In the late 2000s, as a broke college student struggling to make ends meet, I was contacted by a merchant services company after uploading my resume to a job listings website. This company promised substantial commissions and ongoing residual income for simply persuading businesses to accept credit card payments. It seemed straightforward enough—after all, what business doesn’t need to process credit card payments? Following a phone interview with a persuasive “sales director,” I found myself embarking on what I believed would be an easy job that would significantly boost my bank account with reliable monthly income and large sales commissions. However, the lessons I learned would profoundly change my life in ways I could never have imagined.
After completing my sales training, I hit the ground running, eager to make sales. This broke college student was determined to improve his financial situation! My first attempt at a cold call, with no prior appointment, ended with a burly man in his 50s yelling at me to leave, claiming he had been “totally robbed” by someone like me before. As I hastily exited, puzzled and intimidated by his reaction, I couldn’t help but wonder what he meant. Throughout the day, I encountered similar hostility from other business owners, all expressing disdain for the industry I had been so excited to join that morning. Confused and curious, I decided to shift my approach from selling to listening.
I quickly uncovered that the merchant services sector was riddled with unethical practices, including hidden fees, deceptive marketing, fine-print traps, and much more. It dawned on me that I had nearly been tricked by a dubious company into selling overpriced services under contracts with long-term commitments, all without being fully aware of what I was promoting. Outraged, I resigned from that company but learned that there were indeed ethical credit card processing companies that treated their clients fairly. Over the next four years, I worked for one such company, assisting hundreds of businesses in securing cost-effective processing solutions. Yet, I also met many more who had been misled and trapped in onerous service agreements. Determined to help people steer clear of these unscrupulous providers, I launched this website in my spare time, dedicating myself to researching and sharing my findings on every merchant account provider I could investigate.
Gradually, more and more business owners began to discover my articles. As word spread, search engines started to rank my content highly, amplifying its reach. My efforts were making a difference! Eventually, the website garnered enough traffic to enable me to leave my job and focus on it full-time, a journey that has now spanned over a decade. This path has not been without its challenges; unscrupulous company owners have tried to intimidate and sue me into silence on several occasions. Yet, I have stood firm against each threat. Here I am, continuing to publish reviews and articles, hoping to safeguard others from the pitfalls of the credit card processing industry.
If you believe in my mission and wish to contribute, please share my articles on your websites and social media. Thank you for visiting!
Jason W
The amount of data entry mistakes this company makes is truly incomprehensible. I have had to deal with numerous mistakes to employee payments and tax information because their employees cannot seem to take information from a datasheet and enter it into their system accurately. The best part is no one takes responsibility or apologizes. The customer experience is a terrible one. The fees are low but you get what you pay for. We terminated our relationship with them at the end of 2017 and I am still dealing with their mistakes. The amount of time spent resolving employee payment issues is most certainly not worth it. Once they have your business it appears they will do their best to lose it.
memo turk
this is worst merchant company ,DO NOT GET INVOLVE ,i work company as genaral manager work with aplha service,so i sign with them no contract monthly, monthly as manager.we had many problem, credit card not go through ,or double char to customer, some bank,for example first community credit union not working at all ,we complain but they did not find any solution ,so we decided to change to company,thet told us,we can not beacuse had 3 years more contract .we show our paper said that no contract .we cancel our account.they sent us bill $2800 early cancellation fee.my company was right so they did not do any action.aplha card service come after me as a person!i am employe there can you believe it.they sent me bill off course i call them i am employee here this is not problem ,try to solve problem with company. they ignore me and this bill affect my credit score .
ALPHA CREDIT CARD SERVICE AND THEIR PARTNER GLOBAL SERVICE WORST COMPANY EVER BE CAREFULL DONT WORK WITH THEM
Chris Shrimpton...CFO of Norton's Nutrition
This company is the most lying deceitful and misleading company I’ve ever had the misfortune of dealing with in over 30 years. Too many to list all the ways they screw everyone…but some are 3 years ago i said I would leave after they added fee’s for bogus things…so they lowered and removed them and a few months later added them all back and more and said I signed up for 3 more years…fraud…..then they made up quarterly $19.99 fees for more nothing…then made up a compliance document they email when they want….and if you don’t get it they charge you $40.00 for the heck of it…Fraud….then they charge you $5.00 per month for supplies and when you ask for them you get told NO…fraud…I’d go on but I just don’t have the time…they are a complete rip-off!
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Are you with Alpha Card Services? Learn how to resolve this complaint.
lazaros kalemis
As most people know the SAQ form he is referring to is not a made up document rather a requirement of the PCI Security Council.. We at Alpha Card Services’ are doing our best to ensure that all our merchants are handling valuable Credit Card Data properly. This is a case a merchant that hasn’t listened to anything we have had to say. as per our terms and conditions our supply program gives merchants a reasonable amount of Paper per their processing needs. When this merchant was told that they were not eligible for the amount of paper they requested they used foul language and hung up on our CSR. As we mentioned to the merchant The 40.00 fee is a non compliance fee, that is immediately refunded once compliance is achieved through filling out or providing a valid SAQ from control scan who we use or any other means. As anyone who uses Control scan can attest, they send out emails when expiration of compliance is coming up and after compliance has expired. I am sorry this merchant had a bad experience but we have tried to work with this merchant, but he has become irrational and second guessed the info given even when we directed him to the pcisecuritycouncil.org to confirm what we were saying was legit. in this world with so many data breaches we would think everyone would try to protect card holder data and be willing to do anything possible to not endanger their business to the large potential fines by the association for any breaches that could be caused.
Tim
Alpha Card Services is a VERY BAD company. We used them for 4 years but needed to make a change. Our new point of sale system would not work with Alpha Card. As a result we needed to cancel our accounts. Our initial contract was for 2 years. Apparently it auto renews for another year annually. If you cancel before the end of your new “Contract” they charge you $250 for “early cancellation”. Keep in mind that I have already been with them for 2 years past the initial contract. Also, due to deceptive business practices on their part I had 2 accounts and I was charged the $250 twice. $500 just for closing my account. STAY AWAY!
Lazaros Kalemis
Tim, I am very surprised with the info you are writing. 1st, the term, we clearly disclose our term on page 2 of the document, which you initialed, page 3 or the document which you signed below and also point 13 of our term and termination clause. Auto Renewing is standard on all merchant agreement, and that clause is dictated by our sponsor banks. Unlike our competitors not only do we place our term on the agreements, prior to approving an account our Underwriting Team discusses all rates, fees and terms with every merchant prior to approval followed with a ups signature required approved client package. In the package we again summarize the contract and give a full copy of the signed agreement with the terms and conditions.
the reason you signed up for two accounts is because you do both retail and moto transactions evenly. because of the type of transactions you do we helped you setup 2 accounts so that if there was ever a chargeback on one of your key entered card not present transactions you would not be required to send the issuing bank an imprinted copy of the transaction as is required for any retail location key entering cards.
Phillip CPO
Lazaros, your reasoning for setting up two accounts for this merchant makes little sense. In most cases, agents and ISOs do this to obtain double commission on an account, or to ensure a hefty residual commission. This is especially true when considering that two accounts can be avoided if you set up this type of merchant with Interchant-plus pricing.
Lazaros Kalemis
Phillip, this isn’t about pricing. it is about risk of a transaction and informing merchant’s of their rights. any charged back transaction requires certain documents. a retail location with a keyed transaction would require an imprint. if they don’t have it they lose. visa versa and interchange merchant may not qualify for the best interchange levels because software is limited in asking for key components of a key entered transaction. ie, moto transactions require cvv2, address, invoice number to get the best interchange. a moto merchants processing a business card doesn’t qualify for level 2 processing. there are a host of reasons to separate accounts from both a risk and interchange savings.
Phillip CPO
I disagree with your reasoning as Chargebacks under your purposed scenario are exceedingly rare. A merchant such as this can still be set up with Interchange-plus so long as the payment gateway allows them to gather the additional information for card-not-present transactions, of which several gateways are capable of doing.
I also just noticed that you claim that all merchant account contracts automatically renew, which is false. Most contracts I’ve seen go to a month-to-month service agreement once the initial term is met.
Kevin
Alpha Card is just like the rest of the credit card processors. They send a sales agent out who will ask for your statement from the company your using at the time. It’s best not to give them the statement. Make them provide their best offer at first, they will argue that they can’t do this. This will be the first lie. Second lie is when the sales agent,( in my case was a third party agent acting for Alpha Card), destroys your current credit card processors statement and shows you how bad your getting taken. He will circle numbers and tell you this is where the current company is screwing you and that Alpha Card can save you money. For me he said between $200-$300 a month. When I said ok I’ll switch, he quickly ran me through the contract. My fault for rushing. At the time I asked him if the termination fee was set fee. He said Yes, $299. He didn’t tell me the real truth that the fee is $299 plus the minimum fee associated with the account for the amount of time left on the contract. Actually he stated that Alpha Card does not impose such fees, and that I should stay away from companies like that. My fault for believing him and signing.
My current fees where around $1000 every month. So with what I was shown by the sales agents math, I was expecting to see a decline on my first statement with Alpha Card. My first statement was $1500. $500 more than the previous company. I called and argued but was only given the run around by him and customer service. I’m sugar coating this cause I don’t want to be typing all night. In the end Alpha Card is now trying to stick me with the termination fee of $299 plus the minimum on the account. They are trying to charge me over $2000 for work or processing they haven’t done.
I didn’t call or ask them to come by, they showed up at my front door with this great deal. The sales agent did a great job of acting, later he tells me he is the President of Alpha Card Services. Come to find out that the real Alpha Card is in Pennsylvania, they hire agents and let them assume the name of Alpha Card and will not take any responsibilities for their agents actions. So in this area he is the President of Alpha Card. So I assume it’s a franchise….ha.
So what ever you do do not use Alpha Card Services. I’ve taken to the street and they are one of three credit card services in this area of Texas that other merchants are saying stay away from.
Lazaros Kalemis
please remove this sentence as it is libelous “So what ever you do not use Alpha Card Services. I’ve taken to the street and they are one of three credit card services in this area of Texas that other merchants are saying stay away from.” Please show us proof of this statement as you are hurting our brand with this out right lie.
Kevin the reason rates increase from month to month are numerous, if you give me your merchant ID we can look into specifics.
but some are, you processing more so the effective rate has decreased but fee increase because of the volume, second your card type changes or finally your processing habits change causing cards to down grade because you miss information of key entered transactions, don’t batch out in time, dotn add tax to business card transactions.
Phillip CPO
Lazaros, please do not threaten, attempt to frighten, or intimidate commenters on this site or your remarks will not be published. By all definitions of Libel, Kevin’s comment does not qualify as libelous and he is completely within his rights.
Lazaros Kalemis
Phillip I understand. I do not have your email address so ill reply here. People can post their experiences. We have an issue with this 1 statement “So what ever you do not use Alpha Card Services. I’ve taken to the street and they are one of three credit card services in this area of Texas that other merchants are saying stay away from.” as it is libelous. It is a false published statement that damages our reputation. With only a few hundred merchants in Texas, it is Highly unlikely that he has walked the street and anyone mentioned us as one of three companies to stay away from let alone many people. Sheer market share would say that is impossible.
it is easy for someone to come on the site and make claims. we value our brand and our integrity. we help all merchants that need it, and go above and beyond to confirm all rates prior to approving an app. as you know in the past 24 months the associations have created many fees, and regulation others. We do everything we can to notify merchants.
Phillip CPO
I recommend speaking with an attorney regarding the legal definition of Libel, as it is apparent that you are not educated in the matter.
frank
Was left without tech support too many times with down terminals. Called to get a termination cost and was told that it would be $250 and that our contract had renewed on 9-29. When we faxed the cacelation notice in we were then told that it had renewed on 10-31 and that we now owed $440. They seem to change the actual renewal date at will when you go to terminate. Anyway, got hit for the $440. Then when we asked they not pull the $440 from our account till this was worked out, they just pulled it out anyway that night. These guys will treat you like garbage once you sine up. STAY AWAY!!!!
Nicholas Datyner
I started a Merchant account with Alpha Card Services at the beginning of 2010, the reason being the low monthly cost ($10) This was using the Touch Tone capture setup, just calling in the CC number for approval. This was fine up until a few months ago when they increased the Data Breach fee from $4.95 to $7.95 and added a Reg Compliance fee of $3.75. Then in May another fee from Visa FANF 1 for $4.35 and backdated to April so there was a second $4.35. Come June there is a FANF 1 charge of $3.75 and a FANF 2 charge of $9 and another FAN 1 charge for April of $9 so the fees have gone from $10 to $30. I’d called and asked about the charges after the May account and Alpha had reduced some that they had control over but by agreeing to the changes the contract which would have ended beginning of 2013 was extended by 3 years. I hadn’t noticed this in the fine print, nor was it explained by the sales person. Like many I hadn’t read the fine print of the original agreement. It is designed so that whatever the charges become after you sign up you CANNOT get out of the contract without paying the monthly fixed costs till it runs out. I think most businesses would think that they are doing the servicing companies like Alpha a favor by paying them for their largely services which are quite minimal. They aren’t bearing any risks like the credit card companies but merely doing invoicing of fees and bank transfers all of which are either online or electronics. I had looked at ProPay after all this as an alternative but I”m stuck with Alpha for another 3 years. So read the fine print and ask lots of questions about what happens if charges are increased and new fees added since you will likely but stuck with them.