10 Best Credit Card Processing Companies in 2023
Finding the ideal payment processor for your company is challenging since the sector is characterized by aggressive marketing and opaque costs. For you to make an educated choice, we decided to go past the eye-catching discounts and uncover the truth about price, features, security, and more.
The top 10 credit card processing businesses in existence today are the result of hundreds of hours of work. To conduct the most thorough comparison possible, we gathered tens of thousands of merchant ratings, thoroughly analyzed features and prices, and even put each provider’s sales process to the test.
With the aid of our comparison, you’ll be able to reduce processing costs without sacrificing the greatest features available in the credit card processing sector. Find the best credit card processor for your business by reading our results below.
1Stax: Cheapest Option For Most
You’ll like Stax’s straightforward monthly payment approach if you’re sick of credit card processors getting a huge cut of each purchase; there isn’t any percentage-based markup. Additionally, even if you have no prior expertise, it is a beginner-friendly platform that is simple to set up and begin selling with.
The majority of businesses will gain substantially from this payment mechanism even though there is a tiny flat cost for each transaction in addition to the customary interchange rates (which isn’t stated on the website). You will save a lot of money compared to standard processors that tack on a 10% markup to every transaction if your monthly income is more than $5000.
With an e-commerce platform that enables you to build a personalized shopping cart with only a few clicks, Stax is a particularly excellent choice for online retailing. Additionally, it offers simple connections for accounting programs like Quickbooks as well as well-known e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce and Shopify. You may also design your checkout system and develop unique integrations thanks to its adaptable API.
Stax also provides first-rate sales and technical support by phone, email, live chat, and other methods. Additionally, in contrast to other processors, it offers a thorough knowledge base on its website with how-to articles and instructional videos that pretty much cover all there is to know about processing payments with this service.
Customers are quite satisfied with Payment Depot. Online, delighted businesses may be found raving about the savings they’ve realized by partnering with Payment Depot. Due to its inexpensive monthly membership plan, Payment Depot is among your most affordable solutions.
There is a minimum income requirement, similar to that for almost all monthly subscription credit card processors, to fully benefit from Payment Depot’s price structure. Similar to Stax, I’d advise having a consistent monthly income of at least $5000.
Payment Depot delivers responsive and highly helpful 24/7 phone service, in contrast to the support staff of many credit card processors that seem to vanish when difficulties arise. In reality, by lowering your risk of chargebacks and fraud, Payment Depot’s devoted risk monitoring staff assists your company in avoiding obstacles even before they present themselves.
3 Leaders Merchant Services: Best to bargain
Leaders Merchant Services pledges to make an effort to at least match, and frequently surpass, the rates of your prior processor. Your two most recent monthly processing statements will be requested, and the sales representative will attempt to present you with a better overall value.
If you currently work with a payment processor, Leaders Merchant Services is a good choice since you can use your current prices as a starting point for negotiations. On the other hand, since the salesperson won’t have any competitors’ prices to match, businesses shopping for their first payment processor could not receive as good of a bargain.
Regarding the actual payment processing services it provides, Leaders provides dependable options for both offline and online transactions. Additionally, it offers round-the-clock technical assistance, and a whole division is devoted to assisting you in successfully disputing chargebacks. This will probably end up saving you a ton of money over time (as well as hassles) if you’re a mid or high-risk business.
4 PaymentCloud: Best for high-risk Frims
Numerous credit card processors may not even contact you if you work in a high-risk business or have a low credit score. Fortunately, PaymentCloud has one of the best acceptance rates in the US at 98%.
Even while mid- and high-risk merchants pay a slightly higher percentage markup every transaction, these prices are still competitive with other high-risk payment processors that frequently take advantage of your limited options.
Payment Cloud may set up a virtual terminal and payment gateway for you in addition to offering a free POS terminal. The list of supported payment methods at PaymentCloud is among the longest I’ve seen from a credit card processor. Even prominent digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Monero are accepted.
5 National Processing: Most Transparent
Rarely does a credit card processor prominently list all of its rates and fees on its website. By outright disclosing all of its pricing information, National Processing defies this tendency.
National Processing provides a pricing calculator to assist you to determine the precise charges you’d be paying to be completely transparent. The majority of its programs have monthly membership fees, minimal exchange rate markups (often less than 1%), and flat transaction fees. Depending on the mode of sale and your sector, these charges change.
Additionally, National Processing has an amazing range of POS systems. You can divide checks, design loyalty programs, and more using the supplied software. Additionally, it is inexpensive to start; you may do so by using a simple terminal and a cash draw on your tablet. However, although being competitive, National Processing’s rates aren’t the lowest.
6 Flagship Merchant Services: Fastest Payouts
Whether the sales were made offline or online, Flagship Merchant Services delivers same-day financing to your merchant account. This is a significant incentive because the majority of merchants will have you wait more than 24 hours to get your earned money.
You can more nimbly handle the financial challenges of operating a business with same-day finance. You can more easily fulfill financial commitments, guarantee that your inventory is always fully stocked, and other things. Even though the same-day funding option has an additional fee, many firms will find it to be well worth it.
The onboarding process for Flagship Merchant Services is simple, and your account might be approved in as little as a few hours. However, when it comes to price, Flagship isn’t the most open CPU. For the greatest bargain, I’d advise negotiating for a straightforward interchange-plus plan.
7 CreditCardProcessing.com: Best High Volume
CreditCardProcessing.com, like Stax, does away with percentage-based markups in favor of a straightforward monthly membership and a flat transaction cost. High-volume firms receive some of the lowest transaction costs I’ve encountered, even though this transaction price is fairly high on its lower-volume programs.
The free Clover Mini terminal that comes with the High Volume plan makes the offer even sweeter. This offers adaptable software with a ton of practical features. Directly from the terminal, you may control inventory, personnel scheduling, and other things. This is a significant benefit of CreditCardProcessing.com’s High Volume package because I seldom see Clover terminals supplied for free.
Every plan also includes free access to the premium Vindica service, which, with the help of thorough analytics and an intuitive platform, simplifies and optimizes the sale of subscription services. Vindica also makes an automated effort to correct any declined payments, keeping your clients satisfied and your income steady.
8 Chase Payment Solution: Best for SMEs
Chase Payment SolutionsSM offers a lot to offer small and medium-sized businesses. This credit card processor is intended to keep your overhead expenses down with no forced contracts, monthly fees, or other hidden expenditures, as well as straightforward interchange-plus pricing. Additionally, none of the essential features will be lost. A tracker for customers’ purchasing patterns is one of the company growth tools included with your merchant account.
Additionally, Chase stands out for offering quick access to your money. Standard payout terms are the next day, and Chase banking users can even receive same-day reimbursements. If you fulfill certain requirements that are reasonably accessible to mid-sized firms, you may not have to pay the minimum monthly charge for your bank account.
Just keep in mind that you’ll have to buy every piece of hardware you require outright from Chase’s constrained POS lineup, which includes exclusive gadgets you might not be able to subsequently reprogram. Fortunately, Chase frequently offers discounts on its device selection, allowing you to purchase equipment for your location (or field personnel) at a lower cost.
9 Luminous Payment _ Most Flexible Pricing
The usage of cash is encouraged by Luminous Payments, which is not something I ever imagined saying about a credit card processor. You may add your processing costs as a surcharge to all card payments with its Cash Discount service. Customers that pay cash will receive reduced pricing, and you’ll keep more of their money in any case.
Luminous Payments further provides flat rates, tiered rates, and interchange+ pricing if you’d prefer a more convenient payment structure. Even better, you may combine these numerous price schemes into a unique plan made just for your company. Whatever you choose, Luminous Payments offers more competitive rates than others.
Despite this, Luminous is still relatively new to the sector and hasn’t established a solid reputation. Although all of the early signs are encouraging, some retailers could choose to stick with a tried-and-true strategy.
10 ProMerchent: Best for Retail & Restaurants
ProMerchant still has a lot to offer the appropriate company, despite being closer to the bottom of this ranking. Its unique feature, the Zero Cost Processing scheme, is exclusive to eateries and retail establishments. With this strategy, you may charge a premium to your consumers to cover credit card processing costs.
This implies that you keep all of the money you get from customers—even interchange fees. ProMerchant therefore better suits companies with significant sales volumes, who would benefit from transaction fee savings the most.
You will still need to pay a monthly membership, and the extra will cause your rates to go up a little. Additionally, you would need to use ProMerchant’s Interchange Plus package if your company doesn’t operate in the retail or food sectors. Unfortunately, this plan’s pricing isn’t really outstanding, so it could be worthwhile to look at.
How Do We Evaluate Credit Card Processors?
Unlike other review websites, we at Website Planet think you deserve to know more about each credit card processor than simply the highlights. Here are the steps we use to assess the payment processors we analyze to uncover the real story underneath the marketing.
Features
Payment processing is something you need your credit card processor for, but a competent processor should also provide other services. The finest credit card processors give you management tools, and thorough analytics, and integrate able e-commerce and POS systems, which greatly simplify operating your business and handling your money.
To uncover the truth hidden behind all the marketing speak, we independently investigate the benefits offered by each payment processor. We may then decide what, if anything, genuinely stands as a result of this. Stax’s e-commerce platform is more adaptable than those provided by more expensive payment processors, ranking among the most flexible in the industry.
Ease of Use
Most firms just want a solution that operates well. Nobody wants to spend hours setting up and programming only to get their payment processor to work with their backend. Time is money, after all, and the top credit card processors can be set up in a matter of minutes.
We assess each payment processor based on how user-friendly it is overall. Will it be difficult for a novice to put everything up? Exist any manuals or training programs? How intuitive is the platform to use? These are just a few of the inquiries we make while evaluating a platform’s usability.
Compliance and Security
Priority one is security. Your company may be subject to significant penalties and class-action lawsuits if your payment processor is unable to maintain PCI compliance. A data breach may quickly bring an otherwise successful company to its knees, so if you want people to give you their money and personal information, you need to be able to inspire trust.
Because of this, we make sure that every credit card processor we examine complies with PCI. Additionally, we look at historical data breaches, general security protocols, and more. Any further safeguards against chargebacks and fraud are always welcome.
Pricing
Credit card processors have a history of including hidden fees in their agreements. The situation is made worse by the fact that many payment processors fully conceal their charges, requiring you to call their sales line. You are instantly at a disadvantage as a result of the skilled salesperson having access to all the knowledge while you do not.
We break through this obfuscation to provide you with more specific information about what you should prepare to pay. You can then decide based on the information. We also give bonuses to credit card processors who provide clear price information, which we’d want to see become standard.
Support
If your company’s funds are on the line, you better have a quick-response support staff on hand to assist you if a problem arises. Online, you may find a ton of horror tales where vital money was withheld from merchants and the support staff of the credit card processor just didn’t seem to care.
Every one of our reviews includes a test of the customer service department of each credit card processor. We phone the sales staff to ascertain whether they provide accurate and useful information. We also assess the technical support team’s availability and response.
FAQ
Which credit card processor is best?
This is dependent on a variety of elements, including your industry, the volume of transactions, the average transaction value, and more. Having all that, Stax is a fantastic option for the majority of organizations, providing dependable processing and a strong feature set in exchange for a reasonable monthly subscription.
To find out which processor would be a suitable fit for your company, you can also look at our comparison of the top 10 credit card processors above. Make sure to read the thorough evaluation of a certain one for additional details.
What is the largest credit card processor in the US?
Banks like Bank of America and First Data are frequently the biggest payment processors in the US. This does not necessarily imply that they are wise choices, either. They frequently impose exorbitant processing costs and provide few or no tools for controlling your funds and business. The aforementioned credit card processors are all more affordable.
What are typical credit card processing fees?
The majority of firms will pay processing fees ranging from 1.5% to 4.5% of each cashless transaction. The precise proportion will differ based on the interchange rate levied by banks that issue cards as well as the costs levied by the credit card processor.
What is the fastest credit card processor?
Square’s small business checking account provides the quickest access to your money. Nevertheless, it’s not a good option for companies with a high frequency of transactions. Flagship Merchant Services, which provides same-day funding and better rates for larger firms, is what I would advise in such circumstances.
