David
Las Vegas,#2Consumer Suggestion
Sun, January 10, 2010
How many times do we have to read the same posts? Folks, go directly to the payment processor to do your merchant account. And if possible, do it through your bank if they OWN their own payment processor. That way there's accountability for the service level and an entire banking relationship at stake to incent them to work with you to resolve a problem. Merchant Lynx, MerchantWarehouse, CardService International, etc., are all FIRST DATA sales teams.
Thousands of companies offer teaser rates, "free (no up front cost) machines", etc., and nearly all are NOT payment processors. Pull up their web sites and see if at the bottom it says they're a registered ISO or xyz bank or an MSP. ISO means Independent Sales Organization and MSP means Merchant Service Provider. If either is the case, they're not an "acquirer"... meaning the actual front and back end processor.
A few banks own their own payment processing companies in whole. I know Chase does and US Bank does. Folks, if you sign with a company you never heard of before and they're an ISO or MSP, the risk is on YOU.