I received a letter from CSI today stating that by december 1st my transaction fees will be raised to 4.95%

Oink?! :eek:

That's an almost 56% increase.


Ironically at the bottom of the letter they say:

"Please be assured that we strive to provide you with the highest quality of service at a competitive price"

4.95% on a merchant account is competitive ??

Dang, I might as well go with a third party processor instead and save me the gateway fees.

It's ironic that I was recently thinking about contacting them and asking for a lower fee since during the last 12 months we've averaged less then 1 chargeback per 1,500 transactions.

Well, there goes that dream :cartman:

Did anyone else get a notification of such a sharp increase or am I just the lucky winner of this months "screw customer" contest?

We did not get this letter either, but are you sure you are reading it correctly?

Those kinds of fees are almost unheard of except for high risk merchant accounts, I'd do some heavy questioning on that change.
I'd want to know reasons (were they perhaps bought out or ??) and I'd want to know if its systemwide.

wow - good luck

Oddly enough I just got a letter in the mail informing me of a class action lawsuit going on against Cardservice. They're in the process of settling for like $8 million.

Claiming various things, one of which I think is discount rate hikes that weren't allowed or something.

Here's the address they listed fore more info:
http://www.cardservicewiconsettlement.com/

Cardservice is horrible.
The worst customer service I have ever experienced.

Are they allowed to raise the rates like that with out a reason? I would think that once you signed that contract with them, that they have to go by the rates in the contract unless there is something in the contract that says they can change it.

Like multitaskerVic says, those are rates for high-risk accounts.

I am with CardService International and I have no complains thus far.

It sounds like the 4.95% is the new non-qualified rate. Make sure you are reading the letter correctly. In any event, you should write a letter requesting that the rate be lowered based on your previous chargeback ratio (calculated by number and dollars).

Originally posted by Michael McKenzie
It sounds like the 4.95% is the new non-qualified rate.

I could live with that. But no... it's the mid qualified rate. The non qualified rate was raised to 5.95% while the qualified rate was raised to 4.00% By agreement the qualified and mid-qualified rates used to be the same.

90% Of the transactions done are mid qualified because they're subscriptions. There are about 400 customers doing monthly payments and ofcourse since you are not allowed to store the cvv2 code these transactions are mid-qualified. Only the new orders fall under qualified.

I spend a good hour on the phone with them yesterday trying to get a rate review. It's like listening to a broken record. It's policy sir, nothing we can do sir, we're shoving this down your throat sir (she didn't exactly say this but it was between the lines ;) )

Time to go look for a new payment solution.

Cardservices were the other Processor mentioned in the California lawsuit I posted onto the big Paysystems thread yesterday/ There were 3 of them,and the other one was Paypal.They were processing for these illegal Matrix sites and now they are paying the price -although it did say that Cardservice and Paypal had settled out of court.
Trust Paysystems to be the one holding out pleading innocence, but thinking of all the £$$0000000000000000's they have belonging to half the World's Internet dealers, they can afford to get the best lawyer in the World.
Looks as if Carservice is getting their Merchants to pay this fine for them too!! They make me sick the lot of them.

Originally posted by Pilgrim
It's like listening to a broken record. It's policy sir, nothing we can do sir, we're shoving this down your throat sir (she didn't exactly say this but it was between the lines ;) )


I had to grin at that one, I think I've run into that gal a time or two myself! lol

IMHO They are shooting themselves in the foot by not working to find a solution with a good client such as your past record proves you to be. As I said before, those rates are simply out of line.