National Bureau of Merchant Services Review

We were able to locate approximately 15 complaints about National Bureau of Merchant Services on this and other non-BBB consumer protection websites. Most complaints report unauthorized debits, nondisclosure of contract terms, and an inability to reach National Bureau of Merchant Services representatives. The company’s website provides a 24/7 service number and live chat, although both appear to be outsourced to other, unknown companies. Despite the fact that there are direct customer service numbers provided by the company, multiple complainants cite difficulty reaching company representatives or reaching resolutions in a timely fashion.

As of October, 2022, we have also received messages complaining of calls from National Internal Processing Center demanding large sums of money regarding merchant account cancellation fees despite business owners reporting that they have never had accounts with National Internal Processing Center.  Such calls also threaten legal action if the fees are not paid, which indicate that these demands may be high pressure scam. If you have received such a call, please report it in the comment section of this page. Below is an excerpt of the email that we received regarding this activity.

Reader Submitted Statement

“I recently had a new merchant of ours send me an email that is demanding almost $1,300 to cancel with this company. This NIPC is not a processor and the merchant was signed up through the old Cpay. Cpay had no contracts with him and we were able to close the account. I took the lead on contacting NIPC after our customer reached out worried he was out 1300. I emailed the guy who was harassing the merchant, Fred Garcia, Na?onal Internal Processing Center, Ph: 1‐877‐441‐4599, Fax: 1‐877‐286‐9165, Email: [email protected]. That is when Michael came out of hiding. He called me and identified himself as the owner of NBMS and said that NIPC was another division of their company…

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.

National Bureau of Merchant Services is not an accredited business of the Better Business Bureau and currently maintains an “A+” rating. The company has received eight complaints in the last 36 months, with three of these complaints related to the product or service, four having to do with billing and collection, and one due to an advertising or sales issue. Three of these complaints were resolved with the assistance of the BBB, while the remaining five either were not resolved to the satisfaction of the merchant or did not receive a final response from the merchant. In light of these figures, we have adjusted the BBB’s rating to a “B.” For more on why we adjust BBB ratings, please see our Rating Criteria.

According to complaints listed on this site and elsewhere, the standard National Bureau of Merchant Services contract is a 48-month agreement with an early termination fee of $300, although multiple merchants report having $1000 debited from their accounts after cancellation. It is unclear how National Bureau of Merchant Services explained the $1000 debit in these instances, but it appears to be a Liquidated Damages cancellation fee. Merchants also report a monthly minimum fee of $15 and a statement fee of $9.95. NBMS appears to resell long-term, non-cancellable lease agreements provided by Northern Leasing Systems.

These contract terms are far less competitive than industry averages, and the habit of debiting $1000 from a merchant’s bank account without authorization or explanation is especially troubling. We therefore award the company a “D” in this section.

National Bureau of Merchant Services appears to utilize telemarketing to market its services, and it is unclear as of this writing whether the company hires independent sales agents. One complaint in the comment section of this review mentions receiving a call from National Bureau of Merchant Services in which the caller posed as the merchant’s current provider and tried to sign the merchant up for services, a tactic known as “slamming.”

In general, locating information about National Bureau of Merchant Services is especially difficult because the company’s website explicitly states that it is not a merchant services provider, even though the Better Business Bureau lists it as such. After taking a closer look, it seems that the website for National Bureau of Merchant Services is constructed to look like some kind of consumer assistance or watchdog group, when in fact we were only able to locate one company that has received any rating from the “Merchant Service Bureau”: the aforementioned Internal Resource Network.

At the time of previous updates to this review, Internal Resource Network (internalresourcenetwork.com) boasted an “A+” rating from the Merchant Services Bureau; this was unsurprising, as they seem to be related enterprises. The rating has since been removed from the NBMS website. To be clear, our research indicates that this company formerly posed as a consumer protection entity in order to give its affiliated business an “A+” rating. In our opinion, this is extremely deceptive. Merchants should be advised that contacting National Bureau of Merchant Services for any kind of financial guidance or to obtain agent recommendations would likely result in referrals to Internal Resource Network, and we would similarly suggest that merchants disregard the “A+” rating listed on the Internal Resource Network website. We give the company’s sales and marketing tactics a rating of “F.”

National Bureau of Merchant Services rates as a very poor merchant account provider by our standards. The company’s owners, Michael Salman and Suzanne Salman, appear to use a highly deceptive sales strategy of posing as a consumer protection group in order to give its affiliated provider a positive rating. In addition, National Bureau of Merchant Services’s contract terms don’t appear to be especially desirable, and its complaint rate is average for a company of its size. It is also worth mentioning that merchants looking for the company’s affiliated site (irnsystem.com or internalresourcenetwork.com) may confuse the company with IRN Payment Systems (irnpayment.com), but it is unclear at this time whether these two companies are related to each other. Merchants are advised to read the terms of any contract they are given very carefully.

It appears that National Bureau of Merchant Services may now operating as National Internal Processing Center and demanding large cancellation fees over high pressure phone calls with business owners. If you have any information regarding the companies or individuals above, please report it in the comment section below.