Excel Corporation (currently known as OLB Group) had sold the operations of Securus Payments to Chyp. Chyp serves to be a relatively new company that shares its location, employees, and ownership with Securus Payments. Existing merchants of Securus Payments will be serviced by eVance -a leading subsidiary of OLB Group. In our Securus Payments review, we found that it is no longer serving as an active business even though its website is still up and running.
Securus Payments is based out of Portland in Oregon. It is a merchant account provider that is also an ISO of Fiserv or First Data. The company was introduced in 2009 and currently, the company shares its ownership with the all-new Payprotec -a company based in Portland. In 2014, both Securus Payments and Payprotec were acquired by Excel Corporation. The Payprotec company was later on discontinued. On the other hand, Securus Payments continued to remain active. Securus Payments has its location at Suite 300 in Portland, Oregon. Moreover, it serves to be a registered ISO or MSP of Wells Fargo Bank in California. Steven Lemms is regarded as the CEO and Founder of both Securus Payments and Payprotec.
Securus Payments Review Based on Services Offered
Securus Payments is known to offer access to standard payment processing procedures -like a virtual terminal, e-commerce solutions, check processing and so more. Additionally, the company also provides access to a dedicated merchant cash advance program and gift cards. At the same time, you will also be able to make use of conventional credit card processing equipment to accept all major debit and credit cards available in store.
- Check Processing: Offer your customers the flexibility to ensure the payment they want while also protecting your business. The check processing services of Securus Payments help in verifying checks, protecting against insufficient funds, and converting them into cash within the span of next 2 days.
- Virtual Terminal and E-commerce Solutions: The e-commerce software solution of Securus Payments offers access to a hosted payment form along with pre-integrated solutions, a customer database, a secure virtual terminal, and dedicated reporting such that you can know what is exactly happening with your business. The included option of virtual terminal can be utilized by phone or mail order for allowing businesses to accept credit cards.
- Loyalty Rewards and Gift Card Solutions: You are able to provide branded gift cards with the help of Securus Payments. The company also provides a terminal-centric rewards program. All that the company staff requires to do is to check the phone number of the customers. Eventually, they will earn rewards.
- Merchant Cash Advances: Securus Payments provides access to funding to both small as well as mid-sized businesses. The approval time is around a week along with the 90 percent approval rating. It is important to keep in mind that merchant cash advances tend to be expensive. It might be worth your time into conventional loans as well.
Securus Payments Review Based on Complaints
Currently, we are able to locate around 80 non-BBB complaints related to Securus Payments. Most of the complaints accuse the organization of being a scam or a rip-off. Common themes amongst complainants include high-pressure sales tactics or deceptive marketing strategies, difficulty in reaching customer service representatives, and undisclosed termination fees.
Most merchants offer the indication that the greatest expense while ensuring payment processing through Securus Payments are linked to equipment leases. It could cost thousands of dollars to cancel. This turns out to be a higher complaint rate for an organization that has been in operation since 2009. The company has listed a direct phone contact number on the official website. However, this line is potentially handled by Chyp or eVance at the existing point.
Securus Payments Review Based on BBB Rating
Currently, Securus Payments has no profile with BBB or Better Business Bureau. On the other hand, BBB only features a series of folded complaints for Securus Payments into the dedicated profile for Excel Corporation. Currently, the BBB offers Excel Corporation the rating of A. The company has not received BBB accreditation.
Excel Corporation has received around 29 complaints in the past three year. 25 complaints are related to sales or advertising and 4 complaints related to issues with respect to products or services. Around 7 complaints regarding Excel Corporation have been resolved successfully. At the same time, around 22 of them have been resolved related to the dissatisfaction of the merchants or have not received a final response from the merchant. One complaint could not receive a faith response from Excel Corporation in the estimation of BBB.
Securus Payments Review Based on Pricing
According to the terms and conditions of eVance Processing, the standard contract of the company is a 2-year agreement featuring automatic renewal for a term of two years along with a liquidated damage featuring an early termination fee. The same amount is calculated by multiplying the total number of months remaining from the termination date at the current term’s end by the average monthly processing fees by the merchants to the provider along with the fees of the attorneys and costs of the providers incurred with respect to the termination of the merchant of the existing agreement.
The company does not offer additional terms or pricing on the official website. However, the uncapped cancelation fee is sufficient to warrant the company a D rating in the existing category.
Presence of Varied Terms
These are specific terms & conditions of the company through Merrick Bank. It is possible that eVance might also provide access to contract terms that are similar to the ones offered by subsidiaries of Calpian Commerce. It is available with the 3-year term with the early termination fee of $350 along with the PCI compliance fees of $185. The use of independent sales agents by the company might ensure further variation in the respective fees and pricing structure.
Higher-than-average Pricing
There are several complaints related to the company with respect to unauthorized fees and billing. The track records of Calpian Commerce, Pipeline Data, Chyp, and Securus Payments are also throughout negative in the existing category. In the review of Securus Payments, the merchant agreement of eVance Processing do not tend to be competitive with the one provided by the most affordable merchant account providers.
Securus Payments Review Based on Sales & Marketing Strategies
Securus Payments is known to leverage the services of in-house marketing as well as independent sales agents to market the respective products and services. While it is quite common in the credit card processing industry, the use of independent sales agents is mostly a cause for complaint amongst merchants. It is because it is difficult for any organization to regulate the overall conduct of the entities of independent sales.
As such, Securus Payments is no exception. It is because there are several negative reviews related to Securus Payments that depict cases of non-disclosure of terms, misinterpretation of rates, and manipulative or aggressive tactics by the agents of Securus Payments. Additionally, some of the complaints have been filed by previous employees of the organization alleging a lack of support by the agents, presence of an unprofessional workplace, and non-payment of residuals.
The official website of Securus Payments also features a dedicated table depicting rates as significantly low as 1.59 percent for Internet, swiped, and MOTO transactions. While it is entirely possible that the respective quotes precisely refer to the Qualified rates of the company, the website has not specific mentions of the Non-qualified and Mid-qualified rates that merchants will pay for a major part of the respective transactions.
This type of rating is regarded as deceptive. It is because the company offers its merchants unrealistic expectations of the predictive rate they will be paying. There are several merchant complaints that depict that sometimes there is a difference between the subsequent rates as represented by agents and the rates that merchants are expected to ultimately pay to the company.
Conclusion
Securus Payments review shows us that the company can be rated as a substandard merchant account service provider . The overall rating of the company is known to suffer from complaints related to the sales practice, the respective contract terms, and the overall record of complaint resolution. Merchants are, therefore, advised to examine the respective contract terms carefully while only dealing with agents they tend to trust.
