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!
TB
The sales team at Patriot Payment Group deliberately fails to disclose ALL fees that are assessed to your merchant account in order to make their product more attractive. The sales team will hound you to get your business. Once you sign up, they become unresponsive.
What they promised:
1. Patriot Payments would buy me out of my current merchant contract.
2. I would be charged transaction fees 1.39% + .20 per transaction.
3. I would be charged a monthly account maintenance fee of $5.95.
As a small business owner, this fee structure was very attractive. However, after noticing random debits to my account, I called to inquire and found out that in addition to the fees listed above, I was charged:
1. Additional transactions fees from Visa, MasterCard, Amex, etc…
2. A $79.95 annual fee from Patriot
3. A $99 annual PCI Compliance fee from NAB
4. A monthly ($7.95), or quarterly ($19.95), or annual ($64.95) PCI compliance network scan fee. (NAB)
Had the additional charges been disclosed, I wouldn’t have signed up with Patriot Payment Group. Patriot lures its customers by emphasizing the lower transaction rate of 1.39% (+.20). However, once the additional fees are factored, their service is not more attractive or as cost effective.
Small business owners BEWARE!
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Gina Schillinger
I had a representative come to our family farm and say there was no fees, no contracts and lower percentage, also if I cancelled the company I was with they would reimburse me the $395 fee for cancelling. I have never receiived the reimbursement for 5 months. I also was charge $79.00 twice for Patriots annual fee and 3 months latter I was charge $99.00 fee twice from North American for their annual fee. I am seasonal farm business and closed during the winter and I am still being charged all kinds of fees and a minimum fee of $40 for no transactions. I was also charged $3.99 last month with an account number that is not mine. I have sent email after email and left voice mails and faxed letters to Jose and others who i was told was in charge of my account. North American refers me to Patriot and they never answer. As a small seasonal family business I can afford all these fees and lies. The first sign should have been the salesman Paul Revay left and I called the number on his card a lady names Doris voice mail came on. I cancelled my accounts as of 1/1/16 with emails and faxes since I can’t get anyone to answer.
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Paul Chaney
I responded to a cold call by a Patriot Payment Group rep in the fall of 2014. I didn’t want to make a decision right then, so I asked her to all me back. Another person did call me back, and she got information from me about my business. I told her of my very marginal need for merchant card processing, and that I had customers want to pay by card maybe once every other month, or about 6 times per year. I explained that my customers pay by cash or check. She asked what my gross sales were, and she immediately recommended a tablet-type terminal and a phone swiper. She said that everything processed would be 1.69%, but that there would be a $12.95 monthly fee for the account. I agreed to the price, because when I had a service before, it cost me $30 per month, and the percentage was much higher. I received the equipment, was charged the monthly fee at the beginning of January, and someone called me and walked me through a test transaction. When I was ready to start using the service, I had a feeling that I needed to verify the terms, conditions, and costs. I went to the PayAnywhere website and discovered that there is a $79.95 fee if processing volume is under $5000 per month with the tablet account. I immediately called Jose Amador, my “personal” rep, and he told me that the fee was negotiable. I was never told that there was a minimum, and I never received any disclosures. February came, and my statement came with a charge of $91.95. I protested that I had not signed up to pay a large fee. I went to my bank and they said they could reject the item, but when I asked for my money back, I was told that it would be refunded. So I did not do a stop payment. Brad, the manager, made promises, but no one called or did anything. This same situation of calling, getting no response, went on for 3 weeks. I was assured that I would be taken care of. March came, and I was charged another $91.95, and I hit the roof. This time, I demanded all of my money be returned to me, but also, I did not wait for them to NOT do what they said they were going to do again. I stopped payment on the amount. I was promised a return of both $79.95 fees, but they wouldn’t return the money until I returned the tablet and set up a phone-swiper-only account. I set up the new account, which has a 2.69% rate, but no monthly fee and no minimum. I refused to pay for the shipping, so they eventually sent me a prepaid UPS label, and I returned it. I protested that their sales person did not listen to my business needs, sold me a service that they knew I did not want and that did not make business sense. I insisted that they should have sold me the phone-swiper service and not the tablet service, and that because it was their error, they should refund me the three $12.95 charges as well as the two $79.95 charges. They promised to refund me the latter, but they never refunded me any money. PPG sold me the wrong service, refused to admit their error, repeatedly lied to me about having someone contact me, repeatedly lied to me about refunding me my money. I waited for them to do what they said they were going to do. Brad repeatedly told me that he wanted me to be completely satisfied, and that he would not stop until he personally took care of my case. But he NEVER did anything! PPG’s sales behavior and false customer service is no better than fraud. Why would anyone do business with a company that has employees who blatantly lie to you? I feel like they just plain stole my money–and not only that, but wasted many hours of my time, and caused me much frustration.
Bev Warren
Ok, where to start………….we had a rep from your company, her caller I.D.says Kirsten Diaz however she goes my another name. The first thing that came out of her mouth is, “Your my first customers”. RED FLAGS!!! What was supposed to be a 20 minute session, turned into a two and a half hour session as she said watching a video was required. The laptop she had, was really old, really slow and the monitor was cracked, so I guess I could hear the presentation. After she FINALLY left, I was with a client in my showroom and she barges in the door and shoves her phone in my ear saying I needed to verify all the information that took her two and a half hours to collect…………another 15 minutes, meanwhile my patient client was still waiting. I went to my office too retrieve the last bit of info and when I returned, she was sitting talking casually to my client asking a lot of questions. I could see she was not comfortable with the situation, I then asked the rep to leave.She sent all the wrong information that caused my company to suffer as they held my money for 10 days and only because the owners wife is a banker, did she bring it to my attention, that the money had never been put into the account. So now I ask you, what kind of a scam is this, not a very good one for sure. But I only wish I could speak with this rep and her supervisor to let them know, she clearly needed more training.
Dan Weissmann
Patriot Payment Group lied to me and said there were no fees. They were trying to woo me away from a different provider. Then out of no where they charged me $79.95 for an annual membership fee. I complained and they told me it was on my statement Thing is, I receive no statements from them.
They have also overcharged me on my first three invoices. Their rep rarely calls me back and I have to make multiple calls, often with no results until I call their main number and complain,
Bottom line, they are liars and incompetent. I feel so strongly about this that you are welcome to use my name and email address in this post. I have nothing to fear from the truth.