Best for
Standard-risk merchants who value integration and are okay with a long-term contract
Specializes in
Credit card processing, virtual terminal, MOTO payments, mobile payment processing, Integrated payment-processing solutions
Pricing Summary
Setup Fee: $0
Monthly Fee: $22
Swipe Rate: 2.50% + $0.20 or 2.69% + $0.19
Keyed-in Rate: 3.50% + $0.20 or 3.69% + $0.19
Early Termination Fee : $295 or $495
Contract Terms:
Anovia Payments was a merchant account provider based out of Irving, Texas. But the company was transformed into Sphere in 2016 when it was acquired by Waud Capital Partners. It’s now a merchant account provider that specializes in the processing of online and in-store payments, as well as MOTO payments and payment integration tools.
Sphere was created in 2017 when Anovia Payments was acquired by Waud Capital Partners. The company is a registered ISO/MSP of Merrick Bank and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. The company specializes in providing payment solutions to merchants operating in industries like:
Sphere favors a three-year contract with a tiered pricing structure. Essentially, the larger the amount that a merchant processes each month, the lower their per-transaction fee is. The company uses an early termination fee, which can be as much as $495.
Reviews for Sphere are still pretty sparse as this is a new company. But there were more than 70 negative complaints filed about Anovia Payments. These complaints focused on inaccurate quotes, inaccurate contract terms, and poor customer service. The prevalence of negative complaints about Anovia Payments might have been why Waud Capital decided to rebrand the company under the Sphere name.
Head Quarters
Irving, TX
Year Founded
2013
CEO
Kevin Jones
Employees
50
Merchant Provider Risk Tolerance
No setup fee.
Credit card processing solutions are available to work in all environments.
A variety of countertop point of sale solutions are available.
Offers mail order and telephone payment acceptance.
Domestic telephone support is available during business hours.
Early termination fee.
Monthly fee.
Three year contract required.
Merchant rates are not directly advertised on the website.
Uses independent sales agents.
Online and Mobile Credit Card Processing
Sphere claims that it offers credit card processing solutions for all environments. The company’s offerings do seem to live up to its promise. They offer a variety of solutions for online and mobile payment processing, which will work in virtually any format that your customers want to pay.
Card Present Payment Processing
Sphere offers a variety of countertop POS systems to choose from. You can use the company’s in-person payment-processing tools on either a terminal or a point-of-sale system. These can be integrated with your business analytics in several key ways to help generate actionable insights.
Mail Order/Telephone Order (MOTO) Payments
Sphere is one of the few companies in this industry that also offers mail order/telephone order payment acceptance. The company uses a web-based virtual terminal and reporting solution to help with this. It claims that the terminal makes it easier to accept recurring and installment payments for various types of payment methods.
Discloses All Important Terms
No
Public Pricing Available
No
Sphere doesn’t list its pricing information directly on its website. But it partners with TSYS and First Data to provide its services. So it’s very likely that the rates you get from Sphere will be quite similar to the ones offered by TSYS and First Data.
First Data prefers a tiered pricing method and multi-year contracts. The company’s swiped rate for merchants who process less than $50,000 each month is 2.69% plus $0.19. Merchants who process more than $50,000 monthly are charged a swipe rate of 2.29% plus $0.19.
TSYS has various plan options for merchants to consider, which each has a different rate. The company offers swiped rates that vary from 2.% to 3% plus $.20 per transaction.
Keep in mind, there’s no way to guarantee that these are the rates you’ll get unless you contact Sphere directly. We only include them to provide some basic context for what you might expect to hear back after reaching out to Sphere.
Pricing Model
Tiered Pricing
Swiped Rate
2.50% + $0.20 or 2.69% + $0.19
Keyed-in Rate
3.50% + $0.20 or 3.69% + $0.19
Mobile Payment Rate
Virtual Terminal Rate
3.50% + $0.20 or 3.69% + $0.19
Monthly Fee
$22
Payment Gateway Fee
Undisclosed
Batch Fee
Undisclosed
Early Termination Fee
$295 or $495
PCI Compliance Fee
$19.95 Per Month or $75.20 Per Month
Equipment Lease Terms
48 Month (locked)
Address Verification Service (AVS)
Application Fee
Account Setup Fee
$0
Gateway Setup Fee
Undisclosed
Annual Fee
Monthly Minimum
Undisclosed
Statement Fee
Sphere favors a three-year contract with an automatic renewal clause. Merchants who want to break the contract before it’s over should expect to pay between $295 and $495 to do so. Generally, these types of multi-year contracts are considered to be unfavorable towards merchants.
Contract Length
3 Years
Early Termination Fee
$295 or $495
Sphere currently has a B rating with the Better Business Bureau. The company has received two complaints, which lamented Sphere’s hidden fees and challenging cancellation process. These echo the themes that were consistent across a larger number of negative reviews for Anovia Payments. This seems to suggest that Sphere hasn’t made much of an improvement to its support services since its branding change.
BBB
NR
2.8 Stars / 81 Reviews
N/A
Yelp
N/A
Total Online Reviews
100+
Total Online Complaints
70+
Lawsuits
None
If you're in the market for a merchant account provider, be sure to check out our user reviews, our merchant accounts guide and our top popular merchant provider picks