Argus Merchant Services is a leading merchant account provider with its headquarters in New York City. Argus Merchant Services has claims of serving around 100,000 merchants. They are a reseller of First Data or Fiserv for all of their products and merchant accounts. Here is a complete and authentic Argus Merchant Services review.
Argus Merchant Services was introduced in 2010. In addition to New York, the company has an additional office in Los Angeles. One of the most striking characteristics of Argus Merchant Services is that it is known to specifically cater to Spanish and Chinese-speaking merchants. However, the new President at Argus Merchant Services -Jacob Shimon, is a native Russian speaker and he aims to contribute to the multicultural community through the organization.
In addition to its linguistic versatility, Argus appears like most other standard merchant account ISOs. Argus Merchant Services is known to partner with independent agents and other sub-ISOs. This implies that the overall merchant experiences might vary significantly and there are some complaints regarding Argus Merchant Services on the internet. Through its merchant account products and services, Argus Merchant Services offers services to a wide range of industry verticals -including hospitality, retail, and more.
Authentic Argus Merchant Services Review – Based on Key Factors
Offerings of Argus Merchant Services
Argus Merchant Services offers access to payment processing for both online (card not present) and in-person (card present) transactions. At the same time, you can leverage the benefits of check processing solutions along with merchant cash advances and gift card programs. Some additional offerings by Argus Merchant Services are:
- Mobile Processing: Nowadays, businesses are expected to ensure the option of accepting credit cards everywhere -right from the home of the clients to on the road, during conferences, and so more. If you have a similar business, Argus Merchant Services comes with a dedicated mobile processing solution featuring a card reader. The card reader remains compatible with both Apple and Android smartphones.
- In-person Processing: Argus Merchant Services offers access to in-person debit and credit card processing solutions for businesses involved in industries like restaurants, retail, and even specialty industries like gas stations.
- Virtual Terminals: A virtual terminal is a crucial tool for phone and mail orders. A virtual terminal enables you to utilize your existing computer system to input specific payment information into some secure online form. There is no requirement to buy any expensive equipment. Still, you will be able to accept credit cards to ensure customer-centric purchases.
- Online Processing: For e-commerce processing, Argus Merchant Services provides the choice of USAePay gateway and Authorize.net gateway. Both the choices for payment gateways are capable of integrating with the major shopping carts such that your customers are easily able to shop as well as checkout on the website.
- Cash Advances; If you wish to expand the working capital of your business, run ads, buy inventory, or execute any other business operations, Argus Merchant Services provides access to cash advances. In most cases, cash advances are available with flexible eligibility criteria in comparison to conventional loans. However, they can have some downsides as well. Make sure that you are considering your funding options effectively.
- Check Processing: There are several customers who still prefer using checks. With Argus Merchant Services, it is possible to accept checks for businesses. Checks can be accepted over the phone, through the website, or even online.
- Gift Cards: You can now leverage the immense popularity of gift cards while offering them for your business. The gift card program of Argus Merchant Services can help develop customer loyalty while encouraging repeat visits.
- Wireless Terminals and Countertop Terminals: Verifone, Ingenico, and PAX terminals are available in the products section. You will also come across linked tutorials on YouTube on these devices. The website’s Chinese version will redirect you to the same tutorials featuring Chinese subtitles. However, there are no subtitles for Spanish speakers.
- POS or Point of Sale System: Argus Merchant Services bifurcates the POS or Point of Sale system into two distinct groups -POS Systems and Quick Serve POS. However, there is little distinction between both them. The images and descriptions used are pretty generic. The only exception is the presence of the Poynt system -which is responsible for displaying linked tutorials and accurate images.
Payment Processing by Argus Merchant Services
Argus Merchant Services is capable of processing all major credit and debit cards for most types and scales of businesses. Some of the standard services of Argus Merchant Services are e-commerce solutions, mobile payments, access to payment gateways, EMV terminals, virtual terminals, POS solutions, cash advances, check processing, gift & loyalty programs, data reporting & analytics, and marketing services.
Argus Merchant Services Complaints
There are some negative complaints regarding the products and services of Argus Merchant Services. Some of the complaints even claim the company to be a rip-off or a scam. Some of the most common problems faced by merchants and customers regarding Argus Merchant Services are poor customer service, expensive costs for early terminations, non-disclosure of fees related to Argus Merchant Services, miscalculation of rates, and getting charged upon cancelation of services.
One complaint regarding Argus Merchant Services stated that there was a fee for early termination -around $790. However, a representative of the company contradicted the complaint by stating that there was an early termination fee of $495 that aligns with the contract with First Data or Fiserv.
Employee Reviews of Argus Merchant Services
To its advantage, the company reveals the presence of multiple positive reviews of its employees. It is important to note that there are several reviews of both current as well as former employees of Argus Merchant Services. However, most of these reviews are posted in broken English. Most of the merchant reviews of Argus Merchant Services suggest that the company specifically markets to Spanish-speaking and Chinese-American merchants.
Argus Merchant Services Pricing
There is minimal information about the standard contract or rates as charged by Argus Merchant Services. Minimal information depicts that there is an agreement of 3 years featuring an auto-renewal policy for two years.
As Argus Merchant Services is a reseller of First Data or Fiserv, its standard terms might be similar to the ones offered by Fiserv. The standard agreement of Argus Merchant Services depicts a multi-year contract along with an early termination fee of $495. There is also a monthly PCI compliance fee of $19.95 in addition to the concept of tiered pricing.
Merchants who are capable of processing up to $50,000 every month will receive a swiped rate of 2.69% along with $0.19 and a keyed-in fee of 3.69% along with $0.19. Merchants having a monthly charge exceeding the value of more than $50,000 will have a swipe rate of 2.29 percent along with $0.19 and a keyed-in rate of 3.29 percent along with $0.19. A critical aspect of the contracts is that these remain non-cancelable. Additionally, these are also available as long-term equipment leases provided via First Data Global Leasing.
Argus Merchant Services reserves its rights to modify the respective terms & conditions. It will ultimately depend on the size, processing history, and business type of the merchants as the reseller of the products of First Data. However, there is a lack of properly available information on the fee structure and rates of the company. Merchants who are considering the services of Argus Merchant Services should refer to the contract of First Data as a reference point.
Payment Gateway & Virtual Terminal Pricing
In addition to the services related to storefront payment processing, Argus Merchant Services also focuses a significant part of its official website on marketing the payment gateway and virtual terminal services. However, for either of the services, the pricing information is not revealed properly. Additional fees and rates -including technical support fees, gateway fees, transaction rates, and batch fees apply to the respective e-commerce services.
Complaints Regarding the Contract of Argus Merchant Services
In our Argus Merchant Services review, we found One small merchant put forth a complaint that the company operates a leased terminal. There is also a possibility of a penalty in case you fail to return the same on time. Another merchant complaint reported that there was an early termination fee of more than $800 -quite larger than the industry standards. There are reports of early termination fees varying around $750, $500, and $495. There are other complaints regarding Argus Merchant Services that state that the company went ahead with charging an undisclosed annual fee out of the merchants -only after 6 months of being into the contract.
There are other complaints that accuse the company of charging merchants after the contract has been terminated.
Average Contract Terms of Argus Merchant Services
Our Argus Merchant Services review suggests that Argus Merchant Services offers access to specific contract terms that are not competitive with the most affordable merchant accounts. Also, the number of merchant-specific complaints suggests that the contract terms of the company will lead to an average score of C in the respective category.
