1st National Processing Review

Run away as fast as you can. We just got hit with a brand new, unannounced $100 annual fee. The money has already been taken from our bank account and they refuse to return it. There was no letter, no email, no bank statement announcement notifying us of the new fee. They say they sent out a letter a month ago, and that’s the end of it. The fact that we never received such a letter means nothing. They say that they looked at their costs and decided that they needed to charge a fee, so they just did it. The guy was quite nasty about it, and told me there was nothing I could do about it, they have the money and they’re not giving it back. The service rep stated that they have received many calls of complaints and they will not be refunding these fees to any of the customers. When I called Woodforest Bank, whom they use, the bank transferred my call right back to 1st National’s office. I got the same jerk on the phone. In the past, I’ve never been treated this way by them, and their reps have behaved decently. This guy was over the top nasty.

1st National Processing targets artisans and microbusineses in their advertising, which is we how came to use them several years ago. At the end of each year, we did cost comparisons of total annual charges, to see what we would have paid had we run cards through PayPal or Square. 1st National always came in higher, but with human customer service, we stayed with them. That changed this past January.

It is now mid-November. We kept 1st Nat as a backup, but have not used them more than once or twice since January. There were just too many times when we had to call because there were unexpected and confusing charges. Those were always resolved, but we got tired of it, and when they mistakenly charged us for one of their other customer’s fees, we were done. We saw that customer’s info on our statement. It’s a security breach. It’s cheaper to let our contract die off than pay their extortionate $300 kick-out fee.

There is not enough room to adequately express the issues with this company. It’s a scam, they are rude, they put you in touch with their fast talking east coast guy when you are not satisfied with the lower level canned answers you get from their less than helpful “reps” as they call themselves. You never know where you are calling, who you are actually talking to, and they keep charging your bank account even after you call to cancel the account. I had to call twice, once over a month ago, and then now again, but they conveniently stateed that they don’t have any notes int he system of my first call to cancel. I don’t use the machine because I use Square or Intuit where there are no PC compliance fees or any other hidden costs that are being charged to me by 1st national. I’ve been out of contract with them and don’t use the machine (that I own), but in talking with them, they couldn’t justify why they charged me over $152.00 in the last two months? It’s a scam. They put you on hold and pass you to different people in hopes that you will simply hang up and then another month passes and they charge you some more money that they can’t justify. They are stealing from unsuspecting small business owners like myself. It’s sinful. Their BBB rating, and numerous complaints certainly justify my comments here, but 1st national can’t seem to justify anything. What does that tell you about this company??? These companies are preying on people that don’t realize the alternatives that are available in today’s high tech world for accepting credit cards. I wish somehow this company could be shut down once and for all.