Best for
Retailers, restaurants, online merchants, doctor’s offices, the hospitality industry, or travel and transportation businesses.
Specializes in
ChargeNational specializes in offering a customized, unique approach that includes listening to customer feedback to offer better services.
Pricing Summary
Setup Fee: Unknown
Monthly Fee: $5.99 or $9.95
Swipe Rate: Unknown
Keyed-in Rate: 1.59-4.00%+$0.19
Early Termination Fee : $395-$495 early termination fee
Contract Terms:
ChargeNational is no longer operating and has been absorbed by the parent company, Nuvei.
ChargeNational was a merchant account provider located in Montreal, Quebec.
The company was a DBA of Pivotal Payments which has since been rebranded as Nuvei.
ChargeNational was a merchant account provider that was a DBA for Pivotal Payments. As of September 2020, it was no longer operating under that name and the company was absorbed into Pivotal Payments, now known as Nuvei. Its website is no longer online and all social media accounts have no new activity.
The Canadian-owned company was started in 2010. The company website stated it was a DBA of Pivotal Payments Direct Corp.
The company address was listed as 1100 Rene Levesque West, Suite 900 Montreal, Quebec, H3B 4N4.
Pivotal Payments operated as ChargeNational’s back-end processor. Pivotal Payment has since been rebranded to Nuvei.
Head Quarters
1100 Rene Levesque West, Suite 900 Montreal, Quebec, H3B 4N4.
Year Founded
2010
CEO
Unknown
Employees
Unknown
Merchant Provider Risk Tolerance
Hardware & Software
ChargeNational offered:
POS Hardware, standalone or wireless
Payment Gateway
Virtual Terminal
Virtual Shopping Card for e-commerce
They appeared to have two different brands to choose from which were the Ingenico ICT 220 and Ingenico ICT 250.
Value-Added Services
ChargeNational offered:
Gift card and loyalty card programs
A Merchant funding program
Supported Payment Types & Services
ChargeNational appeared to have been able to accept the typical forms of payment including:
Discover
Visa
Mastercard
American Express
Interac
Discloses All Important Terms
No
Public Pricing Available
No
ChargeNational advertised rates as low as 1.39%, however, that low rate seems to have only been available to “Qualified” customers. Most customers report being charged anywhere from 1.59% to 4.0% in addition to $0.19 for payment processing per transaction.
The contract also came with many fees, that included one-time fees, as well as ongoing fees. Some of the most onerous fees were:
$395-$495 early termination fee
Annual $99 PCI Compliance fee.
Monthly $25 minimum fee
Monthly $5.99-$9.95 terminal maintenance fee
$250 reconnection fee
They appeared to run an ongoing promotion that offered a free payment terminal upon signing of a contract.
When compared to other companies that offer similar services, the contract terms, fees and rates are more expensive than is typical.
Pricing Model
Unknown
Swiped Rate
Unknown
Keyed-in Rate
1.59-4.00%+$0.19
Mobile Payment Rate
Unknown
Virtual Terminal Rate
1.00% - 4.99%
Monthly Fee
$5.99 or $9.95
Payment Gateway Fee
Unknown
Batch Fee
Unknown
Early Termination Fee
$395-$495 early termination fee
PCI Compliance Fee
Annual $99 PCI Compliance fee.
Equipment Lease Terms
Unknown
Address Verification Service (AVS)
Unknown
Application Fee
Unknown
Account Setup Fee
Unknown
Gateway Setup Fee
Unknown
Annual Fee
Unknown
Monthly Minimum
$25
Statement Fee
Unknown
ChargeNational offered a contract through Nuvei that was automatically renewed every three years. If customers wanted to end their contract early they were slapped with another fee: $395 for customers processing up to $25,000 a month, and $495 for customers processing above $25,000 a month. Customers also agreed to a liquidated damages clause in the contract, which means the cost of terminating a contract could be greater than the termination fee.
In addition to early termination fees, the customer would also be charged an annual $99 PCI Compliance fee, and other monthly fees including a $25 monthly minimum fee, a $5.99-$9.95 terminal maintenance fee, and a $250 reconnection fee if the company needed to restart service.
Contract Length
3 Years
Early Termination Fee
$395-$495 early termination fee
There is not a lot of information about their typical setup process. However, there are some negative reviews of their customer service. Although their website stated 24/7 customer support, some customers claim they were unresponsive to their requests. There are also negative reports for lack of customer support from the parent company Pivotal Payments (Nuvei).
BBB Rating
ChargeNational does not appear on the Better Business Bureau website, however, the parent company Nuvei does.
Nuvei has an average of 2.33 out of 5-stars rating based on twelve customer reviews. Eight of the reviews give the company only one star and complain of things like poor customer service, overcharging, and dishonesty.
There are three positive reviews from 2019.
Other Online Reviews
There are not a lot of online reviews of ChargeNational, but there are several negative reviews of Pivotal Payments (now known as Nuvei). Pivotal Payments had 58 complaints on the Ripoff Report, and 10 negative Google and Yelp reviews.
Common complaints include dishonest marketing which leads to higher rates and fees than advertised. When customers try to cancel they are liable for early termination fees which are written into their contract. This led to a lot of unhappy customers.
There are also some positive reviews of the company of customers that appear to have been happy with the services provided to them.
BBB
C performance
10 negative reviews
N/A
Yelp
10 negative reviews
Total Online Reviews
Unknown
Total Online Complaints
150+
Lawsuits
No
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