Elavon Merchant Services
As one of the largest merchant services providers in the United States, Elavon offers a broad array of merchant services solutions for all types of businesses. The company is a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, and owns many smaller merchant services businesses. Their reputation online is less than stellar due to surprise fees and poor customer service.
By the numbers, Elavon Merchant Services is one of the largest merchant services providers in the world. According to their website, Elavon helps over 1 million merchants around the world manage payments, and processes over $3 billion in transactions annually. That far exceeds upstarts like Square, Stripe, and PayPal.
But does bigger mean better? That’s what we are here to find out. In this Elavon review we will take a look at everything Elavon offers and try to determine if they provide good value to small business owners. We’ll also look at a few alternative merchant services providers so you can understand your full range of options.
What Is Elavon Merchant Services?
At the risk of sounding redundant, Elavon Merchant Services is a merchant services provider—meaning they sell a broad range of financial products and services related to debit and credit card transactions. Examples include payment processing, point of sale (POS) hardware, and payment gateways (we’ll go into more detail on the offerings later).
Elavon is also a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp—the seventh-largest bank in the United States. Like other large merchant services providers, Elavon also has a variety of subsidiaries that sell their products, including Costco Merchant Services, Talech Merchant Services, CenPOS, and Helcim. The company goes through Ladco Leasing for credit card terminals and other POS hardware.
Also be aware that Elavon works with independent sales organizations (ISOs). These are individuals who sell Elavon products, but are not actually employed by the organization. Typically, they work on commission and have a reputation for not disclosing fees and terms in contracts. If it can be helped, we recommend working directly with Elavon when trying to negotiate the terms of your merchant services contract.
Elavon Merchant Services: Capabilities
Elavon offers an impressive array of services for small business owners, enterprise organizations, and ecommerce merchants alike. They also offer tailored solutions for a range of different business types, including hospitality, restaurants, retail, healthcare, and education. We’re going to focus mostly on what Elavon offers for small businesses and ecommerce merchants.
Payment Processing
Elavon offers customers a dedicated merchant account and payment processor, as well as a virtual terminal for telephone and keyed-in transactions. With Elavon you can accept all major credit cards, as well as swipe, chip, and contactless payment methods. Mobile payment processing is also available via the Converge Mobile app.
In terms of processing fees, Elavon offers small business owners two separate deals. For those who only plan to accept mobile payments, Elavon offers an Ingenico RP457c mobile card reader for $89 and bundles it with a 2.65% + $0.19 per transaction fee on all “card present” transactions. There is also a 3.5% + $0.19 per transaction fee on all “card not present” transactions” (i.e. virtual terminal transactions), and a $10 monthly fee.
For brick-and-mortar retailers that need a countertop terminal, Elavon offers the Ingenico Tetra Desktop 3500 card reader for $270 with the same credit card processing fees as the mobile package, plus the $10 monthly fee.
Elavon also offers free PCI compliance, including encryption and tokenization, and access to Elavon PCI professionals to answer your questions online, by phone, and by email.
Payment Gateway
Elavon provides payment gateways through Converge—the same software that provides their mobile payments. The Converge payment gateway is compatible with most major ecommerce platforms, including Shopify, BigCommerce, and Volusion, and allows you to add buy buttons, a hosted payment page, or an integrated payment page via the Converge API. Elavon does not disclose the price for its payment gateway.
Point of Sale
Along with the card readers we already mentioned, Elavon offers a terminal and several POS software and hardware options through partners and subsidiaries. The terminal is a Poynt Smart Terminal (note: Elavon is a primary investor in Poynt). The Poynt Smart Terminal comes with a built-in swipe/dip/contactless card reader and receipt printer. Poynt’s POS software offers inventory and order management features, sales reporting, offline functionality, and the ability to apply discounts and taxes. Neither Elavon nor Poynt lists pricing information for this terminal on their website.
Additional POS software is offered through Talech and NCR Silver, both subsidiaries of Elavon. Both Talech and NCR Silver offer POS software for retail businesses and restaurants, as well as card readers, receipt printers, and more. Elavon does not list pricing for either product on their website, and neither Talech nor NCR Silver discloses hardware costs on their own websites. Talech charges monthly software fees ranging between $49 and $99 per month. NCR Silver does not disclose their software fees.
We should also mention Elavon’s relationship with Ladco, a company that is reported to be a subsidiary of Elavon, although there is no mention of the business on the Elavon website (Ladco does not currently have an active website). Ladco leases POS hardware to merchants on behalf of Elavon. According to the website CardPaymentOptions.com, the contracts Ladco offers are expensive, unfairly structured, and generally deceptive, so tread carefully here.
One other important thing to mention is that Elavon works with a company called Boomtown to provide POS installation and support. If you have trouble with your POS at any time, Boomtown offers 24/7 help.
Reporting
Outside of the reporting you get with your POS software, Elavon offers Payments Insider, a customer portal with customizable reporting, providing you with insight on all aspects of your payments activity. You can also download reports via Excel, PDF, or CSV file. Elavon does not disclose the price for Payments Insider on their website.
Loyalty Program
Elavon’s loyalty program is called Fanfare, and it allows you to provide customizable loyalty rewards, offers, promotions, and gift cards to your customers. Via an integration with your POS, customers can opt into your loyalty program at checkout and collect redeemable points for every purchase. As the merchant, you can craft your own loyalty program and track its success via an analytics dashboard in your POS.
Customer Service
For U.S.-based merchants, Elavon offers 24/7 support every day of the year via phone, live chat, and email. Those who sign up directly through Elavon also have their own dedicated account manager, which is a nice perk. On the Elavon website, there is a support center with guides on everything from payments processing to PCI compliance.
Elavon Merchant Services: Price
Elavon does not offer specific pricing information on their website outside of the payment processing fees they charge to small business owners. Given that Elavon works with ISOs, we’d imagine the price you pay is what you are able to negotiate with your sales representative. Based on user reviews, it seems you have to sign a multi-year contract to use Elavon Merchant Services, although it is unclear if there is an early termination fee. Elavon also uses an automatic renewal clause, meaning that if you don’t provide notice ahead of time, you will automatically be opted into a new contract.
Elavon Merchant Services: Pros
Given everything we have gone over with Elavon Merchant Services, here are what we see as its benefits to small business owners:
Range of Options
While we mostly talked about Elavon’s small business solutions, on the Elavon website there are options for a variety of different business sizes and industries. Thanks to their large network of merchant services subsidiaries, Elavon can provide solutions for whatever kind of business you operate.
Elavon Merchant Services: Cons
Unfortunately, we found more cons than pros with Elavon’s service. Here is what we take issue with:
Transparency
While its good that Elavon lists the prices they charge for small business payment processing, outside of that there is not a lot of information available on the website when it comes to costs. This ties into the fact that Elavon works with ISOs, which often adjust pricing on a client-by-client basis.
Contracts
Compared to products like Square and PayPal, which let you use their services on a month-to-month basis, Elavon’s multi-year contracts seem unreasonable. Once your locked in, it can be difficult to break out. Plus, Elavon tries to automatically enroll you in a new contract if you don’t provide notice ahead of time.
Elavon Merchant Services: User Reviews
Elavon isn’t widely reviewed across the major review platforms, but several of their subsidiaries are. Let’s take a look at some of their ratings to gather insight into the quality of Elavon’s service:
Talech
- 4 stars out of 5 (Capterra)
- C (Better Business Bureau)
Helcim
- 4 stars out of 5 (TrustPilot)
- 5 stars out of 5 (Capterra)
NCR Silver
Elavon has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, but a laundry list of complaints. Over the last three years there have been 134 complaints filed, with 40 closed in the past year. Many of the complaints were regarding surprise fees, unexpected account holds and freezes (a common issue with hosted merchant accounts), and unresponsive or uncooperative customer service representatives.
Over on TrustPilot, Elavon has a rating of 1 of 5 stars, with many users echoing the same sentiments voiced on Better Business Bureau. The few users who reported positive experiences said they enjoyed having access to a PCI compliance expert and the ability to create a customized solution that works for their business.
Elavon Merchant Services: Alternatives
Now that we’ve learned about Elavon, let’s compare it to some other popular merchant services providers:
PayPal
PayPal doesn’t offer the range of options Elavon does, but their pricing is upfront and they can work for most small businesses just starting out. When you sign up for PayPal merchant services you’ll have to purchase a mobile card reader ranging in price from $14.99 to $99.99. However, there are no monthly costs and processing fees are a comparable 2.7% on in-person transactions. Note that PayPal does not sell their own POS, but can integrate with a vast array of other POS options.
Square
If you were attracted to Elavon because of the range of solutions it offers to small business owners, consider Square POS. Square POS is a completely free software with a credit card processing fee of 2.75% and no long-term contracts. Plus, Square offers a retail and restaurant version of its POS for an additional $60 per month, and there are a variety of hardware options to choose from.
Worldpay (Formerly Vantiv)
If you have your heart set on working with a really big merchant services provider, consider Worldpay. Worldpay offers a lot of the same variety you’d get working with Elavon, but with more transparent pricing (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction fee). Note that Worldpay also has multi-year contracts with early termination fees.
Is Elavon Merchant Services Right for Your Business?
You could do worse than Elavon Merchant Services, but we feel you could also do a lot better. In short, their credit card processing fee for small businesses is reasonable, but the lack of additional pricing information gives us pause, along with their use of ISOs. Bigger does not necessarily mean better in this situation, and you should consider other solutions available on the market.
The post Elavon Review for 2019: Features, Pros, Cons, Pricing appeared first on Fundera Ledger.
from Fundera Ledger https://www.fundera.com/blog/elavon-merchant-services/
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