City Card International Services (CCI) was founded in 1994 and is currently headquartered in Brooklyn, NYC. The provider aims to target innovations in the payment industry and adapt to changes in technology and market trends. This article presents a comprehensive City Card International Services review for merchants.
CCI aims to streamline its processes to improve its services in the ever-evolving payment merchant space. City Card is focused on developing a loyal clientele base by tailoring its services to the needs of the merchants registered with it.
City Card International caters to all businesses, including retail, e-commerce, and online shopping platforms. The provider is a direct ISO of Visa and Mastercard and claims it will help save merchants hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in processing fees annually. CCI claims to offer an elaborate service where they will deal with all your processing needs and help you through your merchant application processes.
The theme on the City Card International website shows that its main target is small-scale merchants and businesses that are just starting up. There is a lack of information and reviews about the provider on the internet. If you plan to sign up with the provider, the City Card International Services review below will help you decide.
City Card International Services Review Based On Features and Services
City Card International Services is up-to-date with the modern changes and trends in the payment industry. They offer a wide range of services that they can tailor specifically to the needs of any business that chooses to sign up with them. They provide payment processing services to businesses like educational institutions, hotels and lodging, restaurant, petroleum, retail, non-profit organizations, pharmacies, convenience stores, MOTO, and B2B companies. Below is a review of the services they offer;
Credit and Debit Card Processing
Credit and debit card processing is the main offering of any merchant service provider. These modes of payment have taken over the business industry, and it is almost near impossible for businesses to succeed in the modern financial market without a diverse set of processing options.
City Card International accepts cards from all major credit card organizations like Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. Plus, as they are a direct ISO of Visa and Mastercard, transactions that come under these networks have a much lower processing fee. CCI assists merchants in simplifying card-based payments for their businesses based on the merchant’s needs.
Payment Gateway
City Card is one of today’s most innovative and technically advanced merchant service providers. This means it caters significantly to e-commerce businesses and online stores that usually operate on a remote or online payment mode. For a merchant to avail online transaction services, they need to have a payment gateway. The payment gateway bridges the customer’s bank and the merchant’s acquiring bank.
CCI offers a secure gateway that merchants can use for their online businesses. It can be integrated into many e-commerce platforms and offers merchants fast, safe, and diverse options. Merchants can customize the gateway based on their needs to fit their brand.
Wired and Wireless Terminals
A diverse set of equipment to receive and process payments is always an added benefit for your business. Sometimes one of the methods is not working, and at other times, another method is just more convenient for your customer. For some businesses, a wireless terminal is necessary, as mobile payments are the best solution. One such example is the restaurant business. You cannot ask your customers to come and pay at the POS terminal every time. The convenience of paying at the table is now a must for any restaurant.
CCI offers a diverse range of wired and wireless terminals that accept payments through all the latest methods, such as EMV, NFC, and magstripe. Through NFC, the devices offered by CCI are compatible with almost all digital wallets like PayPal, Google Wallet, Cash App, Samsung Pay, and several more popular options.
POS Terminals
POS terminals are a necessity for businesses. While receiving payments is an obvious feature that these terminals offer, they now do a lot more than just that. POS terminals today make your business more efficient. They record valuable transaction data you can later analyze to improve your business operations.
The Point-of-sale terminals offered by City Card are developed to be diverse and effective. They offer you a plethora of apps and features like invoicing, inventory tracking, introducing customer-centric offers, and analyzing essential sales data. The cost-effective equipment options by CCI are designed to streamline your business operations and save you time simultaneously.
Gift and Loyalty Programs
Gift cards and loyalty programs are a way to strengthen customer relations and build brand loyalty. Using customer-centric strategies like these will turn your casual customers into recurring ones and promote your brand through networking. Gift and loyalty programs can boost sales exponentially. CCI allows you to incorporate them into your marketing strategy so you can benefit from these features without having to go through the tedious task of designing these programs from scratch.
PCI Compliance & Fraud Protection
As the payment industry advances, people with malicious intent are becoming more and more dangerous. It can be nothing short of a nightmare for a business owner when essential business data and sensitive cardholder information are leaked. Unfortunately, threats to your business are inevitable, but you can take innovative and stern steps to avoid such disasters.
City Card International Services provides up-to-date tools that help you prevent, detect and eradicate fraudulent agents in your system. With security protocols that meet the latest PCI-DSS standards, CCI will help protect your business and customers.
Cash Discounting
Cash discounting is a way for your business to eradicate processing fees while giving your customers a discount. City Card International offers elaborate cash discounting programs that you can utilize to minimize the processing costs of your store. How this works is that you give your customers a discount when they purchase items through cash instead of a debit or credit card.
By incentivizing cash-based transactions, you can create a win-win situation for both you and your customers.
City Card International Services Review Based On Contract Terms and Pricing
Unfortunately, there is no publicly available information about CCI’s rates and contract terms. To get a quote, you have to contact their sales representatives directly for a tailored solution for your business. Based on their website, they do not charge anything for consultancy; they aim to provide the most competitive pricing models in the payment industry.
While there are no details about the contract term length, there are speculations that the terms are negotiable. If you find the sales representative open to negotiation, make sure to negotiate for a monthly contract with interchange-plus pricing. They have a thorough term-of-use document on their website that you should study before signing up for CCI services.
BBB Report
BBB does not accredit City Card International as of now. It has an account made on the website back in 2004, but there are no reviews, complaints, ratings, or grades for the provider.
While this is not unnatural for a small-scale merchant service provider, it is eerie that a provider operating since 1994 has little to nothing regarding online feedback.
Drawbacks of CCI
There are no positive or negative City Card International Services reviews available anywhere, so there is not much that can be said about the provider’s reputation. There are no reviews on reputable platforms, and even the BBB profile of CCI is unaccredited, and there are no customer reviews.
But despite all that, there is one drawback that can be seen on the website of City Card. There is little to no information about the provider’s services, products, prices, and contract terms. This lack of transparency is concerning, especially considering the statements on the website claiming that the provider aims to simplify the operations payment processing industry for its clients. Even though they offer free consultancy, it is a time-taking process, and the non-disclosure of terms publicly is a red flag.
The fact that the provider had to hide this information may mean that their prices are above the industry average. Also, as the contract terms are not openly disclosed, there is a risk that the provider will bind you to a long-term contract.
Conclusion
Based on the CCI website, the provider seems to tailor merchant-centric services and processing. They claim to offer everything from detailed consultation to guidance in setting up and growing the merchant’s business. Based on the City Card International review above, the provider is focused on innovating and adapting to new changes in the payment industry. And based on the claims on its website, the provider’s main focus is to simplify the changes in fintech for its clients.
But the provider seems to be unsuitable for high-risk and well-established businesses. When a business is already established and running, they sign up for services with a processor with a lasting reputation and thoroughly documented history. City Card, unfortunately, is devoid of any history on the internet, and any information available about the provider is given by themselves on their website. There is nothing to show in customer testimonies or the BBB profile itself.
Adding to the lack of information, there is no disclosure of payment and contract terms on their website, which can be problematic for merchants when they plan to sign up. Despite offering a free consultation service, the lack of transparency does raise concerns.
