Everytime I read reports on this site I figured it's only half the story and the person posting the report must at least be partially at fault. Shame on me for not paying attention to the many reports on First Data before having them process credits for my business.
I actually brought this site up to my First Data sales rep and she assured me they were the largest credit card processing company in the world and all of these "posters" violated their rules. After all, if they freeze accounts they no longer make money off your account. Makes sense... Right? Wrong! They obviously earn FAR more money freezing accounts and holding the money for 6 months!
Backgroun; I run a national association and had been taking Paypal for around 2 years. For anyone who knows, Paypal is arguably the most intolerant company when it comes to processing cards. Any hint of monkey business or chargebacks and they'll lock your account. I was doing just fine with them - 2 chargebacks over the course of 2 years.
I switched to First Data for a lower rate. I have outstanding credit and they approved me in a day. I was very clear when talking to their sales rep about exactly how much I processed per day and exactly what my business was about.
I was up and running for around 3 weeks and bam, no more money hitting my bank account. I called and said I had to speak with their security deparment. Turns out they froze my account (I could still process cards but they would not deposit funds.)
Why? They refused to tell me. Chargebacks? Zero. Explanation? None. They wanted to speak to 10 random customers. Fine, done - I gave them that information. They wanted bank account statements. Done. Faxed in my bank statments. They wanted a detailed explanation of what my business was about. Done. They asked about my previous billing processor - I said Paypal and they asked me for the last 3 months of my records with them. Done, faxed it the next day.
The result? That I could still process credit cards but they had a security hold on my money for six months. The only good news? Because I canceled their services over this within 30 days I didn't owe any of their early cancelation fees. (Note: they never did give me any explanation as to why they froze my deposits.)
So I went right back to PayPal. The other piece of good news was I had cash reserves and they only had 3 weeks of my money. Thank God this all happened quickly.
Stay very very far away from First Data for credit card processing.
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