Complaint Review: I-Payment IPayment BankCard MTOT IACCESSSVC - Calabasas California

Just so we're all clear here- iPayment is NOT a processor. Before I get any blowback do a google search and you will see it clearly stated "iPayment is a register ISO/MSP of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. In other words they are a reseller, or a broker. ISO means Independant Sales Organization, MSP means Merchant Service Provider. The send their sales reps out with 25 minutes of training and say "Go tell 'em we can save them money and you can make a killing. The reps have no clue, other than the fact that they need to eat and make rent payments too, so they do as they are told. Merchants beware. Know who you're dealing with.

PCI fees charged to merchants are horse pucky. I work for one of the largest Card processors, and yes we are required to be pci (payment card industry) compliant. This is a cost of doing business. We work hard to make sure are merchants are also in compliance. My Company does not use ISO's to sell our services, because they are difficult to hold accountable to good business practices. Not all ISO's are bad, but unfortunatley the vast majority are deceptive on purpose.

The non- compliance threat primarily concerns POS (Point of Sale) computers like you see at larger restaurants or retailers. The computers needs to be set up so they DO NOT capture the entire credit card #. (So no computer hacker can steal the numbers) This is handled by the POS service provider NOT the Card processor. It is usually done through a software upgrade for this the merchant is charged by the POS provider. 

Credit card terminals do not store the entire card number nor can they be hacked into, so blindly charging every merchant is simply a money grab, and I see it every day. They are counting on the fact they you have no idea what fees are real fees from the card associations (Visa/MasterCard) or if they are just bogus junk fees along with "batch header fees" etc.

Hope this helps your understanding, of what can be, a very confusing business.

If you read your statements you get they offered to you their new online service as a trial and if you didn't want it you had to call in and cancel before the trial so you wouldn't be charged. So this is your fault. How do you not notice you are being charged something for over a year. You should be glad they even refunded you 6 months. The PCI-fee is not just something ipayment is charging all credit card processors are charging this fee, whether it's more or less you have to call around. Anyone who is processing credit cards is required to be pci compliant which is mandated by the pci council which is all credit card associations,amex,visa,mc, etc so unfortunately they have to charge you with the service they are providing you to make sure you are within their regulations. These things cost money to them so why would they give it to you for free? Nothing is free in this world. They have to report back to them that yes or no you as a merchant are compliant every year. Even the processors have to follow the same guidelines. Being pci compliant is to your benefit and your customer's benefit to prevent their card date being compromised. You could be fined and also liable for paying any refunds if any date was compromised if you are not within the regulations the pci council sets up.