I was not a client but am actually an ex-employee who left Conquest Financial within the past few months (because I realized exactly how bad I was scamming clients), I reveal everything they are trying to hide from you. There offer 2 things POS merchant services and Merchant funding
POS Merchant services
There is a good chance that if you are reading this, you have been cold-called by an employee working for Conquest financial.
First a little about their customer service
Many of their competitors offer on-site same-day support (in person) in the event of a problem with your processing terminal. Those that don't at least offer on-site support, although they obviously still wouldn't be able help you the same day. Conquest financial offers neither. You have to call Conquest Financial by phone, and if you're lucky you may get an employee competent enough to tell you how to fix whatever problems you are having with your terminal. If you are tech-savvy you should be fine. If not, find someone who is.
Secondly, the ridiculous cancellation fees.
Whoever you are talking to will probably avoid answering this question at all costs, and if they are forced to may lie. Conquest financial is not the second largest processor in north America like the employees they sometimes say they are. Conquest financial is one of the many processors that use processors from Elavon for processing transactions. Elavon is the second largest processor in North America, not conquest financial. Take a deep breath now. The cancellation fee for Conquest is $500, and since conquest is affiliated with Elavon you have to pay Elavon's cancellation as well, another $200. So you end up paying $700 if/when you choose to back out of the deal because of the horrible customer service. For most clients, this cancellation fee is too high and they simply stay with Conqeust until their contract is up.
Thirdly the rate reduction
This just takes some common sense. You were most likely promised 30 - 50% of a rate reduction. Do you honestly think that if you're paying $1000 a month right now, that it would be lowered to $500-700? Conquest has only lowered their rates this much for a select few businesses before who were receive absolutely preposterous rates. If Conquest did do this for clients, they'd probably have 1000 times more clients than they currently have. Although Conquest Financial might lower your rates a bit, remember that you will most likely still have to pay cancellation fees with your current processor (it is very rare the Conquest financial will cover it for you). Also you have to go through the hassle shipping back your current terminal, along with getting Conquests' and setting it up obviously.
I thought I would put this up because Conquest financial is so small with so few customers that they have barely received any feedback online. My suggestion: If you really think your the rates your current processor is giving you is too high, contact one of the larger processors such as
Merchant Funding/Advance
First, is the ridiculous amount that you pay back. Let me go over exactly how you pay Conquest
Conquest Financial gets their money back by taking a portion of your Credit and Debit card sales (usually somewhere around 20-25%) over a fixed time period. This time period in most cases is either 4 months, 6 months or 9 months. Although there is no interest the longer this time period the more you will end up paying back.
For a 4 month payback period, you will pay back 1.3 times the original amount.
For a 6 month payback period you will pay back 1.4 times the original amount.
For a 9 month payback period you will pay back 1.56 times the original amount.
If you went to get a loan from the bank they might charge you somewhere around 10% annual interest which would be equivalent to roughly 1.1 times the original amount (if it was done as a cash advance -- not for 4, 6 or 9 months but for a full year). As you can see the amount you would pay back to Conquest Financial would be ridiculous. This is where they are going to try and convince you that it would take far less time with them to get this advance/loan than from a bank. They're also going to tell you they don't need any personal information from you when in reality they usually take a years worth a processing statements along with copies of your drivers license and social security card.
On top of this they require a co-signor (so they can take another person down in the event that you default). After about 2 weeks of paper work that you must do, there is still no guarantee that you will be approved. I have dealt with plenty of clients who were so pissed that they went through all this paperwork for a bad financing deal only to find out they weren't approved.
Also, your credit and debit card sales will no longer be going to your merchant account. It will be going to an escrow account which is basically a middle-man account, and often called a "lock-box" (although Conqeust obviously avoids this terminology). Obviously going through a middle-man poses some security risks. The reason they do this is to ensure they get their money. If at the end of each batch, there is no money in your account (such as from paying your employees), there is no money there for conquest financial to take. In the end, they are risking the security of your sales to ensure they get their money when they want it.
I strongly suggest seeing what the banks have to offer you. You will save tons of money doing so and a lot of hassle.
Ex-employee
toronto, Ontario
Canada
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