Hi,

I think it would be good to make a post for the best payment gateways and then another post about the best shipping companies. But for now, I will just leave this one for the Payment Gateways, that way new users or any users trying to obtain a merchant account can have some feedback to go off of:

Here is my experience, suggestions, advice, and opinions...lol

When I first started out looking for a merchant account, I was sent something in the mail that said "Rates as low as 2.35%, Free computer, statement fee 10.00, gateway fee 15.00" so we called the company and looked into them. By the way this is INNOVATIVE MERCHANT SOLUTIONS. We talked to them and of course everything they were telling us is what we wanted to hear. They gave us the sales man pitch.

But to our surprise this company took pure advantage over us. There was hidden fees galore, when we would call up there the company would actually change their voice. They would take a transaction fee out per transaction and at the end of the month. We also sent in 45.00 to get our free computer and that was cashed and guess what, we never got our computer. When trying to call them about it , they said that their is nothing they can do about it because it was ran through a third party.

So in long.....even though the rates might be low , there might be tons of hidden fees that are not worth those low rates. Believe me, you would want to pay a higher transaction rate then to be bombared with hidden fees.

A merchant that we are using now is called Paysystems. We love this company even though the rates are high because they have no contracts, no leases, no gateway fees, no monthly minimums, no monthly payments, and no statement fees. Just a transaction rate (that is high) but we would rather pay a high transaction rate then to have are money dipped on 3-4 times a month with different fees. Paysystems is great if you do not want to deal with ANY FEES except for the transacton fees.


Some things to remember when signing up for a merchant:

1. Ask them what there transaction fee is. usually around 2.35% to 3.45% ( This is the amount they are going to take out of every transaction)

Most merchant companies also have a per transaction fee on top of the percentage which is usually around .35 -.50 cents. This is the fee that is added on top of the percentage above. For example:

If your customer came to your store and bought a 100.00 item. Assuming your rate is a 3.45%+.40 then the amount they would take out is 3.85 cents which would leave you with a gross of 96.15.

2. Make sure you know your gateway fee - Usually around 15.00 -20.00 a month

3. Make sure you KNOW you monthly minimum - this is where you can end up paying a lot more money. For example with commerce setting up through authorize.net they have a 25.00 monthly minimun. What this means is that every month you must produce 25.00 in transaction charges other wise they add the difference ontop of your statement fee and gateway fee.

For example: you sold two items the whole month for 300.00 each. With a transaction rate of 2.35%+.35 that would be a total of 7.40 per transaction. which is only 17.80 cent in transaction fees. Guess what? You do not meet the monthly minimun of 25.00 in tranasction fees, so now they subtract the 25.00 -17.80 , which is $7.20 and add it on to your monthly bill. So if you had a 25.00 gateway fee and a 10.00 statement fee you would also have to pay the extra $7.20 for that month.

25.00 in transaction fees is not a lot, but a lot of merchants confuse this as having to generate 25.00 in sales, which it is not. Now just imagine that you were not luckily enough to sign up for authorize.net and your monthly minimun in transaction fees was $100.00, you would have a lot of extra money to dish out for that month.


In conclusion. MAKE SURE YOU KNOW ALL YOUR FEES, such as cancellation, etc....because putting your signature on the wrong contract can make your business ventrue not a pleasant one.


Now if everyone could please post about merchants to go with , not to go with, merchants that charge hidden fee, or more less your experiences to share with future people joining monstercommerce clientale.

We use IMS in our store and 1st American Card Service for our online store. Both are technically fine, but each suffers from terrible customer service/support.

1st American, in particular, requires several phone calls before any answer or problem is addressed.

IMS becomes suspicious when you make big sales and asks for lots of documentation. We sell a lot of teak furniture in our bricks and mortar store and make regular, large transactions. IMS is a pain in the ass.

Hi,

Yes IMS is a big pain in the ass. We would not reccomend them to anyone. Just our opinion. Sorry. We have cancelled our account with them.

Also to add information on paysystems:

49.00 set up fee
No monthly fees
no leases
no contracts
no gateway fee
no statement fees

There customer support is top of the line, they have live help avaiable all times of the day for your questions. They customer support is great!

Their fees might be high, BUT IT IS NO HASSLE and you can go to sleep at night without worrying if you signed your life away on a contract.

The have 0.00 cancellation fees, and offer depoist to any bank account USA (free) or internatinal for 10.00 wire cost or have them send you a check (free) if you are international.


Thanks

This is great posting, i am looking for opening a merchant account. I am new to merchant account if someone can explain what is IMS and how to locate paysystems that will be great.
Thanks

Actually, IMS is INTERNATIONAL Merchant Services. This is the link:
http://www.international-merchant-services.com/

I agree...stay away from them.

When we first opened we had a Saturday when we sold several big pieces of furniture (buffet, table, a few others things) to an interior designer. The sales for the day were way beyond our normal level. They put a hold on our funds and asked for all the paperwork. That was reasonable; we were a new company. However, they also asked us to ask our customers to call them and verify the purchase. How embarrassing! It took them two weeks to release our money. This was at the end of the month, so we had to pay rent on our store.

It created a real problem for us. We had a great month but no money in our account because they took so long to process our evidence that our sales were legitimate.

Our salesman was a real ass, too. He did not want to get involved.

Now, whenever we have an unusually profitable day we preempt this action by sending them copies of the signed paperwork. We do this to provide a basis for a lawsuit if they ever fuck us over again. (Sorry about the language, but I'm trying to be true to our feelings about this terrible company.)

Phew, glad I don't use IMS! LOL Let's hope these threads don't get preempted???? Anyhoo....I used to use USMS about 3 yrs ago when I had planned on having my website up and running. I cancelled them (only because my hosting company went bankrupt and used them) prior to staying in their required timeframe under their agreement. I thought I would be forced to pay a hefty penalty fee of $300 but luckily USMS knew of the situation and allowed me to get out of the agreement. I then went to Merchant Connect (aka NOVA Systems) when I went to a co-worker who did web design on the side (again a bad choice as apparently what I wanted for my site was above his head) but again, without getting off track, I stayed with NOVA.

Here is the address for NOVA - FYI. NOVA Systems

I do not have any horror stories to tell or words of praise yet as I have not had sales that the customer opted to pay by credit; usually cash or checks.

Beverly
Goddess Enterprises

krazykickz,
I got one more question, when customer checkout does the control goes to paysystems.com (like in paypal) from your website?

Please let me know how the custom programming works for you, i am looking for different options. Another thing i noticed for paysystems is that they are charging $1.00 apart from 3.95%. Visit Paysystem Rates

I went through MonsterCommerce for my Merchant Account. And although it works well. I will give you a warning.........

You need to get in writing all the charges that you can possible occure before signing up. I am pay almost 80 dollars a month weather I have a sale or not.

I am positive I was not mis-lead on the information - but I was also not given all the information at the time.

I was new to this and I also didn't know all the terminology. That is what got me.

Free going into the Merchant Account (which was good), but if you want out because you made a mistake or didn't get all the info... Ouch!

At any rate the, what I have learned is to get it in writing - don't take someones word for it over the phone.

Hi krazykickz,
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I looked at propay and they are impressive. They do have $100 per tran and $1000 per month limit but no harm starting with this, since i am new i really don;t know how much i will be selling. Another thing is that they have a website where merchant logs on and enters the Credit Card info with billing address and make a charge. This is a manual process. They do provide the XML interface but the charges are $395 for 1st year and then $195 per year plus the annual fee of $35 and ofcourse per trasnaction fee.
I am still evualting the various options.

cbhale,

Can you please email me your experience with MonsterMerchantAccount.com? Who you worked with, why is was confusing, what we could have done to better educate you on our fees?

Merchant Accounts are difficult becuase there are so many things to consider... The last thing we want to do is sell you something that surprises you. When this occurs nobody wins. You are upset about the charges... and we have a client unhappy with our service.

Please email me where the miscommunication occured... and I will make sure we hold a training session with the sales group to keep it from happening again.

We try to give excellent service in the Merchant Account realm... and I feel we give a good value. But, rest assured, there is ALWAYS room for improvement. I know you know we didn't try to mislead you... We errored on the communication end. Cbhale, thanks for pointing out your experience.

Ryan,

I am on my way out the door for vacation this AM. After I return I will let you know what up!

I don't want to steer anyone away from s merchant account, they are competitive and everything on the service end has worked well.

I just wanted to let people know to make sure they check everything out!

Something else you need to be aware of is that you may be charged different percentage rates than you are told. If a company tells you that they charge a 2.35% rate, than that is for "Qualified" sales, which means that you must get the name, address, card number exactly correct in the payment gateway. Say if you were to put in the address incorrectly (1140 1st St instead of 1140 N. 1st St) they will actually charge you 3.12% for a "Non-Qualified" sale. Some companies even have a "Semi-Qualified" sale in that the address matches but a phone number doesn't match or a name isn't exactly correct (Nancy Meyers instead of Nancy S. Meyers).
You must ask your Merchant for ALL charges that they will and MAY charge you.
There are A LOT of hidden charges out there and if something sounds too good to be true it usually is and there is usually a catch.
We currently do business with Humboldt Bank Services and do our charging through Authorize.net. Its worked out good for us, but the charges are high, we are currently looking for another Merchant and may end up trying .

cbhale,

I know you weren't trying to steer people away...

Let me know when you return so we can discuss the issues above!

Strapworks.com, I can have Julie contact you to discuss MonsterMerchantAccounts... just say the word and she will call.

Ryan

Captain,

I also use the monstercommerce service, and the one fee I was not told about was the $25 dollar authorize.net fee. All the other numerous fees were explained to me.

I agree with cbhale that the fees are pretty steep, especially when you are starting out and are not generating many sales. Do you research and get it in writing are two words of wisdom.

Dave,

Who was your sales person?

Thanks!

Ryan

Hey Ryan,
I have actually already talked to Julie.
Your prices are a little steap, but your customer service makes up for that hands down.
So, we are considering switching over to you because I like a company that has good customer service, and I am willing to pay a little more to get that.

Ryan,

It was Julie.

Thanks,

Dave

Thanks for giving us a try Strapworks.com. we won't disappoint you.

Dave, I will speak with Julie to make sure she explains the charges more clearly. Thanks for your feedback... without it we wouldn't know which problems exist. If we don't know the problems we can't fix them... thanks again.

Okay Captain,

Here is what I remember from the transaction with the Merchant Account that you asked me to elaborate on.

When I talked to salesperson several times on the phone, I asked and verified on 3-4 seperate occasions what my bottom line per month would be for the mechant account.

I was told each and eveytime $ 38.00 a month would be my actual out of pocket expense per month if for some reason I had no sales. I then repeted the same information back to the salesperson and again it was verified. This would be the worst case senerio because it included the $25.00 minimum.

I was happy and figured this to be a viable expense. I went through with the paper work and made sure everthing was in order. Faxed over the information which was handled very professionally and my merchant account was up and running within 72 hours maybe even sooner! I was ver estatic and happy and the intergration into shopping cart was a snap.

Then the communication gap began...

Since I predicted I would probably not generate sales on my website for the first few months I wanted to make sure I was meeting the minimum so I had some family members that wanted to purchase stuff from me order from the website. The first order was over the $25.00 minimum, but I couldn't get anyone else to order from the website before the month ended.

Well I got my bill - And found out right away the breakdown of the fees and frankly was blown away! That amount of $ 38.00 was a bit higher than anticipated. So after several few months I was banging my head on the computer desk as to what to do. I called the salesperson and was told they would see what they could do to help me out and never got a return call.

Then we decided to cancel the merchant account it was coting us too much to have for the volume of sales via credit card we were getting. Then I found out about the cancel fee (which I wa told there would be a fee, just not how much) and was like yikes lets keep the merchant account.

So I email the salesperson back and asked if there was any other cheaper way to do this and was given an option to have a local credit card machine and that would reduce the cost. I then emailed back the salesperson and asked for the exact breakdown of the cost. Didn't here anything back so I emailed again and to date still have not heard back.

So I still have the merchant account and still get the charge and grind my teeth alittle bit, but I pay it anyway.

So bottom lineis: (Sorry So Long)

1.I don't feel that I was given to total cost to me even after asking what it would be.

2.The fee's outside the transaction, ach, and percentage a total sale were never given to me. (ie the .20 transaction fee from Auth-Net)

3. I understood that the gateway fee was part of the $ 38.00

4. I thought the $25.00 minimum was in dollars. I didn't realize that was in actual transaction fees.

5. The paper work that I used to sign up had nothing marked in additional fees box.

6. Basically it was a communication gap and my lack of knowledge to merchant accounts.

I hope this wil help you in understanding the issue at hand.

And in no way do I mean any disrespect to anyone!

If you need any further information, please let me know!

Thanks,

I agree with Cbhale. When i signed up i was told the same thing. "The bottom line would be very minimal...approx $40 if there will not be activity and that amount includes Authorize.net's $25 gateway charge". I was under the impression the bottom line was going to be much lower then it is...My average monthly bill is approx $70 with minimum activity, which is not even close to what i was told. This is something that should be cleared up immediately since this issue reflects on .

I was also told a similar story. And, like cbhale, when I was sent the paperwork, no numbers appeared on it. When I inquired why this was, the salesperson said that they were in the process of changing banks.

I have called a meeting to cure these issues. Thanks for the feedback.

Ditto here on the Commerce Merchant Account. I was so eager to get my site up and running that I was going to sign up for the PayFlo with Verisign but they couldn't guarantee that I'd be up and running by my Grand Opening date. Julie bent over BACKWARDS to get my account up and running and kept me up to date on everyuthing that was going on, when I would be ready to go, what other forms I needed to sign, etc. etc. However, I too wasn't told about the $25 Authorize.net fee. Now, I have been generating some decent sales per month so meeting the mininum hasn't been a problem at all. I still feel that MC's merchant account is VERY competitive and like the others said, the customer service is UNSURPASSED!! I haven't had a minute's trouble with the account and it's nice to be able to try and re-bill someone who initially had a problem with a card not going through, etc. So, while I'm paying a tad more than I expected, I MUCH prefer to have the customer service there when I need it!!

Thanks for your feedback Carrie.

This topic has been very helpful... I have had a meeting with the sales group to ensure pricing is clear. There are many components to merchant account rates and can easily be confused.

We have been working with Bank Card Central to develop a more fluid application process and we have revamped the pricing page to provide a better snapshot of the fees...

Merchant Account Pricing

I appreciate your input... it helps eliminate problem areas within our company. Keep the feedback coming... it is much appreciated. Also, have a look at the pricing page and let me know if you think it makes more sense.

Everyone is getting confused about the monthly min. This is what she does not explain throughly. I wrote a little topic about it:

http://www.monstercommerceforum.com/index....p?showtopic=686

Captain,

The information that you show in the link.. I think should have the monthly minimum and something about the gateway as well. All you are showing is your rates to have a merchant account.


What about the $25.00 minimum(fees only) if you choose Authorize net and the transaction/processing fees?

I believe since this is an option that you/they offer... those fees should be listed or at least a link to that information needs to be available.

This is what messed me up....

Good advice... I have forwarded the posts to Stephanie for review. Since I am out of the loop with Merchant Accounts... she will tell me what needs to be added and I will have a designer make the changes.

I'll keep you posted. as always, thanks for the advice.