Optimal Bankcard Review

Optimal Bankcard appears to be a relatively new DBA of Commerce Payment Systems and as such has not accumulated a large number of negative reviews in public forums. However, the available complaints about the company consistently cite blatant misrepresentation of contract terms, higher-than-expected processing fees, and difficulty cancelling service. These reports are consistent with charges leveled against Optimal’s partner businesses like Commerce Payment Systems and Evolution Bankcard. Optimal does appear to provide live a customer support phone number on its website, but the quality of service offered through this channel is unknown at this time. We have lowered our grade for Optimal Bankcard in this section due to the content rather than the quantity of complaints filed against the company.

Optimal Bankcard currently has a “B” rating with the Better Business Bureau and is not accredited. The company has received one complaint since the profile was opened in April 2015, and this complaint was related to a product or service issue. The complainant in this case reported that Optimal Bankcard resolved the complaint to their satisfaction. The primary factors lowering Optimal Bankcard’s rating with the BBB are a number of concerns related to advertising claims on the company’s website, most of which have been removed following a BBB inquiry. Given the time that the profile has been active as well as the company’s complaint total and resolution ratio, we agree with the BBB’s rating at this time.

According to merchant complaints, the standard Optimal Bankcard agreement is a multiyear agreement with high annual fees, a monthly statement fee of up to $9.95, and tiered pricing that is more expensive than industry averages. The company’s website claims that it does not charge IRS reporting fees, early termination fees, or Non-Qualified surcharges on its transactions. It’s entirely possible, however, that the company charges monthly or annual fees that it does not list on its website. In fact, the Optimal Bankcard pricing page lists the company’s “PCI fees” as $0, but the FAQ section on the website states plainly that “[t]here is an annual fee assessed for PCI.” Given this discrepancy and the established track record of Commerce Payment Systems, Evolution Bankcard, EVO Payments, and North American Bancard, we are not inclined to make favorable assumptions about Optimal’s contract terms. If you have any specific knowledge of the standard Optimal Bankcard contract, please share that information in the comment section of this review.

Optimal Bankcard operates in a very similar fashion to Commerce Payment Systems and Evolution Bankcard, which means that it utilizes telemarketing, online advertising, and independent sales agents to market its services. This combination of sales tactics is commonly linked to elevated complaint rates within the industry, and Optimal Bankcard appears to be no exception. We are currently able to locate a handful of Optimal Bankcard complaints that describe misrepresentation of rates and nondisclosure of contract terms, specifically with respect to the effective per-transaction rates that merchants ultimately pay.

The Optimal Bankcard website lists a large number of rates and fees in a table on its pricing page, including a debit rate of 0.25% plus $0.10 and a credit rate of 1.39% plus $0.10 for retail merchants. The per-transaction rates listed in this table are almost certainly the company’s “Qualified” rates, while the page makes no mention of the more expensive “Mid-Qualified” and “Non-Qualified” rates that merchants will pay on the majority of their transactions. The page does contain a table that lists the company’s Non-Qualified surcharge as 0%, but we are skeptical of the claim that there are no possible markups above the listed rate of 1.39% plus $0.10. We consider this type of rate quoting to be deceptive because it may give merchants an unrealistic expectation of the rates they will pay. This is a tactic that Commerce Payment Systems has been using for a long time with little variation, which indicates that the company sees no problem with listing its rates in this way.

An astute commenter on our Evolution Bankcard review has keenly observed that the websites for Optimal Bankcard and Commerce Payment Systems list the same testimonials with nearly identical wording and authors. This seems to indicate that Optimal Bankcard is, at best, recycling testimonials that were initially written about Commerce Payment Systems. At worst, this practice calls into question the legitimacy and usefulness of these testimonials. Alternatively, it may just be that Commerce Payment Systems does not distinguish between itself and Optimal Bankcard. If this is the case, one might wonder what the purpose of the new “Optimal Bankcard” business name might be if not to conduct business under an unsullied brand.

Optimal Bankcard rates as an average merchant account provider according to our rating criteria. The company has done little to distinguish itself from its parent company, Commerce Payment Systems, and it may simple be a clean business name for Commerce to operate under. Optimal can improve its overall rating in this review by reducing the number of complaints related to its sales tactics and by being more transparent about its pricing and contract terms.