Costco Merchant Services Reviews Complaints for Costco Merchant Services

Costco Merchant Services is actually a wing of Elavon Merchant Services, based out of Atlanta, Georgia. Many mistake Costco Merchant Services as their own credit card processor but really they just act as a middle man for Elavon with a promise of discounted rates for Costco members. Costco Merchant Services has a strong focus on providing merchant accounts for brick-and-mortar locations with the majority of their advertising on their website quoting rates and solutions for retail locations. They offer solutions for credit card and debit card processing as well as electronic check and gift card processing.

Reputation & Rating

Because Costco Merchant Services is a wing of Elavon, and all Better Business Bureau ratings and complaints are under Elavon directly, this review will focus on Elavon’s Better Business Bureau standing. Elavon had been accredited with an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau with a total of 288 complaints in the past three years. However, 87 of those customers did not feel that Elavon’s response was satisfactory, 15 of those complaints were filed this year. The majority of the complaints filed cited billing/ collection issues as well as problems with product/service. Although when compared to the number of merchants processing with Elavon, this number is still a small ratio. On the other hand, there are several other merchant service providers that are around the same size Elavon and have a significantly lower number of complaints.

Sales and Marketing

Again, it’s important to understand that Costco Merchant Services does not offer their own merchant account but rather refers over to Elavon’s merchant account. Costco advertises online as well as in their retail location and their major selling point is lower rates and fees and other savings for being a referral of Costco. So when a business signs a merchant account contract with Costco Merchant Services they’re really signing with Elavon Merchant Services and all customer support issues, chargeback issues, technical support issues will be then dealt through Elavon directly. This comes as a concern because when a business signs a merchant contract they would expect to deal with that company from there on out, not be passed on to another company immediately after signing for all customer service related issues. Elavon does however offer a 24/7 customer support line which is a plus especially if your business operates on a 24/7 basis or at off hours.

Rates and Fees Schedule

Costco offers a 1.38% and $0.19 swiped rate per transaction in a retail location. They use a ‘rewards’ type pricing structure. In a rewards pricing structure, solely rewards type cards i.e. airline miles, cash-back, and points credit cards are offered at 1.99% and $0.19 per transaction. The same rate with a $0.25 transaction fee is offered for all other cards. A monthly minimum of $20 also has to be accrued in a month or else the difference is charged. They also offer no application fees, batch fees, or annual fees.