Before we begin our honest Humboldt Merchant Services review let us understand some basic facts about the company.
About Humboldt Merchant Services
For high-risk and challenging-to-place merchants and retailers, Humboldt Merchant Services (HBMS), a financial services company, offers credit card processing solutions and electronic payment processing services to high-risk businesses. Adam McDonald is the president of Humboldt Merchant Services.
The business offers personalized payment solutions that take into account the unique demands of each of its customers. HBMS, a Tempe, Arizona-based company, has previously filled remote positions in industries like accounting and finance, data entry, retail, research, and insurance.
As the company is expanding fast and attracting merchants all across the US our Humboldt Merchant Services review can help you in deciding if you want to use their services for your business.
Establishment and Services
Humboldt Merchant Services, established in 1992, offers payment processing alternatives for niche enterprises such as those that issue bail bonds, sell guns and ammo, sell e-cigarettes, offer adult content, offer dating services, and engage in direct marketing.
The company offers boutique-level solutions and products including in-store chip card payments, Android Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, prepaid cards, and gift cards.
In addition, it also provides real-time transaction reporting, in-house risk management and underwriting, multicurrency conversion, specialized charge-back reporting, and compatibility with many financial gateways. Through its patented fraud and charge-back reduction platform, Fraudcast, Humboldt Merchant Services offers measures to combat fraud.
Three Decades of Trouble-Free Credit Card Processing.
It’s not always simple to find the best payment processor for your unique requirements. You’re covered at Humboldt Merchant Services.
Since 1992, it has offered hassle-free, safe, and secure credit card processing to businesses of all sizes and sorts. It’ll create software specifically for your requirements so you can concentrate on managing your business. The excellent approval ratings, creative processing solutions for e-commerce and retail merchants, and in-house underwriting and risk management services, according to the company’s About Us website, are its specialties.
This business provides its merchant clients with specific PCI compliance support. This has some pros and cons which we have included in our Humboldt Merchant Services review. They are as follows.
Pros:
- Excellent for high-risk companies that require electronic payment systems and credit card processing.
- The ability to process payments in a customized way.
- Quick approvals for business owners in niche markets.
- offers in-house risk management and underwriting.
- provides specialist support for compliance.
Cons:
- The alternatives for payment processing and hardware are not made apparent on the company website.
- Few value-added services are provided to retailers.
- Products were previously sold through independent agents and resellers.
- multiple monthly costs for services that are not provided.
- There is no mention of the contract.
Industries and Business Types Served
- Online Sellers
- Ecommerce
- High Risk
- Mobile
- Online payment
- Retail / Card Present
Products & Solutions from Humboldt Merchant Services
An honest Humboldt Merchant Services Review of Products and Solutions
Hardware & Software for Retail Businesses
Humboldt Merchant Services provides free hardware and equipment for payment processing. What alternatives there are to Verifone are not quite evident from the corporate website. However, the website does say that retailers have other options.
With its payment processing hardware, Humboldt Merchant Services enables retailers to accept a variety of payment methods, including EMV and NFC transactions.
For merchants who require regular billing, Humboldt Merchant Services can also give them access to a virtual terminal, an online payment gateway, and several APIs. International merchant customers can also use multi-currency conversion.
Extra Services
Compared to several other merchant account providers, Humboldt Merchant Services does not give as many value-added services. However, given that this business focuses on assisting high-risk merchants, the other services it does provide are quite helpful to them.
In-house underwriting and chargeback reporting are available to merchants who choose Humboldt Merchant Services, giving them a single point of contact. The business’s chargeback reduction technology, Fraudcast, delivers thorough reports to retailers directly.
Both QuickBooks connection and real-time transaction reporting are offered. Programs for gift and loyalty cards are offered.
Services & Accepted Payment Methods
When choosing Humboldt Merchant Services as their MSP and ISO, businesses can accept a variety of payment methods. Options consist of:
- payments made with any of the four most popular credit cards, including swiped and EMV payments
- debit card transactions
- NFC transactions (Apple Pay and Android Pay)
- Electronic and paper checks
- A pre-paid card
- Credit cards
Humboldt Merchant Services: Sales & Marketing
In addition to working with independent sales representatives, Humboldt Merchant Services has an inside sales team. This business also has a reseller program, indicating that it depends – at least in part – on its alliances for the sale of its goods and services. Usually, this can lead to a lot of complaints, but it doesn’t seem like that’s the case for this business.
No False Statements:
Additionally, Humboldt’s website does not contain any false price quotes or exaggerated guarantees. A third-party statement audit can be used to evaluate your pricing if you think Humboldt has added secret surcharges to your monthly account.
Pricing, Charges, and Rates for Humboldt Merchant Services
Pricing Model: Unknown
Swiped Rate: 1.00% – 4.99%
Keyed-in Rate: 1.00% – 4.99%
Mobile Payment Rate: Unknown
Virtual Terminal Rate: 1.00% – 4.99%
Monthly Fee: $20
Payment Gateway Fee: Undisclosed
Batch Fee: Unknown
Early Termination Fee: $159
PCI Compliance Fee: Undisclosed
Equipment Lease Terms: Undisclosed
Address Verification Service (AVS): Unknown
Application Fee: N/A
Account Setup Fee: N/A
Gateway Setup Fee: N/A
Annual Fee: variable
Monthly Minimum: $20
Statement Fee: N/A
The company page claims that several monthly fees, including the following, will be assessed to merchant customers:
- A minimal monthly charge
- Statement charges
- Discounted price
- A charge for authorization
The company is specialized in working with high-risk merchants, so it is most likely why it is unclear how much these costs are. Risk level, past payment processing history, and monthly processing volume are a few examples of variables that might affect rates and costs.
One-Year Agreement:
An extremely ancient iteration of the HMS contract (dated 2007) describes a one-year contract with a $159 early termination cost, a variable annual fee, a $20 monthly minimum fee, and a $10 monthly maintenance fee.
Although it is currently uncertain whether or not Humbolt Merchant Services’ pricing and contract terms have changed much since the creation of this document, it is anticipated that the high-risk accounts of the company will differ greatly from one another.
Pricing for Virtual Terminals and Payment Gateways
Humboldt Merchant Services advertises its virtual terminal and payment gateway services on its website in addition to providing storefront payment processing services. However, neither of those services discloses their prices. These e-commerce services frequently have additional rates and fees, such as gateway fees, technical support fees, batch fees, and additional transaction rates.
No warning signs
We’re inclined to give HMS an “A” in this area at this time because the absence of complaints against the company tends to imply that the majority of its clients are content with the parameters of a regular HMS contract. Due to their distinct merchant base, it is unreasonable to expect high-risk merchant account providers to compete with the cheapest merchant accounts.
Reviews, Scores, and Complaints for Humboldt Merchant Services
BBB Score
In addition to having an A+ rating on the BBB website, Humboldt Merchant Services is a Better Business Bureau accredited enterprise. In the past three years, there have been three complaints made, and all of them were billing and service problems. Two of them were solved, and the corporation answered the third with no comment.
Few complaints overall
At the time of this assessment, we were only able to find a small number of Humboldt Merchant Services complaints against HMS in open forums that weren’t part of the Better Business Bureau, some of which were from 2009 or earlier. For high-risk suppliers like Humboldt, the fund holds and refused applications are frequent complaints.
The company’s fraud mitigation procedures don’t seem to have any ongoing issues. Even for a small business, Humboldt Merchant Services has a low complaint rate.
Humboldt Merchant Services: Lawsuits and Penalties
There are no pending class action lawsuits or FTC complaints against Humboldt Merchant Services that we could find. Disgruntled customers who want to take the firm to court should think about reporting the corporation to the appropriate regulatory bodies.
Feedback: What Retailers Say
John N.
August 28, 2021: at 11:55 Am
“A friend recommended Humboldt/HBMS to me. These folks are highly open and honest, disclosing everything and being quite forthright about their methods.
The agent took the time to hear what I needed and how I wanted my application to be handled, and we worked to make it happen.
I’m very happy my friend told me about these. Since we sell adult novelty items, our industry is regarded as high risk. I worked with EMS and Payment Cloud Inc. in addition to HBMS. Avoid Payment Cloud Inc. and Electronic Merchant Systems.
These other two companies could care less about their clients. Simply observe the ratings about them. I heartily endorse HBMS, and there’s a good reason why it has so many favorable ratings both here and elsewhere on the internet.
Well done, guys!”
Employee’s feedback
A productive and enjoyable environment to work in.
Supervisor of Risk & Underwriting (Present Employee) – Tempe, Arizona – December 10, 2021
“This is a fantastic place to work and follow long-term occupation and academic goals while supporting work-life balance because of the wonderful people who make it such a wonderful place to work.”
Our verdict: A Reliable Option for Merchants at Standard and High Risk
After our Humboldt Merchant Services review, we find things very positive with the company. The information that is currently available points to Humboldt Merchant Services as a reputable merchant services business. There are very few complaints about the company in open forums, and there is little evidence that it uses dishonest tactics.
We feel confident giving HMS an overall grade of “A” until more data is available. To get the best price, standard-risk merchants are urged to compare the company’s pricing to that provided by top-rated merchant accounts.
