Let's compare our payment processors

[Tonearm]

I've been with iPayment for a couple years. Their main ecommerce discount rate is low, but there are 3 rate tiers. The other two tiers are much higher and a significant number of cards are processed at the higher rates. I was planning on switching to Cardservice but I just got off the phone with an agent and now I don't think I'll switch.

iPayment Pros:
- low fees
- no contract

iPayment Cons:
- 3 separate accounts: Amex, Discover, and Visa/Mastercard
- bad customer service

Cardservice Pros:
- probably good customer service

Cardservice Cons:
- higher fees
- 1 year contract
- 2 separate accounts: American Express and Visa/Mastercard/Discover

How does your processor compare? Has anyone found a processor with good customer service, everything in one account, no contract, and reasonably low fees?

[LifeinAsia]

Although the mods may ban this because of mentioning specific companies, I will add my 2 cents.

I only have experience with the first that you mentioned and I agree with the Pros. However, I've had decent customer service and I'm not sure what you mean by 3 separate accounts for AMEX, Discover, V/MC- I only have 1 account with them and process all those cards.

[Tonearm]

Are you sure your American Express and Discover *discount rates* show up on your iPayment statement? You don't get separate statements for them?

[LifeinAsia]

Ack, sorry- I had a brain lock and got confused. iPayment was our original processor years ago before they suddenly decided (with about 2 weeks' warning) that they didn't want to deal with anyone in our industry any longer. I can't remember if we were processing AMEX or Discover back then.

So yes, I certainly DO agree with your bad customer service position now. :)

CSI likewise doesn't (or didn't) work with the travel industry, so I can't say much about them (although the newsletter that the head guy used to put out was informative).

We have used NOVA for our processing for over 4 years now.
Pros:
- relatively low fees (although I think ours are lower than usual because we signed up through our Costco membership)
- one of few companies that will work with travel companies

Cons:
- we originally bailed on them after just a few months when they suddenly decided they required us to keep 25% of our processing limit with them as a deposit. (Yet several months later when we decided to go back to them, there was no such requirement.)
- Customer service is sometimes very anal about chargeback paperwork

[Tonearm]

OK, I'll check out NOVA ASAP. Thank you.

[Tonearm]

Just got off the phone with Nova. They want a 3 year contract and $195 setup fee. Discount rates are 2.29% + $.20 and 4.18% + $.30. $5 statement fee and $25 monthly minimum for fees. American Express is a separate account they say, not integrated.

Sounds like a different Nova. Are you sure Amex is integrated?

[wrockca]

Ouch... That is high, depending on your industry. I use Authorize.net & Verepay for my gateway and BankCard Central as my merchant provider... Do you also get integrated Verified by Visa and SecureCode? Excellent Customer Service, I have over 5 accounts with them currently.

[Tonearm]

High discount rates you mean? The industry is standard online retail stuff. Nothing weird. I don't use Verified by Visa or SecureCode. Are you getting lower non-swiped rates?

[LifeinAsia]

They may do things somewhat differently now- we started with them several years ago. And like I mentioned, we went through them through our Costco membership, which probably got us lower rates and waived any setup fees. But back then they never said anything about a contract (in fact, we had to dump them after a few months because of the deposit issue).

I just went to their site, and they have different rates than you mentioned. I think there are several resellers, so make sure you're contacting Nova Information Systems directly. (I Stickyed you the link. Note- those are the rates for Costco members.)

[Tonearm]

I just spoke to them and it does sound good. With an Executive Costco membership the internet rate is 1.99% + $.27 or 3.51% + $.31. No other fees of any kind. I'm sure there would be a chargeback fee if necessary though.

3 problems:

1. American Express account is separate
2. 2-year contract required
3. CVV required for the 1.99% rate

Are you gathering CVV data? My stuff has an extremely low rate of fraud and I hate putting up Submit Order button barriers.

[LifeinAsia]

We have the CVV field, but don't require it (we have a lot of foreign cards as well as some clueless customers who just don't get it no matter how well you explain it to them). I'd have to go back through our statements, but I'd guess at least 50-60% of charges qualify for the CVV rate.

And yes, obviously chargeback fees would apply. :) I forget if it's $10 or $20/item.

[HRoth]

I had iPayment for 7 years up until a year ago. I considered their customer service to be terrible beyond belief. For instance, it took 7 tries before they changed my address on their records. This included three letters that were notarized. Once they moved servers and decided not to make any payouts for two weeks. Then it became longer. They would sneak charges onto the statement, and if you called about them, they would say, oh, that's a mistake, and that they would take it off, but they never would. I never changed companies mostly out of inertia. I had other things to worry about.

Then last year they sent me a letter saying that I had 30 days to find a new processor. It was not because of anything I did, but they said they would not give me a reason. I supposed it was because I was not making enough money for them, because I had had a total of 5 chargebacks in all those years, so I knew it wasn't that. I left repeated messages for the person whose name was on the letter, but she insisted on hiding under her desk instead of acting like an adult and responding. IME, this sort of thing was typical for that company.

If you check the BBB for iPayment, you will get a real eyeful. I never did until they dropped me. Then it turned out that they had done the same thing to a LOT of people.

I ended up with another company. They are not quite as bad.

[Tonearm]

LifeinAsia, you pay 3.51% for 40%-50% of your transactions?

[LifeinAsia]

It may not be that high- maybe only 30-40%. And I'm not absolutely sure about the rate, but it's 3 point something.

Like I said, we process a lot of foreign cards- it's the cost of doing business. (I'd rather have about 1% less of something than 100% of nothing.)

[Tonearm]

Yeah no way around it with foreign cards. I'm just trying to weigh a medium rate against a low CVV rate that comes with a high no-CVV rate. With iPayment (and I thought most others) the CVV doesn't factor into the rate.