eProcessing Network (ePN) is a payment gateway and not a merchant service provider. It is based in Houston, Texas, and has provided its services to merchants since 2000. The company’s leading service to its clients is a secure payment gateway that their clients can use to process credit, debit, and ACH payments.
They offer their services through a virtual terminal, mobile processing system, or website. eProcessing Network does not provide you with a merchant account. Instead, eProcessing Network is made to work in conjunction with your existing merchant account. It is not possible to use eProcessing’s products and services alone to make business transactions.
eProcessing allows you to integrate with several merchant account providers in the market, including bigger names like First Data and Chase Paymentech, among many others.
How to Sign Up For ePN Services
There are two main ways you can register with ePN to use their payment gateway for transactions. The first and most common way people register is through their in-house sales representatives. But for this method, you need to have a merchant services account that is already active. However, you get more customization options for your account when you register through the eProcessing Network gateway. You can add vital features for your business and make your merchant account more dedicated to your business model.
Another way is to get ePN add-ons and features through the merchant service provider you already use. For this, your merchant service provider should have a partnership with ePN, but this is a better way to go for your business. By using this method to get these services, companies can get discounted fees and even negotiate a special deal with the merchant service provider. This will not work if the existing merchant account provider is not already partnered with ePN. If you still want to use this way to register with ePN, then you will have to change your provider to one that works with ePN.
Does eProcessing Network Use Deceptive Marketing?
The primary marketing tactic that eProcessing utilizes is their own inside sales team. They have a reseller program and strategic partnerships that help them propagate awareness about ePN services to potential clients. Most merchant service providers that provide their clients with accounts are guilty of misleading quotes, but as ePN does not work that way, there have been no records of misleading rate quotes and tricky contract terms.
You don’t find details about the company’s pricing on their website. So, if any misleading quotes are received, it is more likely to happen at the end of the reseller than at the end of the company.
Fees and Pricing
There is no information on eProcessing Network’s website about their pricing. So, quotes on what they will cost you will be from your merchant service provider or the reseller you got the service through.
Despite the lack of information on the internet, merchants can expect to pay anywhere from $10 per month for their gateway and $0.05 per transaction in addition to what your merchant account provider charges you for processing your transactions. You can also expect a one-time setup fee, especially if you sign up through their sales representatives. This can be around $50 for the basic gateway services. If you are looking for advanced features and add-ons, you can expect to pay a little more.
Also, if you need additional hardware for your business, you will have to pay for that too. Despite all this, the prices are within the market average, and therefore they are considered reasonable. If you compare their prices with other gateway services, you will most definitely find ePN’s prices lower.
Downsides of ePN
While ePN is not one of the bigger players in the market, it still has its set of pros and cons. While people are reasonably satisfied with ePN as a processor, the following issues can be noted about the merchant service provider.
Lack of Pricing Information
There is no information online to compare how much ePN will cost if customers choose a merchant account provider that partners with the gateway or gets it from their online sales team. So it is always a gamble at the end of the client whether or not they get the best pricing or not. The same goes for the basic gateway package. They do not mention the free features with the gateway or the prices of added features before you purchase either. All of these issues hinder the ability of their clients to make a thoroughly researched decision about using the services of ePN or not.
Resellers
As eProcessing does not disclose its prices on its website, you cannot determine its wholesale pricing at this time. So, when someone registers for ePN services using a reseller, the cost will be slightly marked up based on the reselling ePN services. You cannot judge how much a markup a reseller is charging you, and you would have to take what they tell you at face value.
Customer Complaints
It can be seen in the online reputation of eProcessing Network that it isn’t very glowing. The most significant reason for this is a large number of customer complaints relative to the size of the business.
ePN is not entirely at fault here either. While some complaints point out problems with the gateway and the services ePN provides, most of the complaints result from misunderstandings at the end of the customers. There are several complaints where customers blame the processor for account holds, early termination fees and more, where ePN is just the gateway provider. These erroneous complaints are not addressed by eProcessing which somewhat muddies their online reputation.
eProcessing Network in a Nutshell
eProcessing Network has relatively small market share but is a viable option in the payment gateway industry today. If the unrelated complaints are ignored, the overall complaint ratio is not overly serious.
But merchants should know ePN does not provide a merchant account and based on the merchant account provider they choose, the overall fees for payment processing can become quite significant. You can find payment processors that provide you with a merchant account and payment gateway together, and many of them are cheaper overall than what you will get with ePN and another merchant account provider.
