National Merchants Association Review

NMA uses their own proprietary apps for Gateway, Mobile Processing, Merchant Accounting, API Interface, and PCI Compliance apps. This may make moving to a new Processor quite difficult. NMA does not offer Clover POS systems, which iDeal Comparison ranks as the best POS for small and medium sized businesses. They offer Pioneer POS S-Line POS systems.

We also take issue with that NMA describes themselves (https://Portal.NationalMerchants.Com) as “America’s ONLY advocacy group to help merchants eliminate the unnecessary and unreasonable fees that some processors charge to accept credit cards.” Our research could not find anything to support that claim. This marketing verbiage may lead some readers to think NMA is a Non-Profit organization. NMA is a for-profit credit card processor.

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National Merchants offers credit, debit and online processing. They also provide additional services, including POS systems, gift and loyalty programs and QuickBooks integration.

National Merchants Association does not use several of the industry-standard processes. NMA has propriety NMA applications that make it easy to start with NMA, but make it difficult to move to another processor easily. In addition to payment processing, National Merchants offers mobile processing through iProcess™, QuickBooks integration, and paper check processing through Checks-By-Web. They also offer a virtual gateway through NMA’s proprietary Gateway Emulator™ allows merchant to switch from other gateways w/o reprogramming

The three monthly levels offered are Basic, Plus, and Premier monthly deals, and they include the following:

Basic: Includes POS Supplies, Equipment Rental, and Gift Card Program.

Plus: Includes Basic + Customer Loyalty Program through email, text, & social media

Premier: Includes Plus Benefits + Custom Website & Shopping Cart

This set-up emulates a subscription program but without a significant cut in costs. Although this services are extremely helpful for any merchant, there are other payment processors who provide them at a cheaper price point.

National Merchants offers credit card processing for both online and in-store purchases, specifically for high risk merchants. Although they advertise lower rates, in reality, they have some of the highest credit card processing fees on the market. They only offer longer term contracts with high termination fees, along with high PCI compliance fees and annual fees.

NMA offers interchange-plus and flat-rate pricing plans. You can see flat-rate plan on the website, but no Interchange-Plus information is shown online. They require at least a 1 to 3 year contract, with hefty termination fees. The big downside to National Merchants is the laundry list of additional monthly and annual fees that accompany their services. We’ve listed the ones we know about below. The list is extensive, leading us at iDeal Comparison to rate NMA as one of the most costly payment processors in the industry.

National Merchants’ reputation involves high hidden fees, difficulty canceling services and telemarketing sales tactics. It is helpful that National Merchants approves and takes on high risk merchants, but it’s best to choose a company with an excellent reputation rather than the first company that promises to cover any merchant that applies.

Customer Service

As iDeal Comparison has recommended, it’s important to read through all contracts before agreeing and signing on with a company for credit card processing. Many of the complaints have come from merchants being unable to break contracts or having high fees to do so without being alerted beforehand. There is no outright mention of dedicated representatives for merchants, but National Merchants does claim to be advocates for those who partner with them.

Data Security

National Merchants is PCI compliant and does annual checks along with what is referred to as “Fraudcast”. This service is an additional $19.99 per month, but it’s encouraging to see it offered, as some companies do not advertise or offer additional data breach and security measures.

Professional and Merchant Reviews

Common complaints and reviews for NMA include additional hidden fees, difficulty cancelling service, poor customer service, and disputes over what documents the merchant signed. Because NMA uses Independent Sales Organizations & Independent Sales contractors, it is possible contracts have different terms and service level due to NMA’s limited control of sales representatives. NMA accepts High-Risk Merchants and has different fees and prices for those merchants. Overall, the reviews put them low on the grading scale for reputation.