Complaint Review: Bank Card USA - Westlake Village California

My company signed up for credit card processing with Bank Card USA in mid-April of 2008. They appeared to be, for all intents and purposes, a legitimate company, and one we could trust to handle our credit card transactions.

We processed two small transactions with them for $350.00 each, which went through their processing without a hitch. We paid their fees and the payments from our customers was deposited into our business account in three business days. Now, these first two transactions were paid by American Express, which we have a unique customer ID number with. From what I understand, Bank Card USA only facilitates transactions from American Express, and does not handle their transactions as the sole agent.

Our third credit card processing transaction with Bank Card USA was to be paid by Visa. This particular transaction was for a total of $700.00, and apparently, with Visa, Bank Card USA is the sole processing agent.

On the Visa transaction, we submitted everything to Bank Card USA as we had with the first two transactions. We allowed three business days for the payment to arrive in our account, and when it didn't, we inquired to Bank Card USA's customer service department as to what the cause of the delay was.

In speaking with the customer service rep, we were told that because our account had been temporarily in the negative when they first ran their test transactions, a hold had been placed on this one transaction. We were then told that this was standard procedure and was for security purposes. They then told us that our payment would show up in our account within two business days.

When the two business days had passed, and no payment had arrived in our account, we then called Bank Card USA's customer service department for an explanation. We were now told that because our current transaction had exceeded the average billing amount stated on our application, that our payment was on hold, pending review.

We were told by the customer service rep that again, this is standard procedure, and that they now required us to fax a copy of our customer's invoice to them before they could release payment to us.

So, we faxed a copy of our customer's invoice to Bank Card USA's customer service department. Upon further communication, we were told that someone from their office would have to contact our client to verify that the goods/service had actually been delivered by us.

At this point, roughly two weeks had gone by since we first inquired about our payment. I sensed that we were getting the 'run-around', and that something ugly might be happening. It was at this point that I did an online search for comments about Bank Card USA and found the Ripoff Report, which has an active collection of bad reports on Bank Card USA.

Since realizing that we've been ripped off by this criminal enterprise, we've had no response from them to numerous requests for communication and fulfillment of their contract obligations. In reading the reports about Bank Card USA on the Ripoff Report, we've recognized a definite pattern of deception, which we are all too familiar with. Apparently, we've been robbed by Bank Card USA in the same way as a lot of other companies have.

Oddly enough, our client, who Bank Card USA stole our money from, is an attorney. He is currently attempting to reverse payment for our service with Visa, and has promised to pay us directly, if he's successful.

Ron ****

Allen, Texas

U.S.A.