Aurora Payments 2023: Card Processing Reviews & Complaints

Aurora Payments logo
4
full star full star full star full star empty star

How did they treat you? ▼

Company Overview

Aurora Payments is a full-service merchant account provider based in Tempe, Arizona. According to their website, Aurora Payments has existed since around 2005, operating most of that time as Applied Merchant Services. AMS was a smaller payment provider that was able to secure large volumes of merchant accounts with their acquisitions of Entrust Bankcard and Bancard Systems, Inc around 2015.

In 2018, Sabin Burrell of BlueSquare Resolutions and Jeff Brodsly of Chosen Payments joined with Brian Goudie (formerly of First Data, which is now Fiserv) to become partners under a new parent company, Aurora Solutions. BlueSquare Resolutions had already added large amounts of clients to their portfolio through prolific acquisitions including Electronic Processing Solutions LLC, Merchant Select Services, Discount Payment Services, e-Pay Commerce, Data One Payment Solutions, Secure Choice Merchant Solutions, ProPoint Card Services, and Diverse Payment Solutions.

Aurora has continued to acquire small to medium-sized payment providers to grow its client portfolio. Since the rebrand, they have acquired Harmony Pay, Altiras, and FMPS, and rebranded Chosen Payments as “an Aurora Company”, but the Chosen Payments brand has been allowed to continue operating for the time being. Aurora boasts that it serves over 23,000 merchant accounts and $8 billion in yearly processing volume.

In 2022, private equity firm Corsair purchased a majority stake in Aurora Payments. Aurora also bought One Payments in 2022 and NailSoft in 2023.

Aurora Payments Payment Processing

Aurora Payments processes most major debit and credit cards for most business types. Their services include POS systems, EMV/PIN card readers, employee and inventory management tools, data reporting and analysis, business funding, cash discounts, gift and loyalty programs, and mobile solutions.

Online Payment Gateway from Aurora Payments

Aurora Payments offers an online payment gateway to businesses. This service enables businesses to accept and process payments through their websites, providing a secure and efficient method for handling online transactions.

Point of Sale Systems by Aurora Payments

The company also provides point of sale (POS) systems. These systems are used in physical retail locations to process credit card transactions, track sales, manage inventory, and handle other retail-related tasks.

Mobile Payment Solutions by Aurora Payments

Aurora Payments delivers mobile payment solutions. These allow businesses to process credit card transactions using mobile devices, making it easier for businesses with mobile or remote operations to accept card payments.

Aurora Payments' Fraud Protection Services

To enhance the security of transactions, Aurora Payments offers fraud protection services. These services aim to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions, providing an additional layer of security to businesses and their customers.

Location & Ownership

Aurora Payments is a registered ISO and FSP of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Concord, CA; Esquire Bank, Jericho, NY;  Elavon, Inc., N.A., Atlanta, Georgia; Evolve Bank & Trust, Memphis, TN.; Merrick Bank, South Jordan, UT; and Deutsche Bank AG, New York, NY. Aurora Payments Bank is headquartered at 1095 W Rio Salado Pkwy Ste 104, Tempe, AZ 85281. Brian Goudie is listed as the company’s CEO.

Aurora Payments payment processing
Aurora Payments offers most standard payment processing services
Pros & Cons
Pros: Cons:
Competitive Rates: Structured fee system focusing on merchant profitability. Mixed Reviews: Some users report negative experiences and issues with service.
Diverse Industry Support: Offers services across various sectors including retail and hospitality. Variable Contract Terms: Rates and terms are not publicly listed and vary.
Cutting-Edge Technology: Provides over 100 integrations for seamless user experience. ion Penalties: Contracts may include early termination fees.
Customizable Solutions: Tailors solutions to fit specific business needs. Cancellat Equipment Leasing: Leasing options available, which might not suit all.
US-Based Support: Offers 24/7 in-house customer and technical support. Limited Transparency: Lack of clarity in contract details and provisions.

Aurora Payments Customer Reviews

Here's What Their Clients Say

Customer Reviews Summary
Total Online Complaints Few
Live Customer Support Yes
Most Common Complaint (As AMS) Unauthorized Charges
Recent Lawsuits No

Few Online Complaints

Aurora appears to still be consolidating some of its recent acquisitions, so it’s difficult to find Aurora Payments reviews. We have received a few on this profile recently, some of which mention concerning behavior. There are many more Aurora Payments reviews related to companies acquired by Aurora, but we will not factor those into our review. If any of our readers have an Aurora Payments review to make, we encourage them to comment below.

As Applied Merchant Systems

We did find several complaints related to Applied Merchant Systems, all concerning AMS continuing to bill clients after service cancellation. The complaints also detailed very poor customer service interactions.

Aurora Payments Lawsuits and Fines

We have not found any outstanding class-action lawsuits or FTC complaints filed against Aurora Payments. However, it appears that a former employee named Sabon Burrell has been sued by the company in what may be a concerning situation. Details are still unclear, but it seems that Burrell has a history of being sued over alleged cons and worked for Aurora for a while. Dissatisfied clients who wish to pursue a non-litigious course of action against the company should consider reporting it to the relevant supervisory organizations and by leaving a review of your own in the comment section of this article below.

Aurora Payments Customer Support Options

Aurora Payments offers 24/7 phone support to all of its merchant accounts, which is standard practice for companies of their size.

Aurora Payments Customer Service Numbers

  • (833) 287-6722 – General Customer Service

Other Support Options

  • Customer support form
  • Live chat

We have not seen any indication that Aurora Payments goes above and beyond standard customer support options and will grade them “B” at this time.

Aurora Payments Online Ratings

Here's How They Rate Online

Online Ratings Summary
BBB Reports 7

Profile Being Updated

Aurora Payments has been in business for 18 years according to The Better Business Bureau, primarily under the name Applied Payment Systems. The company has an “A-” rating with the BBB, with 6 complaints in the last 3 years.

What Merchants Say

Aurora Payments has received 1 review through the BBB, which is negative. The most recent negative review describes poor customer service and issues with payments:

Worst Company Ever! Do NOT use them! In 3 months they have wasted hours of my time and cost my thousands of dollars!I can’t process payments properly, their customer service is terrible…please save yourself the headache and NEVER work with this company!

A “B” Performance Overall

Taking into consideration the company’s low complaint total and high resolution rate, we have slightly adjusted the BBB’s grade to a “B” at this time.

Aurora Payments Fees, Rates & Costs

A Closer Look at The Contract

Cost & Fees Summary
Cancellation Penalties Yes
Monthly & Annual Fees Likely
Processing Rates Variable
Equipment Leasing Yes

Partnered with Elavon, Fiserv, and TSYS

Aurora Payments has partnered with many of the larger payment backend providers such as Elavon, Fiserv (formerly First Data), and TSYS. The Aurora Payments contracts could potentially include some of the standards we find in those companies’ contracts, like a $295 early termination fee and locked 4-year equipment agreements. If you have more information on Aurora Payments rates or fees, please contribute to this article by leaving a comment below.

Variable Contract Terms

Like many payment providers, Aurora Payments does not publicly list its rates. With the plethora of partnerships that Aurora has with other major service providers like Fiserv, Elavon, and TSYS, we will assume that some of their contracts could include rates familiar with these other companies. These companies utilize variable contract rates based on company size, type, and volume processed.

Negotiate Contract Pricing

We have not been able to find an Aurora Payments contract at this time. Businesses that have recently signed up for payment services through Aurora Payments are encouraged to leave a comment below describing their experience. Business owners are again encouraged to negotiate pricing and contract terms and to read all contracts thoroughly before signing in these cases. We also encourage businesses to check out our list of the providers of the best merchant accounts.

Aurora Payments Employee Reviews & Sales Tacitcs

Should You Work For Them?

Jobs & Marketing Summary
Uses Independent Resellers No
Telemarketing No
Misleading Marketing No
Discloses All Important Provisions No

No Independent Sales Teams

We have found no indication that Aurora Payments utilizes independent agents. This compares favorably to our list of best credit card processors. Job postings listed online have been for in-house and dedicated sales professionals.

Aurora Payments Contract Terms

Aurora Payments has openly announced their partnerships with Fiserv, Elavon, and TSYS. For more information on their particular contract details, we invite our readers to review the individual payment provider profiles.

Our Aurora Payments Review Summary

Our Final Thoughts

Aurora Payments is among several new large full-service credit card processing providers that have formed out of mass acquisitions and mergers of mid to small-sized payment companies. Aurora’s precursor companies didn’t have an overwhelming amount of complaints or lawsuits associated, and they did not have bad reputations overall. However, Aurora Payments will have to work to provide more clarity for contract details to receive any higher rating than 4-stars at this time. We look forward to reviewing them again once the brand has solidified.

If you found this article helpful, please share it!

Which is Most Important for You?

If you had to pick one, which quality would you say will be the most important with your next credit card processor? Tap or click your selection to register your vote:

  1. Low Transaction Fees
  2. No Monthly Fees
  3. No Contract
  4. Reliable Customer Support
  5. Quick Signup

Testimonials & Complaints

How Did Aurora Payments Treat You?

5 User Reviews

  • Shirley

    Shirley boyd Inc

    The credit card company is not professional. They treak you into some shady contracts and then make you pay them monthly fee without even having a contract with them. If you would like to choose a payment system, go dirrectly to first data, Clover is the best pos you can find in us. This people buying merchant accounts from them and resell. Customers believe they are getting best deal from them but is is not so. If you want to lose your money you can proceed with them.

  • Kipp Webb

    Bonefish Lodge

    Our small LLC has a fishing lodge in The Bahamas purchased in 2019, so it’s a new business. We signed on with Aurora for bookings credit card processing. We also receive revenue from fishing bookings companies that don’t go through our credit card account. It’s been a hell of a start up with a Hurricane and then the pandemic. We had to refund some bookings as travel was not possible for awhile.

    In Feb. 2021 Aurora blocked our account. They allege they sent us an email saying they wanted info on a refund. We never received that email. However we continued to get reports from them showing transactions and their charges but no mention our account had been blocked. In the reports is a page highlighted in red with the caption “Important Information about your account” and none of the reports state our account had been blocked.

    For a variety of reasons including the fact the Credit card receipts are not the main source of our revenue it wasn’t discovered until last week we weren’t getting paid by Aurora.
    It took me 17 hours to finally get a rep after calls, emails, and chat requests.
    Finally I got a courtesy response and initially the rep. didn’t know why we weren’t receiving our revenue. As we sorted this out we discovered since Feb. our revenue was going to an investment account in CA. We both thought someone had hacked our account.

    Several hours later the rep. emails me back informing me of the block as a cause.
    I was referred to the “risk department” and their emails despite using words like I found this and that is signed risk department with no person’s name. I was told the reason our account was blocked this long is because we failed to respond to an email to us from Feb.
    As I said we never received an email. I asked for the email and was sent an email with no header or date. I asked for the metadata on that email in the form of the emails native format. Thus far they haven’t complied.

    So currently it appears our account was blocked without informing us and they seemed to have no intention of informing on the monthly reports, while they still processed our credit card charges and sent those funds to their investment account in another state.

    I have asked for answers from Aurora about this activity but they are stonewalling.
    Interestingly once I raised this issues I was told our account would be unblocked immediately.

    So this activity begs the question, was this company blocking our account without notifying us and depositing that revenue over the last 7 months in an investment account in another state to profit from blocking our account? I certainly hope not but I’m worried it might be true and the company is stonewalling. If this is true how wide spread might it be?

  • C. Tang

    Boiling Cajun Shrimp

    In November of 2020, our restaurant Boiling Cajun Shrimp stopped processing with Aurora Payments, and suspended use of the account. At that time one of our associates had contacted Aurora Payments regarding issues with our bill and the lack of customer service support. We received an email from customer service manager Charles stating that Aurora Payments had taken over our accounts from Pearl Payments which is who we signed
    up with back in 2018. Charles also went on to tell us in his email he would be researching for us why our Clover Service Fee was so high ($273 a month for 3 Clover Stations, one of which wasn’t even working). He also let us know that he could handle all of our needs including cancellation if we so chose. After switching to another provider (who is saving us hundreds a month), we sent Charles an email saying we wanted to cancel. We continued to get billed for8 months of inactivity costing us $3,990.12 in fees. We were paying $450 to $650 a month despite not using their service. Avoid Aurora Payments!

Tell Us How They Treated You

Sharing your experience influences our rating and helps other business owners make informed decisions. Please take a moment to tell us if they are serving you well. Your email address will never be published, shared or sold. We only use it to authenticate that you are a real person and, if you select the option for it, to let you know if someone replies to your comment. Required fields are marked *

Comments must contain details about your experience. Please do not use ALL CAPS. Self-promotion, marketing content, or contact information of any kind will not be published. By submitting a comment, you are agreeing to our Comment Policy

Copyright

Copyright © 2024 CardPaymentOptions.com, Inc. (Digital Fingerprint: 0d38c6720f0d78a701b74d58653af608). Getting paid to re-write this page? Click here to earn a reward.

Any unauthorized copying and reproduction of the content of this page, including all meta data and computer code, is strictly prohibited. While the information in the above article is believed to be accurate as of its publish date, the author and publisher make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contents. The author and publisher shall in no event be held liable to any party for any direct, indirect, punitive, special, incidental or other consequential damages arising directly or indirectly from any use of this material, which is provided “as is,” and without warranties. Any and all use of trade names and/or marks are for identification purposes only and shall not be construed as a claim of affiliation, or otherwise, with CardPaymentOptions.com, Inc. ("CPO") in any form. The sole purpose of the material presented herein is to alert, educate, and inform readers. It is not intended as legal or financial advice. We may earn revenue if you obtain services from a provider that we recommend. See this page to learn how we support our operations.