Lawsuit filed Against PNC for Overbilling!

It has happened yet again! 

Another large credit card processor, PNC Merchant Services Company, has been accused of over billing. The lawsuit alleges that PNC provides teaser rates with low fees when in fact the customer pays a lot more. Unfortunately this is not an uncommon practice with in the industry.

PNC is actually a partnership between PNC bank and First Data Merchant Service Corporation.

PNC  has over 100,000 merchants and the lawsuit claims they systematically overbill.

To avoid the pitfalls of signing up with a merchant service provider who treats you like a number and will just ending up costing your business more than you bargained for, you should contact a honest credit card processor. 

Heartland Payment Systems Lawsuit -Dirty Secret?

Well it seems some interesting information has been put out by a former employee about exactly what Heartland Payment Systems (bought out by Global Payments) was doing, some of which may not have been public knowledge.

I will paste it here in case the link is taken down:

Heartland Payment Systems Customers have filed a class action suit in New Jersey Courts against the processor for consumer fraud possibly 2.6 billion in unjust enrichment!

Heartland Payment Systems merchant's filed a class action suit claiming that in 2014 Heartland implemented a scheme committing consumer fraud resulting in unjust enrichment. The class action complaint was filed in the United States District Court District of New Jersey, 

the Plaintiff Rudel Corporation Civil No: 3:16.cv-02229 Squitieri & Fearon, LLP NY, NY

The 29 paged suit exposes Heartland's plot in detail of how they used an American Express Program called OptBlue to bait and switch customers into thinking Heartland was acting in the customers best interest with transparency. According to the documents it appears at first Heartland was indeed giving the New American Express Opt Blue savings to the customers as they claimed they were. However, the merchants claim this was smoke and mirrors. Instead of passing on the savings to the customer Heartland kept the savings for themselves. 

American Express lowered their fees. Heartland decided not to pass those savings onto their customer as they claimed. Instead they added a new American Express Discount fee for their customers to pay. So the customer paid less to American Express but more to Heartland for the exact same services Heartland had already been providing for the lower fee the month before. The customer was saving money, as I am sure we will hear Heartland rebuttal, but not what they should have been saving apparently. Here is where it gets sticky. Four months after the initial supposed scheme was implemented they increased their fee again. 

The suit states the increase was fifteen times the initial amount. It also states that Heartland sent a notice on their statement to the customer's stating they miscalculated their rate they needed to charge. But the fees were just part of the issue, apparently this notice Heartland sent was a breach of the customer's contract as it violated a 15 days notice which Heartland did not honor. Heartland better be prepared to explain to these customers how they miscalculated pure profit. That would be my question. Especially profit that needed increased in 4 months and back billed as well which apparently Heartland billed to customers on their October 2014 statements. 

According to the suit there is approximately 2.6 billion dollars over the last two years in question. This will be an interesting one to follow. What will this mean for Global? 

What I can't believe is how I saw this on the docket and think this is bigger news than the stockholders class action suit when Heartland announced the sell to Global, yet you haven't reported this yet at all. Heartland has built its reputation on honesty and transparency. If they are found guilty, this means not only do we have a lying Ted, we have a lying Bob who pulled a fast one on the consumer, then knowingly sold his sour lemon off. Time will tell but its worth investigating further in my opinion.

Class Action Law Suites Filed Against EVO Payments.

Yet another processor is in the line of  fire of a class action lawsuit. Both EVO Merchant Services and EVO Payments International are the subjects of this newly filed suit by Atlanta-based law firm Webb, Klase & Lemond, LLC. The suite alleges that EVO maintains a policy of overbilling merchants. This is why it's important to look for a honest merchant service provider that does not lock you into a contract. This practice of promoting low teaser rates that go up quickly is unfortunately not an uncommon practice.

From PRWeb.com:

EVO is the world’s largest privately owned payment processor, with over 500,000 merchant customers. The suits allege that EVO represents to merchants that it will only charge the payment processing fees and rates prominently disclosed in the Merchant Application but that, after merchants sign up and the parties begin to do business, EVO imposes new fees and increases the agreed-upon rates. The suits allege that these overcharges are effectively hidden in monthly statements.

According to the complaint, EVO has allegedly advertised low payment processing fees despite knowing that the actual fees would be much higher, concealing important portions of the contract from merchants, and imposing fees that were much higher than those disclosed. Several specific fees, such as “PCI” fees and “IRS Reporting” fees, are alleged to be imposed by EVO in an automated fashion, without regard to the agreed-upon rate structure.

The plaintiffs seek the return of all amounts they paid EVO that exceed the rate schedules set forth in their merchant applications.The cases, styled New Beginnings v. EVO Payments International, LLC, et al. and Central Florida Liquidation and Sales v. EVO Payments International, LLC, et al., are pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York and have been assigned case numbers 17-cv-3650 and 17-cv-4507, respectively.

If you wish to discuss these actions or have any questions concerning this press release, please contact Webb, Klase & Lemond, LLC at (770) 444-9325 or contact(at)WebbLLC.com. 

Wells Fargo found that they were ripping off customers?

Surprise! Wells Fargo found out that after an internal probe, some of it's account executives were ripping off customers and charging some very high fees as per the WSJ. Unfortunately this practice is all too common among processors. I have seen companies that sent in statements where for some credit cards they were being charge 14%! This happens at the big name firms all the time as they take advantage of a merchant's trust in their established name. The bottom line: always make sure to deal with a reputable merchant service provider.

Customer Fights First Data Over Teaser Rates!

This is just in the news today! A small business owner was being taken advantage by First Data processing. The story explains that Rohan Shetty owns a small hot dog stand in Sussex County, NJ.As a small business owner she can't afford to be paying lots of money in merchant service fees.She figures out that the rates she was told were not the rates she was getting! Unfortunately this is a common practice for a credit card processor to offer teaser rates and then hike them up very quickly. They usually try to lock you into a contract so you are stuck paying those high fees for years. This is why if nothing else always avoid a contract. Few companies advertise no contracts but some merchant service providers will offer it.

EMV Technology: Hurting Merchants?

One of the latest discussions many merchants have been having is the new implementation of the EMV technology for credit card processing. One of the biggest issues that are arising for merchants, is how slow the chip readers can be. This will be detrimental to sales when the holiday season comes around. Imagine long lines of people many of whom will simply ditch their shopping carts and go elsewhere as the readers take forever to approve a transaction? The problem stems from the platforms the merchants are using to process the chip readers and not the reader itself. If you are looking for a solution to your chip reader issue and want one that is the fastest you can find, contact Prestige Merchant Services. The platform they utilize has a median time of 1.60 seconds for the terminal interaction with the chip. Chip reading does not have to be slow any longer.

Law Firm Merchant Account

Law Firms at times need specialized merchant accounts. This may be do to the fact that they have money in escro or they need to send out a bill. Make sure to find a good Law Firm Merchant Account that can handle your Law Firm needs.

The right point of sale (POS) technology can help your back office operations run much more smoothly so your attorneys and staff aren’t side-tracked to deal with administrative headaches. With law firm payment processing from Prestige, you can:

Easily track your clients’ appointment history, side-by-side with their complete case histories—without having to fumble through paper records

Streamline, or even automate, client appointment reminder calls, via SMS text or email confirmation

Track and manage inventory of your office supplies 

Allow your clients to pay how they want to pay.

Would your clients prefer to pay for your services online, via a mobile app, or in-person using a credit or debit card? When you partner with Prestige for your law firm credit card processing, the choice is theirs—and the list of options is growing all the time. In fact, payments industry experts estimate that by the year 2020, there will be 455.1 million mobile wallet users.

Consider choosing a law firm credit card services partner that enables your office to accept the latest in payments options—including mobile wallets—in order to attract new, young clients, as well as keep your current clients happy. Today consumers expect the very latest in payments processing wherever they go, even when they’re at their attorney’s office.

Built-in payments processing wins the case.

When you choose Prestige for your law firm credit card processing, you won’t have any surprises or additional software to buy. In fact, our payment processing is already built into the most popular POS systems for attorneys. Your new payment solution will be ready to go from day one, meaning there will be less downtime and more revenue coming in for your office.