Best for
Brick and mortar, mom and pop, small and medium-sized businesses, eCommerce.
Specializes in
CardConnect is a merchant account provider specializing in payment processing integration for the types of businesses it serves. It has multiple packages, each suiting a different business type, that it offers on its website.
Pricing Summary
Setup Fee: $0
Monthly Fee: $9.95
Swipe Rate: 2.32% + 0.25% + $0.07
Keyed-in Rate: 2.32% + 0.25% + $0.07
Early Termination Fee : Up To $750
Contract Terms:
CardConnect is an independent reseller of First Data. It used to be called Financial Transaction Services but was rebranded CardConnect in 2006 and acquired by First Data in 2017. CardConnect employed over 500 people and was founded by Jeff Shanahan. The headquarters is located in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, 1000 Continental Drive, Suite 600.
CardConnect is First Data’s leading independent reseller. It offers a three-year contract with a termination fee that varies on the situation. It also provides interchange-plus pricing. It mainly focuses on servicing smaller to medium-sized businesses and additionally involves itself in eCommerce as well. CardConnect has various fees attached to its contracts, such as a monthly PCI Compliance fee of $8.25 and a retroactive large annual fee applied at the end of each year.
CardConnect’s reputation is on the negative side, with many complaints online. Merchants complain about hidden fees most of all and state that the company is a ripoff. Another common complaint is that CardConnect has poor customer service.
Head Quarters
King of Prussia, PA
Year Founded
2006
CEO
Jeff Shanahan
Employees
500
Merchant Provider Risk Tolerance
Powerful CardPointe integrated payments platform
Interchange-plus pricing available
Contract length as long as five years
Early termination fee as high as $750
Extensive use of independent sales agents
Reputation for poor customer service
Point 1: CardPointe and Contactless
CardConnect offers various services, packaged under different names called ‘solutions.’ Its first solution is called CardPointe, and it provides numerous benefits, including debit and credit card processing, payment management, a hosted payment page, a mobile app, and a virtual terminal. CardConnect also offers contactless payment, which is a more and more requested feature by customers.
Point 2: Clover and Bolt
CardConnect offers POS equipment, including terminals, all-in-one, card-readers, and more through Clover. Clover Go is also provided, which is a payment app that will let you process payments through your phone wherever you are. Bolt is the software that CardConnect uses to process payments, and it has support for EMV technology, which is far safer than standard, older methods of processing credit and debit cards.
Point 3: Gateway + Plugins
CardConnect has an online payment gateway that has a slew of useful features. Automated reporting, acceptance of eChecks, customized payment plans, and an account updater to prevent missed or invalid payments are just some of the options that its payment gateway offers. CardConnect also has many plugins that come with the payment gateway or are offered alongside it that could be useful to some merchants.
Discloses All Important Terms
No
Public Pricing Available
No
CardConnect has the same swiped and keyed-in rate: 2.32% + 0.25% + $0.07. There is a retroactive annual fee of $288 that is applied at the end of the year. In addition to this, CardConnect also charges an $8.25 monthly PCI Compliance fee, a statement fee of $5, and a monthly PCI non-compliance fee of $19.95. Its early termination fees can be high, going up to $750 or sometimes more. CardConnect uses both interchange-plus and tiered-pricing as its pricing models.
Pricing Model
Interchange PlusTiered Pricing
Swiped Rate
2.32% + 0.25% + $0.07
Keyed-in Rate
2.32% + 0.25% + $0.07
Mobile Payment Rate
Virtual Terminal Rate
1.00% - 4.99%
Monthly Fee
$9.95
Payment Gateway Fee
Undisclosed
Batch Fee
Early Termination Fee
Up To $750
PCI Compliance Fee
$8.25 Per Month
Equipment Lease Terms
48 Month (locked)
Address Verification Service (AVS)
Application Fee
Account Setup Fee
$0
Gateway Setup Fee
Annual Fee
$288
Monthly Minimum
$25
Statement Fee
$5
As the leading reseller for First Data, CardConnect generally offers a similar contract. This tends to be a three-year standard contract with an early termination fee that can range from $250 or go higher. CardConnect has other plans that can go from monthly to a five-year agreement. It is recommended that any merchant interested in working with CardConnect carefully check the contract, as even some careful merchants had received an early termination fee when they thought their contract was up and sought to work with another merchant account provider.
Contract Length
UnknownMonth-to-month
Early Termination Fee
Up To $750
CardConnect has a large number of complaints about it. On BBB, it has nearly seventy complaints listed and has been in business for 15 years. It was accredited in February of 2019. Most of the complaints recorded are either about billing or a problem with one of its services.
CardConnect was involved in a class-action lawsuit in 2016. The details of the case boil down to merchants being misled about the language of the contracts they were offered that resulted in outrageous, exorbitant fees being debited from them. The case has not yet been resolved.
BBB
A- (59 Customer Complaints)
N/A
N/A
Yelp
5 Stars / 5 Reviews
Total Online Reviews
70+
Total Online Complaints
50+
Lawsuits
1
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