Overview
Founded in 1998, CDG Commerce (cdgcommerce.com) is a well-established merchant account provider based out of Chesapeake, Virginia, with a west coast office in San Pedro, California. CDG appears to focus solely on providing credit card processing services, and it offers a wide range of products including wireless and e-commerce processing solutions. Additionally, the company has its own payment gateway and virtual terminal called the “Quantum Gateway.” CDG Commerce is a registered ISO/MSP of Columbus Bank & Trust, Columbus, Georgia, and the First National Bank of Omaha, 1620 Dodge St., Omaha, Nebraska. The co-founder and CEO of CDG Commerce is Chris West.
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Phillip’s Top “High-Risk” Processing Picks
CDG Commerce Bottom Line
CDG Commerce is one of the best-rated providers that this reviewer has researched. The company offers transparent pricing, multiple services for most business needs, and month-to-month contracts. CDG also appears to provide active, professional customer support to nearly all of its merchants. For more information, visit CDG’s Website or call (888) 393-1079.
About Phillip Parker
Hi, I’m Phillip and I’m disgusted by the state of credit card processing in the U.S. and abroad. I believe that the industry has been overrun by people who engage in fraud and deception in order to steal money from hard working business owners. I’ve made it my mission to expose the companies and individuals who engage in predatory marketing, pricing, and contracts, or just provide terrible service. Along with uncovering the bad guys, I’ve also discovered the good guys who do stand out from the status quo. CPO is a website where you will find ratings and reviews of these companies along with advice on how to save money and which service providers consider. Together we can move the industry in a positive direction. If you would like to help support my work, please checkout “Fee Sweep” my eGuide to getting the lowest possible fees when accepting card payments. If you haven’t heard of “interchange” this advice will save you hundreds, even thousands, in processing fees.
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I can’t help feel a bit run around by CDGcommerce all. After trying to get an account setup for a month, the process was reset by a missing signature, and caused further, unnecessary delays. Thanks for the run around, CDG, with layer after layer of redundant hoops to jump through. It was a real displeasure. Another processor got us up and running in a week.
I was lured in with low percentages, that didn’t turn out to be much cheaper than anywhere else. I explained that our business is an event, and that sales would be spikey and seasonal. They are currently holding our funds captive, even after we’ve provided all the transaction information, event information, and even the bank statements they asked for. 0/10, will not use again. Switching back to our old provider ASAP.
My nonprofit that operates in four national park visitor centers was about to sign up with CDGcommerce, based on reviews from this site and others, a web host’s recommendation of their Quantum Gateway for PCI compliance, and possible later addition of Harbortouch Echo POS.
We switched to a credit card processor through the Michigan Nonprofit Association in 2011 that has since transitioned through three mergers/acquisitions. Each of the five processors we’ve dealt with has had one monthly fee (usually $10) and one statement for up to four credit card terminals and our website.
Chats and email exchanges with CDG staff were very helpful, but we were shocked to learn that their bank’s agreement with Visa/MasterCard requires them to charge fees for each terminal/location, which would mean $40/mo. instead of $10. Is that the case with other processors?
Despite the stellar reviews, which were supported by my initial contacts with CDG, I was hacked within 24 hours of filling out the online application. I didn’t complete the application right away, and immediately received an auto generated email that contained an htttps: secure link to resume the application process. The following night I went back into the application using the secure link and found that all of my info, including a pdf of the incomplete application with all of my info, were directly accessible with no further identity validation other than having clicked on that secure link.
Within 5 hours, I received the following text message from an unknown phone number in Connecticut:
hello how are you doing? my name is Mark Donald, i will like to know if you can Work on my Newly Accomplish House, and do you accept Credit Card
The only possible vector for this hack was either an email interception or an attack on the server. The most likely is an email interception which included a valid link for anyone who could intercept it.
I advised CDG of the attack, and have asked them to remove my info from the system, but they are no longer responding nor have they removed my info. This is an unfortunate black mark against the stellar reviews.
CDG is not all that. In fact, I wonder now if it pays this site for its high ratings. I applied for a merchant account for my law firm and was told I qualified and given a quote. I chose to go with CDG and turned down every other provider. Upon setting up my account, CDG told me I couldn’t have an online gateway because my account was too risky. What? I’ve billed over $2 million through my former merchant account provider and never had a single charge back or fraudulent charge. Doesn’t sound very risky to me. And, why didn’t CDG bother to bring this up until after I had started the application process? Now I’m back to square one and I have to go back to the other providers that I turned now and sheepishly tell them I’d like another chance. It’s a very disappointing situation. I think CDG deserves an F, not a A.
CDGcommerce respects the confidentiality of all merchant applicants and as such, we can’t comment on the details of a specific applicant.
That said, I can comment generally to the fact that we do work with many law firms across the country and have great relationships processing for them.
There are a few subsets of law firms that do require additional review and bank sponsor approval.
Bankruptcy law is one category and while it is straightforward to underwrite bankruptcy lawyers for card present processing, there are some complexities that can arise when it comes to online processing for that specific type of law firm.
For the most part, businesses behave well in “normal” or standard situations and transactions, and the better business behave exceptionally well in the difficult ones. CDG does poorly in the latter. Their chargeback management includes a hidden trigger they call a “pledge holder” which can double the amount of funds they withhold or actually debit your account: chargeback amount plus that amount again. The “pledge hold” allows them to interrupt batch transmissions, and go into your account to remove the chargeback amount. They can take two weeks or more to resolve because they have no control – they are beholden to the bank they use and want the merchant account to cover any potential issues for them (business insurance?) “Pledge holds” are removed at their discretion: they notify an account after they take the action and continue to make transactions on the merchant account freely without advance notice. After merchant signs a pledge not to come after them, then they will release funds. CDG may be good for start-ups because of their low cost, but you’ll pay in the end because they lack the depth and control businesses need as they grow and business can become a little more complex.
Regarding the above comment, ALL merchant processors maintain risk management & chargeback monitoring departments. It is a necessity of the business to protect all of the parties involved.
CDGcommerce works with a large number of very high volume merchants and businesses that have significant annual – and even monthly – growth rates.
These are ideal accounts for us to acquire and work with and they represent the bulk of our portfolio’s volume.
Our fee structure is certainly very friendly for small and startup merchants but it makes sense for us to structure it that way because we have seen time and time again that a startup merchant today will become a high growth merchant tomorrow.
It isn’t really a question of whether a risk issue will ever pop up with any merchant of size, scale or rapid growth… rather the question should be: how does the processor handle such matters?
In the case of CDGcommerce, we truly look at each situation on a case-by-case basis with human analysis and work with the merchant to quickly resolve it. Statistically, most of our risk issues are closed within 1-2 days and sometimes it is even a same day resolution.
I saw CDG’s stellar reviews online and made the switch from Wells Fargo. My terminal arrived last week, and as I needed some assistance in setting up the machine I called their technical support line. I was disappointed to discover that their technical support department consists of an answering machine. I’ve left three messages in the last 2 days and still cannot get the terminal to print the correct phone number. More importantly, the terminal has not settled my batch and seems to require a password to do so. I was never issued a password. After reading the A+ and 5-star reviews, I have to say I’m a little disappointed, and I’m beginning to think they are just a bunch of sheisters like every other merchant processor of dealt with in the last 15 years.
I am the CEO and co-founder of CDGcommerce and the above post was brought to my attention by our staff. I would like to reach out to whomever the merchant in question was here to see if I can personally ensure that your matters are successfully resolved. Our reputation has been earned by always putting our clients needs as our top priority and that is the philosophy that our business has been operating on for 15 years.
Please contact our support team at 888-586-3346 x3 and reference this post and ask to be connected directly to me. Without knowing your merchant name or other information I can’t pull up any information on your account but please rest assured that we stand by each and every one of our merchants, 100% and there is nothing more important to us than customer service and always taking care of every single one of our merchants. I look forward to making sure that you get immediate assistance with any of your credit card terminal issues!
We have been with a lot of merchant providers in the past and CDG is one of the only true, honest companies we have found. They don’t have any long term contracts or huge termination fees like most providers, and your monthly fees will never go up. Refreshing to not have to worry about all the hidden fees.