ProMerchant

 
ProMerchant (headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts) is a standout in the credit card processing industry, based on the achievement of their core purpose, which is to provide businesses with the best support and service possible, while leveraging their payment processing expertise to ensure their merchants receive the most transparent and fair pricing programs available. Their decades of experience in merchant services allows them to effectively serve all types of businesses, such as retail, e-commerce, restaurants, mobile, and mail order / telephone order. What’s more, ProMerchant is able to satisfy the needs of small to mid-sized businesses, as well as large companies that need to process a high degree of charge volume.
 

Interchange Plus Pricing Plans

 
ProMerchant offers two Interchange Plus pricing models. Interchange Plus pricing is one of the most transparent and fair pricing structures offered in today’s marketplace.

Their first plan option is Interchange Plus a fixed percentage rate and transaction fee. This rate structure is very straight forward and allows business owners to understand what they are being charged.

The second pricing plan, Flat Rate Pricing, differs from the preceding because it eliminates any variation in rates and presents merchants with one fixed rate for any and all credit cards. As well, this option has a very unique feature, whereby merchants can qualify for an extension of this plan that reduces overall credit card processing fees down to 0%. It is recommended for retail and mobile businesses, and as with their Interchange Plus Fixed Rate pricing, this pricing structure has a month-to-month agreement with no hidden fees. During the application process, a senior account representative will be assigned to the merchant to help them choose the best pricing plan for their type of business. This structure contains all of a merchant’s typical, monthly charges into one, singular amount. As well, both Interchange Plus pricing plans offered by ProMerchant are fixed, meaning they will never raise their merchants’ rates, which can be a big issue with other providers. Further, ProMerchant is always willing to contrast and compare their pricing against a prospective client’s current processing program. They also offer merchants a $500 AMEX gift card if they aren’t able to beat (or meet) their current processing statement, which is a win-win for merchants.
 

Fast, Free and Easy Setup with Month-To-Month Agreements and No Cancellation Fees

 
ProMerchant does not charge any setup fees and they have an online application that is easy, straightforward and allows them to approve your account within 2 to 24 hours. In order to start an application with ProMerchant, you can either call their toll-free number or fill out their brief, online form with your name, phone number and email address. After you complete this form, an Account Director from ProMerchant will contact you by telephone in order to answer any questions you have and assist you with your processing needs. Once your account is approved, a ProMerchant Support Director will help you become comfortable with the operation of your processing solution, as well as assisting you in the completion of your first transaction. Equally important, ProMerchant only offers month-to-month agreements and they do not charge any early cancellation fees.
 

Free Equipment and Processing Solutions

 
ProMerchant’s team members are highly experienced when it comes to the payments industry, which allows them to setup merchants with the best solution for their specific types of businesses. ProMerchant emphasizes that it is aware that most business owners operate on a very tight monetary schedule, which is why they offer their merchants free equipment and processing solutions.

Retail and Restaurant Merchants: For their Retail and Restaurant clients, ProMerchant provides a free Verifone VX520, which is a popular and reliable EMV compliant and NFC capable credit card terminal. NFC stands for Near Field Communication, which allows customers to make transactions by holding their smart phone over the terminal. Having this technology, that facilitates payments through mobile wallets, can foster quicker sales and higher revenues for many businesses.

Point-of-Sale (POS): ProMerchant also provides multiple POS options to their Retail and Restaurant Merchants. All of their POS systems have impact resistant, high-definition touch screens with integrated thermal printers, swipers, EMV Chip readers, NFC technology, and high-resolution cameras for barcode or QR scanning. As well, their POS solutions contain ticket, inventory and reporting functions that allow their merchants to process refunds, manage and organize inventory and view weekly balance sheets.

Phone Order / Mail Order Merchants: For Phone Order / Mail Order clients, ProMerchant offers a free and easy to use Virtual Terminal that allows their merchants to process credit cards safely and securely from any computer, phone or tablet with internet access. Their Virtual Terminal also allows merchants to run reports, print out, email or text receipts, process voids, initiate returns, and even setup recurring billing. Additionally, ProMerchant does not charge any monthly gateway fees that typically accompany many other virtual terminals.

E-Commerce Merchants: ProMerchant also offers a rock solid solution for those merchants who also want to process transactions via their website. ProMerchant provides their E-Commerce merchants with Authorize.Net, which among other things, provides a simple HTML script for a website’s payment page and a flexible API code for shopping carts. This system also has multiple filters and tools that stop fraudulent transactions before they happen and it can even restrict dollar amounts of transactions, IP address ranges and total transactions per hour.

Mobile Merchants: For all of you Mobile merchants out there, ProMerchant provides a top notch product with their PayAnywhere mobile solution. This system is comprised of the free PayAnywhere App, that is used in conjunction with their free, Bluetooth credit card reader that’s EMV Chip compliant and has NFC technology built right into it. Although these features are a part of ProMerchant’s PayAnywhere mobile unit, they are not standard with many other mobile products and all merchants should be very wary of purchasing any mobile processing device that does not accommodate Chip based transactions. Moving on, their PayAnywhere smart phone app allows merchants to capture their customer’s signature by having them use their finger to electronically sign the receipt on the phone’s touchscreen. As well, this technology allows merchants to easily email or text customer receipts. Last but not least, the PayAnywhere solution enables merchants to apply tips, sales tax, initiate voids and returns, and even capture sales if there’s no phone coverage, since this system has the ability to save transactions and process them when coverage is restored.
 

Dedicated Support Team

 
Due to ProMerchant’s extensive experience in the industry, they have a deep understanding of the challenges that face many merchants, especially when it comes to service. They know it is not uncommon in the payments industry for companies to sign up merchants without providing sustained support. This is why ProMerchant assigns every one of their clients with an Account Director and Support Director, who are tasked with delivering continued support throughout the life of the merchant account. ProMerchant seems to have scratched a very important itch with this strategy, due to the fact that many providers do not even provide same day answers to important questions. ProMerchant appears to be able to handle their clients’ questions and needs with a refreshing urgency that is absent from many processors in the industry.
 

Bottom Line

 
ProMerchant is our top pick for their transparent and “pro” merchant approach. They are highly rated by the Better Business Bureau and this comes as no surprise, due to the fact they provide transparent, fair pricing models with free terminals and processing solutions. When you factor in their focus on providing an effective and sustained support strategy to all of their merchants, it is easy to see that ProMerchant is deserving of our top spot in such a competitive environment.