www.cardsave.net Reviews 152

I signed up with CardSave on a 1 year agreement, and received reasonable customer service, although occasionally they were a little abrupt on the phone.

I found out just in time that they automatically roll you over each year, so if you don't contact them by the end of month 11 they will automatically extend your contract for another year. I thought this was underhand, but just added that as a reminder. I do think that sort of action should be banned.

I contacted them during month 11 of my contact because I had spoken to some other providers of card services who had lower prices, and cardsave offered me a rate review. The rates were better than my existing rates, but not quite as cheap as the other providers. I accepted this in exchange for no hassle changing providers, understanding it was a 12 month agreement.

Less than 3 months later they send me a letter saying they're introducing new additional authorisation charges which never previously existed. They're also jacking up the cost of refunds, and charging me to receive a statement amongst other things. Putting prices up mid-contract shows a lack of foresight by CardSave, they should really be dealing with that as part of a rate review each year, not mid contract.

Their letter made reference to the option to terminate without additional charges provided I serve written notice on them. As a result I shopped around again, found a great rate with another provider. I contacted them to find out how termination works. They said, sure you can terminate the Streamline agreement, but you are still bound by the terminal rental agreement, and we will charge you £150 to terminate agreement. So they print lies on their new pricing notification! Their customer service rep states that they can alter the contract as they see fit with sufficient notice they can do what they want! They say because they have given me notice I have to accept it or pay the termination costs.

I spent a day shopping around, sorting out a new provider. Then I find I'm going to be worse off if I cancel because of all the termination fees (that they said didn't exist in their letter). All I get is - we can't help it, our prices are going up, but we could possibly review your pricing for you, in exchange for staying with us for the next 12 months!

To go back on prices agreed prices a few months previously, then say you can't leave us even though we are putting our prices up speaks volumes about their business practices. This is a company to avoid as they obviously have no respect or commitment to their customers.

I arranged a meeting with the local representative in order to ask some key questions about charges. We are a seasonal business and had not signed up with other providers as they all had a minimum monthly charge. This would have been a waste of money for us as we don't do any business for 6 months of the year.
The representative quite clearly informed me that there was no minimum charge and also the transaction fees were fixed and the same for cardholder not present transactions.
Our account was set up and he whizzed through the paperwork on a small tablet which I had to sign without being able to see the whole page.
Once invoices started to arrive I noted that the very charges that I had wished to avoid and reassured were not going to be charged were present.
I phoned Cardsave to complain and the representative I spoke to first couldn't find my details from my merchant number and suggested to me that the account was non- existent! We then got mysteriously cut off! I finally spoke to a seemingly helpful lady who promised she would contact the original Sales Representative and his Manager. She promised me a return call. I am waiting.
I feel that I have been blatantly lied to in order to get me to sign up. It is grossly unprofessional and fraudulent to say one thing verbally and have completely different information on the written contract. I will be fighting this all the way.

I opened an account with this company in good faith as it seemed a great deal and [name] was very friendly.
account opened first had to chase terminal then charged for till roll pack I never asked for.
then invoice one is fine invoice two arrives charges galore that hadnt been mentioned by [name]
invoice three after numerous phone calls disputing charges on invoice to be told they would be refunded. Refunds I was still waiting on and still am to this day
invoice three had same charges on again!
It is a good job I took names and dates of who I had spoken to otherwise I would of been palmed off.
they cant send out letters they promise but they are quick to send my bill out!
Its such a shame as a recommended by father to use the company and he had same issue recieving terminal then he had no merchant no. To use so was paying rental on a useless machine. Needless to say that account was cancelled 2 days after opening.
I on the otherhand cannot do so but I will be waiting till the date I can give my notice to this useless company.

please steer clear. Unless you like paying people for an awful service
[names] are some of the useless staff I jave spoken to. Pointless waste of time

We have now been on phone for 45 minutes and they are refusing to send out handset in time for our Trade Show at the NEC this Saturday despite having sent out one faulty one already.
Rude, unhelpful - worst customer service I have ever experienced.
As former barrister I will be taking action for breach of contract and any damages that arise as a result of the lack of performance.

I need the machine by tomorrow and they are just refusing. If anyone from Cardsave looks at this it is not too late to send it to me by 24 hour delivery.

Not enough explained by the regionals manager/salesmen. Unhappy with the service overall. If I'm one marchant why do I have to pay minimum transaction fee on both of my devices. That was not explained right and created a big problem for small startup like ourselves and additional costs.

After:Caution recommended when dealing with their reps as possible to come across a pain in ass. When original review was written situation was fixed quickly and politely so change of original score to 3 instead of 1. Keep improving U lot , a customer satisfaction is everything now. Hopping for successful future and cooperation. Thank you for having some decency to improve on what's needed.

I run a small charity that has been using CardSave for a few years. In recent months I have found them deceitful, rude and unhelpful, and potentially fraudulent.

On 19 September, when my card machine wouldn’t process items from a charity auction the night before, I rang CardSave to ask for assistance. I was told firstly that my merchant number had to start with a 3 and that the merchant number I was providing had to be incorrect. After getting off the phone, I rang back and was told that my merchant number was fine. I was asked to put my supervisor card through but I didn’t have one.

About a week later, and spending more than £5 on the supervisor card, I received my supervisor card and I rang back. I went through the various checks that were requested, none of which worked. I tried the card machine at home and at the old office, as well as at the new office, and it never worked. I was asked to find an Ethernet cable, and I did, and I called back and did the checks and it didn’t work.

I also requested that our system be changed from a card terminal to an online service and was told that this was fine, but that it would take about six weeks for the system to be up and running for us.

After waiting nearly six weeks and hearing nothing, I called back on 13 November 2013 and was firstly told that there was no record of my ordering an online system.

I asked to cancel my account as I was disappointed about the total lack of records kept. I was then told by another “Customer Services Advisor” Adam, that there was a record of this being referred to sales, but that someone from sales should have contacted me (which they hadn’t) and that it would take some time to follow up on what had gone wrong.

I pointed out that I have been paying for a card machine that has not worked for this organisation since sometime in early September, and that as a charity this was a big problem. I requested repayment of the last two months of the card machine due to it not working throughout this time.

[Name] then told me that there was no record of my machine not working since 4 October, when I was supposed to call back with the Ethernet cable. I had called back, and I did the tests with the Ethernet cable, which still didn’t work. However, according to [Name], I need to prove this to CardSave, even though there is no record of any transactions being processed on our machine since before this time. I can provide numerous emails that I’ve had to send out to our supporters to get them to send cheques instead of their card details due to the card machine not working, but [Name] refused to believe that I was telling the truth, and insisted that I prove that I called up again. As we use a free VOIP phone from one of our supporters, we do not receive call lists or bills, so I cannot prove that the phone calls were made. However, I would think that a customer ringing up and stating that the machine hasn’t worked for two months should be taken very seriously and not called into question by a rather rude Customer Services Advisor.

I said that I was not at all happy with a service that promises me one thing but then fails to deliver it, not a service that charges me for something I am not receiving. He said that it would cost me £252 to cancel my account, or £144 to let the account run out in May. I pointed out that this is a charity, and that Card Save is expecting to receive money for a service it is not providing, and is then going to charge extra fees on top of the remaining contractual terms if I want to pull out early due to unacceptable levels of service and non-delivery of their end of the deal.

I noted that at no time was a replacement card machine or a person to come out and fix our system offered, yet for some reason I am expected to pay for something I am not receiving. I said that I could not understand how CardSave can operate a business in this way.

I requested the following:
- Repayment of any charges made to the charity by Card Save since 19 September 2013, the first date I rang about the problems;
- Cancellation of my account without further charges or penalties, in light of the total failure of Card Save to provide a functioning system;
- A complaint to be raised in light of the failure of Card Save to order our replacement terminal, and the totally inadequate response I received from [Name] specifically today.

Shortly after this, on or around 14 November, I received a call from someone at CardSave stating that they would send someone out to the office the very next day to fix the card machine.

Almost immediately after this conversation, on the same day, I received a call from someone purporting to be [Name], who said he was a Team Leader with CardSave. He was extremely apologetic about my experiences and said that he would fix everything, but that the person would not be coming to fix the machine as it was not that kind of machine (or some such explanation). [Name] said that he was emailing the CEO asking for the last two months, as well as the next three months (which had just been taken out of our account), to be repaid to us. He also said we could transfer onto the virtual terminal without penalty, and that he would match another quote we had received for a virtual terminal for £10 per month including 100 transactions.

I didn’t hear back from him so I rang his number, left messages, and eventually caught him on his mobile number. He said he was on leave, and that he was surprised that this hadn’t been dealt with in his absence. He said that the CEO had agreed to all his requests, and he said he would send me the paperwork that day.

A day or two later, on 19 November I received the paperwork from him, but with no confirmation of our discussion. As I was concerned about previous statements made by CardSave staff that were later denied by other staff, I sent an email on 20 November 2013, including the following request:

“Can you please send me a few sentences outlining what we have agreed over the telephone - ie, that this contract will replace the existing arrangements that we have with the card terminal (rather than be in addition to them) and that we will be refunded for the cost of the terminal since 19 September (5 months, including the payment on 19 November for the next three months). Given that my recent conversation with Customer Service Adviser [Name] included his comments that I couldn't prove that I'd had a certain conversation with CardSave, I'm reluctant to progress with a new contract in the absence of something in writing.”

No reply was received. The next day, I also realised that there was an error in the draft contract, so I sent another email noting that the paperwork did not match the quote.

No reply was received. On 28 November, I sent a follow up email asking if he had received them.

No response was received. I rang [Name]’s phone number and left messages, but never got through on either his mobile or work number.

In mid December, I received a phone call from another person telling me that [Name] had asked them to call to ask why I hadn’t returned the contract. I said that my queries from 20-21 November had not yet been answered. The person I spoke to appeared to refer to my emails and said a reply would be forthcoming.

Today, I rang [Name]’s mobile number and he answered the phone. He sounded like a completely different person to the person I had spoken to the first time. He said that he was sending off an email now to the CEO asking for those things that I had requested. I reminded him that he had already told me some weeks / months ago that this request had been approved and that this had already been done. He denied that this had ever been approved. I repeated that he most definitely had said that it had been approved, as we would not be entering into a new contract with CardSave without the refunded money or confirmation of transfer. He then placed me on hold for approximately 10 minutes, then came back to say that those requests had been denied. When I asked him why he had not responded to the emails I sent on 20 November, 21 November and 28 November, he said that it was because he hadn’t received the response from the CEO yet. I asked him why, if he hadn’t received the confirmation, he didn’t respond to state that the CEO had not approved the agreed refunds, as [Name] had previously told me. He could not answer this question.

He then told me that CardSave has evidence that my machine had been working in October, which it most definitely had not. I told him that the only time we had used the card machine with any success in October was when the machine told us to ring the international approval line, which we did, and the machine printed out confirmation receipts. However, that money did not appear in our accounts and we had to chase AIGBMS and send the scanned machine receipts to them for them to process. No purchases have been rung up at all since prior to 19 September 2013, and any evidence to the contrary must be either faked or non-existent.

I have repeatedly had this problem with CardSave where I am told that I only rang twice and that my machine ended up working, whereas in fact I spent many hours on the phone to the help desk, tried everything, and still didn’t have things working. As we are a busy charity I couldn’t continue to spend every day on this problem, but the machine never worked and I certainly never gave CardSave any impression that it was working. According to CardSave, the machine was fine from 4 October. However, even if this were true (which it is not), I have been in regular contact with CardSave, including in writing, between 19 September and 4 October and since 13 November to the present day, which would only affect a maximum of one month 9 days, and have made it extremely clear that the machine is not and has not worked since 19 September. Steven said that CardSave had already refunded me two months rental. I pointed out that it is now January, and we still don’t have a functioning card machine. He merely repeated himself, parrot-like, ‘like I said, the Help Desk said, the Help Desk has approved….’ even though I have repeatedly and emphatically set out the truth of the matter to CardSave in my emails and throughout the many long and frustrating calls I have had to spend talking with CardSave staff.

I expressed significant concern that [Name] had made so many definite and confirmed commitments on the phone, and had sent me the contract to fill out without confirming them in writing. If I had trusted what he had initially promised, I would have signed up for a new contract with CardSave without any of the refunds or conditions that had been agreed. I noted that this was fraudulent and that I felt that I was being conned and scammed in this situation. I have wasted an inordinate amount of time on this issue and am truly disgusted with the lies and the attitude I have received from CardSave.

I have contacted Cardsave in November 2013 to change my wife's terminal configuration to work with my new merchant account that was set up directly with streamline. After awful number of phone calls, going through all different departments, endless queuing and passing over my security details, I was told that I can’t do it.
I said that we would like to terminate my wife’s contract then, as I have already opened new merchant account for my new company directly with streamline, with better rates for card processing. This would obviously would cost me some money, as it’s a rolling contract and renews automatically, so I would have to pay all reminding membership for terminal rental. Even then I was decided to leave, as I would get those money back within next 3 month just from the saving when using my new rates with streamline.
Cardsave has offered then over the phone, much better rates for me, when I take over my wife’s agreement. To do that, my wife has send out an email to [sensitive data] on 22 of November, to let them know that, I will be taking over the terminal agreement, as advised to do by the customer service. Representative (name can't be mentioned here) has filled the new agreement application in our store on the 27 of November. She has offered attractive rates that would greatly reduce our monthly cost for transaction, saving us more than 100 pound each month, and offered free additional keypad to our existing terminal. Sadly the keypad has never arrived. In December I have contacted Cardsave regarding account take over, as I haven’t received any communication regarding new agreement processing status. I did asked them why my name is on November bills, while the rates are still from the previous contract that was in my wife’s name. I have been advised that because my wife has not send out an email to [sensitive data] they have not processed the account take over and reconfiguration of the terminal. That obviously was not truth, as the email has been send out on the 22 of November. In the mean time we have received December bill, which was in my own name but still showing old rates. My wife has send out another mail to cancellations on the 30 of December, with the information that I have taken over the agreement but the bills are incorrect calculated based on our old rates. Today on the 07 of January I have contacted the Cardsave over the phone, as all card processing payments where still going into previous bank account, which means the transfer still has not been completed. I heard few different excuses over the phone, one of them was, that the last bill I have received it’s a cancellation fee, which was not true at all, because it was just a general processing charges bill. Another that my account is closed and the merchant number I have on the recent bill is incorrect, another that we have not send out a cancellation email, and finally that I haven’t phone them to change the configuration of the terminal, which was something totally new for me, as nobody never mentioned before that I have to contact them, and when I have to contact them to change the configuration of the terminal. I could not change it during this phone call as I was at home with two kids, so travelled to the shop, found the supervisor card and phoned them again. You would not believe how many times I have to phone to accomplish this simple terminal reconfiguration.

Eventually, after about 1hour on the phone, having two kids(4y and 6m) in the shop, I have heard that the machine would now be reconfigured to my account. I was given verbal instructions over the phone and talked through how to do this. It failed. In fact, it failed TWO times with me having to phone the company back and be held in a queue each time. Frustration isn't a strong enough word to describe how I felt! Then, I finally got a young woman who knew what she was doing who instructed me again but with a different set of instructions - and Geronimo! It worked! However, this whole process cost me time and money and frustration for me and my family.
So in summary, my business transfer was far from satisfactory and there appeared to be total lack of communication between the departments.
During the same phone call, I have requested the last bill for December to be corrected (all charges were based on old rates), and I was told, that I should have phone them and change the terminal configuration earlier, and until then all card payments were processed on previous (my wife’s) account (disregarding fact that new company name and my own name as new account holder is on those bills). I was told that, when I have seen that processing money are still transferred into old bank account, I should of know earlier that the account take over has not been completed, and contact them to get the terminal configuration changed.
Big time rip off. Nobody never mentioned that I have to phone to change the terminal configuration, not a single email has been send out to me with terms and conditions of the new agreement I have signed, not a single response has been made after my phone calls and emails(Sorry i forgot you don’t have facilities to make phone calls as we live in the stone age, and surly you can’t send emails either, and instead, just throwing stones in your office, against each other head, with small messages on them. Or perhaps your post birds are having difficulties to fly in such a windy weather we had recently, I don’t care.) But I guess that is also why you never know what makes me call you again! It’s difficult to believe that your system has not been flagging, blinking and electro shocking everyone close, about that the account take over and reconfiguration is still not completed after 40 days!
How dare you say it’s my fault!!!?
I want December bills to be corrected NOW!

Worst Payment Processors Out There!!
Stay clear of this company at all costs!!
First off you are but on a 12 month rolling contract, this means if you cancel within 12 months you have to pay £468 to leave the contract, wait for it!!! if you decide you want to leave you have to give them a months notice, this will also cost you £100 as a jester of good will, so basically if you want to cancel after 11 months you will get ripped off no matter how you cancel your agreement. THIS IS THE WORST CARD PROCESSING COMPANY I HAVE EVER USED !!!!!

after account closed they are still trying to bill me not happy

NOT EVEN WORTH 1 STAR

BUYER BEWARE

I have not used the account and have been told it is going to cost £468 to cancel. Be very wary of this company. I wish so much I had read these reviews. Firstly the salesman told us different figures to what was sent through and told us it would be cheaper than paypal it will NOT at the rates on the forms. He also insisted we sign up then and did not explain the cancellation fees. I was also offered cardsave system through a booking system far cheaper than he offered and he said he would match but that never happened. He just ignored my calls. This system will not work with the booking system I am about to use and I cancelled the system before it was set up but still they wish to charge me nearly £500. I used to be an FSA approved person and work as a director in an FSA regulated company and I do not believe this is how financial transactions should be sold. I am complaining to the ombudsman as my complaint to them taken by "[Name]" on 2 occasions is now more than 28days unresolved.

My terminal stopped working a week last Saturday, since then I have spent hours on the telephone to Cardsave trying to resolve the problem all at my expense as apparently they can't make outgoing calls - I was sent a new sim card which didn't work, more phone calls and then I was told that a machine was being couriered to the fair I was at (a week after the machine first stopped working) two calls later on the Saturday morning I discover that in fact they lied and no card machine had been despatched. We were then told that the machine would be delivered today. My husband spent the entire day waiting for it (I was in London at another fair), despite calling we still don't have the machine and apparently nobody can tell us why. I have several thousand of pounds waiting to be put through, as each day I have been told that the problem would be resolved. Nobody has taken any responsibility I have never had to deal with such a terrible organisation before and I will be holding cardsave responsible for any payments that are not processed. Tomorrow I will have to get in touch with the Financial Ombudsman Services.

I have been really happy to date with the service from Cardsave - from the sales side through to delivery of my card machine.

one month ago i send cancellation letter to them , and also phoned them to confirm. but now they said we didn't receive any letter , and charge my money, what a rubbish company.

Had an issue closing my Cardsave account which was very quickly reconciled as a result of direct contact from Customer Service. Matthew was polite and courteous and had a good knowledge of Cardsave's business model which engendered confidence in Cardsave as a Company

Initial sales by phone and meetings were good.
Trying to get an introductory pack is like getting blood out of a stone. I only knew I needed something when I received my device and I needed a merchant number so phoned in.... Was told my merchant number and my introductory pack would be re-sent, then I was phoned and told it was on its way, when it didn't turn up i phoned up - received attitude from a girl who asked me a few questions and then without even telling me just put me into a waiting queue, and then I was told there was no introductory pack, you just need your merchant number. Still haven't received an official letter etc with my merchant number on it, I've just been told this over the phone. So not impressed with differing stories/not impressed that you can't get a simple letter/introductory pack. And you got my bill wrong!

After many many years of using card save we no longer needed the membership and so called to cancel only to find a hefty charge of £120 for the privilege.

Cardsave have now contacted us and we have now had a favourable outcome to this issue.

Initially, when the rep called to advise on change of ownership/business transfer, I felt encouraged. I was advised the changeover would be fast-tracked within 5-10 days. This didn't happen, despite many frustrating phone calls and my card payments were still being transferred into the previous owner's bank account.
Eventually, after about 30 days, I received a phone call (as I had chased yet again when the machine would be in my name and account) to say the machine would now be reconfigured to my account. I was given verbal instructions over the phone and talked through how to do this. It failed. In fact, it failed THREE times with me having to phone the company back and be held in a queue each time. Frustration isn't a strong enough word to describe how I felt! Then, I finally got a young woman who knew what she was doing who instructed me again but with a different set of instructions - and Geronimo! It worked! However, this whole process cost me time and money and frustration for my customers as I had no card facility during my busiest time.
So in summary, my business transfer was far from satisfactory and there appeared to be total lack of communication between the departments.

Very bad service no feed back no updates

I had the card machines delivered about two weeks ago and have phone the sales guy about twenty times now I have had no reply the machines are still in the boxes . I had a phone call from your company told them as we'll , and still the machines are sat there!

I have swapped supplier and for the first 2 outdoor events the machine has not worked, we have been on the phone but we couldn't get the card machine to be connected.
plus
I am still waiting for the address for my shop's card machine to be changed from my home address to my shop address and this todate still hasn't happened.