Frank has been writing about payment processing and business services since 2015. He is a retired Air Force officer and a former practicing attorney. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from The Pennsylvania State University and a Juris Doctorate degree from the Ventura College of Law, and currently resides in Paso Robles, California.
There are so many processing companies, they all seem to be doing more or less the same thing, and they all have both glowing testimonials and terrible complaints. How are you supposed to choose the best company under these circumstances? Who can you trust? Read on to find out.
While merchant account fees are definitely irritating (and expensive!), they're often an inevitable cost of doing business. Even if you sign up with a payment service provider like Square that doesn't charge monthly fees, you'll still be paying the costs associated with maintaining your account in the form of higher transaction processing rates.
Credit card surcharging has rapidly gained in popularity in recent years as court decisions, and legislative changes have gradually removed legal barriers to the practice. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has greatly accelerated this trend. Nonetheless, the question remains: Should you add a surcharge?
There's a lot to love about Helcim. What we love is that you won't have to worry about the bait-and-switch tactics and long-term, binding contracts that plague the industry. Helcim distinguishes itself from many other providers by offering no binding contracts, exclusive interchange-plus pricing, consistently good customer service, and low account fees.
Choosing a high-risk merchant account provider isn’t the same as working with other payment processors. You can expect different pricing and contract terms — but you shouldn’t compromise on customer service. Here are six great providers that offer great service, fair pricing, and reasonable contracts for small businesses.
First Data Global Leasing has the dubious distinction of being among our rogue’s gallery of the processing industry’s worst credit card terminal leasing companies. While it offers high-quality products in the Clover line of terminals and POS systems, it’s disheartening that an industry leader such as Fiserv would condone awful business practices by a subsidiary.
If your business needs to send or receive online payments – either domestically or internationally – Payoneer’s payment services may come in very handy. While companies like PayPal offer similar capabilities, Payoneer has a stronger focus on international transactions and claims to offer lower overall costs than its competitors. Read our full Payoneer review for more details.
Despite what Visa and Mastercard’s advertising would have you believe, most businesses accept American Express cards. However, for merchants looking to add Amex to their repertoire of payment options, the company has been a challenge. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at American Express’ fees and processing rates.
Soar Payments Review specializes in finding credit card processing homes for hard-to-place (that is, high-risk) merchants with refreshing transparency.
Easy Pay Direct is a payment gateway and merchant account provider that serves a wide variety of high-risk and low-risk industries.
SumUp’s free mobile processing app isn’t a good substitute for a full POS system, but for small businesses that only need basic POS features and on-the-go credit card processing, it’s definitely a contender.
PaymentCloud provides payment processing solutions for eCommerce, mail order/telephone order (MOTO), and other generally high-risk businesses. Although PaymentCloud serves lower-risk and brick-and-mortar establishments, this merchant services provider shines in the eCommerce and mid-to-high-risk space.
eMerchantBroker is a merchant account provider that specializes in offering credit card processing services to a wide variety of industries that are usually classified as being high-risk by traditional banks and credit card processors.
Host Merchant Services offers a full range of products and services for just about any type of business.
Is Square’s free card reader really the best out there? See how Square’s hardware stacks up against its competitors with our in-depth comparison.
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The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.
Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone.
