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.

While many of the more reputable merchant account providers have abandoned terminal leases altogether in favor of selling the terminals directly (or allowing you to reuse your existing equipment), there are still plenty of other providers that are still pushing terminal leases. Check out the best credit card processing companies for some good options that let you buy your credit card terminal at an affordable price.

Host Merchant Services offers a full range of products and services for just about any type of business.

Of course, everyone’s experience with a particular processor won’t be the same. It’s important to weigh the complaint volume of a company against its processing volume. A processor serving a hundred thousand merchants with 100 complaints is a much different scenario from a processor serving ten thousand merchants with 100 complaints. That being said, a processor with a lot of complaints about the same issue should be an immediate red flag.

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.