In a Nutshell
pros
- Low rates
- Ability to manage your own credit card loyalty program
- Option to reprogram your existing hardware
cons
- No round the clock tech support
- Not enough information about pricing or application process
- Confusing and vague website
What’s on Offer
- Ability to process Visa, MasterCard, American Express
- Customer loyalty rewards programs with Visa and MasterCard branding
- A range of POS terminals, cash registers, and other products
- Rates as low as 0.35%
- Merchant cash advance program
- Integrated payroll management software
Application Process
Applying for merchant services through ACP begins with a simple online form that asks for your name, email address, and phone number. Once you’ve shared your contact details, someone from ACP will respond and help you through the rest of the application process.
Once again, American Central Payment doesn’t give details about what requirements there are to join. The application process should take only 15 minutes, as long as you gather the necessary documents first, but unfortunately, there’s no information about which necessary documents you’ll need.
Once your application is approved, you will be sent an email with your Merchant ID number and setup instructions. You'll need to have your Ecommerce provider configure your processing environment to complete the setup.
What’s Unique About American Central Payment?
If you're looking for a reliable, high-quality payments processor, you might find it in ACP, but you wouldn't know it from the information available online.
- Low Rates
ACP promises flexible, low rates, although there’s no further information about pricing. ACP guarantees that if you find a better arrangement elsewhere, it will pay you $1,000.
- Authorize.net Payment Gateway
ACP is integrated with Authorize.net, a leading virtual payment gateway provider. With Authorize.net, you can manage online sales, and also enter phone and manual orders into the virtual terminal. By using Authorize.net, ACP is also able to offer integrated electronic check processing so that you can also accept payment by check.
- POS Products
ACP does have a good range of products, including grocery store cash registers, Bluetooth printers, money counters, and various advanced terminals. You can choose from touch screen terminals, restaurant terminals, and retail terminals for your business.
- Loyalty Program
ACP offers the ability to create a tailored loyalty program for your customers, using Visa and MasterCard branding. You can give your customers up to 10% back on their credit cards.
- Reprogramming
One of the advantages of ACP is that you don’t necessarily have to buy a new terminal to take advantage of ACP’s low rates. ACP will help you to reprogram your existing terminal to work together with its software.
- Integrated Services
ACP partners with Fundomate and Sure Payroll to offer connected services that integrate with your payment processor. With Fundomate, you can access merchant cash advances to help ease your cash flow, and Sure Payroll is there to make your payroll management simpler and smoother.
- ATMs
You can add an ATM to your brick and mortar store through ACP.
Customer Support
You can access ACP customer support through email, telephone, or the online web form, with customer service lines manned from 9am to 6pm, Monday through Friday. ACP doesn’t appear to offer any round the clock tech support, so if your CCP system causes trouble over the weekend, you’ll have no choice but to wait until Monday morning to solve the issues.
Pricing (Software and Hardware)
ACP offers a wide range of point of sale hardware that includes grocery store scanners and advanced cash registers. You can also use ACP to run a branded, credit card-based loyalty program. With integrated merchant cash advance services and payroll management capabilities, ACP aims to help businesses with every aspect of their sales.
ACP promises extremely low rates, going down to 0%, but there's no hard information about pricing online. Even that information could be incorrect since elsewhere on the site you'll learn that you could pay rates as low as 0.35%. It seems that the only way to obtain reliable data from ACP is to get in touch in person.
ACP promises to create a customized payment package for your needs, with a $1,000 guarantee—if you can get a better package elsewhere, ACP will pay you $1,000. Although this could be a very good offer, without more information about flat rates and fees, it’s impossible to know.
ACP also offers a full range of payment processing products, including POS terminals and gift cards. Pricing ranges from $250 for a basic credit card terminal, to $3,200 for a full grocery store cash register.
Bottom Line
ACP offers low rates and advanced hardware that integrates credit card loyalty programs, online, and in-store sales all in one place. ACP uses Authorize.net for virtual payment processing, and partners with Sure and Fundomate for payroll and merchant cash advance services respectively.
Although ACP may follow through on its appealing low rates, it's hard to know how much to trust a company that shares so little information with the general public. A further search of the internet for more reviews or history of ACP turned up a blank, making it seem even more unreliable. ACP is not accredited with the BBB, even though it displays a BBB symbol on the website.
About American Central Payment
Based in California, American Central Payment was established in 2009 to provide low-cost credit card processing services for all types of businesses. American Central Payment aims to stay on top of the latest CCP technology and is concerned with educating merchants on PCI compliance. ACP is verified by Dun & Bradstreet and partnered with leading brands including TSYS, Fundomate, and Accelerated Brand. The fastest-growing company in the electronic payments industry, ACP is backed by credit card leaders who enable it to offer low rates.
Physical Address
American Central Payment, Incorporation
1201 24th Street B110
Unit 149
Bakersfield, California 93301
