Charge.com Review

Charge.com Overall Rating

Review Updated: 1/17/2011

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Charge.com Overview

Charge.com Logo

Charge.com is a merchant account provider based in Plantation, Florida and has been in business since 1995. The company was bought by Pipeline Data (possible affiliated with Cynergy Data) in 2005 and resells Authorize.net for its payment gateway services. Charge.com focuses primarily on supplying on credit card processing services and equipment.

Charge.com Sales Tactics & Marketing Strategy | D

It is not completely clear how Charge.com brings in new merchant accounts, but it appears that the company relies heavily on online marketing and referrals from its parent company and affiliates. Charge.com has received a low score in this section because the company promotes highly misleading pricing on its website.

For instance, the company compares its pricing according to “industry standards” but fails to disclose all of its own fees. This is not only deceptive, but some may consider it as borderline false advertising. Additionally, the website claims that there is no service length commitment and no cancellation fee; however, there are numerous reports from merchants stating that they incurred a fee for cancelling service. It appears that Charge.com itself does not charge a fee, but its parent company, which handles the card processing, does charge one.

Charge.com Fees, Costs & Contract Terms | D

Charge.com’s pricing varies from merchant to merchant based on business type and processing volume. As mentioned in the previous section of this review, the company promotes deceptive pricing that could easily confuse merchants. Although Charge.com does not lock merchants into contracts, it signs them up with a processor (and parent company) that issues 36 month service agreements with early termination penalties ranging from $300 to $495 (as reported by merchants). The company also charges an annual PCI Compliance fee of up to $185, which is much higher than the industry average.

Charge.com Complaints & Service | C-

Charge.com has a moderate amount of complaints filed online for a provider of its size and time in business; however it should be noted that its parent company (Pipeline Data) and its processor (Cynergy Data) have very high complaint counts. The majority of the complaints report unexpected and hidden fees, non-disclosure of the PCI Compliance fee, high cancellation fees, and unauthorized debits from merchants’ checking accounts.

Charge.com Better Business Bureau Report | C-

As of this update, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) is reporting that Charge.com is not BBB accredited. The report shows a “C-“ rating for the company with 39 complaints filed in the last 36 months. The complaints are spread fairly uniformly across advertising and sales issues, billing and collection, and problems with service. Of the 39, eight of the complaints have not been resolved to the merchants’ satisfaction. It should also be noted that Charge.com’s parent company had an “F” rating with the BBB as of its last review.

Bottom Line

Charge.com has been in the merchant services industry for nearly 20 years; however, the company is still suffering the typical type of complaints seen in the credit card processing. Additionally, Charge.com’s parent company and processor score poorly and suffer numerous complaints from merchants. The company can improve its rating by fully disclosing all fees and contract terms of its own services (as well as the ones it resells to merchants) and eliminate future complaints regarding deceptive sales tactics.

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