Congratulations! You're chasing your dream of owning a business, or you've decided to start comparing vendors to find the best credit card processing company. No matter which you are, it's safe to say credit card processing isn't your sweet spot. It can be tempting to sign up with the first or easiest company you find online because you are not familiar with the industry, but that could wind up being very costly. Before you commit to any company, we want to give you a simple checklist to help narrow down the search for the best credit card processing company.
1) Do you have to sign a long-term contract?
This is typically not a good sign. In the fine print of a lot of long-term contracts you’ll find some disturbing things. When trying to help people out of their contracts, we’ve seen everything from unlimited rate increases to hidden fees. Once we even saw cancellation process/fees equivalent to almost $50,000!
Yes, you read that correctly. Something more frequent is many of these contracts state that you must give 90-days’ notice to cancel or you are automatically locked into another 3-year contract. The list of horror stories goes on, but a good rule of thumb is a long-term contract is usually not a good sign, so make sure you are asking A LOT of questions before signing one.
2) What are their customers saying?
Reviews don’t lie. While it would be easy for a company to pay for good reviews, they have no way to delete the bad ones. Google and Facebook are the best places to find reviews direct from customers because many of the articles you see online for “best companies” only list companies that paid to be there. If a business doesn’t have reviews on either of these sites, that’s likely a red flag.
Cut businesses some slack if they have a small number of bad reviews; unfortunately, sometimes things happen. However, if they have a lot of negative reviews, that’s probably not a good sign. A top-rated credit card processing company on Google and Facebook is probably top-rated for a reason.
3) What will it cost you?
Surprisingly, the first two questions will also help you here. There are so many moving parts to credit card processing, so just remember if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. One of the common things you’ll see on unhappy reviews is a complaint about undisclosed or hidden fees. Avoid companies where that is a common theme within their reviews, and look for companies that are totally transparent.
Another thing to watch out for is a company that advertises giving away free equipment. If they are willing to give you a free $1,500 POS system, there is likely a contract attached to that. Make sure that if a company is offering you free equipment, there are no strings attached. At the end of the day, customer reviews are a great way to find the most trustworthy credit card processing company that will hopefully not take advantage of you.
4) How is their customer support?
Sure, great rates and low transaction fees are very important, but what if your machine goes down? What if you have a billing question or have a change you need to make? Which credit card processing company has the best customer service or support for you? This is something else that people don’t think about until they've been waiting on hold for an hour to get their machine up and running again. Having the best customer service is a crucial piece to being the best credit card processing company.
One of the largest companies in the industry is known for its ease of signup, sleek technology, and absolutely terrible customer support. Make sure that your company proves their dedication to you by putting a focus on supporting you. You might even consider testing it out for yourself and giving their support line a call. How long did you have to wait?
We were founded by small business owners to look out for small business owners.
At VizyPay, we believe that in an industry as complicated as credit card processing, you should trust the people you are doing business with. That is why we believe in 100% transparency and have all our fees and costs listed on our website. This may give our competitors some inside scoop into how we do business, but that’s something we are willing to risk knowing that it earns your trust in the process. So while you are shopping for the best credit card processor ever, take a look at how VizyPay stacks up, and explore our blog to learn more about the best tips to benefit your business!
