National Processing Company Overall Rating
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National Processing Company (NPC) Overview
National Processing Company Logo
National Processing Company (npc.net) is one of the larger merchant account providers in the United States and appears to be a subsidiary of Vantiv. The company is based in Louisville, Kentucky, and has been part of the credit card processing industry for quite some time.
National Processing Company was originally formed in 1979 as a separate subsidiary of First National Bank. Through a merger in 1988, the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of National City Corporation. In 1996, National Processing Company spent a brief stint as a publicly traded company before being acquired by Bank of America for $1.4 billion. Only two years later Bank of America sold National Processing Company to Iron Triangle Payment Systems, a company which also bought Retriever Payment Systems at the same time. Iron Triangle Payment Systems re-branded all of its merchant processing companies under both National Processing Company and Retriever Payment Systems which subsequently appears to have been acquired by Vantiv (formerly known as Fifth Third Processing Solutions).
National Processing Company claims to service over 240,000 merchants in the United States and offers a broad range of business financial services and products, including check processing, bill pay and merchant cash advances.
As of this review, National Processing Company is accredited with the Better Business Bureau and has been so since May of 2009. National Processing Company currently holds an “A+” rating with the BBB, despite 228 complaints in the last 36 months. The BBB’s justification for the high rating is National Processing Company’s large size versus it complaint ratio, and that the company has made a good faith promise to resolve customer complaints. Of the 228 complaints, 141 are attributed to problems with the service, 60 with billing and collection, 25 with advertising and sales issues, and a handful regarding other issues.
Surprisingly, even though National Processing Company has numerous complaints with the BBB, this reviewer only found about a 20 other legitimate complaints filed elsewhere online. Most of them are typical complaints of merchant account providers, such as complaints of expensive equipment leases and unexpected monthly and/or processing fees.
National Processing Company appears to uses Vantiv as its processor; however, may also utilize other networks as well. National Processing Company is a registered ISO/MSP of First National Bank of Omaha, Omaha NE and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Walnut Creek, CA.
Other business names National Processing Company uses:
NPC
National Processing Company f/k/a RPSI, Inc. d/b/a
NPC Select Services
Best Payment Solutions, Inc.
Merchant Services
Retriever Check, Inc.
Retriever America’s Payment Systems Authority
NPC America’s Payment System Authority
Retriever Payment Systems National Processing Company
NPC RPSI, Inc
Retriever Payment Systems
Retriever Check
NPC Check
Retriever Leasing
Lease Capital Group
Retriever Check, Inc.
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24 comments
JMS
May 10, 2012 at 6:58 pm (UTC -7)
I have been dealing with this company since 05/05/11 (signed merchant application). This most recent transaction involved a credit card charge for services performed on our clients (2) Exotic Automobiles. Clients credit card was charged manually for $8212.71 for parts & labor performed to both vehicles. Credit card was run at approx 6:00 pm on Tuesday, The “Batch-close” happened at approx 10:00pm. That Wednesday morning, the funds weren’t found at the bank and no sign of “Incoming Transaction” The c/card process is said to occur “Overnight” or 24-hours. It never did. I called my sales contact Mr. Drew Brown, 877-652-4348 ext: 2694, and he said he would look into what the problem was. At approx 4:50 Pm I got a call Casedrea, his loss prevention supervisor, stating that she needed proof of repairs that we performed. I questioned why, stating I am the merchant, and have customer permission for these charges. She requested us to fax over our invoice to the client and we complied. I asked why she waited till the end of the day to request such and she stated this is due process. She also stated that she would need verbal confirmation with the client and I said this was unacceptable. Why did she wait until the end of the day to request such and her was response was stated as above. The next day I received a call from her supervisor, Heather 708-675-4553, stating that they would not release the funds that they had captured. This was some poor excuse that I had exceeded my limit of $7000.00 p/transaction. She acknowledged she had our receipts, and had spoken to the client. (He verified everything was fine with charges). She then proceeded to ask us to refund the monies back, (which we never got) I told her that our bank Susquehanna, said this was not advised, that it would bring my balance into the minus. They NPC now have my money (or the clients) and had not or will not release same. Heather stated that this is with-in their rights as a credit card processor, stating the wording is in the “Merchant Terms & Conditions” ( I had never received this) and stated if it was that important, to see who & how this company is that I am dealing with, It should have been sent with signature verification. or it should show up somewhere in the “Merchant Application” aka my signature to accept such poor business practices. This company has not been releasing my c/card transactions till 2-3 days later, NOT overnight or 24 hrs as promised and contracted.
Bill Page
May 7, 2012 at 9:04 am (UTC -7)
NPC was my credit card processor for a little over 6 years. As a small business there is little or no negotiating power to counteract ever increasing fees and litigation expense often precludes challenging the interpretation or legality of contract terms.
NPC continuously invented additional fees. Including the “on file fee” of $10/month. Mandatory insurance fees in case customer account numbers were compromised at $8/month. RAPP fee of $90/year (not sure what RAPP is) and the latest a mandatory $90 fee for filing IRS 1099K forms. This is for summing up 12 months of receipts for the 1099K.
They claim that if you use their service after you are notified of the fees then you accept them. However if you cancel the service they charge $250 “Early Deconversion fee” even after 6 years. No matter what , they are going to hit your bank account and you have little recourse. I should also mention that seldom are you notified of these fees in advance – they just take the money out.
What can you do? The most important is when looking for a credit card company – be sure to check on their overall integrity. A company that needs a $250 “Deconversion fee” to retain your business or one that takes new fees without notification should not be on your list. I do believe that many items in NPCs contract are stretched by NPC in their interpretation.
NPC’s treatment of their customers is poor at best. There seem to be quite a number of complaints but I was expecting it to be a massive number.
Rich Stewart
April 20, 2012 at 12:13 pm (UTC -7)
Small business owners beware. High rates and a plethra of unexplainable fees. I have a cloud based service now and charges are justified. My base fee for having NPCs service was almost $70.00 before any processing. Now they plan on raising rates. I guess they have to make up for the loss of customer by bilking their remaining customers. Cancelling was an absolute joy as well (sarcasm). So long NPC. Good luck keeping your doors open.
Tony
April 18, 2012 at 2:56 pm (UTC -7)
I subscribed to merchant services for NPC merchant services about a year and a half ago. i was quoted for a monthly premium o $12 a month. I had to set up direct deposit. After a few months I notced I was being charged now $37 a month. I had no warning this was going up and it was being deducted from my account. I have only used this machine one timenin almost two years because I get cash for most transactions. When I called to cancel service I was told I needed to send in a lett to cancel service. I sent the letter in to cancel. I thought cancelling wasneasy and didnt think about it no more for 3 months. When I checked acct again it still havent been cancelled and now I was 3 months behind because there was lack of funds in this acct because I really dont use it. So I wasntold I must send another letter because I use my nick name of Tony and should have used Anthony. I then sent another letter in, I also paid back charges of acct to keep in good standing. For 3 more months NPC kept taking the $37 out ane not cancelling acct. I now am fed up to the max, I cancelled the bank acct so I want get charged anymore. I want everyone I can tell to stay away from NPC. They are a big rip off! They raised the price 300 percent and then refused to cancel my acct and still kept charging me. This is a horrible company to do business with.
SewFits
April 6, 2012 at 10:52 am (UTC -7)
I have been with NPC for over 10 years. For most of it, they would introduce a new “service” and I would have to call to opt out and that would be that. Now, they introduce the service, charge me for it, and I have to call to get a refund. And call again the next month, because they claim no record of my having previously called. It is apparent that NPC is no longer in the credit card processing business; they are now in the extraneous services business. They are about to lose my business, and to prevent any problems, I will close my business account and open a new one. I strongly warn readers against doing business wtih NPC. They rival the military in their incompetance, inefficiency and heavy handed tactics.
Duncan Hines
April 5, 2012 at 1:18 pm (UTC -7)
NPC is awful. I have tried to close my account for 3 months now. They have random monthly amounts that they continue to charge. I have spoken to member services several times with no resolve. I have even faxed them the required letter of cancellation with a verification email to follow up. This is theft on their part. Horrible company to part business with. Do not use them or they will give you months of grief and steal your money!!!
Barry
April 2, 2012 at 1:58 pm (UTC -7)
NPC and Retriver both are the same, lies and vary small print. Was told I had 4 months to try and could cancel if not happy! Don’t think the salesman is not telling you a lie but He is!! And don’t buy their machine it will cost you around $1,564.46 dollars at the end of 4 years non-cancellable lease for a machine you can buy new for $149.99 to $199.99. The BBB will get a ear full and somebody may take this to court as a total act to stop small businesses from operating. Oh yes what is customer service, it is not setup to help, just to confuse and razzle dazzle the customer and cover up the bad company!!! If you do business with them get ready to be taken to the cleaners!
Pete
April 2, 2012 at 9:17 am (UTC -7)
Received call from Jason today. Called their company National Processing Company, 708-328-8748. I informed him that we were on the donotcall list, and to kindly remove us from their calling list. Jason informed me that he could not do that, since he got our number from the internet.
Ah, when you get the phone number from the internet, you are no longer required to follow the law?
At any rate, he offered me to talk to his superviser, named George. I agreed, and Jason hung up after a 15 second pause.
He refused to give his last name, and refused to even disclose the location of their business. Buyer beware. These are scammers, and operate under nasty pretenses, but that should not surprise you.
Inna
March 27, 2012 at 8:10 pm (UTC -7)
NPC is holding $1200 from an international transaction. Apparently I’m not allowed to have more than 50% of my transactions to be international. Nowhere in the contract does it say that! I had the customer return and provide me with their international address, telephone and even their passport photo. Apparently it’s not enough. They have to call the customer, and they did. Couldn’t reach them because the number is an overseas number. And I TOLD THEM!!! Now they are telling me that if they don’t release the transaction, I will have to request a different form of payment. Seriously! I’d have to go to Russia to collect my payment. So frustrating!
Dave
March 20, 2012 at 10:34 am (UTC -7)
I will never use NPC again. After signing me up on a new program to lower my discount fees, and assuring me that those mysterious fees that always seem to show up and jack-up your rate. Those fees showed up. I cancelled immediately. I was assured by the first rep I talked to that those fees would be refunded. I called a week later, and was told that they hadn’t received my fax and nothing had been done. I asked the rep to check again, and magically she found the fax. I was told that she would take care of it immediately. Here we are 45 days later. Just called NPC again and was told the last rep didn’t process the request.Sounds like the run-around to me.
How good a company is, can be determined be how that company handles complaints and customer complaints. NPC has failed at their handling of this issue. They owe me $114.95. If I owed them, they would be threatening legal action.
If you are looking for a no nonsense, east sign-up company that processes their deposits in a speedy manner, I have been really happy with squareup.com
Elnora Dillard
March 7, 2012 at 9:05 am (UTC -7)
NPC claims to have a grade of A+ with the Better Business Bureau but this company does not have a grade with the Better Business Bureau because they are not registered with them. Go check it out for yourself. I did. How can you believe anything they say when the whole business deal is alright as long as the customer stays naive, blind and dumb to their tricks . Oh but once the blinders come off and you find yourself a complete fool for trusting then you see the true company that you were deceived into doing business with. Lessons learned: If the print is so small that you don’t want to take time to read it, it’s printed that way for just that purpose. Never trust while doing business-just do business. If they say you don’t need to read that or you don’t need to worry about putting the date down or I’m here for you, it’s a lie. I have so many complaints that it’s ridiculous. Bottom line is I am now with a company that has much better rates and no lease for equipment at all and NPC is a black hole. Now that they are harassing me I reread the small print and found that even if I die this contract is cannot be cancelled and will go over to my heirs. Now what kind of mess is that considering I don’t even use their service or possess their equipment
Michael Dow
March 3, 2012 at 9:18 am (UTC -7)
The complaints above are all true — I tried to cancel, they didn’t do so. When I complained, they said that since I “didn’t cancel” (and I did, they just didn’t DO it) in time, that I was renewed for 3 years and that I had to pay a $250 “early termination” to cancel now.
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! There are MANY better, more trustworthy companies out there. These guys are slime balls and they know it.
Laura
February 21, 2012 at 10:47 am (UTC -7)
I am trying to figure out why this company is withdrawing money out of my acount twice a month. They told me that my interest rate would be .15 percent of every transaction and .20 cents processing fee per transaction but they didn’t tell me about all of the extra fees and extra percentages off that were being taken off on top of the .15 percent. Plus I have more then one person on my terminal and the girl that works for me was told that she wouldn’t get charged any monthly fees for her use of the machine and that it was already taken care of because I was paying it on my account and she also gets charged twice a month with fees. They will not call me back and I can’t ever seem to get in touch with anybody. I wish there was some way we could all file a lawsuit against this company. It might only put a small dent in there pockets but anything would help. Maybe let them see that it doesn’t feel so good when the shoe’s is on the other foot.
David Mount
January 24, 2012 at 9:12 am (UTC -7)
NPC has the worst customer service that I have ever seen in 20 years in business. I have left over three dozen messages to a Travis Stamper in their Risk Management department over the past six months and he refuses to call me back. They are holding over $5,000 in reserve (over a sham chargeback made by a customer) and refuse to release the funds even though I was told that the funds would be held in reserve no more than 6 months. In fact, Travis Stamper told me that a portion of the funds would be released in 3 months, which was a bold faced lie. This type of business practice would put most small business out of business. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND NPC TO ANYONE!
David Mount
Louisville, KY
Donna Sites
January 16, 2012 at 5:01 am (UTC -7)
I have had NPC as my credit card processor for over a decade. They are a black hole where you cannot communicate with anyone about any problem. The have repeatedly and consistantly ignored numerous requests over the years to provide verification for “non-qualified” transactions when I am frequently charged for “key entered” transactions that have never taken place.. I am charged $10.00 per month for a bogus “on file fee” (what can this be?) another $19.95 per month for a “security protection plan” that you must access from their website to avoid being charged, yet there is no where on their website to create a username or password and when I tried to get customer service on the phone, I was on hold (left it on speaker phone) for 3 1/2 hours. I recently had to buy a new terminal (over $200) and upon receipt I received a written communication I must return my old terminal (which I owned but had not purchased from them) or be charged an additional $189. for the new terminal (for a total of $389 for a terminal you can buy new anywhere for $150) and when I returned MY used terminal I would be charged another $25 fee (for what?). I tried for 5 days, left 11 messages to try to get help with understanding this, but could wait no longer for their answer because the terminal had to be shipped within 5 days to avoid being charged an additional $189. Last year when I changed banks, it took three months for them to make the change which required me to keep my old bank account open that much longer. Customer “service” with NPC is a joke. They make it so difficult to discontinue their service that I have just put up with them for years. I have finally had enough, I am going to find another processor today.
Debra Guenterberg
January 2, 2012 at 10:02 am (UTC -7)
This company also screwed me. The sales representative [name redacted] from Green Bay WI told me that I could cancel at anytime and not be charged any fees. I also requested a copy of the orginal merchant application I signed and he had changed the terms on this application. He also somehow got my signature on a non-cancelable 48 month contract. It had to be faudulently copied onto this, as I did not ever even see this contract. This business goes by so many names, and the FTC commission is investigated them….Beware of them….!!!!
cheryl
April 12, 2012 at 6:21 pm (UTC -7)
I was also scammed by this company. The sales rep from Retriever came to Crivitz, Wi and told me that our old machine was not PCI compliant (we later found out that is was), he did not tell us that we going to be involved with a 3rd party, which is Lease Capital Group or Lease Finance Group, he did not tell us about the additional $4.95 fee for insurance, he told us he would save us $60 – $80 a month even after we paid the $39.95 an month which was not true. We put a stop payment on our business checking account so they can no longer take anything from us and sent the machine back. 2 days ago the machine came back and they had refused it! we went back with our old credit card company and all is fine, I’m just waiting for the treatening phone calls to start. There’s a new guy that’s with [name redacted] that has been around town and he said he has gotten 8 businesses out of this lease and he’ll help me get out if I sign up with him. He’s seems like a great guy that really knows his stuff but I’m having a hard time trusting any of these credit card reps anymore. He also said that it is illegal, in Wisconsin, to had a non cancelable lease. Does anyone know if this is true? If it is, everyone in Wisconsin should be able to get out of this lease and hopefully a lot of other states have this law.
Pamela
December 30, 2011 at 9:04 am (UTC -7)
NPC imposes fees that are not in the original contract, but this is legal because the contract says that fees may change any time. So there you go. So when they added a $95 yearly fee, that was no big deal to them. I had tried to terminate my contract with them 2 weeks before it expired, but because they needed “processing time” the termination would not actually go through in time and then my contract would roll over to the next 3 year term. This meant I would be breaking my contract and would be charged a $250 fee. So I kept the contract and stopped all of my transactions with them. My intent was to then terminate at the end of the next 3 year term. This worked fine for 2 years. Then I got a bill charging me a $95 yearly service fee. A fee that I was never charged before. I was not making any transactions with them, so it seemed absurd to pay it. There were only about 7 months left on the contract and I convinced them to let me terminate without paying the $250 fee, but they insisted I pay the $95. Unfortunately, both my husband and I paid the fee, so we double paid! Now, I am trying to get reimbursed, which has been impossible. I just submitted a dispute to VISA, which is how my husband paid. Hopefully there will be some justice!
William Biggs
December 24, 2011 at 10:58 pm (UTC -7)
Worse company ever. We are pci compliant, yet they started charging ‘pcI non compliance fees’ at $20 per month. When I complained, and canceled the account, they charged $250 each for 3 accounts.
All this after I had been an excellent customer for 7 years. I am no in the process of canceling all my business with them.
My opinion is AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
Jennifer
October 21, 2011 at 9:32 pm (UTC -7)
I signed a contract with NPC to provide credit card payment processing services over 3 years ago. I canceled services to take advantage of another service that better fit my needs.
I was surprised to find that a few weeks later, $250 was taken out of my checking account by NPC without any notice. I called NPC to ask why they had taken money from my account and they informed me that my contract stated that if I opted out of the contract before the term of the contract was complete, I was subject to the $250 charge. They told me I had to cancel after 3 years to the month! The contract automatically renewed after that and I would have had to use NPC for over 2 more years to have another opportunity to cancel service without this fee. At no time had I been informed of this previously; not when I signed up for service; when the contract was up for renewal and not when I canceled service. Money was just taken from my account with out any communication or notice.
I promptly requested a copy of the contract. When I got it, I found a some text on the third page of the contract in a 4 or 5 font that said there was a $250 “early deconversion fee”. No where on the contract did it say how long the contract was valid or how to avoid the fee.
I am quite shocked that this sort of thing is perpetuated by such a large company and that my 3.5 years of using NPC’s services was so plainly unimportant. When I called, the service person made it clear that it was my own damn fault and that I should have paid more attention to the fine print.
Even worse, the new service I signed up for, unbeknownst to me, uses NPC for processing credit cards. Once I realized this I told NPC customer service that I had not in fact canceled service but unwittingly just transferred to a different NPC service, I was informed that I was still subject to the fee.
I only used this company because my father used it previously. He had the same experience and his history with NPC was even longer than mine. My comment here counts x 2. When my father complained to the BBB, the $250 was suddenly back in his account. I am hoping my complaint will produce the same results!
Eric Nordling
October 13, 2011 at 10:04 am (UTC -7)
Don’t listen to the npc sales people! They are slicker than oil.
This is dirty business with no concern for small businesses.
All the promises made ended up costing me huge when my book keeper had to unravel the mess npc processing made of my daily receipts.
When you talk to their call centers, they don’t know the terms of the contract and they tell you lies.
npc just raped my checking account for $750 and screwed up my payroll this week!
Marilyn Theel
September 21, 2011 at 9:32 am (UTC -7)
Hi,
I have been having the same problem and stopped payment through my bank. I have received another notice dated September 15th, 2011 and they are going to send me to a collection agency. I called the phone number listed at the Risk Management – Collections Department for NPC and he claimed we never notified them that our account was closed. However, I always mailed back our statements requesting $5.00 as”payment refused”. Today I was told that we still owe them $89.00 and I again told them that we will not pay this and we will turn them over to our Prepaid Legal department. He still told me that they are going to report us to the 3 credit bureaus.
These people have been the worst processing company I ever dealt with.
Kate
September 3, 2011 at 3:03 pm (UTC -7)
I could go on & on about how NPC is the worst credit card processing company. I signed a 3 year contract & when that ended, no one told me. After calling, they told me that since I didn’t write a letter to cancel 30 days before my contract expired, I was automatically renewed for another 3 years! I found another credit card processing company, that gave me a free credit card machine. Unfortunately, I’m still paying for another year on a machine that costs $110 a month(that NPC signed us up with). After I sent a cancellation letter, they are still debiting my account!! Yes, that’s right, no credits-just stealing my hard earned money because they have my bank account information. I have never been able to find the “right” person to speak with over the phone. They say someone will call you back, but no one ever does!! My rated for them-F-!
Maria Metzler
September 19, 2011 at 12:27 pm (UTC -7)
Hi,
I’ve had the same problem with me only I stopped payment through my bank and they are now threathening to send me to a collection agency. When I tried calling them, the collection department actually hung up on me. We cancelled service with them through the phone and email and they said it was not valid since I did not send them a letter with a signature. They never told me this until I called to complain that they were still withdrawing money from my account.
Its one of the worst customer service companies I have ever dealt with.