T1 Payments 2023: Card Processing Reviews & Complaints
Note: As of 2023, we are seeing reports that T1 Payments appears to be out of business and closed all of its customer’s merchant accounts without warning. The company allegedly even owes some merchants money but cannot be reached. This appears to be corroborated by the gutting of their website and a large number of lawsuits filed against the company. We will no longer be updating this review. If you have any information about the situation, please let us know in the comments below.
Company Overview
Headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, T1 Payments is a merchant account provider that serves standard and high-risk e-commerce businesses in the U.S. and across the globe. The company may also operate under the name “7 Processing.”
T1 Payments Legal Trouble
In 2021 and 2022, T1 Payments became the focus of a large number of lawsuits, many of which allege the company engages in fraudulent and potentially criminal behavior. As many of these issues have yet to see resolution, we advise that merchants interested in T1 at the least be extremely cautious with their dealings with the company.
T1 Payments Payment Processing
T1 Payments processes all major debit and credit cards for most business types, including high-risk businesses. Their services include mobile solutions, management tools, risk management/chargeback prevention, advanced fraud protection, express boarding, recurring billing, flat-rate merchant accounts, fast and liberal underwriting, multiple currencies, and access to virtual terminals and payment gateways.
T1 Payments Location & Ownership
T1 Payments does not list its acquiring bank on its website, but it is likely that the company has partnered with multiple banks around the world in order to facilitate offshore payments. We have uncovered reports that T1 Payments has used shell corporations to essentially move its business to Europe, where it is currently involved in a lawsuit over an alleged MLM scheme. This seems to be corroborated by the fact that the new T1 Payments website now lists 138 Holborn London EC1N 2SW United Kingdom as their address, though another address is also listed at 10161 W Park Run Dr #150 Las Vegas, NV 89145. A further note made by an individual connects a Brandon Chapnick to T1 Payments and gives evidence that Chapnick, who was sued by the FTC in 2016 over illegal health supplement claims, uses the same European address as T1 Payments. There are multiple reports about the company’s founding year, with the company’s Facebook page listing a 2012 foundation and the company’s LinkedIn page claiming a 2010 establishment. Donald Kasdon was the last listed CEO of T1 Payments. The Better Business Bureau lists Debra K. King as the current manager and principal. However, another recent article lists Donald Kasdon as the principal.
Table of Contents
- Costs & Contract: Appears to offer month-to-month contracts with interchange-plus pricing to standard risk merchants, while…
- Complaints & Service: Complaints number more than 10 on…
- BBB Rating: Has an “F” rating with the Better Business Bureau and has received…
- Sales & Marketing: Appears to hire independently contracted sales agents and has received…
T1 Payments offers payment processing for high-risk businesses
T1 Payments Customer Reviews
Here's What Their Clients Say
| Total Online Complaints | 10+ |
|---|---|
| Live Customer Support | Yes |
| Most Common Complaint | N/A |
Rapidly Increasing Complaint Total
As of our previous review, we were able to locate at least 10 T1 Payments complaints, a couple of which describe the company as a scam or ripoff. However, as of July 2021, we have uncovered a huge influx of negative T1 Payments reviews. Most of these claim that the company is an outright fraud, taking thousands of dollars from companies and closing accounts without providing services. Some complainants allege that they were given short (two days or less) notice about the company suddenly being no longer able to process their payments and then had their accounts closed with large amounts of money withheld. There are T1 Payments complaints that claim that the company can no longer be contacted, including one that even claims to have tried Donald Kasdon’s personal cellphone and found it blocking calls and voicemails. These complaints seem very clearly tied to the lawsuits the company is currently embroiled in. Other issues cited by complainants include higher-than-quoted fees, exorbitant termination fees, poor (even rude) customer service, and withheld funds. One T1 Payments complaint has received a rebuttal from company representatives, who insist that the merchant in question was engaging in excessively high-risk sales conduct. If you have your own T1 Payments review to make, please do so below.
High-Risk Merchant Concerns
In general, there seem to be two drastically different versions of events offered by T1 Payments and the high-risk merchants who complain about the company. Without full access to the details of each situation, we cannot speak authoritatively about what occurred, except to note that the company’s overall complaint total is rapidly increasing and concerning for a provider of any size. T1 Payments will receive a slightly lowered rating in this section until more definitive information is available.
T1 Payments Lawsuits and Fines
T1 Payments was both a plaintiff and a defendant in two 2016 lawsuits involving a now inactive company called Dermaktive, LLC. Dermaktive’s complaint against T1 Payments alleged that the company intentionally conspired to steal millions of dollars from Dermaktive, while T1’s lawsuit alleged that Dermaktive breached its merchant processing contract by intentionally defrauding consumers. T1 Payments also was involved in a 2017 lawsuit in which an undisclosed complaint against the company was filed by credit card processor Vantiv. Only the most recent of the three legal actions appears to have been resolved, but the available documentation does reveal that T1 Payments is a sub-ISO of Atlantic-Pacific Processing Systems.
2020-2022 saw a bevy of lawsuits brought against T1 Payments in an extremely concerning trend. These lawsuits include:
- Vida Divina suing T1 over $233,424 in termination fees. Vida Divina appears to be an “MLM”-style company.
- Diamond CBD suing “for violations of federal and state law including fraud, conversion, theft, breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, unjust enrichment and declaratory relief (the “Complaint”).” This appears to be related to T1 suddenly getting out of the Kratom business, and is in part over $649,311.73 in withheld funds.
- Onyx + Rose suing over alleged breach of contract and withheld funds in the amounts of $204,859.51. Onyx + Rose is also a CBD retailer, which appears to fit the information about T1 shifting its focus and allegedly leaving merchants in its former high-risk categories in the lurch. This lawsuit appears to have been settled out of court.
- A massive international lawsuit involving Dutch company Payvision (who is known to have processed payments for organized crime in Europe) and MLM company Beyond Wealth. According to a report from FinTelegram News: “Payvision is not allowed to act as acquirer in the U.S. due to regulatory and card network restrictions. Therefore, T1 Payments LLC established TGlobal Services Ltd in the UK which entered into a merchant agreement with Payvision already in 2015/2016. In addition, T1 Payments told all its US high-risk-merchants to also set up UK shell companies (conveniently T1 Payments offered a corporation building service). The U.S. business thus metamorphosized into EU business. Consequently, Payvision was able to do the payment processing for its U.S. merchant (a/k/a payment processor) T1 Payments LLC.T1 Payments (www.t1payments.com) apparently represented itself as a registered payment facilitator when it entered into a payment processor agreement with the U.S. MLM scheme operator Beyond Wealth Pte LLC, Utah, in May 2020. T1 Payments offered to process the customer payments for the MLM scheme. In reality, however, T1 Payments was not at all registered with any card network as a payment facilitator. Beyond Wealth learned later on that Payvision in Amsterdam actually processed all their business transactions. Payvision handled all transactions of Beyond Wealth as acquiring company via a sub-merchant account for Beyond Wealth under T1 Payments´ master merchant account. There was no agreement signed between Beyond Wealth and Payvision which transferred Beyond Wealth‘s incoming payments to the T1 Payments bank account with the U.S. Atlantic Capital Bank. T1 Payments paid it out to Beyond Wealth´s bank in Utah. At least this was the plan. A few weeks after entering into the agreement with Beyond Wealth, T1 Payments then did what many high-risk payment processors do – they terminated their high-risk merchant (being all of the sudden surprised about the high-risk of the merchant!), and retained a $4 million balance. Surprisingly, Beyond Wealth wanted to get its money and claimed that T1 Payments and its alleged co-conspirator in the theft, Payvision, have colluded and are fraudsters.”
- Ibuumerang, LLC., an MLM company from Houston, sued T1 Payments in 2022 over the same Payvision issue as mentioned above.
- A further 2022 suit was brought against the company by Gaia Ethnobotanical, LLC, though it is unclear what the suit concerns.
Obviously, these are all extremely concerning and appear to be part of a pattern of unethical and potentially downright criminal behavior on the part of T1. Considering the timing, the shutdown of the T1 website around the same time as this battery of lawsuits coming to light does not seem coincidental. We strongly advise all merchants currently with T1 to follow these developments closely, as there is talk on public complaint sites of a class-action suit. At the very least, we do not recommend any merchant sign up with T1 at least until the dust settles.
T1 Payments Customer Service Options
The company’s website offers an email address for customer support but does not specify a dedicated phone number, live chat, or any other options.
We have located multiple T1 Payments customer service numbers:
(866) 518-2216 – Toll-Free General Customer Service
(888) 209-3169 – Fax
We have also located two T1 Payments customer service email addresses:
[email protected] – Sales
[email protected] – Support
The lack of multiple customer service options is far from the quality offered by top merchant accounts for customer service.
T1 Payments Online Ratings
Here's How They Rate Online
| Product & Service Complaints | 19 |
|---|---|
| Billing & Collection Complaints | 1 |
| Advertising & Sales Complaints | 0 |
| Guarantee & Warranty Complaints | 0 |
| Delivery Complaints | 0 |
Rising BBB Complaints
T1 Payments has an “F” rating based on 20 complaints filed in the last 36 months. This is a large increase from the 6 at the time of our last review. 19 complaints were left in relation to a product or service issue and 1 was left in relation to a billing or collection dispute. 6 of these 20 complaints were resolved by the company, though it should be noted that most of the resolutions are copy-pastes from other resolutions. The remaining 14 were resolved to the dissatisfaction of the merchant or received no final response. It should be noted that the most recent complaints speak directly to the issues mentioned above with the company disappearing with large amounts of held funds.
What Merchants Say
In addition to the 20 complaints filed against T1 Payments, the company has also received 8 informal reviews on its BBB profile. 2 reviews were positive and 6 were negative. The most recent negative reviews allege the company to be a scam:
I have been using T1 for only 4 months and they are a terrible company to work with. High fees, and hidden fees Not to mention they do auto-refunds if they think there is going to be a chargeback from the customer without asking us. Recently we noticed that we didn’t receive any payouts for over 10 days. When I checked my email, I saw that the company was purchased by Payvision and we will no longer be able to process payments. We were given a 2 day warning on Memorial Day weekend. We tried to contact T1 & they are not answering any of our emails or phone calls. I was warned by other people in my industry about T1, and I should have listened. Very shady company that is now holding $6000+ in funds with no update on when we will see those funds in our bank account. I will now have to find another High risk payment processor and get my money back from T1. I noticed that this has happened to several companies over Memorial Day weekend l, and if anyone would like to discuss information and refuse to let T1 get away with this email me at evkasn1 at yahoo. Our next step will be a lawsuit and we will be seeking extra for damages and lost sales.
High-risk merchant accounts face a unique set of problems that arise during the course of business. This makes the need for excellent customer service an essential component of merchant account providers dedicated to serving them.
A “D” Rating
Given the content of the company’s rising complaint total and resolution ratio, we agree with the BBB’s rating of “D” at this time. Merchants should note, however, that there are valid reasons to be skeptical of BBB ratings.
T1 Payments Fees, Rates & Costs
A Closer Look at The Contract
| Flat Rate | Interchange-Plus |
|---|---|
| Keyed-in Rate | Interchange-Plus |
| Virtual Terminal Rate | 1.00% - 4.99% |
| Payment Gateway Fee | Undisclosed |
| Early Termination Fee | $1,000+ |
| PCI Compliance Fee | Undisclosed |
| Equipment Lease Terms | Undisclosed |
Exorbitant Pricing for High-Risk Merchants
T1 Payments appears to offer a month-to-month contract with interchange-plus pricing to standard-risk merchants, but the company’s high-risk merchants may be forced to pay exorbitant cash reserves and early termination fees. The company’s website refers to a flat rate payment structure.
Virtual Terminal and Payment Gateway Pricing
In addition to its storefront payment processing services, T1 Payments also dedicates a portion of its website to advertising its virtual terminal and payment gateway services. However, pricing is not disclosed on either of those services. Additional rates and fees, including gateway fees, technical support fees, batch fees, and additional transaction rates typically apply to these e-commerce services.
High Early Termination Fees
Among its other legal troubles, T1 has been involved in a complaint against a company called Dermaktive. The language of T1’s complaint against Dermaktive describes a 36-month contract with a liquidated damages-style early termination fee totaling $867,135.42, $336,198.16 of which went to Atlantic-Pacific Processing Systems. Despite the fact that this may be the highest early termination fee we have ever seen in the industry, T1’s legal complaint also states that Dermaktive was responsible for racking up $119,199.01 in chargebacks. In our opinion, the high processing volume of this particular account may have necessitated an extremely large early termination fee, but an early termination fee that exceeds the total chargeback amount by more than $600,000 seems unreasonable.
Worse-Than-Average Terms
It is common within the credit card industry for high-risk merchants to receive less competitive contract terms than standard-risk merchants. However, there appears to be a massive discrepancy between the terms that each type of merchant will receive from a T1 Payments contract. Given the sheer size of the only termination fee we’ve found from T1 Payments, we cannot recommend the company’s pricing for high-risk merchants at this time. It is also unclear whether T1’s standard-risk contract terms are much better and how they stack up compared to the cheapest merchant account providers. If you have any knowledge of the standard T1 Payments contract (including the company’s per-transaction rates and PCI compliance fees), please share that information in the comment section below this review. We also encourage merchants to check out our list of the providers of the best merchant accounts.
T1 Payments Employee Reviews & Sales Tacitcs
Should You Work For Them?
| Employs Independent Resellers | Yes |
|---|---|
| Advertises Deceptive Rates | No |
| Discloses All Important Terms | No |
Inside and Outside Sales Agents
T1 Payments appears to hire in-house sales agents as well as independently contracted outside sales representatives to market its services. We have found two T1 Payments reviews that mention undisclosed fees and contract terms, but only one was filed in relation to the company’s payment processing service. This T1 Payments complaint states that a T1 Payments rep quoted a low per-transaction rate, but that the merchant’s effective rate was ultimately much higher than the sales agent let on. This does not compare favorably to our list of best credit card processors.
No Deceptive Quotes
Overall, though, there does not appear to be any evidence of widespread misrepresentation by T1 representatives, and there are no misleading rate quotes or unrealistic guarantees on the company’s website. In fact, the company’s sales training appears to emphasize interchange-plus pricing, which is more transparent than tiered pricing. If you suspect that T1 Payments is charging you undisclosed fees, however, we recommend seeking a third-party statement audit to eliminate hidden costs.
Our T1 Payments Review Summary
Our Final Thoughts
A Payment Processor with Extremely Concerning Trends
We formerly rated T1 Payments as an average merchant services provider. However, considering the sudden influx of complaints calling the company a scam for essentially the same behavior (suddenly closing high-risk accounts, holding large amounts of money, and removing all ability to contact them), the evidence is overwhelming that T1 Payments is not a good option for any merchant. T1 has quickly gone from an average provider to one of the worst providers in the industry in our estimation. High-risk merchants would be better served by opting for a highly rated high-risk merchant account provider.
If you found this article helpful, please share it!
Jeff
We used this company for a over a year. They retained a % of the funds received as “reserves” but after closing our account, they said it would take approximately 10 months to receive our final payment. After waiting and checking on it, they never responded and after researching and reading many reviews, it appears they went out of business and kept the “reserves” for many company’s accounts. Our thousands of dollars were lost but you can avoid T1 if you don’t want to be a victim of the same unlawful activity.
megan FRIEL
BEWARE OF THIS COMPANY, THEY UP AND SHUT DOWN ON THOUSANDS OF VENDORS AND LEFT US HIGH AND DRY FOR OUR FUNDS, THEY STATRED PAYING BACK 10% of what was owed monthly. As of the 15th of November when I should have received my next 10% it never came. Have been emailing their “legal” department with no answer. They owe myself along with a lot of friends of mine that used them HUNDERDS OF thousands of dollars and we feel they are just ghosting us at this point, like they gave us a little bit to shut us up and that was it! BEWARE YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!STAY AWAY FROM ANYTHING T1!
AS OF THIS WRITING WE ARE STILL OWED 10K WITH NO WAY TO CONTACT ANYONE AND FIND OUT WHERE OUR DEPOSITS ARE!
James
Same here!!! They won’t respond now I know why.
They owe us money, and I guess that’s that. Goodbye reserve money goodbye… And we have zero recourse???
Michael Stockhammer
I found T1 Payments via EMB (E Merchant Broker).
They had me sign contract that would allow me to integrate a payment gateway to accept Visa and Mastercard on my Shopify store.
The funds would be collected via PinWheel.
The funds would be then deposited via PinWheel to my designated account, in this case my Wise Business (formerly Transfer Wise) US account.
The funds would be deposited with 7 business days in arrears and 5% being held as a reserve.
The company T1 Payments notice of closure on my account and what seems like all of their customers’ accounts stated the reason for the closure was T1 Payments acquirer … PayVision.
I am in the process of proceeding with legal action toward whom it may concern. So far we have sent a letter of demand as our first step.
I am only one of many businesses that seem to be taking the same action.
This wasn’t our only payment gateway so I’m glad the funds held are relatively little but still substantial enough to go after (Approximately $17,000USD).
Other businesses have upwards of $500,000 being held.
One or more companies are at fault in regards to not only me but many other businesses.
T1 Payments sent A couple of emails after the notice of closure, one expressing that funds and statements would be released on 15 June then another email expressing funds and statements will be released on 15 July. Around 16 July I received less than $1000 with an email expressing that future releases will be monitored.
I would just like to get to the solution and hopefully resolve this amicably.
Even if many of the other businesses had another way to process funds, majority if not all funds for businesses cash flow are tied up which for any business is extremely detrimental.
Sister Kate
We just put up a GoFundMe to recover $35K that they stole from us in 2019. We tried the peaceful route, to get our money out of them. We tried asking nicely. We tried waiting patiently. Then we tried with an attorney. Every avenue ends up a big ‘f u’. They have our money and they intend to keep it. Don’t let them have yours, please. You will only see a portion rightly returned to you and when you leave them, they keep it all!
John Nash
T1 are crooks. Do not do business with them, they will keep all of your money.
Once we signed with them we processed roughly 5k through them and waited the 10 days as per the agreement, however, over a month a half later and we still have yet to receive any of our funds from them.
They are incredibly rude when you call them, they also stop answering the phone when they realize you’re onto their scam.
They will never call you back, don’t ever wait for a call. Ultimately it is better to not do business than work with these snakes.
You will lose your money. They will screw you over. There is nothing trustworthy about these degenerates.
We also saw a significant reduction in sales after opening their gateway on our site. Due to the UK based bank, no AMEX and a loss of 30%-40% in sales.
You have other options, don’t settle for t1 and their shady practices, head these warnings.
Lisa
I am in the process of signing up with them. I just found this review. They seem very nice so far. If not them Who would you recommend instead? We have a cbd store. Thanks,
Lisa
CPO
Lisa,
You may find this article helpful: Best CBD Merchant Accounts.
-Phillip
mary marcus
Don’t go into business with them – they are despicable and will steal every cent they can from you. They take a reserve and then refuse to give it back. I don’t know how they are still in business –
Dustin Hothan
The WORST merchant company I have ever had the displeasure of working with. We are a small, 1 store company and were forced to use them for our e-commerce solution as we were considered high risk and there weren’t many options available. In the brief time we used them, we sent out over $3500 in product and received less than $1000 of that from T1. We were told upon cancellation that we had to wait 9 months in case of charge backs in order to receive the rest of the funds. Guess what, we waited 9 months and now I’m told that actually, they only owed us about $1000 (not sure where the other $1500 disappeared to), and that they were also charging us a fee monthly since cancellation, so in fact, we actually would owe T1 money! Biggest scam artists I’ve ever seen and honestly have no idea how they haven’t been sued multiple times. DO NOT USE THEM AT ALL COSTS!
This post will help: Best High Risk Merchant Accounts
-Phillip
Nicole DiMonda
By far the most UNPROFESSIONAL and FRAUDULENT company I have encountered.
Setting up a payment processing account at this point in time should not render the type of confusion this comapny will cause. They lied about onboarding fees, caused a waiting period whereby we could not launch our site, costing us a substatial amount of money, which was incredibly detrimental. They also required a $250 fee taken every month, AFTER we signed our contract, and then launched our site without informing us.
When speaking with their reps, they are scripted, rude, and have a complete lack of knowledge regarding financials of their own company. Their recourse is to say they need to contact their legal department, which they did after a series of unpleasantries, including discovery of all hiden fees the sales rep never indicated, which never occurred because the legal team after several weeks never contact us, afetre several inquiries were made. The company is a farce.
There is no legal department as far as we are concerned, and after arguing on the phone, the rep hanging up, we tried to phone back, and each diviison of the company failed to answer the phone.
Imagine for a moment a company of such poor calibur being made respnsible for your businesses financial transactions!!!! One would need a bottle of Zoloft to cope with such horrors.
Please, I implore you as a well seasoned business owner, (we have several other businesses running since the 90’s successfully), they are horrendous.
This post will help: Find and Eliminate Hidden Fees From your Monthly Bill
-Phillip
Customer
2/5 star review
This processing company has provided inconsistent processing service, terrible customer service (they are only prompt and helpful if the issue doesn’t impact them as a business), and finally they are not transparent about their terms, the fees are through the roof.
Overall there are many competitors that provide a better service for a cheaper price. I suggest doing your research and asking questions.
This post will help: Top-Rated Merchant Account Providers
-Phillip
Adam Madi
They are hands down the worst company I have ever used. We entrusted them with our business and TWICE they “accidentally” disable our account on a Friday. The kicker is that they aren’t open till Monday. How would that affect your business?
This post will help: Top-Rated Merchant Account Providers
-Phillip
Bill Rogers
Scam company. They make up bogus claims to keep ahold of your funds. Still waiting on 50K for them to release. They adjust their rates monthly! Horrible company current lawsuit is pending. Stay Away, I wish I would have read these reviews sooner.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
Christine bristow
Stay away. We signed up in June of 2018, they held funds in reserve and then cancelled our account 6 weeks later without cause and would not give a reason. They are still holding those reserves 6 months later. We keep having to write [email protected] and are sent back responses to just keep asking them for it.
Reserves are generally held for 120 days which is the length of time that a chargeback can be initiated this has now been nearly 6 months.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
T1 Ruined My Business
T1 over promises and under delivers in a big way. I have done high risk billing for 15 years and have never encountered a company that is so bad at what they do. We processed over $100k and never saw a dime. When we got around the “10 business day” mark we called daily just to be ran around the ringer again and again about how our payment should “be in there tonight”. As soon as we stopped sending sales to them the terminated our account. Never and I mean never trust T1 payments. I don’t want to say it’s a scam, but if it looks like a scam and sounds like a scam chances are it’s a scam. So in my opinion T1 Payments is a scam.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Merchant Accounts for High Risk
a former agent
Beware. The contract is all one sided. Ask the owner of the company how he got his Lamborghini! Find out where they hold your reserves.
Do a deep dive before you sign! Check the Court House in Clark County Nevada and other lawsuits filed and pending.
Oh yes, when merchants leave you are never compensated the money that was in arrears.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Report Bad Credit Card Processors
Customer
Where do I start. They have rediculous web compliance procedures. Have you change your website and remove photos which hurt branding and sales. Removing ANY links to third party sites. 30% of sales get declined due to overseas merchant processing. Poor customer service. Rude employees.
They also charge 10% transaction fee. THIS COMPANY SUCKS. USE ANYONE ELSE.