Fiserv (Formerly First Data) Review: Is It Right for You?

Fiserv does not list its payment processing fees or rates on its website. A rep will give you a customized quote based on your industry, products, average monthly sales volume, and other factors. The higher your sales volume, the more negotiating power you have. However, you should expect to find additional fees that may be associated with a Fiserv merchant account.

• PCI non-compliance fee: $19.95 per month
• Monthly minimum: $25 per month
• Maintenance fee: $50 per month
• Early termination fee: Prorated average monthly fees during the period expired multiplied by the number of months remaining in the term

Fiserv may not reveal all its pricing until you have given it a processing statement and are presented with a final contract. Be sure to review carefully before signing anything.

Acquiring a Fiserv merchant account through Clover will incur the following fees:

Fiserv works with thousands of resellers, and they often have their own terms of service, fees, and software. Many complaints about hidden fees and being locked into long-term contracts are from deals with resellers but are attributed to Fiserv. Nonetheless, Fiserv will uphold its contracts. If you are interested in working with Fiserv, consider contacting it directly and comparing its offer with that of a reseller.

Fiserv owns the Clover POS system, one of the leading mobile card processors. It also includes payment processing terminals if you don’t need a complete system. Clover has its own program, or you can lease or purchase equipment from Fiserv when you sign up for payment processing.

Clover Go	Clover Flex	Clover Mini	Clover Station (solo/duo)
Accepts swipe, dip, and tap payments using the mobile app	Handheld POS that accepts payments and tracks sales	Compact POS terminal designed for restaurants or retail	Includes terminal, cash drawer, and receipt printer (plus customer-facing terminal for station duo)
$49	$499	$799	$1,349 (solo)$1,799 (duo)

Signing up with Fiserv can be done via a sales agent. You may fill out a contact form on the Fiserv website, and one of the sales team members will get in touch with you. You may also sign up with Fiserv via one of its many resellers. Setup and installation fees, like the processing rates, will depend on the terms you and your agent/reseller agree on.

If you need a Clover POS program (Fiserv’s point-of-sale software), simply go to the website and sign up. Contact sales and fill out a pre-application if you are looking for a merchant account. You may need to show your payment processing history—especially if you are interested in negotiating rates and fees. Once you sign, a representative will work with you to get you set up and trained. You can also get a Fiserv merchant account through one of its third-party resellers or sub-independent sales organizations (ISOs).

The wide variety of financial service products plus the sheer number of third-party resellers and ISOs mean that Fiserv merchant agreements will vary. Merchant agreements will depend on the type of service you need and your business profile but expect a long-term contract (three years with one-year auto renewal) and hefty early termination fees.

It’s also important to note that most complaints against Fiserv are over unexpected expenses. The number of complaints may indicate that the contracts are not as easy to understand, so be sure to examine them carefully and get clarifications before signing. You need to fill out a pre-application before getting the final contract and may need to submit information about your processing history.

First Data is one of Fiserv’s two payment gateways (Payeezy is the other). It offers payment processing for major credit cards and local payment providers. Among the payment solutions it accepts are MasterCard®, Visa®, American Express®, JCB®, Discover®, China UnionPay®, and Interac® debit cards. Payeezy is best for those needing an ecommerce solution.

Fiserv offers a range of ecommerce solutions to help your business accept payments. You can add a “buy” button to your existing website, send an invoice, or use a virtual terminal to accept payments wherever you are.

Fiserv also provides international payment processing, working in over 50 global markets, and can process payments in 260 currencies.

SnapPay is Fiserv’s solution for streamlining your B2B business’ accounts receivable and accounts payable process to improve your cash flow. It provides tools to make it easier to invoice businesses, handle surcharges, and reconcile payments. You can integrate SnapPay to your payment gateway, accept card and ACH payments securely, send out digital invoices, and handle disputes online.

Fiserv’s Carat program is a single-source commerce engine that lets you accept payments from over 30 integrations, from social apps to voice apps. One of Carat’s most notable features is its omnichannel tools. It allows your customers to order and pay ahead and pick up their items, make hands-free purchases so that your customers can pay using Alexa, and complete purchases through self-checkout. It also seamlessly integrates with existing EBT programs.

Fiserv provides PCI compliance and tokenization to help keep payments and information secure. It also gives you a dedicated merchant account, offering an additional level of security compared to other payment providers (such as Square or PayPal) that aggregate customers’ funds to a single merchant account.

On top of standard payment security services, Fiserv also offers additional card risk management features:

• Card Risk Office Essentials: Evaluates transactions in real time, combines high performance and user-configured rules for setting acceptable risk and raising alerts for suspicious transactions.
• Card Risk Office Advisor: Connects you with Fiserv’s risk management experts to provide consultation and advisory services through conducting research and preparing periodic reports on your business’s risk management performance.

Fiserv’s FraudNetTM program uses machine learning to evaluate transactions for fraud and score transactions in real time to help prevent bad charges before they happen. It features real-time transaction monitoring using advanced algorithms and proprietary negative file history collected from Fiserv’s partner network.

In cases of disputes, Fiserv also has a dispute management service. This application offers three types of dispute management solutions: Dispute Expert Toolkit (for self-managed dispute resolution), Dispute Expert (for working with a Fiserv dispute expert in handling disputes), and Dispute Expert Select (for end-to-end handling by a Fiserv’s dispute expert). They include features such as a dashboard and user interface for responding to disputes, advanced reporting tools, and integration with your online payment platform.

Fiserv offers veterans and military who own businesses special opportunities through its Fiserv Salutes program. As a founder of the Coalition for Veteran Owned Business, it provides access to entrepreneurial education and training, small business resources and solutions, and commerce and supplier opportunities.

It has a partnership with the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University and sponsors the Entrepreneurs Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities. Finally, it provides its payment processing customers who are veterans or military with half off of a Clover device and the first three months of software fees waived.

Fiserv integrates with over 60 ecommerce providers, including shopping carts (such as 3dcart and Shopify), software (like Freshop, PayItSimple, and Network Solutions), and app developers (such as eGrove, Chargify, and Semba Mobile). Meanwhile, Clover integrates with third-party software like QuickBooks.

If you need specific integrations, Fiserv’s Custom and Integration Service can create customized technology to integrate Fiserv with third-party or proprietary applications as needed.

• Online support center
• Clover guides
• Live phone support

The online support center is not on the website menu and takes a few steps to find, but it does offer a straightforward how-to section that answers the most common questions. The Clover guides are PDF copies, and other topics are answered with text rather than illustrations or videos.

There are multiple phone numbers for different departments on the contact page, or you can use the contact form. It does not list customer support hours on the website, but other sources said that it’s 24/7.