CardPayment Solutions (CA)
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CardPayment Solutions Overview
CardPayment Solutions Logo
Before you continue onto the next sections of this review, it is important to understand that there are two companies in the U.S. that operate under the “Card Payment Solutions” name. This review is for the Santa Barbara, California based company (csiprocessing.com). If you are looking for the Indiana based company, see the Card Payment Solutions (Indiana) review.
CardPayment Solutions (CPS) of California began operations in 1999 and appears to be somehow affiliated with iPayment Inc. The details of the relationship are hard to come by, but the Better Business Bureau (BBB) report for CardPayment Solutions goes to the iPayment report. This could either be a mistake by the BBB or it may indicate that iPayment owns CPS.
Aside from providing merchant account and credit card processing services, CPS also offers electronic check processing services, gift card programs, and merchant cash advances.
CardPayment Solutions Sales Tactics & Marketing Strategy | C
This reviewer found only one instance of slightly deceptive rate advertising by quoting rates “as low as 1.49% +$0.19 per transaction” on its website site. To learn more about why this type of quote is deceptive, learn everything you need to know about rates in Fee Sweep. No other uses of misleading marketing were found.
CPS appears to rely heavily on recruiting outside independent agents and resellers to market its services. This practice usually lowers a company’s score because most companies have difficulty to maintaining control of the sales practices of the resellers and suffer merchant complaints as a result. CPS appears to be a company that falls into this category as evidenced by the type of online complaints it has received, which will be covered later in this review.
CardPayment Solutions Fees, Costs & Contract Terms | C
Pricing of CPS merchant accounts appears to vary on a variety of factors including a merchant’s business type, processing volume, and the agent setting up the account. Additionally, CPS charges a PCI Compliance fee of up to $129 per year.
It looks as though the CPS merchant account contract is a 36 month service agreement with a $250 early termination fee that is automatically debited from a merchant’s checking account. Additionally, merchants may be subject to penalties if they lease equipment and cancel before the lease expires. Both of these terms also appear to be negotiable prior to setting up an account. As a side note, this reviewer recommends always buying equipment and never leasing because it is far more expensive.
CardPayment Solutions Complaints & Service | C
CPS has a low-to-moderate amount of complaints filed online for a company of its size and time in business. The majority of the complaints report unexpected and higher than quoted fees, and poor customer service when attempting to resolve these issues. As suggested earlier in this review, these types of complaints are often the result of independent resellers who failed to disclose all of the fees prior to setting up the merchant. These failures may be purposeful, or the result of poor training. Either way, merchants are strongly encouraged to read and understand their CPS merchant account agreement before signing any documents.
CardPayment Solutions Better Business Bureau Report | N/A
As of this review, the CPS BBB report goes to a page for iPayment that has no grade and one complaint filed. However, iPayment’s actual report is on another page and has an “F” rating with 206 complaints filed in the last 36 months. Since it is unclear why the BBB has inconsistencies in its reporting of CPS, we will not factor it into the company’s overall rating in this review.
Bottom Line
CardPayment Solutions of California seems to be a “run of the mill’ merchant account provider. Most of the complaints that this company has are common for the industry because it utilizes common pricing and contract terms. CPS could improve its rating in this review by offering month-to-month contracts as a standard and eliminating future complaints about unexpected and hidden fees.
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2 comments
Jamie says:
January 4, 2012 at 9:22 am (UTC -8 )
Card Payment solutions is a complete scam. It’s the worst company I have ever done business with. They forged my signature on my contract on a place where I didnt sign and then told me to try and prove it. They charge fees on top of fees that were never mentioned at any time prior and lie about what they will charge you then tell you theres nothing they can do. terrible customer service. DONT DO BUSINESS WITH THEM!!
Daniel Scott says:
December 10, 2011 at 3:38 pm (UTC -8 )
Be careful of these folks, they will promise you the world, give you 100% satisfaction guantatees and low rates. Sign the contract, fees from 10 to 50 start adding on, my 10.00 service was 59.00 before interest. These guys are crooks. Promised next day funding, yea right, then they tell you its extra. I thought I was thorough, even had the salesman in my home, bait and switch is what I call it. NO ETHICS.