Excel Corporation Review

There is very little publicly available information about the standard Excel Corporation contract at this time. The company does not provide its pricing or terms on its website, and there are no merchant complaints to shed any light on its various fees. It is very likely that Excel Corporation’s contract terms will vary depending on which Excel subsidiary is presenting the contract. Further variation beyond that is possible due to the fact that eVance Processing and Chyp use independently contracted sales agents.

Despite our inability to obtain concrete details about Excel Corporation’s standard contract terms at this time, the track records of Pipeline Data, Securus Payments, and Chyp are consistently average to below-average in this category. We will therefore assign Excel Corporation a “C” in this category. If you have any information about the standard Excel Corporation merchant agreement (including any early termination fees or PCI compliance fees), please share that information in the comment section below this review.

We are currently able to locate only one negative Excel Corporation review, and it outright accuses the company of being a ripoff. This lone complaint was filed against Securus Payments and mentions misleading rate quotes and an undisclosed equipment lease agreement. It received a response from Kip Hyde, the CEO of Excel Corporation, but it’s unclear whether the complaint was ultimately resolved.

In total, Excel Corporation’s corporate partners and subsidiaries like Securus Payments, Chyp, Pipeline Data, and Calpian Commerce have together amassed hundreds of serious complaints online. It therefore seems reasonable to take these complaints into consideration when assessing Excel Corporation. The complaints filed against Excel Corporation’s affiliates generally describe deceptive sales practices, costly contract terms, non-cancellable equipment leases, and unreachable customer support.

Excel Corporation appears to offer live phone support to all of its merchants, although it’s unclear whether this line is directly serviced by Excel subsidiaries or by Excel’s backend processors. We will assign eVance a rating that reflects its organizational affiliations and history until the company develops a reputation of its own.

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.

The Better Business Bureau appears to have folded its Securus Payments profile into a new profile dedicated to Excel Corporation. This profile currently shows an “A+” rating and no BBB accreditation. Excel Corporation has received 117 complaints in the last three years, 115 of which were related to advertising or sales and two of which were related to the product or service. Twenty-eight complaints were resolved to the satisfaction of the merchant, while the remainder either were resolved to the dissatisfaction of the merchant or did not receive a final response from the merchant. In light of the company’s very high complaint total, we have adjusted the BBB’s rating to a “C” for the purposes of this review.

Excel Corporation’s website states that the company primarily markets its credit card processing services through “a national team of independent sales representatives and agents, ISOs and referring agent banks.” This language refers to its subsidiaries and partners, which include eVance Processing and Chyp. As a result, merchants are unlikely to receive a sales call from an agent identifying themselves as a representative of “Excel Corporation.” Instead, eVance Processing and Chyp are responsible for growing Excel’s merchant base under their respective brands. This approach means that there is no public feedback regarding specific Excel Corporation sales agents at this time.

However, there is an ample amount of merchant feedback regarding Excel Corporation’s current and former assets like Securus Payments, Pipeline Data, and now Chyp. Specifically, the sales tactics of these organizations have received hundreds of merchant complaints about misrepresentation of rates and nondisclosure of contract terms. In recent years, merchants have especially cited undisclosed long-term leasing contracts as a major point of dissatisfaction with Securus Payments. These complaints were posted with regularity both before and after Securus’s acquisition by Excel.

Given the reputations established by Excel Corporation’s subsidiaries, we have assigned the company a “C” rating in this section for the time being. Our grade may change if Excel develops a track record independent of its subsidiaries.