TransFirst Reviews Complaints for TransFirst

TransFirst was founded in was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Aurora, Colorado. They started under ACS Merchant Services and charged their name to TransFirst in 2000. They are a registered ISO/MSP of Wells Fargo bank and Synovus Bank. They offer a number of different processing solutions like POS systems, e- commerce, and mobile payment solutions. On top of credit and debit card processing, they’re also able to accept prepaid cards, EBT cards, and e-checks. TransFirst is a larger merchant service provider and due to mergers and acquisitions over the years, they are now processing around 30 billion dollars annually.

TransFirst is an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau and has an A+ rating with them. Over the past three years, they have had 138 complaints filed against them with 35 closed within the past 12 months. Out of those 138 complaints, 25 customers felt the response they received from TransFirst was unsatisfactory. Three of those types of complaints were filed this year. The majority of the complaints filed cited billing/collection issues and problems with product/service. TransFirst does not allow for anyone to read the complaints filed against them so it’s impossible to determine exactly what their customers were complaining about. Typically, when there are a lot of complaints filed under “billing/collection issues” it means that their risk department is holding a lot of their merchants funds for various reasons.

There are various reports around the internet that show TranFirst relies heavily on an independent agent program. There are also reports that their sales agents have a high turnover rate. Independent agents are not a bad thing, but when they are poorly trained it leads to problems. This is typical of a lot of large merchant service providers in which the bigger they become, the more decentralized they are. TransFirst also contracts their work out to sub-ISO’s who could be operating under a different business name than their parent company which again, leads to decentralization which might translate into a poor sales experience on the merchant side.

TransFirst does not advertise their rates and fees on their website, it’s advised to call the number on their website for anyone looking for a quote. Like most merchant service providers, the rates and fees are going to highly depend on the type of business. However, TransFirst is able to offer a tiered pricing structure as well as an interchange plus pricing structure. It has been reported that TransFirst does have a three year contract with varying cancellation fees. Their contract is also an auto-renewing contract which is always advised to stay away from.