Updated 1/30/2019: The website for Funds Transfer Alliance is no longer active, and the company’s Facebook page states that it is permanently closed. It is likely that the full Funds Transfer Alliance portfolio was absorbed by the BluePay brand, but it is also possible that Funds Transfer Alliance is still active under a different name. If you have any knowledge of Funds Transfer Alliance’s current status, please share that information in the comment section below this review.
Funds Transfer Alliance (the-fta.com) is a merchant account provider based in Phoenix, Arizona. Although Funds Transfer Alliance (FTA) has a very official-sounding name, this company is simply an independent sales organization much like most other merchant services providers. Funds Transfer Alliance claims to have been founded in 1999, but other sources show that it was incorporated in 2007, so the exact founding date is unclear. It also appears that Funds Transfer Alliance was acquired by BluePay at some point in late 2011. FTA uses First Data as its primary card processor but may use others depending on a merchant’s processing needs. Funds Transfer Alliance is a registered ISO/MSP of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Walnut Creek, California, with headquarters at 10429 S. 51st Street #100, Phoenix, Arizona 85044. Brian Martin is listed as the CEO of Funds Transfer Alliance.
Run as fast as you can when FTA rep contacts you. Ryan Jacques is a liar, and a cold call sales person has as much BS as the company has taught him. There rates after the first year are non competitive, they will not neogiate a new agreement and it is for 3 years as someone said. My own fault and lack of planning got me in this situation and I have less then one year and I am out.
If I can save one person in busines from these people I hope it is you reading this!!!
Be vey cautious with the FTA sales representative as they lie to get you into a lease with First Data for processing equipment that in outrageous and so called reduces rates . I was told I needed new updated equipment to use their processing system and get the huge discounts they could get me.
As it turned out due to my own lack of knowledge I signed a lease that I later learned I did not need, my equipment worked on there processing data, and the cost of leasing was four(4) times that of an outright purchase price.
I cannot get out of the lease nor negotiate a buy out!! FTA sales representative was just that a professional cold call sales rep.
If negotiating get everything in writing, do not agree on any deals until you have time to review your figures and stay away from any Lease with FIRST DATA, you can outright purchase equipment for thousands of dollars less than there 4 year lease.
While we agree about the misleading way they contact you in the beginning, we have found FTA to provide excellent customer service and good rates. This is after trying four other merchant services companies we were quite unhappy with.
As to the lease, ALL of those sales reps lie to get your business. It is the definition of caveat emptor — let the buyer beware. Our advice is don’t get a machine unless your are pretty confident you will need it for the term of the lease. And NEVER let them do an automatic bank draft. Since it is a business contract, the bank will NOT stop the payments coming out if you dispute them. And since they hit you every 30 days, it makes it nearly impossible to close the account.
Use only a credit card or a deduction from your mechant transactions. Credit cards will almost always put a block on anyone you ask and if you leave the provider, they can’t take payments out of a non-existent account.
Anyway, FTA has been better than the four awful companies we used before. Sales is a bit shady. But service has been excellent. They even assigned a specific person to handle our account personally so we get the same support each time.
At the time FTA sold the account to me I expressed concerns about the 4 year lease of the equipment. The salesman/actuary assured me that if I went out of business before the lease was up that the lease would be cancelled. I am now closing my business and FTA says they can/will do noting about cancelling the lease and I must deal directly with First Data, the company to which they have assigned the lease. Representatives at First Data tell me that salesmen make such promises all the time but the lease is non cancellable and I am liable for the remaining $900+ of payments. They are correct about the terms of their lease and my complaint is not with First Data. My complaint is with the misrepresentation by the salesman from FTA. I should have got it in writing but I took him at his word.