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Elavon Review

Phillip Parker
Phillip Parker

I was tired of watching unethical merchant services companies take advantage of unsuspecting business owners, so I built this website and wrote hundreds of reviews to expose their shady business practices.

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Elavon Overview

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Rating

3.0/5
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Website
(800) 725-1243

Most Recent Comment

  • zachary kelman:
    "Mike Peterson with elavon Out of Montana, Will flat out lie to you $14 a month 7cents a transaction Equates to $2000 for 2 years of busine..." Read More
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Rating:
3.0/5
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View Rates & Fees
(800) 725-1243

Most Recent Comment

  • zachary kelman:
    "Mike Peterson with elavon Out of Montana, Will flat out lie to you $14 a month 7cents a transaction Equates to $2000 for 2 years of busine..." Read More
    Reply Leave Your Own Comment
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A Major U.S. Credit Card Processor

Elavon is one of the largest merchant account providers in the United States. The company was formed in 2011 from a merger of NOVA Information Systems and euroConex and is part of U.S. Bank’s (U.S. Bancorp’s) payment services division. Elavon is headquartered at Two Concourse Parkway, Suite 800, Atlanta, GA 30328. The company has been active in the credit card processing industry since 1991. Jamie Walker has been the CEO of Elavon since being appointed to the role in 2017.

Active Across the World

Elavon claims to serve over one million merchants worldwide, with a primary focus in North America and Europe. The company’s equipment lease subsidiary, Ladco Leasing, is a major supplier of credit card terminals and other payment processing equipment. Elavon also has its own online payment gateway called InternetSecure and can integrate with other gateways such as Authorize.net. For international businesses, the company offers multi-currency merchant services such as settlement in 16 currencies, authorization in 85+ currencies, and conversion into the cardholder’s home currency in 48 different currencies.

Elavon Review Table of Contents

  • Costs & Contract: Elavon offers a multi-year contract with an early termination fee.
  • Complaints & Service: Elavon has received more than 500 public complaints.
  • BBB Rating: Elavon has an “A+” rating despite having received 123 complaints and 19 reviews in the past 3 years. The company has been accredited by the Better Business Bureau since 2009.
  • Sales & Marketing: Elavon hires independent sales agents and has received a low-to-moderate number of complaints about its sales practices.
  • Rates & Fees: How Merchants Got The Best Rates With Elavon
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Elavon Rates, Fees, and Costs

Elavon Rates, Fees, and Costs

Cost Summary

Swipe Rate 2.65% + $0.19
Keyed-In Rate 3.50% + $0.19
Virtual Terminal Rate Up to #.5% + $0.30
Payment Gateway Fee Up to $25
Early Termination Fee $295+
PCI Compliance Fee $29 to $59 Per Month
Monthly Fee $10
Mobile Terminal Equipment Cost $89
Countertop Terminal Equipment Cost $270
Equipment Lease Terms 48 Month (locked)

Contract Terms Will Vary

Elavon’s offers two different pricing models, one for contracts leasing a counter-top point-of-sale terminal and the other for its mobile alternative. Both contracts charge a swipe rate of 2.65% + $0.19 or a keyed-in rate of 3.50% + $0.19 per transaction.

Elavon also includes a convoluted early termination fee which its contract lists as “greater of the total fees paid by Customer during the twelve months immediately prior to termination, or the total fees that would be payable by Customer during the twelve months immediately following termination.”

Virtual Terminal and Payment Gateway Pricing

In addition to its storefront payment processing services, Elavon also dedicates a portion of its website that advertises its virtual terminal and payment gateway, dubbed Converge. However, pricing on either of those services is not disclosed. Merchant reviews reflect that rates for transactions through the gateway range between 0.75% to 3.5% plus $0.30 as well as a payment gateway fee as much as $25 per month. Additional rates and fees, including technical support fees, batch fees, and additional transaction rates typically apply to these e-commerce services.

Previous Termination Fees

The current calculation of its early termination fee is a change from its previous fees. Prior to February 2013, the company’s standard merchant account contract included a three-year service agreement with a $295 early termination fee if canceled within the first year, or $195 if canceled within the second or third year. Elavon also formerly charged PCI Compliance fees that varied from $29 to $59 per month; however, the company’s recent promises of no more “hidden fees” would seem to indicate that it has abandoned this practice. As of our previous update, Elavon’s current monthly fee was listed as $10.

Long-Term Equipment Leases From Ladco

Elavon offers smaller sized businesses the opportunity to purchase a mobile terminal for $89 and countertop terminals for $270. However, the company continues to own and operate the equipment lease provider Ladco Leasing for enterprise-scale business. The leasing company has an abysmal reputation among merchants.

The standard Ladco Leasing agreement is an expensive, non-cancellable 48-month equipment lease that often costs up to ten times the actual price of the equipment. Elavon seems to go to great lengths to conceal the relationship between Ladco and Elavon, probably due to the fact that there are very few positive reviews of Ladco to be found online. However, it is Elavon’s insistence on leasing equipment through Ladco that keeps it from being a top-rated merchant account provider.

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Elavon BBB Rating Summary

BBB Summary

Product/Service Complaints 70
Billing/Collection Complaints 46
Advertising/Sales Complaints 6
Guarantee/Warranty Complaints 0
Delivery Complaints 1

Note: We have adjusted this company’s BBB rating according to our own standards. To better understand why we adjust BBB ratings, please see our Rating Criteria.

Over 100 Complaints

As of this update, the Better Business Bureau is awarding Elavon an “A+” rating despite the fact that the company has received 123 complaints in the last 36 months. Of the total complaints, 46 are due to billing and collection issues, 70 to problems regarding products and services, 6 to advertising and sales issues, and 1 is related to delivery problems. 41 of these complaints have been resolved by the company while the remaining 82 were resolved to the dissatisfaction of the merchant.

What Merchants Say

Elavon has also received 19 informal reviews, all but 1 which are negative in tone. A recent review from a merchant details difficulty canceling an account, poor customer service, and accusations of fraud:

I didn’t make any transactions through Elavon but still got charge a monthly fee for 7ish years. No, I didn’t catch it (oops), but that’s not my issue with them. When I finally noticed these charges, I contacted Elavon immediately to cancel the charges (March 2020). In the same phone conversation I asked for a copy of the my original contract with them. They said they’d submit a request to receive it…. over the next few months they were silent and not helpful. I had to keep pursuing the conversation; I felt they didn’t want to get me the contract. Finally, in June 2020, I talked to someone who said their company policy doesn’t allow them to give me the original contract. I asked when that policy was created and they told me May 2020. Now, I felt something fishy was going on. A couple months later (yes, I wanted a couple more months) I contacted my lawyer to help me obtain the original contract and he did just that. Guess what, the signature on the original contract didn’t match my signature at the time (I found a signature from an LLC paper during the same time period). The signatures weren’t even close to the same. My lawyer told me that this would go jury trial and take a long time. I chose to drop the case (I chose time over money) for that reason. Long story short, Elavon may or may not have had permission to draw money from my account, but the reason for the review was terrible communication and poor professionalism. Elavon IS NOT in the mood to discuss the issue with me. Though, they’ve been “professional” with their words and could reply to this review with a compelling argument to why they’re right, they’re wrong. I just want proof they had permission to charge my account… that’s it. Show me and I’ll delete the review. Until then, it will stay here.

Taking steps to cancel an account without paying a fee can aid merchants from avoiding situations like the one described above.

A “C” Performance Overall

We have adjusted the BBB’s rating to a “C” for the purposes of this review based on how our criteria would have scored Elavon.

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Truth In Marketing & Advertising

Key Points

Uses Independent Resellers Yes
Promotes Deceptive Rates No
Discloses All Important Provisions No

An Army of Resellers

Elavon relies heavily upon resellers, sub-ISOs, independent agents, and partnerships to market and sell its credit card processing services. This marketing strategy is common among large merchant account providers and can often prove harmful to a company’s reputation, as it appears to have done for Elavon. Specifically, the company has received a large number of complaints related to undisclosed fees and leasing terms.

Partnered With Costco

One of the company’s most notable resellers is the grocer and retailer Costco. In fact, Costco Merchant Services is often mistaken as its own credit card processing company when it is simply acting as a sales agent of Elavon. Merchants who use Costco Merchant Services often complain that they expected to receive the usual wholesale costs that Costco is known for, and that they were surprised when they encountered Elavon’s industry-standard pricing. In our estimation, Costco and Sam’s Club do not rank among the best low-budget merchant accounts.

No Dirty Tricks

Elavon does not appear to use any deceptive advertising or rate quoting tactics on its website. As of our last update of this review, the company had recently added a pricing page that lists specific rate quotes, promising 2.65% plus $0.19 on swiped transactions and 3.5% plus $0.19 on keyed-in payments. These rates seem to apply to both credit card terminals and mobile processing. The company also listed a $10 monthly fee on this page. Although this pricing page now redirects to the company’s product offerings page, these rates and fees do not appear to be misleadingly quoted at this time.

The Agent Makes the Difference

Most of Elavon’s accounts are established by resellers who use their own sales and marketing strategies. In a few cases, it is apparent that some of Elavon’s resellers are using misleading tactics based on reports from merchants. The company and its resellers are also notorious for signing merchants up for expensive, non-cancellable equipment leases through Ladco Leasing as part of their merchant services packages. Elavon usually enforces the terms of the lease agreement even when merchants claim that they were deceived by an agent.

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Sales & Marketing Example

Our Opinion Of Elavon

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Decent for Large Businesses, Poor for Small Businesses

Elavon is one of the largest credit card processors in the world. As a result, this processor seems to be a better fit for businesses with high processing volumes ($100,000+ per month) and/or ones that need international payment acceptance. Although the company has numerous complaints, it serves over one million merchants globally and is bound to have a few unhappy customers. Due to this processor’s large size, we have set Elavon’s rating to a “C” since most businesses processing less than $100k per month would be better served by smaller providers that are able to supply better customer service for their size. Very small businesses are encouraged to check out seasonal merchant accounts or mobile card processing apps rather than Elavon. Elavon can improve its score by enacting more favorable leasing policies and by resolving complaints before they become public.

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Why I'm Qualified to Write About Credit Card Processing

I’m a small business owner who previously worked in the credit card processing industry. I started this blog in 2009 to help other business owners by exposing credit card processors that engage in unethical marketing, rate and fee trickery, and fine-print-contract schemes. Over the last decade, I’ve reviewed hundreds of merchant services providers which has helped to educate over 5 million businesses on the nuances of credit and debit card acceptance. I’ve appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Inc. Magazine and a host of other publications to offer insight on the subject of card acceptance. 

I offer merchant account and credit card processing consultation for the following needs:

  • Selecting the right credit card processing services for your business.
  • Reducing credit card processing fees with your current merchant account provider.
  • Negotiating credit card processing fees when changing merchant accounts.
  • Strategies for reducing and recovering funding holds and chargebacks.

 

Schedule a call with me today!

 

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Company is garbage! After opening my 8th location with them, they hit my credit 3 times on the last location, even after paying in full for the machines.
Debit machine wasn’t up for my grand opening and they had a week to get it up and running. Customer service is CRAP along with their rates. This company doesn’t give a sh*t. Save your money and time!

This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Great Customer Service

-Phillip

1
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Mike Peterson with elavon Out of Montana, Will flat out lie to you
$14 a month 7cents a transaction
Equates to $2000 for 2 years of business.
12k+ in fees later
He’s sorry for the lack of clarification.
DO NOT USE ELAVON.
THEY WILL SCAM YOU TO DEATH!
we are a small business father and son run, we have less than that percentage of mark up, we signed up with him because our bank recommended him as the person.. after researching what he had told me for fees he sounded great.
Usually when somethings too good to be true it is
When you ask for them to explain it to you why it’s raised so much vs what he originally told you he can’t clarify anything. “Will have to ask his processing team”
He is the salesman and knows nothing about the fees associated. He just knows how to line his pockets and make himself look successful and the down fall of small businesses like mine.
He is a horrible person!
Will never do business with them as long as I live.
F elavon!!!!

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Great falls coin and more
0
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I see these are comments from people who use their services but for me it’s much simpler. Why do we need to make a company rich off of transaction fees? My DMV fees are already high. I work 2 jobs so going to DMV is out of the question so I must renew online. Attached to an already overly charge for new tags is this elavon charge for $6 and change more ontop. Just to transfer money. This charge is a legal scam and just more proof that if you’re legally criminal you can do whatever you want. F elavon and state of CA!

0
Reply

Please find another company than getting Elavon…i had a client made a payment but it was an error and tried it again but it’s the same error….(i asked my client to pay cash instead because the machine doesnt work) but my client came back to me the ff day that the error we made it turns out that was deducted from her bank account twice…(as a business owner i paid her the money right away, as i will collect it from Elavon…but honestly for the amount of $56.00 Elavon wont even pay me back for the sake that i am good customer for about 4 years…

0
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Do not ever deal with Elavon. I have been trying to contact someone for 4 months about my account and left NUMEROUS messages. Nothing pisses me off more when a voice message says “I will return your call shortly”, and no one EVER calls me back. Worst customer service I have ever seen!

0
Reply

Elavon suspended payments to my business because they were hacked and allowed someone to make small deposits to my account as a probe for a stolen credit card number. I’ve tried to call customer service to have my account restored, but have been on hold for over an hour. Contacting them via Twitter gets a “we’re so sorry. Keep holding is your only option” reply. How a company like this stays in business is a wonder to me.

0
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THEY ARE IDIOTS! MY BUSINESS HAD THEM FOR YEARS, THEN A CUSTOMER PAID A LARGE INVOICE, ELAVON STARTED HOLDING MY MONEY, CLAIMED THEY NEEDED MY CUSTOMERS INFORMATION. IT WAS OVER 14 DAYS LATER , AFTER I CHANGED CREDIT CARD COMPANIES, BEFOR I GOT MY MONEY!
TRUST ME , THERE ARE ALOT! ALOT! BETTER PROCESSORS OUT THERE, CHEAPER, EASIER TO DEAL WITH. DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE & GIVE THEM YOUR BUSINESS OR YOU WILL REGRET IT!

0
Reply

I am surprised you gave Elavon three stars as they do not deserve any and should be minus five instead. From the top, including Jamie Walker, to the bottom they ignore everything you say to them and do not answer the questions. That to me makes them totally ignorant as they always ignore you and the truth. They do not deal with genuine complaints at all and in fact have avoided telling the truth at all costs not to admit their mistakes. They have written, emailed and avoided the truth even on the telephone. Do not touch Elavon with a barge pole if you value service and honesty. Their Customer Services will not treat you as a customer and will not give service!

0
Reply

Do not deal with Elavon – they will not treat you fairly. After switching to another service provider, Elavon continued to take funds from our bank account. When I questioned what they were doing, I was told that they would bill in perpetuity unless I called in and formally closed our account. When I attempted to do this, I was put on hold while they ‘pulled my file’ and left there for 75 minutes – until I finally gave in and hung up. Further attempts to contact them have met with promises of callbacks that don’t happen and infinite time on hold. They get your merchant number up front – they know who is calling and why! Beware of this company – they are unprofessional & unscrupulous.

0
Reply

This is the worst company you can choose to work for they are cheap for a reason they came to me made it looks good start the process with them they had some problem connecting my equipment to theirs my system crushed because the guy had problems and used something he shouldnt use . i wait it on them to call or come and fix no one want to deal with it and they start charging me fees 2 times a month i dont know why .. When i called everyone passes me to another no one returns my calls no manager had email or try to fix it i lost 5100 when finaly got someone they said they ll only give me 600 what a joke .. They field to provide me a service but they still charge me for it . i am handing to a lawyer just for the principle on it this company is just bunch of theifs stealing people money be aware and i ll always review them so people can know . and i ll never recommend them to no one .

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