Best for
Businesses looking to accept payments anywhere; in-person, online or over phone or email. Software vendors looking to integrate payments into their platform.
Specializes in
Payment processing, payment processor, merchant services, credit card processor, merchant acquirer, merchant account, payment gateway, and Next Day Funding.
Pricing Summary
Setup Fee: $0
Monthly Fee: Variable
Swipe Rate: Interchange-Plus
Keyed-in Rate: Interchange-Plus
Early Termination Fee : $395
Contract Terms:
Clearent is a complete payment processor that leverages its proprietary payments platform to make doing business easier and more profitable for its sales partners. Clearent's commitment to honesty and transparency has made it one of the most trusted companies in the industry. Clearent is one of the fastest-growing credit card processing companies, processing $14 billion in annual transaction volume for 45,000 plus merchants nationwide.
Clearent is a merchant services provider headquartered in Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 2005, the company also has offices in Louisville, Kentucky, Salt Lake City, Utah, and West Palm Beach, Florida. In 2017, Clearent acquired Payment Alliance International (PAI), a smaller merchant services provider that had a large high-risk portfolio of firearms merchants. Although the merger has gone well for both companies, it hasn’t been so great for some of PAI’s former clients. Merchants who had previously been with PAI were unceremoniously switched to new contracts with Clearent, and many of them saw dramatic increases in their processing rates and account fees as a result. This has, in turn, led to a surge in complaints against Clearent with the BBB and on other consumer protection websites.
In March 2018, Clearent was itself acquired by Advent International, a global private equity investment firm. At about the same time, Advent also acquired FieldEdge, a field service management software company. FieldEdge and Clearent are now merged into a single business entity. With all this merger and acquisition activity, Clearent currently serves over 45,000 merchants and processes over $16 billion in transactions annually.
Head Quarters
Clayton, MO
Year Founded
2005
CEO
Dan Geraty
Employees
500
Merchant Provider Risk Tolerance
No setup fee.
Next day funding is available.
Software vendors looking to integrate payments into their platform.
Interchange plus pricing in use.
Full line of products and services available.
Early termination fee.
Three year contract.
Uses independent sales representatives.
Pricing information is not disclosed.
No knowledge base is available on the website.
Clearent offers a number of services for businesses, including credit and debit processing, virtual terminals and gateways for ecommerce and mail and phone order, electronic check and ACH processing, gift card processing, wireless options, recurring payments, and more. The company also boasts next day deposits of funds via ACH and offers information on topics such as chargebacks and surcharging.
Clearent has options for shopping carts, eCommerce platform integrations, and hosted payment forms. They also have a profit sharing program that claims to pay you for your work if you refer other clients to them.
Discloses All Important Terms
No
Public Pricing Available
No
Like many traditional merchant services providers, Clearent doesn’t disclose any information about fees or rates on its website. heir main reason for doing this is that processing rates are highly variable and need to be customized for each merchant.
Feedback from merchants indicates that Clearent primarily offers interchange-plus pricing to most of its customers. This is a very positive feature, as we believe interchange-plus pricing to be the most transparent and affordable pricing structure for businesses processing at least $5,000 per month.
A PCI non-compliance fee of $24.99 per month, an annual fee of $29.95 in the first year and $59.95 thereafter, and an interchange-plus pricing structure.
In addition to its storefront payment processing services, Clearent also dedicates a portion of its website that advertises its virtual terminal and payment gateway. However, pricing for these services is not disclosed. The company’s terms and conditions reflect that merchants can utilize a 3rd party service for an online payment gateway. Additional rates and fees, including gateway fees, technical support fees, batch fees, and additional transaction rates typically apply to these e-commerce services.
Pricing Model
Interchange Plus
Swiped Rate
Interchange-Plus
Keyed-in Rate
Interchange-Plus
Mobile Payment Rate
Undisclosed
Virtual Terminal Rate
1.00% - 4.99%
Monthly Fee
Variable
Payment Gateway Fee
Undisclosed
Batch Fee
Undisclosed
Early Termination Fee
$395
PCI Compliance Fee
None
Equipment Lease Terms
Undisclosed
Address Verification Service (AVS)
Application Fee
Undisclosed
Account Setup Fee
$0
Gateway Setup Fee
Undisclosed
Annual Fee
$29.95 - $59.95
Monthly Minimum
Undisclosed
Statement Fee
Undisclosed
Three-Year Contract
The standard Clearent contract is a 3-year term through TSYS with an early termination fee of $395 per location or the maximum amount allowed by state law.
Industry-Average Pricing
The company’s three-year contract with automatic renewal and a $49.99 regulatory fee is not competitive with terms offered by the cheapest merchant accounts.
Contract Length
3 Years
Early Termination Fee
$395
Clearent has been accredited with the Better Business Bureau since April 2010 and currently shows an “A+” rating on its profile. The company has had 21 complaints filed in the past 36 months, with 10 of those related to the product or service and 11 due to billing and collection issues. 8 of these complaints were successfully resolved with BBB assistance, while 13 complaints either were not resolved to the merchant’s satisfaction or did not receive a final response from the merchant.
BBB
BBB Ratings: A+ (21 Customer Complaints)
3 Stars / 45 Reviews
N/A
Yelp
N/A
Total Online Reviews
100+
Total Online Complaints
15+
Lawsuits
1
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