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!
Steve flick
This co.has the worst customer service I have ever dealt with. They send my app to an update and then tell me reader will no longer work. I asked them to send me the new reader to the show that I am at for three weeks and they tell me they can’t do that either. In the mean time I need to type in the cc numbers and then they are going to charge me a higher rate per trans.
Very poor outfit. Dropping them as soon as I get home.
From The Editor
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C. Livingston
We have never ever used this company. We have our own company. Yet this company is sending us information on customers we have never had. We are likely receiving card info from another company which is a giant security breach. Then, we received a reader we never ordered. I would not trust a company with security this lax, especially when they want to infiltrate your business.
Dfghji
Takes way too long to receive deposit
Trace Durham
I had issues right out of the gate with Phoneswipe. The reader broke twice and took forever to get a replacement. Then they would charge a huge amount to me if I had a good month and it wasn’t in the “norm”. So you get penalized for having a good month. To finish it off I sold the company. Called them to let them know, then get a bill 3 months later that they sent me to collections. They said I didn’t write them to cancel the service. But they never told me that when I called!!! So now I have to pay the fee to get the account closed. Wouldn’t recommend this company to my worst enemy.
Erin Burnett
I wish I would have read these reviews before starting my “free” phone swipe account. I’m not sure how this company is legally still in business…they are nothing but a huge scam. They just charged me over $200 for absolutely nothing but their lies and hidden fees. I hope people will read this review before considering doing business with this company like I wish I had.
PLEASE DO NOT TRUST THIS COMPANY!!!
Ron Klassen
The app works great on my Samsung X5 phone.
The processing stinks, in fact, it seems like a scam.
They’ve held up our payment for nearly 3 weeks, continually asking more inane questions, demanding proof of this and that. Of the 4 CC processors we’ve worked with, they are 5th. As soon as we get this payment cleared, we’re gone, never to return.
Now, after going thru hell, I’ve noticed several others having the same kind of issues. And low fees? 3.5% of $1,900?? Not low at all. There are far better processors out there, I’d suggest avoiding this one.
Frank
Best service ever. Their customer service department is very helpful and always returns calls as well as send updated notes via e mail. I have tried several different merchant processors all shutting my business right down and holding funds, phone swipe is the only company that never gave me any issues. Their deposits always occur the next day with out fail. Best service ever!
Jen
Be ware. Phone Swipe just allowed a sales company complete access to all my banking information in an attempt to charge me a $30 a month fee to see online reviews and the info that is available to me on my statement. I’ve recommended this company for years, but will get away from them asap since they are giving all my financial info to some con artist who represents that he is part of company. How incredibly dishonest!
Sheila
Phone Swipe is a SCAM! Stay away!!! They never told me that they charge monthly fees! They just charge me $115! They get more money from my bank than what I make and it’s just ridiculous! I hate how they take advantage of small businesses. SCAM!!
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Are you with Phone Swipe? Learn how to resolve this complaint.
Robert allegro
This company is absolutely terrible I would not recommend using this company. They have been holding funds of mine for over one month. Their customer service is terrible and I don’t know what they’re talking about. They keep giving me the runaround and send me all these confusing emails and refused to pay me my money. As of today I still have not received my money
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Are you with Phone Swipe? Learn how to resolve this complaint.
Jeremy Robbins
I would strongly suggest that no one uses this company. Their customer service is awful, they charge a monthly maintenance fee, and there’s better lower-cost options out there. Why use this when there’s Square or many others? North American Bancard services low credit people and treats everyone as if they’re in that category. No reason to use this thing.
William Letman
BEWARE! Whatever you do don’t trust this company. They will tell you one thing to get you to sign up for the service but before you can complete the sign up process they will start drafting fees from your account and hold you liable for the fees. Then when you find that this has happened and try to resolve the isssue they drag their feet to correct it so you are close to the next month I tried for a month to get $128 credit back to my account only for the same thing to occur with a extra $100 they tried to debit after I cancelled the account now another fee. The employees and senior rep are very unprofessional, I honestly feel this place is being operated out of the Ghetto. I would not recommend this company to anyone. They tell me that they will credit my account back if I sent them a voided check after sending me 3 terminals that doesn’t work for the Government contract I have LOL .RUN!!!!!!
Kirk Lohse
My experience with this company has been HORRIBLE. They tell you everything is FREE, but then they DEBIT YOUR BANK ACCOUNT for all of these mysteriously heretofore undisclosed FEES. Total BS ripoff. Go with SQUARE or PayPal Here for your card reading needs.
Roger jahn
just got my first E-statement..the daily deduction of 1.68% from each swipe is fine, (as advertised)..the monthly charge of $12.95 for the “free pad” is tolerable, but finding out that my bank account was debited an extra 7% on top of that for a “min volume processing fee” brings my cost to do Swipe to 8.68% or 9.88% if I include monthly fees…we are getting funded next day for swipes before 5pm …so no problems there, but the minimum volume fees…that was not made clear in the signup process..
Ernie Radicchi
Been in business for 31 years. They called me. They sent me their card reader. I still never responded. They called ME again and asked why I have not hooked up. The service rep said he would walk me through it. I had a couple of eBay transactions that I could have done with someone else but I said I would give them a try. One was for 462.50 and the other for 675. Both went through, I was told my money would be in my bank account the next day. Nothing.
Got an email telling me my funds were on hold. I exploded on their answering machine, you never get a live person. I called for 5 days and finally I cancelled both transactions and will never use them again. Next day had a charge of almost $90 on my credit card. So they made $100. On me and made my stomach churn for two weeks. Plus my customers on eBay are not thrilled and I have a 100% feedback rating. THEY SUCK AND SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO OPERATE.
Larry Pfeil
By “no monthly fee” they mean a $10 monthly fee, and by “no miminum monthly charges”, they mean there is a $25 minimum monthly charge. But wait, it gets better, by no long-term commitment and monthly renewals with no cancellation charge, they mean a minimum of one year commitment with a $350 cancellation penalty. I will not do business with Phone Swipe and I would not recommentd to anyone to do business with them.
Ron
Phone Swipe is a bad credit card processor to deal with. Huge fees and delayed funding. Reported to the NJ Banking Commission and BBB. They are crooks and buyer beware. Use bank approved merchant services and stay away from Phone Swipe and Square! Both are crooks and should be shut down for stealing from customers.
Dimitry Borochin
!!!!AVOID THEM!!!!!
Wow, what a mess. Stay away!!!! You’ll get hidden fees and they will grow over the course of your contract…”If you don’t have any charges that month, you still have to pay fees”.. “Monthly Basic Service Fee”….. Contract? Phone Swipe has a contract? Yes contract … 3 yr contract. I’ve been able to figure out the following, PhoneSwipe->PayProTec->North American Bancard. To me, it looks like a bunch of shell companies that front for NAB. So, assume your payment terms will be NAB’s… Yes, they are the worst. Read the NAB review on this site. At the time of this writing, they got a D.
Robert L
Phone Swipe… sounds like a good idea. Wow, what a mess. I have been waiting to receive my money for about 45 days and still no answers and a lot of excuses. I simply changed my bank account and they have not processed the information that I have updated and updated for the third time. The customer service is absolutely the biggest load of @$!&^ I have ever dealt with. If you want to effectively manage your merchant services, DO NOT go with Phone Swipe or North American Bancard. They will, at the least, cause delays in payment and over promise their services. They offer free equipment which is a crock, only if they feel that they will be able to delay or keep your first couple of months transactions to pay for this equipment. Or if they can determine by osmosis that you will be a high volume customer. So, no real value in that, go with the Square or PayPal Here. I can not stress how much this company has aggravated my merchant processing services. JUST WALK ON BY…
RD
Phoneswipe customer service is terrible. They allowed information to be stolen and caused merchant accounts to become compromised. Because of their error I have had funds held for weeks with no notice of the hold. Merchants beware, do not use this company. The square has never given me a bit of trouble.
Mark O
We have had NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS with PhoneSwipe (they seem to also go by the name “North American Bancard” and possibly Mobilized.com) since we signed up a month ago. We have not recieved payments, and every time I call in to ask why, I get a different reason. Lately I am told the money will be released, and the next day, still no funds. The time on hold has been up to 30 minutes EVERY TIME I GOT TRANSFERRED last week. Our account rep told me she doesn’t check her voicemail messages, which is why she did not respond to me last week. Today I can’t reach our “rep” as her phone is always busy, and I get the voicemail that I do not believe she listens to. I couldn’t talk to an Operator, since that goes to voicemail when I tried. Last week our rep said the money was to be released, but now I suspect I am in for more excuses. Now, I just hope I can get my money. They claim a one day payment but we are now at 14 days waiting for payment. IN MY OPINION THIS COMPANY MAY BE UNABLE TO DEAL WITH THEIR VOLUME OR IS IN TURMOIL. I WOULD RECOMMEND A DIFFERENT COMPANY FOR PROCESSING, AS THESE PEOPLE DO NOT APPEAR ABLE TO RELIABLY OPERATE, IN MY OPINION.