EVO Payments Review

EVO Payments is a merchant services provider with a global presence. It’s geared for worldwide commerce, facilitating business transactions in over 50 countries and over 150 currencies. In addition to payment acceptance, the company offers a host of merchant services including POS systems, marketing services and merchant funding.

But the company doesn’t offer any transparent product or pricing information, making it difficult not only to estimate your costs but also to know if you’re getting a good deal from its services. Several negative customer reviews also complain of steep cancellation fees, held payments and hidden charges. For these reasons, EVO is not a strong option for most small businesses.

Deciding Factors

Price	Varies depending on business type, size and more. Pricing information is only available through direct contact with a sales agent. High early contract termination fees reported by reviewers.
Contract length	Varies. Some contracts have 36-month terms, according to the company.
Live support	24/7 customer service through EVO, though support may vary depending on the operational partner. Phone numbers are available on the website for both new and existing customers.
Scalability	Highly scalable.
Ease of use	Difficult to determine due to lack of transparency and wide range of different product partners.

Features

Payment processing

EVO Payments is a direct processor, meaning it will provide you with a dedicated merchant account and manage your credit card processing.

Merchant accounts are provided through either Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas or Wells Fargo. You can apply through the EVO Now platform, which evaluates applicants in real time through an online portal and offers same-day acceptance.

Once onboard, EVO Payments will allow you to process magstripe, EMV (chip card) and NFC (digital wallet) payment methods, as well as e-commerce transactions.

The company can also accept payments in over 150 different currencies. Payment types accepted include all international card brands (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, etc.), debit cards, e-checks and ACH transfers.

Point-of-sale

You can use EVO Payments with a variety of different kinds of POS terminals and software, including the Ingenico TETRA POS terminals, the NEXGO N5 and EVO’s own mobile app.

E-commerce

EVO offers several options for online-based merchants. Options include the company’s Virtual Terminal, PayFabric Gateway and a host of other integrated partners including Authorize.net and Datacap.

Its integrated payments division, EVO Snap, also offers single-integration access to omnichannel payment processing, allowing merchants to customize an all-in-one payment solution for their e-commerce businesses.

Developer tools

EVO Snap is the company’s primary developer tool, providing payment APIs and toolkits that make it possible to integrate EVO Payments into a broad array of third-party apps, POS systems, shopping carts and other software.

Reporting

The company’s business analytics platform myEVO provides a customizable merchant dashboard with real-time reporting. Analytics include transaction history, sales tracking and customer spending patterns, returns processing and more.

Merchant cash advances

EVO Payments says it can approve merchants for short-term capital advances in as little as 24 hours and make funds available in four to five business days. Merchants repay EVO Payments by “leveraging future credit card receivables,” or paying with a percentage of their sales each month. NerdWallet generally cautions against using MCAs as they carry high-interest rates and can be difficult to pay off.

Security

EVO provides merchants with data protection and fraud-fighting tools, including point-to-point encryption, tokenization, network protection and system-wide monitoring.

The platform’s compliance experts also guide merchants through the PCI compliance process, and pending successful completion of this process — the company covers up to $100,000 in fine reimbursements in the case of a security breach. However, there’s an annual PCI compliance fee.

Customer service

For U.S.-based merchants, EVO Payments offers 24/7 technical support and customer service by phone.

Helcim	Stripe	Square
NerdWallet rating 5.0 /5	NerdWallet rating 5.0 /5	NerdWallet rating 5.0 /5
Payment processing fees 0.40% + 8¢ plus interchange, in-person; 0.50% + 25¢ plus interchange, online.	Payment processing fees 2.7% + 5¢ in-person; 2.9% + 30¢ online.	Payment processing fees 2.6% + 10¢ in-person; 2.9% + 30¢ online.
Monthly fee $0	Monthly fee $0	Monthly fee $0 Starts at $0/month for unlimited devices and locations.
Shop Now	Shop Now	Shop Now

Pricing

EVO Payments doesn’t provide any concrete pricing information on its website. It also distributes products and services through a large network of third-party independent sales organizations, sales agents and developers, which means pricing terms, contract terms and product offerings could vary greatly depending on the reseller you work with.

If you apply for an account through EVO, a sales representative will price its services based on the specifics of your business and the particular products you need. If you work with a reseller, the pricing you receive will be up to the discretion of that company.

Quotes are generally based on the size of your business, your sales volume and your industry, as well as the specific products and services you need. These costs might include software costs, hardware costs and the cost of credit card processing. There are also fees, such as PCI compliance fees and cancellation fees.

Pros

Variety of services

Although EVO Payments fails to provide a lot of information on its products and services, it does seem to offer a lot of options for businesses. This is typically one of the benefits of working with a large merchant acquirer; it has usually scaled to the point where it can be an end-to-end solution for its merchants.

Because the company operates around the world, it can be a reliable partner as your business scales.

International reach

If your business operates outside of the U.S., or if you are an e-commerce merchant, EVO Payments makes it easier for you to process a broad range of currencies. Furthermore, the company can provide merchant accounts in 50 different markets around the world, meaning you won’t have to find a new merchant account provider if you begin operating abroad.

Cons

Lack of information and transparency

Even for a merchant service provider, EVO’s website is lacking in information about pricing and contract details. Because of its heavy reliance on third-party resellers, contract terms can vary widely.

Negative customer reviews

Despite having an A- rating from the Better Business Bureau, EVO Payments’ customer rating on the site is 1.1 out of 5 stars. The company has had a total of over 260 complaints in the past three years on the BBB website. Other online reviews available about EVO Payments are also generally negative.

Although there are some more positive reviews discussing the service in the U.K., U.S. business owners have a number of complaints about the service they received from the company.

More specifically, these negative reviews typically focus on:

Held payments.
Steep cancellation fees and difficult cancellation process.
Hidden or unclear fees.
Unauthorized charges.
Unhelpful customer service.

In addition, multiple class-action lawsuits have been filed against both EVO Payments International and EVO Merchant Services alleging that the company overbills merchants and does not disclose its actual pricing.

Alternatives

Square

Square is a payment service provider and NerdWallet's current choice for best overall POS system. The platform provides you an aggregated merchant account with a built-in gateway, and offers a transparent processing rate of 2.6% plus 10 cents for in-person transactions and 2.9% plus 30 cents for online transactions (on all credit card types).

Unlike EVO Payments, Square is free to use, and there are no long-term contracts. It also offers free add-ons like POS software and a mobile magstripe reader. Perhaps most importantly, the Square website is full of information on all its products and services, including pricing details.

CDGcommerce

If you’d prefer a dedicated merchant account, look into CDGcommerce. This merchant acquirer offers a pricing model based on your transaction volume. If you process under $10,000 in monthly volume, you’ll only have to pay for the price of credit card processing: 2.75% plus 30 cents per transaction for in-person payments and 2.90% plus 30 cents per transaction for online payments.

There are no monthly fees, annual fees or other extraneous fees. Plus, CDGcommerce includes a free payment gateway, free mobile application and compatibility with a handful of POS systems.

» MORE: NerdWallet's best small-business apps

A version of this article was first published on Fundera, a subsidiary of NerdWallet.

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