!! NO PROMISE EVER KEPT FROM NORTH AMERICAN BANK CARD!!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: ECO NATURAL
This is one of the worst experiences ever. Customer service it’s clueless. Supervisor??? Manager??? I had a transaction rejected by my bank back to the credit card vendedor North American Bancard and they cannot find the money. They don’t know what to do but research it’s been a month and still I’m tossed from one extension to another no answer no clue. Aren’t bank regulated by the federal government? This is wrong using small business money with such disrespect.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: fashion nails and spa
Hello.
How are you?
Please help me how to get out or cancel from North American Bancard.
Thank you.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Elegant Salon
Hello Kavin,
Hope you were able to cancel the service with NAB by now. If you still stuck with their service, please email me and I will walk you through.
W/r
Brian
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Danephanie Enterprises, LLC
Don’t use this company unless you’re OK with being ripped off. We sold our company and this bank would not close our account unless we gave them $525! Or we could keep the account open (even though we no longer have a business) and they would charge us $30/month for the next 18 months! Classic big bank taking advantage of a small company. What a joke; run from this company!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Segur Automotive and Performance
These guys are horrible. Every day around 4pm. you cant process. it can literally take 15 or 20 tries. For a period of time I was blaming my phone company, but after trying for 25 min today, I called the number on my machine and as soon as it answered it hung up immediately several times in a row. i got a different number online and after a long hold wait someone answered and said that they were aware of the issue and when it happens I should wait an hour and reboot my machine and try again. WHAT? Do these people think customers are going to just chill and hang out for a couple hours so that they can maybe buy something. I am so done with this outfit.Jeff segur
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Segurs Auto
Update: After several phone conversations with North American. We did begin processing over the internet as opposed to dedicated line. Be aware that this greatly increases tour PCI compliance requirements if you don’t have a dedicated service just for processing. But it has speeded up processing greatly. If you are only using a phone line for processing, it is painful. It just got to the point that for the good of the business, and our customers sanity, we had to process via internet.
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North American Bancard is a rip-off. Our company used them for a number of years and ultimately decided to move our business elsewhere when communication with them started to be a complete hassle. We were paying incredibly high fees, fees that were undisclosed (such as non-compliance fees) and statements that were impossible to understand. The industry as a whole is about as shady as it gets by completely baffling people with their idiotic interchange fees, discount fees, minimum transaction fees, it’s complete chaos and that’s what they want. Since you don’t understand it, they charge what they want to charge, increase the fees when they see fit. It’s incredible! We tried to cancel their services, sent back their credit card machines and they continued to charge us fees (i.e non-compliance, minimum transaction, machine lease) for over a year!! Their explanation was that we didn’t cancel our contract in writing even though we notified our account rep to close our account. I guess it’s a legal way to steal from people. Stay away from North American Bancard!!!!!!!!!
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I have had this company as my credit card processor for 3 years. When I signed up, there was no monthly fee and everything was straight forward. What I missed in the fine print was North American could change that and begin charging monthly and yearly fees, which they did. It only got worse as they began charging me quarterly fees for PCI compliance, while I did all the work to meet the compliance, requiring hours long sessions answering security questions. Even right down to the end when I finally could get out of my contract, they managed to charge me one more annual fee. This is hands down the worst business experience I have ever had with a credit card processor . I could never recommend this company. Run away from them and never look back!!!!
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All i can tell you is that when they call you said that there is a good rate, no commitment or monthly fee, Please dont believe them they will charge you fee. when they offer to send you a credit card terminal dont except it because they will charge you for monthly fee also. dont give them your bank information period. I paid $66.92 monthly which i dont know what is the charge for until 4/25/2017 found out from my customer instead. So to all the people that want to use the credit card machine better just to go direct to the bank. Dont be fool like me.
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Organization Name: fashion nails and spa
Please tell me how to cancel with them. Thank you,
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I have had nothing but issues with sekurmerchants and north american bancard. I have been in retail sales for over 30 years. I have dealt with merchants services and credit card companies. Never ever have I had the issues that I’ve had with both these companies. Never have I had to provide bank statements for credit card processing. North american bancard cost me a $3100.00 sale. I received an authorization. The next day, represntative from bancard called and said they will not process the card because I my business doesn’t have enough activity in my bank account. What the hell does that have anything to do with it and depends on the time of year. Needless to say they would not give me the money from the charge. When you call bancard you get a different excuse. They told me the charge was not processed and the charge was cancelled. That being said, why is the charge appear on my customer’s statement. Bancard told me their charge with “fall off” in about 5-7 days. It has been a nightmare. I would never ever recommend this bank and sekurmerchants.
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I am being approached by Sekure Merchant Solutions, it seems like they are a broker for North American Bancard? Extremely pushy sales people. What are your thoughts on going through a broker like this? They claim very low rates, but it just seems to good to be true. I would appreciate any feedback on this. Sekure Merchant Solutions has to be making money here somehow? Thoughts?
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Hi Kris,
I would not recommend going with Sekure Merchant Solutions, your chances of all sorts of hidden fees and an extremely binding contract are high. I would recommend checking out one of our top processors. I hope this helps and if you need further help, please don’t hesitate to let me know.
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Organization Name: Formyflex
You are absolutely right!, Sekure Merchant Solutions is nothing but one of NA brokers who makes false promises while delivering nothing in return. Once they open the account you are pretty much left at the scrutiny of North Bancard isk department, a department that lacks absolute training on customer relations and HR
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There are numerous “players” when it comes to credit card processing depending on how many middlemen are involved. Do your homework and find out how to kick out as many of the middlemen as you can. They will confuse you to the point where you can’t compare their fees to any competitor. They will tell you that they can save you all this money since their fees are lower than a competitor’s fees. However, they don’t tell you that some of their fees are actually higher than a competitor’s. You have to understand there a gazillion types of fees in the credit card processing industry (i.e. interchange fees, transaction fees, administrative fees, account fees, terminal fees, discount fees etc.) Quite honestly if you spent the time to do the research to compare companies from a cost perspective, they would all be about the same in terms of total cost. So the main thing to look at is dependability, ease of use, service, communication, disclosures. Don’t fall for their price trap. They all do it. They will all ask you for your last monthly statement from your current provider. Don’t waste your time!
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do not work with this company. they are slow, they will charge you for anything. terrible customer service. they dont even listen you to understand your problem.They charged me $1100 because I did not return terminals I used ( Which I did not know where and when to return). I sent them back its been 3 days they received terminals but still did note refund. . I am going to update.
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If you return their terminal and make sure you have a tracking # like anything of value else, they will refund you the money. I am an agent and they do this all the time. They refund back the money, but make sure to have a tracking No.
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My business that used NAB has been closed since 10-01-14. I called at the end of September 2014 to cancel services. My account had been getting charged all the way until December 2015. During that 14 months I called multiple times to cancel and all I got was the run around. The closest I ever got was them saying they would send me a cancellation email when I received the email it was not a cancellation email it was some sort of survey. I decided to contact my banks fraud department, but they were unable to do anything as NAB changes the amount charged and the name it is charged under each month (don’t forget I haven’t used the service in over a year and this charge ranged from $20-$250). The bank recommend closing the account so that is what I did along with sending NAB an email saying to stop charging my account because I am no longer in business and haven’t used their services in over a year. I thought this would resolve the issue but last night 3-07-16 I received an email from a collection agency saying I owe NAB $297 and some change because In NAB “strong opinion I have violated their trust”. I really don’t know what to do at this point. Please if you work for this company help me get this taken care of so I can finally get away from these charges.
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Joshua my condolences! You have to send them a cancelation letter in the mail… you really have to go by exactly what they say in their User Guide. I would send it certified US mail so you have a signed recipe showing they received it. Just Google “merchant cancellation form letter” if you don’t want to come up with one on your own. Also you should have received written emailed notes about each of your phone conversations with them… what they were going to send you etc. If you are in a 3 year contract and you have an monthly minimum they will for sure bill you for it until you cancel in writing. Once you cancel they will probably try to bill you the lump sum of the remaining months of the contract… that is what my Users Guide says. I had an issue recently (last week) where they tried to start charging me for their “My Biz Perks Program” Gold plan $9.95 but I opted out on my original application. To be fair I had been using their online My Biz Perks System to get my statements but I hadn’t been getting paper statement so this was my only option. I called them to get the charge reversed. They said they would credit my account $10 on next month statement and also change my, My Biz Perks from “Gold” to their “Silver” plan which is free so I can still view my statement online. After the phone call, like alway they emailed detailed notes about our phone conversation and what they were going to do for me. I also received a followup email confirming the $10 credit on my next statement. I really hate how I have to be so on top of them but for the last 6 month I have been with them I have been impress with their customer service. I was previously with them a few years ago and went through the cancelation process but sent my cancellation by mail with no issues… but I was no longer in a contract. I really have a love hate thing with NAB. Your issue aside, I think 90% of the issues people have with NAB is because of 3rd party sellers that blatantly lie about what you will be getting from NAB. My issue this time around through a 3rd party company is; they promised me there would be no monthly minimum but there is and I get charged for it every month… I ask specifically about it and they said it wouldn’t apply to me (3rd party seller not NAB.)I think NAB has a long way to go to become a 5 star rated company but are making some progress.
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Our office received a new credit card processing machine that could handle the new cards with chips. We were not charged for it. My staff was never informed to send the old one back. In fact, when asked what to do with the old machine, we were told we could through it out. Months later, We received a surprise deduction of about $900 from our checking account. When we inquired as to what the charge was for, we were told that it was for not returning the old machine. We should return it and we would be refunded the $ to our account. Thankfully, we held on to the old machine and promptly returned it. After checking with our bank several weeks after we knew they received it, our account had not been refunded. When we inquired with as to why, we were told a form had to be completed and returned as well. We recently received an email stating the money should be in our account in 5-10 days, after having to check about the refund when we didn’t receive it after returning the additional form. My business has used NABancard for years, yeah we’ve seen the typical sleazy corporate stuff, like automatically signing you up for more expensive plans with monthly fees etc. , but for the most part we were pleased with them. No longer.
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Thank you for the thorough review! To little to late for me but thank you! I have been with many different credit card merchant companies and mostly have been unhappy or felt like I was screwed over. I have been with NAB for 6 months but was with them before so I already pretty much knew what I was getting. The rate looked so good I couldn’t pass it by and thought I had covered myself at every angle. I thought I had made sure everything was all good this time around but still didn’t get it right. I didn’t know about the special page for the No Cancelation Charge. Maybe if I had asked for that I wouldn’t have received such a great rate though…? I am on their Interchange Passthrough + system but with 0 basis point! I do believe because I have been doing this so long and playing all the companies off each other I got my rates down this low. I do cost comparison with other companies all the time. I don’t think NAB would offer this to any new company that couldn’t already show the low rates they were getting and the volume they would be processing… not that volume would make much of a difference in my case since I pay a flat $25 over cost. They did hit me with the $25 min. fee so because I’m not paying any basis points I always pay the $25, which can be a good thing depending on what my volume is (last year 18k month.) The 3rd party sales person (Secure Merchants) told me this fee wouldn’t apply to me but it does; I didn’t get it in the contract or in writing though! Their undisclosed PCI fee is major… it isn’t even in their Program Guide (and I read it.) There is also another fee “Regulatory Fee” $99, charged annually that also isn’t in their Program Guide or on their application. This review does say you should probably get your own machine and not get one for free from NAB but I disagree. It isn’t a lease (unless it is, make sure!!! I got screws with another company $3600+ later) and the last time I canceled with them I returned the machine with no added fees or problems (I was very meticulous to do it right… certified mail.) It does say in the Program Guide you have to return the machine but you do get to use it for free; unless of course it says you have to pay for it on your merchant app (mine doesn’t.) A positive; NAB can fund AMX transactions and is saving me money doing it. AMX normally was charging me 3.5% but through NAB I am now only being charged 2.41%. My initial assessment from Secure Merchant Solutions(3rd party) for NAB said I would be paying 2.49%. I’ll take it!Last positive amongst all the possible negatives. I was using authorize.net as a gateway to process payments for my website and was paying about $15 month (flat rate plus a per transaction amount I think) but with NAB they setup a new authorize.net account for me and I only pay a flat $5 month.I do have a recommendation for anyone trying to get out of a contract… Cancel due to “increases in fees”… just wait until they give you notice there will be an increase in fees… constantly happens, then give them notice within 20 days in writing; with most providers this is the loophole for no cancelation fee. I would guess there must be some law about not being able to raise rates on a person in a contract without them being able to then get out of the contract fee and clear.Funny side note; the last time I canceled with NAB I used the cancelation form they gave me to cancel with the previous provider against them too… I used a copy of it for the other company but kept a copy on file! After all is said and done I still think I may be getting a good deal from NAB even after the $25 min. fee, the $79 PCI fee and the $99 Regulatory Fee but it sure isn’t as good of a deal as I originally thought it was.
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Closed “no early termination” account 10/15 after 2 years (opened 1/13), and was charged a $385 early termination fee, as well as MBF Leasing has taken an extra couple months of leasing fees of $28.50 for equipment they acknowledge as retuned. Hours of calls to get to a live person.
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Beware of North American Bancard, Global Payments and Wholesale Processing club. I called to cancel my account on Aug 25. I was told I had to return the terminal and a termination statement by mail. The terminal belonged to the company I worked at. I had no responsibility with it. Needless to say I returned both to avoid the fee they threatened me with. I also put a stop payment on Global so they couldn’t take a malicious fee out of my account. The other people I work with have continued to have fees taken from their account months after a count closure. I hadn’t because of the stop payment up until they took a fee out under a unknown to me company name Bancard. Up until this point I have never heard of Bancard. When I called Bancard about the fee I spoke with Mr.Hall. He admitted that they went under a different company name to withdraw money from my account. He said I owed them more money but would not tell me how much or send a statement. He was disrespectful and rude. Now. They should have received my letter to terminate by September 10th. They have up to 30 days to close the account. I haven’t used their service since July 12th. In August they charged me. September should have been the last charge if they continue to charge without the use of the account. This man told me I still owe money. They took 72.99 from my account for September. They received my cancellation by September 10th. I would like to know why and how much money I supposedly owe them but I don’t because the man I spoke with would not cooperate with me and wanted to yell at me. If anyone is planning on filing a lawsuit against this company please include me and email me at tracysalonwparkside@gmail.com.
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Great Article. Thanks for the info. Does anyone know where I can find a Cancellation form?
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I am thankful that I found this article and comments prior to signing with NAB. I will most likely be keeping our current Merchant Service provider but I do have a question — NAB sells credit card terminals outright, are there any negative transactions in regards to simply just purchasing a terminal from their company? It would save our company about $300 compared to what our provider is charging. Thank you so much for any feedback!
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Be weary of this company. Without notification and without receiving equipment from this company – somehow they got my bank account information and withdrew $499.75 without my permission. It took several days to track down who was withdrawing monies. After submitting a forgery affidavit with the bank officer notarizing it stating I did NOT open nor authorize them to steal my money. Even after proving it was not me, I have yet to receive my money back. Truly amazing how a bank can commit LARCENY and not think much about it. Now today, I had to complete another form requesting them to stop stealing my money and they would put in the request. They best not try and withdraw any more of my money.
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UPDATE: Be VERY careful with this company, North American Bancard- somehow this company received my banking information and without my permission STOLE $499.75 from me. Today they called and stated no worries they will no longer charged me nor make me pay a cancellation fee nor charge me for their equipment they said they mailed of which I never received. All in all their Risk Management Department stated since they had my banking information (even without my SSN nor my legal name) they have a right to keep my money. It took 3 days to find their contact information in order to ask why they think they had LEGAL justification for taking money out of my checking account without permission. Even after I faxed a forgery affidavit and still they refuse to return my $499.75. They never emailed me, nor did they check to see if I received their equipment, nor did they call or email to see why I wasn’t taking payments from clients. If a person had done this he/she would be charged with LARCENY. I have already filed a complaint with the BBB and will be contacting the U.S. Attorney General and other law enforcement agencies about their illegal tactics along with informing others of this company’s questionable business practices.
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Less than 1 star. Please never sign with North American Bancard, its the worst company i have ever dealt with. never let the sales people go into your company to offer their services, they are the biggest liars in the industry. they will try to sell their services saying “No Contract and No cancellation fee” do not trust them! When i called to cancel the service, because it was a lot of hidden fees, and obviously more expensive than the other company we had, the representative told me that we can not cancel because we have a contract, i had told them we never signed any contract with your company, he told me that we did have one and I asked him to send me a copy because we don’t have anything in our files. He sent me a bunch of papers via E-mail. supposedly it was a contract with no signature. Now I have a $395.00 fee per cancellation or pay $40.00 monthly per three years, or my credit score will be affected by them. Moral of the story: If You need any kind of services for your business, do not trust on companies that knock your door, go by your self and look what you need by your own.
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North American Bankcard is the WORST company to deal with. I signed up through Office Max because my daughter was working there. I was NOT made aware of their 3 year contract or early termination fees. I cancelled my service with this company in October of 2014 and they are STILL TAKING MONEY OUT OF MY ACCOUNT! I called to complain and was told I would receive my refund within 4 days. That was a blatant LIE and I still have not received my money back. I would rate this company as a big ripoff, on a scale from 1 to 10 I’d say it’s a -10
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We have a small company and were recently contacted by a company seeking our credit processing business . everything sounded good-fees-equipment-terms . so I decided maybe I should check it out to see if there were any issues or complaints I should be aware of . The company that I was researching was not the one in this review , but may be somehow be affiliated . I was surprised to find that there are resources like yours to get information regarding credit processing companies . I appreciate your service and feel better informed of what to look for . we have been in business for 30years ,and still learning . THANK YOU .
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Do not do business with this company. In July 2011 I signed an agreement with NAB which was operating as Payprotec. In Nov. 2011 I called and told the Sales rep. that I was going to have to close my business. He sent me the documents to stop their services which I signed and sent back to him. He said he would take care of it. This would have give them the 60 day notice they required. Now launch forward to 2015 I am shocked when I start getting collection calls from a 3rd party collection company and now it is on my credit report as a unpaid debt. So I contact the company (as my sales reps phone number no longer goes to him) about the issue and I am wondering how this could have gone on for so long with out contacting me. I did sign an individual guaranty which had my personal contact info on there. I had closed the business and I was told they attempted to collect through my former business address. They never contacted me through my personal information that was on the form. They say that they never received the signed documents and that I still owed them the fees, but it had been turned over to 3rd party collections and I had to deal with them. Do not bother contacting the BBB of Detroit & Eastern Michigan as it appears they work for their client. I put in a complaint wanting to speak to a senior person in their collections department. I received a phone call from an analyst that I could tell was just speaking pretty much from a script.
I could not talk to anyone in collections to find out why or how this went this long and this far without contacting me at my personal number. They responded to the complaint in writing after I got off the phone with her. I rebutted their response and it did not take long for the BBB of Detroit & Eastern Michigan to send me this response The Bureau has judged that this complaint has been adequately resolved. So my rebuttal did not even get back to NAB. Go figure. I ensured that I closed my business owing one any monies and all customers were taken care of. ALL I CAN SAY IS BEWARE OF THIS COMPANY.
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NEVER, NEVER, NEVER do business with this company. They have complete lack of transparency with fees and charges (I have never once received an invoice or statement to explain the seemingly random charges they put through my account), disappear when you try to follow up on issues, and have no compunction about bald-faced lying. Seriously, run the other way. The only way they are ‘doing something right’ is by luring people into scam contracts and then coming up with all sorts of ever-changing requirements to terminate. If I could give them negative ten stars, I would. You might as well take thousands of dollars and send it right to NA Bancard because once you give them access to your account (for ‘deposits’) they will simply start taking money from you and good luck getting your bank to block it…the amount is different every month making this impossible, apparently.
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I filled out an application with them in May 4th but canceled in 23 days. Per agreement I had 30 days to cancel. Which I did. I still have signed letter emailed to the sales person on May 27th. I receive early termination fee of 1195 debited from my account in December 9th. I emailed them the letter that I sent to the sales person (on May 27). They are not refunding the charges. They are claiming that they have an agreement!!!! There was no services provided, nothing was set up. I just filled the application and they had my bank information.
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After 11 years and years of suffering, I couldn’t take it no more so I cancelled with them. They then stuck me with a $99 annual fee that I disputed since I never signed up for and never was aware of.They said it was in my monthly statement which I never received in 3 years even after asking for it for 3 years.They kept my statement from me so that I don’t see these added and hidden charges. I’ve been paying $135 extra at times for fees I never was made aware of.I asked to speak to a manager after pleading with the CSR and so she left me on hold for 15 mins and then hung up. I hope they spend all my money on psychiatric medication.
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I still can’t believe it!
I have been with NAB for about 4 years. On 12-2-14 my bank account was suddenly debited $37,146.! Yes! That is 37 THOUSAND! I immediately called to get this cleared up. I was told it would take 24-48 hours to investigate. Then the email confirmation I received stated that I was told 24-48 hours AND THEN 3-5 business days to credit my account. I was NOT told this at all. That was 2 weeks ago and not only is it not resolved but they have kept all of my deposits and applied them to this $37k negative balance. So, by the time I figured out what they were doing, they had kept $6450. that should have gone into my account.
So of course I called again. Again I got the email saying it would take 24-48 hours to investigate, then 3-5 business days to credit my account. I asked if they had figured out what the charge was for. They said their records show that I had swiped 1 type of Visa card over 240,000 times and another type over 19,000 times! Now if each transaction took 1 minute that would take a person 6 MONTHS, 24/7 to process! One customer service rep even asked me if I was there when the swipes took place!!!!
So why hasn’t it been reversed? Well because they have to figure out how many swipes I really owe them for before they will reverse the $37k! (I probably do about 60 credit card transactions in a month).
So, now I have to run my business and also find the time it takes to research and figure out how to handle this. It is time consuming and I need to access my deposits to continue to run my business.
Also, my rep disappeared a long time ago. So, no help there either.
Any suggestions?
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Brenda,
Wow. I have never heard of anything like this happening. I have no idea how this could happen (computer error? fraud?), but it’s clear that NAB seriously mismanaged this situation. If their records indicated this kind of unusual processing in your account, they should have flagged it immediately and contacted you to clear it up. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist in the risk department to figure out that 1,000+ (let alone 240,000+!) charges from an account that usually does about 60 per month is a major red flag for something not being right. I can’t believe they just debited your account like that!
The bad news here is that there isn’t much you can do about it at this point aside from just staying on top of them about it. This is their mistake and/or mismanagement. How easy this is to resolve will depend on what caused the error. It could be a simple fix. I’ll be hoping it is.
Please keep us posted on the outcome of this.
Take care,
Tom
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Anyone wanting to do business with NAB beware! Our small museum signed up with a contract that had written fees (1.99%) for MC, Visa and Discover. We’ve hung on for a year, but a very small fraction of the cards are charged this amount. We see fees of 2, 3, 4, and even 4.98%. The statements don’t show why cards are charged that amount and we rarely enter card amounts by hand. Furthermore, the $99 annual fee, gateway charges, network charges and all the others end up that we see total fees approaching 10% of our small monthly volume. BUYER BEWARE!!!!
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I am with this business also, and they are feeing me to death I am a small business owner with a low volume of credit card use. They just took the pci fee and told me that they are also taking a 99.00 regulatory fee. I cannot afford this. I still do not have a copy of the contract and they said my contract was over. but now Im not so sure. Can anyone tell me just how exactly to get away from this company without them taking money from them like they are doing to the people I read about? Im sorry but this gets no star rating from me!!
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The rating given by this review of 3.5 is a joke … these people (NAB) are crooks, just read the reviews by actual customers. What ever rate they promise you is changed within 2 months. Do not sign any contract with them they will cheat you blind. They billed fluctuating charges on an account we had closed with them for 12 months even though there was no activity. they offered a 3 month refund if we would sign another contract.
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ZERO RATING! DO NOT DO IT! Leave the trusting to all of us who have experienced the nightmare.
I have edited this comment so it is not so long but MUCH MUCH more than what is listed here has happened to us. I filed a complaint with the BBB today.
On 8/6/14, I contacted NAB about merchant services offered to Office Max customers. I was connected to Mike Beauregard, Senior Account Executive. After several days of negotiations, an agreement was made with NAB that was to save us quite a bit of money by switching from our current service with TransFirst.
A cc processing machine was sent to us that was supposed to be EMV ready and would allow us to accept all major cards – MasterCard, Visa, Discover & AMEX. Mike explained that NAB is a full acquirer so we could accept all cards with next day funding in 1 batch just like I have with TransFirst. The machine we received was not EMV ready so Mike sent out another machine to replace the one sent to us in error. He said he would send us a return label for the machine sent to us in error.
Unfortunately, we were unable to use the replacement machine since it was not setup for us to accept AMEX. Eventually we discovered that Mike Beauregard had setup our account incorrectly so we were unable to process with the parameters he promised on the platform he set us on. We have been waiting since August for all of these issues to be resolved including the label for the machine that was sent to us in error. I have called and spoken with Mike regarding these issues no less than 4 different times.
Finally, on 10/22/14 I sent a firm email to Mike saying that I was disappointed that to that date he still had not resolved the issues so we could make the transition to NAB.
On 11/1/14, a funds transfer I initiated from our bank account was returned by my bank. When I investigated this return, I discovered that on 10/23/14, NAB drafted $895 from our bank account causing a major overdraft. Since I was busy running my business, I had no idea until 11/1/14. After filing a dispute with my bank and reaching out to NAB, I was able to find that this charge was for the cc machine that was sent to me in error in August. To this date, Mike Beauregard has not called me back. After screaming for almost a week, I was finally sent a return label.
NAB received BOTH their machines on 11/11 and still no refund.
NAB needs to refund the $895 they STOLE from us along with the nearly $600 in fees charged to us by our bank.
We never had the chance to actually become a customer as they seem hell bent on being a scamming company.
I just don’t get it. We are a VERY small business who JUST opened this year. Our credibility has been nuked by this company.
For what purpose?? This is not a case where we decided to cancel the service, we never even got started!
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They lied about their cancellation fee’s.I cancelled and now they want 875.00 . I was told the fee would be 400.00 which was a blatant lie !! Their partner in crime Logical Lease is even worse.Stay far away !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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This is the biggest scam ever by any one they should have to pay back all their costumers for them misrepresenting what they do they called me up told me they work for the state of new jersey and they will help to increase volume in costumers by using the EBT card that they give to low income people for food. for only a 10 cent fee per transaction no monthly fees and all free equipment just for signing up. Well 6 months later NOT ONE transaction but noticed they were debiting my acc. $54 every month. called and canceled now they took out of they already collected $400 dollars and did not refund anything back. went to my bank signed paper work to stop them from taking any moneys out six months later went under another name and took out another $2500 dollars for early cancellation fees and equipment. first never said anything about early cancellation fees second NABcard does not work for the state and third sent me application to fill saying its from state welfare card merchant center. How is this bank NOT SUED YET and put on the news for fraud you tell me michael p
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They reply to an reply I sent in and got several reply’s. I, am a small company , and i answer most of the calls. They started our relationship out with a lie, so i looked further and found you. . “Thank you for your interest in North American bankcard. I’m sorry to have missed you over the phone. ” Lie, Lie, Lie! i did not miss any calls. I am in the limousine business and cannot afford to miss any calls! They got a pass by me! Not good sales approach. bill Can I fax you his letter or give me your email address
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I signed up with North American Bankcard and I went back to Chase Paymentech within 24 hours. The salespeople will be happy to tell You whatever You want to hear. However once You sign up, the screwing begins. When I made my first two charges, both said “declined”I found out later that both had actually gone through, which created some humiliation between myself and a brand new client. I immediately sent a certified letter to NAB to let them know I wanted out and my account closed immediately. My letter was ignored and I didn’t notice until these thieves had added another $40 in illegitimate charges onto my account. Trust me, there is a reason why a legitimate credit card company charges the amount they do. North American Bankcard will steal much more money from You than any honest company. Remember I told You, if you do go ahead and become greedy as I did. You will rue the day my friends, if you sign up with these bandits, just as I do now.
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This company is undoubtedly the single-most scheming, conniving, and borderline criminal (to say the least) firm with which we have ever dealt. After closing our account because I was retiring from business, we received no statements, no emails, and had no communication of any kind from NAB. Two years after we terminated our account (we can merely hope that it’s cancelled at this time) we received a letter FROM A COLLECTION AGENCY saying that we are in arears to NAB in the amount of $147.90. It took us three days of calling to finally reach an actually living being at NAB and when we asked the reason for the $147.90 charge, the rep hung up on us. Four days later when we finally reached them again, we asked them the same question. We were told that they don’t have that information any longer, and they had turned it over to the collection agency. When we questioned why we should pay a bill that even they couldn’t explain, they hung up on us again. At the time of this writing, we still don’t have clue as to where to turn with this issue. We are very worried about our credit scores which are above 775. In short, I am sorry there is no rating below 1 star. If you are considering using this company, you will regret it for a long time to come.
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The worst merchant account I ever had, they have terrible customer service, getting thru to them is a nightmare….and they will do everything they can to get every dime out of u….retailers beware!!..
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These guys are a bunch of crooks. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THEM. We cancelled an account with them to switch to a different company. Three years later we realized they had not closed the account and were still charging a monthly fee to our bank account – due to confusing names, we thought it was our new company. During that time they never sent a single statement, via regular mail or e-mail. On closing for a second time, they insist we pay $156+ in back fees, for a service we have never used. They are completely unresponsive – their entire reason for existing seems to be to charge hidden fees that they hope you will miss in your monthly bank statements, even when you are no longer an active customer.
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The company offers low cost service and makes shipping process convenient.
As I am communicating services, Practical goal referring to the switching your property from stage A to suggest M.
They usually provide long distance mover provides services to the customer who wants it
from them.
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I signed on with NAB through Sekure Merchants. Immediately began experiencing issues with multiple deposits made daily even though we were settling once per day. Plus, the deposits didn’t add up to equal the transactions we’d settled. They were small amounts, usually less than $100 which showed up the next day. Still, it was a bookkeeping nightmare. We complained & they made some changes.We still got the multiple deposits but they were adding up. Sekure Merchants was very responsive through all of this and actually handled the emails. Then we got into our busy season in May and everything blew up. We were settling $4000-$6000 per day and getting deposits of up to $3000 less than the settled amount. We have been waiting for the deposits to catch up but they keep falling behind. After 5 days, they are over $10,000 behind in what they owe us. We have had multiple emails with our software support offering to help them with the set up but although they say they are interested, they don’t seem to be available by phone. I’m not to the point of labeling them as crooks but at best they are incompetent.
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Upon realizing that I was cheated and deceived by NAB I attempted to terminate my contract and after days of frustration I have been unable to do so. I would like to initiate a class action suit against them. Anybody interested can contact me at 818-998-6655, Ext. 29. They need to be stopped from doing business.
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I completely agree there should be a class action lawsuit. I have never seen anything like this dishonest, scamming, company. How have they even been allowed to continue to be in business?
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I am writing a review for North American Bankcard. I am not currently a business processing with North American although you would not know it by the debits from my business bank account. I went through the process of switching to North American Bankcard. They had promised in their sales presentation that they could provide the same services that my current processor was providing (POS compatibility and POS support at no additional cost). When they were not able to provide these services, I did not hear from them again. Then last month I saw that they were debiting my bank account for processing fees. Now they are trying to have me sign a cancellation letter that includes a termination fee of over $1000. They are not anything like they promise.
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Hi Anthony, I moved your review to our North American Bancard page. That is an incredibly frustrating situation. It sounds like your sales rep had you sign the merchant agreement without disclosing that doing so would initiate a legally binding service contract. Since new contracts with North American Bancard should not have any termination fee (or at most $295), the $1,000 is very disconcerting as well. I’d recommend getting in touch with the NAB corporate office to see if they can help you out, even if a reseller signed you up. Best of luck.
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This company is horrible!! Stay away from PayAnywhere! I’ve lost $600 thus far, and instead of admitting to receiving two of my faxes demanding they stop the service I never used, they sent an email sating I wanted to activate my account. That isn’t even including how they pushed me over draft twice costing me another $100.00 and being late with my rent, costing another $125 late fee. They don’t care.Here is the email from them after I called to verify if they received my fax.I also asked what all these random charges were totaling so much?The “gent” said to log into the account, he would email me instructions…QUOTE:Mark called for assistance with logging into http://www.mybizperks.com. Advised merchant to activate account by entering the full merchant id number beginning with xxxxx90. Advised once information has been entered and accepted an email containing further instructions and the temporary password will be sent. Advised the initial password is only valid for 24 hours so must log in to site after email is received to change the password.Advised there is no indication on the account that the signed cancellation letter has been received.*Sensitive information has been removed from this note.”They are a predatory company and rip people off. I”m sick and beside myself with how they conduct business.I just looked at the BBB site, and they have a lot of complaints but an A rating? What the hell?Add one more complaint. Mine.Can I give them less than one star? They are crooks!!!!
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Beware they are crooks. I have never done business with this company but yet they sent me to CFM collection agency. According to both companies I owe them $1200.00. North American Bancard refuses to help me figure out why nor do they care. Asking to speak to a supervisor gets you no where. CFM people are rude and bullies. I have waited two weeks for a contract I supposly have but yet no response from CFM. I was told they have been sending me letters for a year now, but of couse they were sent to a job I have never worked at.
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Heather:
Sorry to hear about you ordeal. How did or have you been able to get it straightened out?
I’m in the exact same situation now.
Thanks in advance for any help that you can provide.
07/12/14
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Hey All,
UPDATE!!!!!! Yes…I did everything that I said I was going to do, but the only thing the NAB did was offer me $100.00 to shut me up. Now, I just received an email from another merchant in the Chicago area that just went thru the same ordeal…AND WITH THE SAME SALESMAN!!!!! OMG! REALLY….this guy has got some really big coconita’s. Anyways, if anyone has had any dealings with [edited: name removed] of Preferred Merchant Processing (who is an independent contractor of NAB), please contact me. If the name of the Salesman is blocked out, leave me a message and we can figure out a way to find out if we are dealing with the same person. My Salesman is around 50ish, 5’8-5’9 , full silver head of hair, thin…..and looks like a RAT!
Hopefully this website posts all that I have written.
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Thanks for the update Renee. Per our policy I had to remove the salesman’s name. I understand you’re trying to help everyone, but we’ve always opted to stay away from the name dropping. Things get personal, and we’d rather focus on the companies instead of individuals.
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OMG! I’m still under the 45 days, and I’m going to cancell this immediately. I have been going thru the same process as everyone else, and so has another shop owner in my area. There must be some sort of Civil action that can be done about this. I still haven’t received any paperwork. I will be contacting the BBB and my state about this.
Thanks Everyone and Good Luck!! If I can find anything else out I will post it.
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I have very little respect for Merchant Maverick for giving this company such high ratings. It is a horrible company and they are completely ripping off the merchants by using trickery and lies.
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3.5 isn’t a very high rating.
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I switched from my bank’s credit card processing service because the price was higher than what NABANCARD Services had promised me in both verbal and written format. I had all my own equipment so there was not problem with me switching over I was told. However, when I called to have it reprogrammed I was told there was a password on the machine from my old processing company even before we tried to program the machine. When I called my old company I was told there was not password and they should be able to take care of it with no problem. I called back again and informed the person in India of this and was told no, there was a password and they would not even try if I did not have it. So, I was not able to use my machine with NABANCARD at all because it was never programmed.
I do not process a great deal of credit/debit cards in my office but wanted to have the service available for my clients. The amount I was contracted to pay was around $9.00 per month. However, as time went on the payment went higher and higher reaching an amount of $30.65 per month and I had not processed a payment through their system at all. So basically I was paying for the service at over 3.25 times more than what I was contracted for. Plus, they took an additional $100+ out for some sort of Government mandated fee, which of course I was not told about. When I called I was told that I should have been informed of this fee. I found out later my bank had been taking it out month by month and this was why the monthly fee was higher with them. But when I added in the monthly fee plus the one time government mandated fee I was paying more on a yearly basis.
When I called to ask why the service was so high I was told I had not taken a class on credit card processing and that I was being “penalized” for not doing so. The funny thing is, it is not in the contract and I was never informed I was to take this “class”. I then canceled my service by faxing in the document sent to me on February 6, 2013. I retained a copy of the fax confirmation after sending it. In March, the $30.65 was charged again to my account. I called to find out why and was told the request had not been received in their office. I informed them I had the confirmation and this was not acceptable to them. I then faxed the scanned copy, actually the original fax again that was electronically stored, to them again. I asked if I would have any further charges from them at all. I was told no, and the account would be closed. I asked for the $30.65 to be refunded to me and I was told they could not do that amount but would refund $25.00 as a “courtesy” to me. I told them it was worth the $5.00 not to have to wait on hold for 35 min.
Lo and behold today I checked my account and there again was the $30.65 charge for April. I called again and also had to wait on hold for 25 min until someone answered. I was now told that they have up to 30 days in which to cancel my account and it had not been 30 days. So, one person tells me one thing and another tells me something else. So, I asked to speak with a supervisor and was told they could not refund me the full $30.65 but that he would be happy to refund me $25.00, again courtesy fee.
If you are looking for a credit/debit card processing company do not, I repeat do not, use these guys. They are a total rip off and will only bleed you dry for fee after fee after fee.
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They sure nailed me! Undisclosed three year termination for which I was just quoted $698.60. Lots of lessor lies too plus amazingly creative monthly junk fees totally over $60.00 per month even when I have no sales running through that month. If fact they will charge an extra fee for no sales during a given month. The company will not disclose who the originating sales rep was.To me that says a lot about their ways of snaring people. I feel like such an idiot these people are pure crooks and good at their game!
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Imply in their adds that cost are $5.00 per $10,000. They don’t mention daily discount on interchange. In fact, they imply there is no interchange. Service is almost non-existent.
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After thumbing through all the negative reviews I would just like to say that most of the issues above were problems more likely due to a bad rep than bad service on the part of NAB. That being said, you had to have signed paperwork with the pricing schedule and you agreed to whatever was finally charged. That being said I would suggest that you take the time to quiz your rep about all the items. Don’t let him double talk through his presentation and ask him for the names of a few of his customers. Call him a couple times and see if he answers. Don’t agree to what you don’t understand. Lastly, get it in writing. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO THIS. I will get more customers if you do and those customers will be extremely happy with NAB and me.
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I can’t thank the people who took there time to review this company. As a result I passed on the services they offer. I ask for a quote that includes all fees and they send me the following:No set up fees, no application fees, no long term commitment required. Month to month service establishment/no cancellation fees. Ecommerce Site (Interchange Rates)* – *100% Keyed In transactions* Visa/Mastercard/Discover Qualified Debit Rate 0.05% Visa/Mastercard/Discover Qualified Credit Card Rate 1.80%- 2.00% Visa/Mastercard/Discover Qualified Reward Rate 1.95% – 2.05% Visa/Mastercard/Discover Non Qualified Rate 2.05%- 2.65% (Corporate Commercial, Government & International Card Transactions) NAB Profit Margin – $0.50 per $100 in processing Authorization Fee – $0.10 Monthly Basic Service Fee – $5.00Monthly Internet Gateway Fee(Authorize.net)- $10.00—————————————————————————————–Makes me a littler worried I would be going down the path of the reviewsthanks again
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I just got off the phone with NAB in reference to a chargeback..In addition to paying a huge fee for non qual charges, apparently I also signed off on them charging a flat $25 fee for ANY chargebacks that occur. So today I receive a note from them that a customer has disputed a charge and claims there was no refund given. I did indeed give the refund, but the customer apparently had already started the dispute, and didn’t bother to call off the dogs.
After spending the whole day trying to find the paperwork(as there is no name attached just the card #) I finally found that the refund was given, and called to be sure the money disputed and the $25 fee were refunded..Got the refunded amount back, but the fee… through no fault of my own mind you..Is Nonrefundable! Ugh what a terrible policy!
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I agree wholeheartedly, if you win a dispute, you shouldn’t be charged. However, it’s usually not the provider, it’s the processor that states no refunds on charge back fees.
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All the reviews above is so true, do not use this company.I can’t wait to get out the contract. please tell all the people you know about this company.I go on Facebook and tell all my friend , hope nobody choose NAB
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After being roped into using this company by the lure of a $100 sign-on bonus that was to be shared between the referring person and myself ( a lie), we used the company successfully for one weekend–three days at a vendor fair. We did not use the machine any more. Did we cancel? No–we were told there were no “monthly” fees associated with the machine (another lie). After a few months of noticing an unusual charge on my bank statement, I called NAB to see what was going on. They kindly explained that I was being charged about 41.95 a month to use their service. I asked for the service to be canceled becaue of the excessive fee…one of their slick representatives (I have the email with the name) talked me into switching to a “no fee” monthly agreement (Option B pricing). Under this pricing, the per swipe fee was higher but there was no monthly fees associated. She emailed me the papers, I signed them and returned them to her–all is well with the world. WRONG! They “did not receive” my fax even though I have a transmittal log that says the fax went through good on my end. The fax was sent in January and my account kept being charged through the end of July! Basically, I have donated NAB over $250 as a stupid tax for the use of their services for one weekend! They could not, of course, refund any of my money because they were providing a service to me, whether I used it or not. PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. IT IS NOT WORTH THE HEADACHE!
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I work as an agent with North American Bancard and we do not have a cancellation fee anymore or a contract .There are going to be dishonest people in any business that do not disclose all the terms.We still have a 45 free trial and I sign all my merchants up with Interchange Pricing which if you are on the Merchant Maverick site will tell you that is the only way to be set up for credit card processing . I have 90 merchants signed up and North American Bancard is making them very happy. The best reason to work for them is that they email every time they talk to one of my merchants to let me know what issues they are talking to my merchant about so I can assist them if I need to do so. Sometimes its about their batch or a terminal error. Whatever it is I know about it.
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Dear Mitch,
I read your posting and see that ther is no longer a cancellation fee or contract! This was the presedent of signing with NAB, but after several months of terrible service in all aspects, I tried to cancel the account and was surprisingly told that I not only had a 3 year contract but a $930.00 cancellation fee as well! I signed up in late November 2012. What can I do? You sound like an honest man, too bad you didn’t come to my business. Can you help me?
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Mitch,
Just for clarification, NAB does have a standard 3 year term, but honest agents / reps will let their merchants know that the cancellation fee can be waived with a single signed form. That form MUST be signed and submitted with the agreement. And it does not apply to all products. For instance, with the new PhoneSwipe pilot program offering the free iPad2 placement, there is a 3-year term and standard cancellation fee and it cannot be waived for that product (to ensure the cost of the iPad and accessories are covered).
I applaud you for offering Interchange Plus pricing and no cancellation fee to all your merchants. That is the way I have been doing it for years and feel that all accounts should be set up that way. Unfortunately, the industry is pushing for higher pricing on these types of accounts, so it is very important for merchants to work with trustworthy agents who will offer additional support and work on their behalf to resolve issues as they arise.
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I should have cancelled my agreement with them as soon as I figured out that they would not be able to interface with my processor and POS system.
Long story short we never processed 1 cent through them but our bank account has been debited monthly since 2009. My staff has tried to rectify the issue with them numerous times to no avail. I tried myself to call the 800 number and after 2 transfers they finally transferred me to the representatives cell phone who signed me up and has done nothing to fix the problem. I would not recommend anyone using this company.
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I am so embarrassed. I have an MBA and over 30 years of senior management experience, but I started doing business with NorthAmerican Bancard, LLC without checking them out first. I was wowed by their PhoneSwipe app for the Iphone and just signed up. Their sales person, [edited: name removed], was very nice and he helped me get installed and up with the application. He said that it would take a day or two for them to check me out and approve my account. It and when it was approved, I went live with it and put through a test transaction of around $2. I was surprised that it took several days to hit my account, but I attributed it to the fact that it was a start-up of the account. Then I started to accept charges. I put several thousand dollars through their system and all were accepted, I waited a few days, and no money showed up. When I asked where it was, they said, well, we need a copy of your last three months bank statements to be assured that you can afford it if any of these transactions need to be reversed. That was terribly intrusive, since I do on line banking. That would give them information about my religious affiliations, political contributions, every organization that I belong to and every person to whom I have written a check to in the last three months. I told them no, that was too intrusive and if they didn’t want me as a customer, just let me know and I will continue using the mercahnt account that I have been using for the last 12 years. They emailed back and said, that they did not want my account. I responded, no problem, just put my money in my account and I will continue using Bank of America. They always have my money in my account the next business day. I called to ask why my money had not been put into my account and they were concerned about my bank balance. I emailed them scans of the first page of my last three month statements, showing an average balance of over $30,000, but apparently that wasn’t enough, because it has been three weeks now, they took a half a month of my gross revenues and have not put a penny into my account, however, they have taken money out of the account.
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I’m honestly pretty surprised this company has gotten so many negative reviews. My experience with NABancard has been great. All employees that I have dealt with through customer service have been helpful and friendly (although I did wait a bit on hold one time). All fees that I’ve been charged have been transparent and rightfully added on to my bill…I never felt as though the company had anything to hide. I personally find their rates to be very competitive. These reviews are making me somewhat nervous that I’m going to run into issues in the future, but I’ve been with NABancard for over a year now and I couldn’t be happier. Hopefully those with negative reviews have just been in contact with a bad sales rep. I have always felt NABancard was dedicated to me as a customer.
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This company is a con they will use any way to get your money Stay away from them. They used the Sate of California to sign me up and Idid not need them at all had my own comp. So now I get charged for nothing. They could not even make there own equipment work????
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DO NOT WORK WITH THIS COMPANY! In a nut shell, there is not an employee from the sales representatives to the senior account representative that is honest. You will not be pleased with this company.
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Might as well pile on. This company employs reps of highly questionable if not plainly unethical business principles. That NAB would allow themselves to be represented by such associates is reprehensible. They distance themselves by the apparent belief that they can’t control what is done on their behalf. I’m constantly vigilant in the hopes that they will be sued possibly in a class action effort. They are ripe for that.
My hope in posting here is that more prospective customers perform due diligence before signing ANYTHING from NAB.
And NEVER give a rep a voided check unless you actually plan to sign and agree to the contract. If their sleazy reps get your check, and later in the interview you decide not to sign, they’ll process the papers and you’ll be liable for the cancellation fees.
Their rep lied to me. And called his supposed ‘manager’ who swore to the same lies. I had to close my account to get them to stop hounding me. Be forewarned—this action does not always work. Depends on your bank and the tenacity of the processor.
GOOGLE and the Internet is your friend. Do your research. Don’t believe ANYTHING that is not pre-printed on the contract.
AND, don’t sign any contract without ALL THE PAGES PRESENT. Lastly, DON’T give a voided check at the first meeting. Use the interim time for RESEARCH.
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I have a new complaint to add and I’m sure you will all find this interesting. I worked with North American Bancard until around six years ago when I canceled my account and switched my processing to Wells Fargo. Fast Forward to April 2012 when I receive a bill from North American Bancard for $101 that has already been automatically removed from my checking account! I called their customer service and explained to them that I do not have any account with their company and was told that my account had never been canceled?! The three customer service representatives I spoke to repeated over and over that I would need to fill out a request for cancellation form and return it to their company. I refused to do that because that would be somehow acknowledging that their was any merit to their argument.
I have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commision and I hope that any other company with a similar problem will do the same. When you work with a Credit Card Processor, they have access to your personal information including direct access to you checking account. This information should not be hanging around in their files for them to use as a slush fund whenever they desire. One more point I would like to make…As a merchant I am required to secure my customers data, you would think a processing company would be required to do the same!
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Sorry to hear about your bad experiences. I am a agent for NAB. I have been in this industry for a long time. You need to be more selective with the Agent then with the company you are choosing!
99% of these companies are great if the agent sets you up correctly! If you are unhappy with NAB, call your agent up and work it out! (they have the ability to 1.reduce your termination fee to one payment of $295 or 2. take care of your termination fee)
I have had clients who had to shut down in this economy and they didn’t pay any termination.
Again sorry to hear about your struggles but your Agent collects a monthly residual, so make him earn it! Pick a solid rep who has a reputation of taking care of his clients!
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We cannot get anyone to answer the phone or to call us back. We have left messages the last 2 days and sent emails too, to no avail. Now our customers have called us and complained that the company has double charged them. And as if that is not bad enough they have not been depositing our credit card charges in our account. This has been going on since November of 2011. We need help to track this company down. If anyone has a number where we can talk to a person please email us. If they do not call or email us in the next 24 hours I am calling my attorney general and notifying the BBB.
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Weve been in business over 37 years and have been with several card processors to date. North American Bankcard has been the worst weve seen ever. Absolutely no customer service, deceptive fees and what appears to be a systematic approach that strings customers on and on, for the purpose of more fees.
Initially upon recruitment we were told that NAB would cover up to $300 against our former processor to cover cancellation fees. When we cancelled, it was explained to us that since we were within a few months of our anniversary date we could just endure the monthly fees until that time and cancel without another cancellation fee. That would end up being $180, rather than $325. We opted to do this, explained it to the NAB affiliate and he said “great, that saves us hundreds”. But when we tried to get credited for that $180 we were denied by NAB, requiring pages of bank statements and copies of former processor statement…which had been sent earlier…twice. Long story short, I finally asked to speak to a manager who couldnt believe someone in their company denied that, and promised to credit us immediately. Well, after a month or two, still no credit. After leaving over 9 messages…none of which ever were returned and spending countless hours on hold, we learned that several months afterward we had indeed been credited.
To make a very long story short, after several incidents that were counter to any good business practice, we decided we had to cancel. Upon notifying them, NAB said we would be liable for over $600 cancellation fees. When we produced the original sales agreement specifying a fee of $150, they reluctantly agreed. Now, the latest stall is NAB sending us a letter that states theyve received a cancellation request but it was unsigned and we must start the process over again. Since we had been through the earlier events with NAB, when I faxed our cancellation notice I figured this would happen so I faxed two copies on different days and followed with a call to verify receipt, which they did…both copies were signed by the way.
As of today I have two calls in to them, neither has been answered and to date Ive spent hours on the phone trying to get hold of these clowns.
And the problem goes on and on. We too may have to close that bank account to get rid of them.
In closing, I would recommend anyone stay away from this company. Although nothing they have done is explicitly illegal, its clear that this is their chosen method of operation…………STAY AWAY. There are many other processors with better rates to choose from.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
When an agent from North American Bancard came to our salon, we were promised that it was only a $7 monthly fee, 1.59% rate. I asked specifically if there were any other fees or charges and was told no.
We did not get copy of the original contract. We were told it would be sent and it never was. We were told the reason they could offer a great rate is due to a standard (turns out not to be standard) 3 year contract. Upon bill review there were fees for everything. Debit use fee, batch fees, PCI compliance fees and more. PCI compliance is if you are using a PC and we are not.
When I called the company to complain about these issues, I was given the run around with a fast talking agent. After a very frustrating conversation I was sent an altered copy of the original. I was told the only way out of this was to pay $960.00. A co worker was told buy out was $200.00 before signing.
I know there was a fee for low or no use, but that exact amount was not given. They stopped sending statements and I could not access my account on their online site. It stated that the merchant acct # does not exist. The fee was $37.00 a month for non use.
I and about 15 of my co-workers are all very unhappy. We are independently contracted small businesses. We cannot absorb these types of fees.
I tried to write a letter and thought they were going to be nice and close the account without further trouble, only to be surprised 2 days later with a email saying they were debiting my account for early termination without my approval.
It is a misfortune for this company that we are being so badly treated. If they had been reasonable, many of the employees would have embraced using the company for their transactions at the front desk. We have 60 stylists and many other employees that would benefit from this. I discourage every new employee and recommend they get Square now. The money that this company, had they been honest and fair, would have been great with this big a group. It is beyond me why they think that doing bad business is better.
Now I will be sending out a warning on every blog site that I can to help others avoid this trouble. I am happy for those that like it but for the small merchants that are being taken advantage of I must speak!
I have noticed a note on some complaint boards for a class action lawsuit. Does it really have to come down to that for this company to be fair and competitive in the market?
I have no idea why they get such a high rate from BBB when they are the worst business that I have ever in my 30 year career, had to deal with.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Besides the feeling that they were trying to find new and creative ways to rip me off whenever I spoke to a person in management, what really convinced us to no longer process credit cards with them is the cost of doing so. We were quoted seemingly low rates at the onset, but later realized there were deductions coming out of our money BEFORE it went to the bank, as well as deductions and charges coming out AFTER it was in the bank. You will not see these charges added up anywhere! So, for one month we added up all the many, many charges, before and after. We found we were actually paying 4.6% to process credit cards with NAB. ‘Nuff said.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Sue,
Thanks for the comment. What your describing is called “Enhanced Billback” billing. It’s probably the least transparent billing model that can be used by a processor. I plan on writing about it very soon. Check back here for the link.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Statements being billed like this are not difficult to figure out. You add the amount deducted from your batches from the totals on Page 1 with the amount debited from your bank account on the last page. Divide into your volume to determine your effective rate. If you are doing any more math than that you’re doing it wrong. Nearly impossible to have an effective rate below 2.4%. So long as you are swiping most transactions I would say that you shouldn’t have an effective rate above 3%.
Solution: Call NAB, request “Monthly Billing” and submit 3 months bank statements.
Reason: Only a fraction of the fees you pay to a merchant provider is profit; most of the money goes directly to Visa/Mastercard. Your business must demonstrate its ability to cover the cost of Interchange at the end of each month. If you have a low revolver they can’t risk the ach getting rejected.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Most of the monies belong to the issuing bank, not the card associations. It’s usually the card associations (Visa MC) that get the least, then the provider.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Do you work for NAB?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I didn’t have a contract with them. It was to be month to month. Yet, after i returned their equipment and told them goodbye, they have just siphoned over a thousand dollars out of my account without a boo. Now I will have to change my bank account to prevent them from doing it again (the bank promised to block them but it didn’t work, obviously), order new checks that I just got in the mail today, and spend time talking with the bank trying to resolve this ridiculous issue. These people (NAB) are crooks! There’s not any other way to say it.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
My experience is exactly like Anna described, and I wonder that the NAB had no liability to their own reps’ illegal acts but the merchants did! Is it fair?
Beside creating falsified documents and forged merchant’s signature, The NAB also refused to provide us the (free) terminal (as the NAB’s advertisement) and refused to program PCCharge Software on our POS system as clearly indicated in the Merchant Application.
On November 16, 2010, We wrote a letter to [edited: name removed], Research Manager of NAB trying to resolve the merchant’s issue, but I got no response from them. One year later, the NAB placed the merchant account in collection.
MERCHANT No. 8788290220884
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I have signed up with this company in Nov 2010, after 3 days of using them I found out that they deposit the money 48-72 hours after the transaction but was told when I signed up it is over night. but sue it was a lie. I had signed up with them without a contract. Ten days with them and had to run after I discovered all the lies. Called them, cancelled my account and send them the terminal back. A year later a received a letter from a collection agency asking for a $295 early termination fee. My contract states CLEARLY that i have no early termination fee. Stupid people jut trying to scam anything out of customers
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I couldn’t agree more with all the negative reviews. NAB is why I am online looking around for another company. I just got through my 3 long years with them and sent my terminal and cancellation in today! YAY!
I had similar issues to those already posted with hidden fees, mybizperks being added without me being informed, and a bate and switch on the contract length. I was told it was two years and when I received the paperwork in tiny tiny print, I found that is was actually 3 years, after I had signed the paperwork with all my info. Mind you I do have good standing with ZERO chargebacks and a very good credit rating. But still got sucker-punched with the rates and feed a bunch of crap when trying to work with this company! DO NOT USE THEM!
In addition to those issues, may I mention they lease you an ancient terminal… a real antique. It reminded me of the original cell phone, except is was a “cinderblock” and not a “brick”. However, as rickety as it was, it was supposed to be refurbished. But no, it was nothing but trouble. At one point my printer quit work properly and after being tossed about in the infinite phone holds and switching I was told it was out of warranty and I would have to cover the cost to fix it or replace it and the warranty was only good for the first year. Hum, but it wasn’t misuse or negligence, I was leasing the equipment. Shouldn’t they fix mechanical issues with their own equipment? It was unresolved when I was told they could fix it for $99 or I could purchase another terminal for $89. At that point I assumed I now had leased the equipment and owned it. NOT! Recently had another issue that was unresolved because machine wouldn’t store the program needed to run it and could be updated from their side. After three phone calls on a crazy busy day (I am a hairstylist) and a phone call each day after and a promise from them to return my phone call when their system was back up (one of the many diagnostics given). It never happened. I don’t know what is up with them but they left me with a down and out system with no concern how inconvenience and more hectic they made my day. I have had to call each client before they come into have them bring their checkbook until this is resolved. When I received my cancellation form I had requested, it said I would have to pay $495 if the terminal wasn’t returned in 10 days with signed notice in working order without damage. Really? OK, so now you own it again? (not that I wanted it anyway) Well, I resolved all the issues myself today. Both the cancelllation notice and the terminal are being shipped via ground to Troy, MI this weekend! YAY! FREE AT LAST from these money hungry thieves.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
That is very true. It happened to me too. Fortunetly, NABanCard was very understanding and did let me out of the contract, as i was never told about it and the Terms & Agreements page wasn’t attached. They did make good and I really appreciate that. They acted honorably and let me go. Thanks Bancard. Great system, good accounting, just my biz didn’t pan out.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
North AMERICAN BANCARD harrased me for 2 weeks trying to get my business telling me i can save money by doing business with them. I informed i was already in a contract for 3 years and only one year into my contract. [name removed] was the women who harrassed me and told me that was no problem that they would buy me out of my contract. I even asked why they would do that and the person said they just wanted to help me. Well they are not interested in helping anyone but their pocket book. They will not pay what it takes to buy me out of the other merchant services contract. It has done nothing but cost me money since i entered into this contract. They do not do what they say and they do not mean what they say. they Lie, Lie, Lie to get your business. I would not do business with them if they were the last company on earth.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
We were with NA Bancard for several years, and I left because I found this company to be very dishonest.
1. Customer service people who tell you you will be on hold for 2 minutes, and 15 minutes later no one picks up.
2. Company changing terms in the middle of the contract (which, by the way, voids the contract under law)
3. Company hiring “Independent Contractors” who are not really independent – company doesn’t want to payroll taxes (My next referral is to the IRS.)
4. Company hires special phone people to try to prevent you from leaving, even if customer has fulfilled every term of his contract. This is INEXCUSABLE! Customer service is customer service, and if the company is truly backlogged, then there are a lot of people in Detroit looking for work right now.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
NO NO NO NO NO, Do NOT Use This Merchant Service.
Hidden Fees Fees Fees, your rep will hurry you through the application process, and tell you it’s a bunch of chatter, when there are truly all kinds of extra fees.
My service was set up at 30.00 / month with no start up fee, and in the 3 months i’ve had it, I have paid a total of 290.00!!!!!!! YOU DO THE MATH.
BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD People.
Not to mention customer service will basically tell you to go [removed], because you ARE under contract…..
Never allow yourself, or anyone you know to be fooled by these con-artists.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Anna, I could have written your letter word for word except for I still have one and a half year of misery left on my “excellent” contract. Thanks for the heads up on what I’ll have to go through when we finally are able to happily terminate their services.
And just another mind-bending frustration ~ I KNEW that Merchant Services Providers are horrible to deal with and I actually “grilled” the salesman who roped me into this deal for WEEKS! To his credit, he was good! When I realized I had been had, the 45 day cancellation period had passed, of course! Like you, my salesman has, for all intents and purposes, fallen off the face of the planet! Customer Service is about as pleasant to deal with as getting a root canal!
And, again, I concur with your advice: Stay far, far away from NAB!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
NAB is the closest business to a criminal enterprise I have ever encountered. Their salespeople and customer service reps are liars and cheats. I have been in business for over forty years and I have never encountered a more devious, dishonest company. My advice is to run like the wind. Do not do business with this horrible company under any circumstance.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
you are 100% correct..NAB is a bunch of theives. They said they called us when they did not. They said they e-mailed us when they did not. We also had to find out about “my biz perks” by accident after they had been charging us for it and they would not refund those charges but allowed us to cancel and said we earned 2-rolls of receipt paper while we were enrolled.
When we did stop using them they continued to bill us monthly charges although there was no activity ..and after 5 months of this tried to bang us for a $295 termination fee on top of the
several hundred dollars in fees for providing no service . Contacting them was difficult. Clearly they are out to screw their merchants.
It is tough to find a good credit card processor; but NAB is surely not one of them!
rk
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.