North American Bancard
Review Updated: 12/14/2011
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North American Bancard Overview
North American Bancard Logo
North American Bancard (nabacard.com) is a large merchant account provider based in Troy, Michigan. The company began operations in 1992 and has grown to be one of the larger merchant services providers in the United States. North American Bancard (NAB) specializes in providing the credit card processing services of actual direct processors including First Data and Global Payments. Despite acting as a reseller, NAB services its merchant customers directly with its own in-house customer support. The company also recently launched a mobile processing service called Pay Anywhere to compete with the popular Square and GoPayment smartphone credit card processing apps.
NAB is sponsored by HSBC Bank USA, National Association, Buffalo, NY and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Walnut Creek, CA as its Acquiring Banks.
North American Bancard Sales Tactics & Marketing Strategy | D
This reviewer found only one instance of slightly deceptive rate quoting in which NAB advertises its “Qualified” rates without disclosing its “Mid-Qualified” and “Non-Qualified” tiers that 50+% of transactions will fall into. NAB does, however, state which type of transactions will receive the Qualified rate, which is more than what most other providers do.
NABs biggest downfall seems to be in its other marketing practices. In particular, the company appears to be somewhat of a “hiring mill” that relies heavily on recruiting outside independent agents and resellers. This practice often results in problems for merchants and damage to a provider’s reputation because the sales practices of the resellers are hard to control. In NAB’s case, It appears that its agents are poorly trained on the terms the merchant account contract, incented to sell expensive accounts in exchange for large commissions, and that the underwriting process is doing a poor job of preventing rogue agents from scamming merchants.
North American Bancard Fees, Costs & Contract Terms | C
NAB advertises rates on its website but, in actuality, merchants can expect their rates to vary on a variety of factors including their business type, processing volume, and the agent setting up the account. Additionally, NAB has a standard service length agreement of 36 months with a $250 early cancellation fee (ETF) that is automatically debited from a merchant’s checking account. A $250 ETF is lower than industry averages but a few merchants have complained of receiving higher cancellation fees. Another factor that can raise an ETF is if a merchant is leasing a credit card terminal, so this reviewer always advises buying equipment and never leasing.
Learn everything you need to know about rates and how to get the lowest fess in, “Fee Sweep: How to Get the Merchant Services You Need Without Getting Scammed.”
North American Bancard Complaints & Service | D
NAB has a moderate-to-high number of complaints filed online, many of which are filed with the Better Business Bureau (covered in the next section of this review). The company appears to be diligent about responding and attempting to resolve issues with those who have complained publicly; however, NAB would fare much better in this review if it did a better job of preventing the problems that are causing the complaints.
Many of the complaints report difficulty resolving issues prior to filing a public report. The common problems that merchants state are deceptive agents, hidden fees, sudden rises in fees shortly after service begins, and non-disclosure of the service length agreement and early termination fee. Nearly all of these problems can be traced back to agents who fail to verbally disclose important terms of the contract. These agents are either unaware of the terms, or rely on merchants to read the fine print instead of disclosing terms upfront during the account setup.
North American Bancard BBB Report | D (CPO Adjusted)
As of this update, the Better Business Bureau is reporting that NAB has been accredited since 2001. Astoundingly, that BBB is awarding NAB an “A+” rating despite 400 complaints filed in the last 36 months, of which 184 have been filed in the last 12 months. Of the complaints, 240 are regarding problems with products and services, 106 with billing and collection, 44 with advertising and sales issues, and the remaining are spread across delivery and guarantee/warranty issues. Of the 400, 63 were not resolved to the merchants’ satisfaction.
This reviewer can only assume that the BBB grade is an error or artificially inflated because no other providers have scored as well with so many complaints. Therefore, based on the complaint count and resolution ratio, we are adjusting the rating to a “D” for the purposes of this review. You can learn more about why we adjust BBB ratings in our rating criteria.
Bottom Line
North American Bancard appears to be suffering most of the damage to its reputation due to its outside sales agents. The company could improve its rating by enacting tighter controls of its sales and underwriting policies, removing its early termination fee, and greatly reducing future complaints.
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38 comments
Keli Sindelar
May 15, 2012 at 9:51 am (UTC -7)
http://www.bbb.org/detroit/Business-Reviews/credit-card-processing-service/north-american-bancard-in-troy-mi-27000275/
I just went online to BBB myself and they’re rating is A+.
Phillip Parker
May 15, 2012 at 10:51 am (UTC -7)
As stated in the review, if you read our rating criteria, we adjust the rating for the purposes of our grading in some cases.
Kalena
May 14, 2012 at 7:53 am (UTC -7)
I have a new complaint to add and I’m sure you will all find this interesting. I worked with North American Bancard until around six years ago when I canceled my account and switched my processing to Wells Fargo. Fast Forward to April 2012 when I receive a bill from North American Bancard for $101 that has already been automatically removed from my checking account! I called their customer service and explained to them that I do not have any account with their company and was told that my account had never been canceled?! The three customer service representatives I spoke to repeated over and over that I would need to fill out a request for cancellation form and return it to their company. I refused to do that because that would be somehow acknowledging that their was any merit to their argument.
I have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commision and I hope that any other companies with a similar problem will do the same. When you work with a Credit Card Processor, they have access to your personal information including direct access to you checking account. This information should not be hanging around in their files for them to use as a slush fund whenever they desire. One more point I would like to make…As a merchant I am required to secure my customers data, you would think a processing company would be required to do the same!
Tom Rush
May 11, 2012 at 3:28 pm (UTC -7)
DON’T ANYONE SIGN ON WITH THIS COMPANY. THEY ARE UNETHICAL, NON-RESPONSIVE, AND THEY ENGAGE IN UNLAWFUL BUSINESS TACTICS. i had nothing but problems with this company and the customer service department from the first day i signed up. so after 3 months, i canceled my accounts with North American Bancard. that is when the real nightmare began. they said i would be charged a cancellation fee of $890 PER ACCOUNT!!! I then explained to them that my salesperson who signed me up told me i would not be subject to any cancellation fee if i decided to stop using them. i also explained i never signed anything saying there would be a fee. they then sent me a contract that i supposedly signed. but it turns out my salesperson ONLY SENT ME THE FIRST PAGE TO INITIAL, AND THE LAST PAGE TO SIGN! SHE DID NOT SEND ME THE 8 PAGES IN BETWEEN! One of those pages said there would be a cancellation fee, but i did not initial that page. turns out i was a victim of a BAIT AND SWITCH BY THIS DISREPUTABLE AND DISHONEST COMPANY. not only did my saleperson tell me there would be no cancellation fee, but i never received or initialed any part of a contracft except the first an last page of the contract! all of my phone calls and emails fell on deaf ears. employees promised to call me back and they never did. Supervisors promised to call me back and they never did. and finally, nobody answered any of my emails regarding the fact that i never saw or signed a contract agreeing to a cancellation fee. now, the company has withdrawn their $1980 in fees from my corporate checking account, and now i have to take them to court to try and get my money back. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY – THEY ARE THE WORST IN THE BUSINESS!
Tom Rush
Rush’s Inc.
Minneapolis, MN
phone: 612-250-2163
debbie
May 9, 2012 at 2:26 pm (UTC -7)
I wish that I had read these listings prior to setting up an account. I got sucked into high fees and contracts that I was unaware of. I want out but the agent never returns my calls. He must be watching the caller ID. I will take the hit of the cancellation fee because this company is grossly fraudulent.
Shukyo Mithuna
May 3, 2012 at 12:04 pm (UTC -7)
I have just spent over an hour with North American Bancard trying to reverse charges on my Business credit card merchant services account and I AM FURIOUS!!!!!! My contract for their merchant card services expired April 23, 2012, and they are claiming that because I did not read the SMALL print that says I have to fax in a letter to close my account, they will not REFUND the $126. they robbed from my account—nevermind that my contract had expired . Have you ever heard of an acccount remaining open after it expires???
TO ED SCHULTZ and RACHEL MADDOW of MSMBC (post on their facebook page) and ALL OF MY FRIENDS, FAMILY and ASSOCIATES (posted to my facebook page) , STAND UP AGAINST THE DAILY TYRANNY OF THE BANKS OF THE WORLD—move your money to credit unions. WHO WILL STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH ME AND THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT????
Sam
April 20, 2012 at 5:19 pm (UTC -7)
Here’s how their sales team works.
When they get you on the phone they tell you about 2 rates each with a $0.19 transaction fee. The first is for swiped debit and the other for swiped credit. Those rates change constantly, so I won’t lay them out here. Then, they tell you about the monthly fee. “That’s it!” They say.
What they don’t tell you, and they do this to hook new businesses, is the fees for rewards cards, business cards and the rare government cards. They leave out batch fee’s and additional fees for monthly minimums, PCI fees… You literally have to ask about all other fees. Their philosophy is basically to not teach their agents the pricing. This is handed down by the manager. Don’t talk about pricing and tell them how awesome of a company they are instead. 24 hour customer service, 24 hour tech support etc… They want to win you over with all that instead of being up front about fee’s that are not necessarily hidden because they are on the contract you sign. Rather, the omit telling you about it. They do their best to get you to sign.
The company president is friends with the head of the BBB and that’s how they get their A+ Rating with the better business bureau. Which has shaken my faith with the BBB.
They have other programs and services. Such as PayAnywhere AKA Phoneswipe (you’re better off with Square or Intuit and Match Rate Plus. Match Rate Plus is basically a pyramid scheme for merchants. You sign up, then get your friends and their business to sign up and so on. It fits the definition of a pyramid scheme.
They also operate under the name Advanced Payment Solutions. In addition, they don;t care if sales reps are rude. Many businesses call to complain after finding out they’ve been duped. There sales team will be terrible to you right back. They expect sales agents to make 200+ cold calls a day with a cold calling machine they have and give their agents fancy titles like “Senior Account Executive” which is essentially just a guy with very little education who can talk fast.
Your best bet, avoid this company and stick with your bank. They at least have standards.
RLF
April 21, 2012 at 11:43 am (UTC -7)
I don’t know who Sam has dealt with at NAB. His experience with his NAB agent may have very well gone much as he described. However, the vast majority of NABs sales team consists of independent outside agents. As an independent agent, there is no formal training program from NAB. There are no sales quotas, nor a manager calling you every day to see how many sales you made. They do make basic product and sales training available, but nowhere in any of the training materials do they encourage agents to be deceptive in any way about the pricing for accounts. In fact, the agent agreement is very explicit that FULL DISCLOSURE of all rates and fees is expected and required.
Advanced Payment Solutions and Match Rate Plus are independent companies that associate with NAB as agents, the same as any individual salesperson might. They are NOT subsidiaries of NAB, and their policies or business practices are not endorsed by NAB other than that they must follow the same rules as any other contracted agent.
As for Sam’s experience, in all likelihood, he probably dealt with an agent that had prior experience in the payments industry and was trained to sell that way. No sales manager I know of at NAB would tolerate what he described if they knew about it, much less train other agents to sell that way. That’s what many agents in this industry are doing to their customers, and the reason it’s so easy for me personally to convert new customers is because I offer an experience 180 degrees opposite of that. I myself was trained by an agent who sells for NAB, and I don’t do anything like what he describes. It’s unfortunate because as a merchant, you really have no way of knowing ahead of time that the agent you’re dealing with is simply an authorized agent and not actually a well-trained employee of the company unless someone like me happens to come along and tell you. It’s detrimental to the company’s brand when this happens, but unfortunately the independent sales force is the model that most companies in this industry operate by (except for the large banks, but they typically aren’t any different when it comes to their sales practices anyway).
I can only hope that his experience will help educate others here about what to look for in a good agent, and don’t make any assumptions about how he’s going to behave or deal with you just based on the company he’s selling for because that often doesn’t have much to do with it.
Lorie
April 12, 2012 at 12:10 pm (UTC -7)
poorly trained or unethical agents wants fight with customer who has questions about mysterious charges on the statement. I am canceling my account with them after I talk with terriable customer service agent. Watch out for their charges!!! Never Again.
Ron Fleming
April 9, 2012 at 10:29 am (UTC -7)
As an agent for NAB, I would agree with the thrust of this review that the vast majority of issues with NAB stem from poorly trained or unethical agents. However, those issues are not unique to NAB. As with any sales profession, merchant services relies heavily on the honesty, integrity, knowledge and professionalism of the individual salesperson to make sure that the client receives exactly what they expect to receive and that there are no unpleasant surprises. And if the company management is more concerned with turning a tidy profit than doing business ethically and in a transparent, upfront manner, then that’s exactly how the agents will behave.
A merchant is no likely to get a better deal, or to thoroughly understand the terms of his or her contract in dealing with a large bank, who would typically maintain much tighter control of their salesforce, than with an independent agent. It comes down to the individual’s integrity, and whether management supports him in doing ethical business by paying a fair share of the commissions and not imposing unreasonable sales targets that force him to overprice or desperately chase business to meet monthly quotas. Often the processors who most tightly micromanage their employees are the least attractive to knowledgeable and enterprising professionals, who get into this industry to get away from the whip-cracking boss.
Just like big banks don’t necessarily give better service than credit unions, or major franchise plumbers don’t always do better than a local independent guy, employee merchant services agents of large banks are not necessarily better than independent ones. You just have to take the time to investigate the individual, and use your basic intuition and street smarts to judge his character before agreeing to do business with him, just like you would with any other service provider.
Sharon Douglas
March 28, 2012 at 10:17 am (UTC -7)
I wish I too had known about the complaints. Sales agent was very deceptive. I had my own cc machine before signing on with these people. I had no idea that I was signing on to rent a machine on top of all the fees that Bancard charges. My sales to not go into my business account for sometimes up to 5 days later. I try to call tech support for machine issues and can NEVER get a response!!! Now we are stuck in this stupid contract and the big guys are once again stomping on us little guys in small business!!! There was an extra 18.00 charge on my account today from LOGI Lease……The Charge??? The tax man takes them on their property……so they pass this on to us when they get the bill!!!!! STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!!! I am contacting my representitive to at least make another complaint…..and the BBB!
RLF
April 9, 2012 at 11:09 am (UTC -7)
I know you would have like to have heard this a day before you met your particular NAB agent, but NEVER sign a lease for a credit card terminal, unless your accountant (or likely your accounting department) has told you it’s in your best financial interests to do so. As anything other than a large corporation needing to install 100′s of terminals at once across many locations, it will almost never make financial sense. The average credit card terminal costs $300 brand new in the box from any number of equipment outlets; the standard lease is $39 over 48 months or $1,872. As you might imagine, about 85% of that is pure profit, most of it directly to the agent, paid the same week he signs the contract. Contrary to what you might have been told, NAB can reprogram 95% of all terminals out their to work with their service, and in all likelihood, your terminal ISN’T out of compliance. He just wants to make more money leasing you a new one.
And even if you couldn’t afford to buy the terminal new yourself, NAB actually offers a free terminal for as long as you maintain an active processing account with them (if you cancel, just send the machine back). Of course the agent didn’t tell you that because the company pays him a $100 bonus if he doesn’t provide a free terminal when setting up the account. There are other, more equitable ways for him to recoup that money, but with a $1,400 commission on the table for selling you an outrageously expensive lease you didn’t need, his greed got the best of him.
LCS
March 6, 2012 at 10:24 am (UTC -7)
Stay far away from this company. I wish I had read this article before signing on with them, they are crooks, could care less about what you are told, take on extra fees and charges, have horrible customer service that could care less about its merchant’s satisfaction. There is poor tech support and training to use your equipment, your salesman disappears into nowhere, you get put on hold forever when you call or get transfered, even to an operator. I spent over an hour and a half trying to find out why I was never paid for the charges I accepted, was told I will have to pay $5 per transaction to find out the information. I have had no communication from the company since last September, none what so ever. Looks like 5 customers got my merchandise for free and I have already paid over 500 to NA Bancard for NOTHING!
DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY!!!!!
Val Hebbe
March 6, 2012 at 8:18 am (UTC -7)
Is there anyone in the North American Bancard company who understands what customer service is? I have my doubts! Can a company as big as NAB really provide the LACK OF CUSTOMER SERVICE? Yes, they sure are. If you are a small busines you are having to wait at least 10 days to get your statement. Try their customer service number and you are on hold for 7 minutes then they tell you to leave your number and they will call you back. When? Is the question! My only option will be to look for another company which should not be too hard.
RLF
April 9, 2012 at 10:59 am (UTC -7)
The next time you hire a sales agent to set up your processing, ask for his personal cell phone number and ask whether he will always return your call, on the same day during standard business hours if you have any issue with your services. I offer that at a minimum to every single client I do business with (actually 24/7 to my clients, but I understand if every credit card processing salesman doesn’t want to take calls from a bar owner at 1 AM about his terminal not working properly). The agent gets an ongoing commission from the fees you pay each and every month to process credit transactions – I think they should PERSONALLY offer some type of service in return for that compensation, or either agree to refund to you *permanently* their share of the ongoing commissions once you’re up and running.
Joseph Cirino
February 24, 2012 at 7:09 am (UTC -7)
North American Bancard are scammers, ripoff and they just suck you dry financially. My contract is up on March 16, 2012 and they are slamming me with a $295.00 early termination fee plus they had $275.00 on hold since May of 2011. They used that money to pay monthly fees plus other associated fees that go with it, but you have to read the 3 page fine print that they give which nobody reads plus you need a magnifying glass to read it.
Al
February 5, 2012 at 5:57 am (UTC -7)
Our relationship with this company was good for the first couple of years. Then they introduced “Biz Perks” which turned out to be an “auto enrollment” scam set up by them to bring in more money. We opted out right away, but they still managed to debit our account the 9.95 fee. We called to complain and the did credit us back the charge. Then, they decided out of the blue that charging us a 10 dollar monthly fee was not enough. They jacked our monthly fee overnight to 25 dollars per month, which is outrageous by credit card provider standards. We called to cancel our account at which time we were informed that they could “reduce” our rate back to 10 dollars per month. We still opted out. We signed and sent in our cancellation letter. To no surprise, they did not cancel our account until several days into the next month, which allowed them to debit our account another monthly service charge. The following month, our account was debited again the monthly fee, despite confirmation that our account was closed. They even denied debiting our account, for which we have proof that they did. They have since declined to respond to our email inquiry regarding this debit. We were forced to go to our bank and submit this debit as fraud. If they debit us again, we will be forced to put a block on them from debiting our account again. Our bank will charge us 35 dollars for this, which we should never have had to do. It is my feeling that this company wishes to force out customers who dont meet their quota of a certain amount of transactions per year. We feel that they have a “blank check” to our checking account and will continue to debit us whenever they feel like, despite our signed cancellation letter. We started to get the impression it was all about the bottom line with this company. Now that we have opted out, they have proven it to us.
Kay
February 4, 2012 at 3:47 am (UTC -7)
It’s astounding to me, as a business owner, the lack of accountability from the business owners listed here. Regardless of if the company is good or bad, it is your job as a business owner, and a person who is freely providing your social security number and checking account number, to make sure you fully understand the details of such an important venture. I have an account with NAB and although some improvements need to be made with the customer service, I can never say that I was scammed because I read each page of the agreement. The agent tried to pull some funny business by not giving me all of the pages of the agreement but because I was READING I noted that the center pages were missing and refused to move forward until I got them. If you feel scammed, blame yourself for focusing on dollar signs and not using baseline business wisdom. They are a good company.
Elisse cortez
February 4, 2012 at 11:09 pm (UTC -7)
You must be a company employee or someone invested in this business.
You would have to have studied contractual law to understand the 10 pages that where given. Yes it makes us responsible by law but I have never had a company misrepresent themselves in such a reprehensible a way. Aperantly you are smarter than most to have understood the fact that pages were missing.They tried to pull one over on you but that is OK because you caught it? No good honest company does that. I have been in business for over 30 years and I can tell you that is not normal nor good in any way. Companies should be able to get their business honestly. It is unfortunate that it is not and so I am here to warn those that are doing the research to be very careful with this one.
If you are an independant contractor or a small business then I recommend Square. An app on Smart phones with no contract, no fees and a high rate of 2.75%. At least you know what you get. by the time I added fees and everything in, I averaged 3.6%-10% with NAB.
And customer service? Please, don’t insult us. It needs more than improvements. I could not access my account for 3 months. It would say account does not exist, yet I was charges $37.00 for not using it!
“Blame yourself for focusing on dollar signs” REALLY!!! Go to a reputable business not a shark ready to steal you blind AFTER breaking your leg.
Kay
February 5, 2012 at 1:47 am (UTC -7)
I don’t need to study contractual law to ask questions. If I don’t understand, then I’m not signing. That goes for credit card processing or a supermarket receipt. That’s just smart. Everyone is out to make a dollar and everyone protects their best interest, so I was to make meaning decisions for my business and not get roped into something confusing just because I’m too busy to investigate. You’re suffering now so just leave to do better for your business and yourself in the future.
Elisse Cortez
February 5, 2012 at 11:41 am (UTC -7)
I asked the representative all the right questions. Myself and 15 of my co-workers are all unhappy because we were told that the ONLY fee would be a $7 service fee and a rate of1.59%. I asked directly if there were any other fees hidden or otherwise and was told “no”. We were told that by signing a 3 year contract, they could keep our rates and fees low. We asked all the right questions, but the company. Was misrepresented and we were lied to. It is the company that should be responsible for insuring that their agents represent the company properly. Any other contract I have signed was represented clearly and have not ever had this sort of problem. I am glad that you are “smart” and have not had these troubles, but it does not excuse what has happened to us.
There is no suffering going on, just the need to warn others to be wary of getting involved with this company and a long unnecessary contract. So many other company’s do not do this and are a much better choice. It is great that you are happy. So too am I now. Just not with North American Bancard.
Ron F
April 9, 2012 at 10:53 am (UTC -7)
I’m an agent of NAB, and I understand where you are coming from. I operate in a large metropolitan market where there are literally thousands of agents representing almost every processor doing business, and I’ve seen more than one case where an NAB agent has screwed a merchant. Notice that I don’t say fellow agent, because I personally have nothing in common with anyone who does business that way other than that we happen to have the same company name on our brochures and applications.
Now, as has been pointed out, if you’re going to sign a contract for what is essentially a banking service, you do bear some level of responsibility to ensure that you understand what you’re signing and what you’re getting into. But as a professional who has seen the inside of this industry, I will freely admit that virtually NO company in the entire industry has as a corporate policy to educate customers first, so that they can make the most informed decision possible. The model is more “just get them to trust you any way you can so that you can close the deal, and then we’ll take care of them.”
But there are agents out there – working with NAB and other processors as well – who do business with the utmost level of integrity, transparency, and fiduciary responsibility to every single one of their clients. I myself came into merchant services from another industry where we were required by law to operate that way. I can assure you that there are no NAB policies or training at the corporate level that encourage any unscrupulous behavior whatsoever. But it comes down to the individual, how and by whom they are trained, and how seriously they take their profession whether or not they take the time to properly explain ALL the terms and costs of the contract to you before you sign. I always do because I couldn’t imagine waking up every morning to screw over another fellow small business owner – or fellow human being for that matter. But not every NAB agent does, just like not every agent at any other company in this industry or any other you can name.
Many companies that sell commoditized services such as credit card processing employ largely independently contracted salesforces because it’s very expensive to train sales people properly and subsidize them until they have the necessary experience to be profitable for the company. And it’s extremely difficult to identify ahead of time who will be good at sales; companies spend billions of dollars consulting on how to do that very thing. The companies rely on the fact that those who don’t take the time to learn their profession or who lack the necessary sales skills to succeed in this industry will fall off before they can do too much harm to the company, and overall, I don’t think NAB has a worse share of bad apples than any other large company in this industry. It’s unfortunate that some people will get burned by these guys, but for those of us who are serious professionals and do business in an ethical manner, it’s just an opportunity to win a new client over by doing right by them from the beginning.
Luis
February 3, 2012 at 6:00 pm (UTC -7)
Terrible companie. I was told by an “agent” they cold them agents but they really are liars. I asked this agent like 5 times if I had any kind of agreement. She told me no. after 3 months I discovered that I have a contract for 3 years and a lease in the machine for other 3 years. The costumer service is wort nothing. they dont even have costumer service in spanish. Dont get this companie. You will have a lot of trouble
Brenda
February 2, 2012 at 6:33 am (UTC -7)
I have been using North american bancard and they are constantly charging my account 119.00 a month when all they are only supposed to be charging me 15$ a month for non usage. They keep telling me I have to pay an outrageous fee to get out of the contract and they refuse to give me my contract showing my termination date. Everytime I ask I get another date that is further away from the last one. HORRIBLE COMPANY!!!! DO NOT USE!!!! THEY WILL JUST CHARGE YOUR ACCOUNT WITHOUT YOUR APPROVAL AND YOU WILL HAVE TO FIGHT THE BANK TO GET IT BACK!!!!!
Elisse Cortez
February 1, 2012 at 10:37 am (UTC -7)
When an agent from NAB came to our salon, we were promised that it was only a 7$ monthly fee, 1.59% rate. I asked specifically if there were any other fees or charges and was told no.
We did not get copy of the original contract. We were told it would be sent and it never was. We were told the reason they could offer a great rate is due to a standard (turns out not to be standard) 3 year contract. Upon bill review there were fees for everything. Debit use fee, batch fees, PCI compliance fees and more. PCI compliance is if you are using a PC and we are not.
When I called the company to complain about these issues, I was given the run around with a fast talking agent. After a very frustrating conversation I was sent an altered copy of the original. I was told the only way out of this was to pay $960.00. A co worker was told buy out was $200.00 before signing.
I know there was a fee for low or no use, but that exact amount was not given. They stopped sending statements and I could not access my account on their online site. It stated that the merchant acct # does not exist. The fee was $37.00 a month for non use.
I and about 15 of my co-workers are all very unhappy. We are independently contracted small businesses. We cannot absorb these types of fees.
I tried to write a letter and thought they were going to be nice and close the account without further trouble, only to be surprised 2 days later with a email saying they were debiting my account for early termination without my approval.
It is a misfortune for this company that we are being so badly treated. If they had been reasonable, many of the employees would have embraced using the company for their transactions at the front desk. We have 60 stylists and many other employees that would benefit from this. I discourage every new employee and recommend they get Square now. The money that this company, had they been honest and fair, would have been great with this big a group. It is beyond me why they think that doing bad business is better.
Now I will be sending out a warning on every blog site that I can to help others avoid this trouble. I am happy for those that like it but for the small merchants that are being taken advantage of I must speak!
I have noticed a note on some complaint boards for a class action lawsuit. Does it really have to come down to that for this company to be fair and competitive in the market?
Eric
November 14, 2011 at 8:19 pm (UTC -7)
After reading these reviews, I’m feeling pretty lucky about getting away from these scammers when I did. NAB was the 1st credit card processing service that I tried. I accepted their sales pitch and signed the contract. BIG MISTAKE. At first, the extra charges seemed reasonable and not worth a complaint. Then, one day, my bookkeeper went over my merchant service accounts and noticed that the monthly charges had increased even though my company’s credit card charges decreased. The sales pitch guaranteed “THE LOWEST RATES IN THE INDUSTRY” with “NO HIDDEN FEES.” You will notice that they mention the PCI fee as something that every merchant service provider is charging. NOT TRUE. When I terminated my contract with them, they then tried to debit my company’s checking account for a further $145.21 even though they assured me of NO EARLY TERMINATION FEES. The reason that I’m writing this review is that upon opening the mail today, I received a collection notice from a co. called Allen & Associates that lists NAB as having placed my account with them for collection. I closed my account because they steal, cheat, lie and provide lousy equipment. Now, I’m going to sue them.
Kimberly
December 10, 2011 at 8:11 pm (UTC -7)
If you want to put together a class action suit, count me in! They have just recently debited my account 3 separate charges: $495, $300 and $295. All in one day, They literally used my checking account as their personal ATM. I am now way over drawn on my account as I have hundreds of $35 bank charges to boot! I want to SUE them sooo badly!!
I am single mother and they have literally taken the food off our table. I can’t even buy groceries right now. They completely screwed me. I am so livid and depressed right now.
Jay
November 14, 2011 at 1:46 pm (UTC -7)
I am a small business owner, and have been a North American Bancard (NAB) customer. I’m a bit surprised at the amount of negative comments here, as my experience with NAB was pretty much an excellent one, if rather uneventful. What I mean is that they did what I expected them to do, there were rarely any problems in them doing such, and my experience with them was fairly seamless.
There were RARE occasions where my terminal would screw up, the wait on the phone for customer service was lengthy but the problem would always be solved, and if that was the least of my worries then call me happy. They handled my processing at a competitive rate, and never had any hidden fees. They were also flexible about my rates, as whenever another processor would call to quote me some rates, if they were ever cheaper (which honestly was rare) then NAB would match or beat the rates. The only real downside is when they started assessing that yearly PCI compliance fee. I understand that all processors are now required to do this PCI thing (which by the way is nothing but an unregulated, non-mandated scam by VISA/MC to get more fees out of merchants), but that $100 fee cuts into my bottom line & pisses me off to no end. But outside of this, I can say that NAB has met & in some cases even exceeded my expectations.
Now, I see alot of reviews here about people getting fees & such that they didn’t know about. Unfortunately, I can only say that is their own fault for not reading & understanding the contract they signed. To be honest, I am fairly knowledgeable & very shrewd when it comes to credit card processing, but that comes from lots of research after having been burned long ago. However, that time I was burned was my own fault for not being informed about what I was getting into, and what to expect. But I learned that with card processing (like any aspect of your business), you need to make INFORMED decisions, not just decisions. You HAVE to do your research!!! Ask all the right questions, and you’ll never meet an unexpected situation.
Have a conversation with the Rep/Salesperson before you sign the contract & ask all those crazy questions you can possibly think of. MAKE them explain to you the details of any fees or assessorials. Ask them the “what if” questions. Essentially, make the Rep do their job. If you don’t’ understand the wording on your contract or a fee on your bill, MAKE THEM EXPLAIN IT IN PLAIN ENGLISH UNTIL YOU DO. They are trying to make the sale, so MAKE THEM make it. Don’t make it for them by just signing based on their initial pitch & rate quote.
I guarantee that if you are informed, it not only prevents problems with service satisfaction, but also GIVES YOU BARGAINING LEVERAGE. My gaining knowledge on how this whole thing works has saved me thousands of dollars, as I was able to negotiate a ridiculous rate (around 2% of **TOTAL VOLUME**), and a service agreement that has ZERO EXTRA FEES. I basically pay my 2% and THATS IT. You can to, just DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Hope this helps!
Wilbert
October 18, 2011 at 12:24 pm (UTC -7)
By far the worst credit card transaction company. They are bunch of scammers who send you hidden fees every month and lock you in contracts. Don’t make the mistake we did by signing the contract with this company. Never said on front that it is for 3 years, one young woman called Mimi Moresteanu, came to our office, to offer the service, we found 3 months later that she shown to us only 2 pages of the 10 pages original contract, and a person named Maurice Hall thinks he owns the company and the whole world, poor judgment and very low education, it sound like an idiot, a ghetto person, what a shame to hire people like him.
Roger Semro
October 18, 2011 at 10:55 am (UTC -7)
Absolutely the worst company to deal with.
We signed on because there representative had been working for a year trying to get a program that would work seamlessly with Quickbooks. NABancard said there system would work with Quickbooks with no problem. We signed up in December 2010, we installed there software and we tried to make it work but it was so complicated that it was to difficult to use. We cancelled in January 2011 and they refunded our $129.95 set put fee. I sent them a cancellation letter in Feburary and I received a reply via email from there representative that our account had been cancelled. We are still getting deductions from our account. They told us that they did not have the correct form and that as soon as they had the correct form they would cancel. We sent them the correct form because now the letter that I wrote and the confirmed cancelation from there representative in February is not good enough. I received a letter September 9th 2011 confirming the cancelation and they still billed me on September 29th 2011. They also said that they could only credit 4 months worth of charges but they still continue to bill us.
We never even processed one transation.
Jay Reed
September 22, 2011 at 9:52 pm (UTC -7)
North American Bancard is a awsome company. They gave me free equipment and told the truth about processing. They saved my company over 300.oo a month and gave a full detailed ledger of my savings. By the way I had ten different companies review my processing statements and North American killed the others.
Thanks! For the huge Savings….
Carol
July 18, 2011 at 11:47 am (UTC -7)
These people are a rip off. DO NOT sign a contract with them for processing as you will have to keep paying them even if you no longer have a business. They will just keep debiting your account forever unless you close it.
Try Merchant Warehouse, Squareup, or some other company that has some integrity in order to meet your credit card processing needs.
Zijo Nils
July 11, 2011 at 11:05 am (UTC -7)
Terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, company. Canceling the account was the last option for me since I know it will take a lot of my time to switch merchants. But I finally god fed up, and decided to dedicate whatever time is needed just to get rid of them. Their methods make me sick to my stomach.
Now they made canceling the account a very hard task. Today I’m in the third day of trying just simply cancel my account.
If you care about your time or money, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, even think about signing up with NorthAmerican Bancard.
jessica
May 17, 2011 at 11:52 am (UTC -7)
HORRIBLE company! Worst customer service. They bungle EVERYTHING. They send the wrong forms, they misspell important words, they put you on hold forever, they charge hidden fees. I HATE dealing with them and can’t wait to switch.
awful, awful, awful company!!!
Erjon
May 4, 2011 at 8:12 pm (UTC -7)
This is the worst credit card transaction company. They are bunch of scammers who send you hidden fees every month and lock you in contracts. Don’t make the mistake we did by signing the contract with this company.
Julie
January 26, 2011 at 11:02 am (UTC -7)
This company makes it’s profits by scamming people. I called and asked my account be closed in October 2010. The representative assured me it would be done in the next 30 days. She did not mention that I had to send a signed statement indicating I wanted the account closed.
I called when I got another notification in December that my bank account had been debited $35.00 (normally 25.00) and was told that because I did not return the signed statement (never mentioned) , my account was still active. I informed both the operator, Michelle, and her manager Sheila, that I was never told I needed such statement and one had certainly never been sent to me. They happily emailed me a copy of said statement, acknowledged my call in October requesting the account be closed but refused to refund me the December withdrawl.
I know $35.00 is not a huge sum of money, but I stopped using these North American Bancard two years ago because the service was unbelievably poor and I lost money on transactions. Unfortunately I was in a contract and paid the monthly fee. Now that I can finally “get out” they use deceptive tactics to squeeze as much money out of me as possible. More than likely they will debit my account in January as it “takes up 30 days” for the account to show inactive.
Some of this is my fault for not researching this company in more depth, however, since googling fraud and North American Bancard and reading the many complaints from people who DID do all their homework, yet were still scammed, I am not sure any amount of research would make a difference. Learn from us and DO NOT do business with this company. They have no integrity.
HEATHER
September 1, 2011 at 4:01 pm (UTC -7)
HELLO JULIE, WOW I ALMOST MADE A VERY BAD DECISION YESTERDAY AND I DID NOT DO MY OWN HOME WORK, MY BOSS SCHEDULED AN APPT WITH THIS COMPANY SO NEEDLESS TO SAY A YOUNG MAN SHOWED UP AT MY OFFICE AND MADE THINGS SEEM LIKE THIS COMPANY HAD OUR BEST INTEREST IN MIND, WRONG. AFTER READING YOUR COMMENT I AM VERY THANKFUL I SENT HIM PACKING INFACT MY BANK IS NOW OFFERING GREAT RATES FOR OUR COMPANY WICH THEY SHOULD HAVE ALREADY DONE BUT ITS A BANK AND THEY ALSO ARE ALL ABOUT THE MONEY. IT JUST MAKES MORE SINCE TO ME TO KEEP OUR FINANCES IN ONE GENERAL AREA “THE BANK” IM TAKING IN YOUR ADVISE. THIS COMPANY SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEM SELVES. THE REP WAS VERY ADAMANT ABOUT MAKING A DECISION IMMEDIATLEY AND THAT ALSO WAS VERY BOTHERSOME AND NOW READING ALL THESE COMMENTS IM VERY GREATFUL AND RELIEVED.
Amanda Holloway
November 16, 2010 at 6:43 am (UTC -7)
I sold some equipment in two charges of $1000. This exceeded my “transaction key limit” and so NA Bancard put the second $1000 charge into the ozone somewhere and I was routed to the Risk Department. The person their who thinks she owns NABancard is named Deanna.
I have provided all the information requested including my customer’s phone number but Deanna is sitting on my transaction because of??? An attitude? Low pay? So now my customer has the merchandise at 50% of the agreed price. Thanks NA Bancard. You suck.