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Durango Merchant Services Review; Features, Pricing, Positive reviews and Complaints

Dera Joseph | Jan 9, 2022 | Advertiser Disclosure

review of durango merchant services

This Durango merchant services review discusses the robust suite of features and services offered by this payment services provider. However, like every other merchant service, Durango isn’t for everyone. But there is an ardent need to choose the proper credit card processing solution to meet the needs of your customers. Studies show that in the U.S alone, accepting credit cards with a merchant account can raise your potential sales by an average of 75 million U.S. customers.

Analysts of the industry have estimated that 90% of consumers use a credit or debit card when purchasing products and services online. So accepting personal and business credit cards is a must. Sadly choosing the best merchant service is no walk in the park. You need to consider if it’s suitable for your brand, the rates, and fees you might pay, the features and services they offer among other critical information. Durango has been in the business since 1999 with a clientele of over 10,000 merchants. Durango Merchant Services is also located in Durango, Colorado. They also have an excellent reputation when it comes to how they serve their customers. But then, there’s more to the picture. In this guide, we will consider Durango merchant services pricing, their many customer reviews, features, Durango services among others.

What is Durango Merchant Services?

Durango Merchant Services is a world-class merchant processing group which focuses their efforts on both high-risk and traditional merchant processing needs. Although they specialize in providing services for merchants who have difficulty finding a processing company, they also focus on granting a greater service to merchants needing a traditional account.

Durango has an excellent reputation for customer service.  Their system of customer service assigns each merchant an account with a dedicated sales manager for the life of the account, who can navigate the complex matrix of credit card and eCheck processing of payments. Every sales manager has an average of ten years of payment processing experience.

Besides their robust customer service, Durango brings to you features such as multi-currency and international merchant accounts, chargeback, ACH check processing, wireless mobile payments among others.

Who Should Use Durango Merchant Services?

As said earlier, Durango merchant services is a popular choice for high-risk businesses. High-risk brands are often businesses that sell products/ or render services. But then, many merchants do not even realize that they are high-risk even as they are running honest businesses.

Chances are you have been rejected by one merchant account provider or the other, so there’s a great chance you will be accepted by Durango Merchant Services.

Here’s a list of businesses that should choose Durango Merchant services:

1.    High-risk businesses

Businesses may be considered high risk based on two conditions; high risk of financial failure or high-risk industry type. The first condition deals with the ability of the company to drive sustainably and the second condition has to do with ethical, safety, and health concerns. Other reasons a brand would be considered high-risk are the high level of chargebacks and high sales volumes. These two conditions are prescribed to low-risk brands having difficulties mitigating chargebacks. Overall, some common high-risk businesses include telemarketing, wellness supplements, booking and travel agencies, e-cig brands, collection agencies, bitcoin/forex trading, and lots more.

2.    Businesses with terminated merchant account

Perhaps, your business was considered low risk in the past but due to certain mishaps got blacklisted by diverse acquiring banks and included in the Terminated Match File (TMF). Durango Merchant services can work with you to get you unblocked and approved by acquiring banks in their network.

3.    Businesses require a high level of chargeback and fraud protection

If your brand has a higher potential of dealing with fraudulent transactions resulting in numerous chargebacks, you need a high-risk merchant provider that would offer diverse fraud protection tools to mitigate fraudulent chargebacks before they happen.

4.    E-commerce brands with a need for multi-currency support

If you are an online business in the US and would love to accept multiple currencies, then choose Durango services. Durango is a registered ISO in Europe and offers international merchant accounts with fraud prevention services. They provide a shopping proprietary cart and e-commerce gateway technology that comes with features that allow you to accept diverse currencies. Merchants across the United Kingdom, Canada, Panama, and most European Union countries can also access these accounts.

5.    Businesses accepting cryptocurrency payments

If your brand accepts some of the most popular cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and lots more, Durango merchant service will support you with in-store, online and invoicing solutions.

Even merchants with bad credit scores can be accepted by Durango.

Alternatively, businesses looking for free merchant account providers and traditional small businesses may choose to use other merchant account providers. If you are a startup, Durango isn’t the best option, a better choice would be Square. Also if you are a high-risk business that requires an age-verification tool, you should consider PaymentCloud as Durango does not support such a function.

Accounts Durango does not do in the U.S.

Non-EU or US CANADA accounts, (we are registered with VISA/MC EUROPE)

  • Kratom
  • Negative billing nutraceuticals unless high volume with history
  • loan modification
  • payday loans
  • Startup MLM
  •  anything marijuana related
  • startup credit repair
  • no airfare (other travel is ok – hotel bookings , land packages , etc. )
  • REPLICA, COUNTERFEIT or KNOCK-OFF PRODUCTS
  • Age verification
  • CHARITIES THROUGH OUTBOUND TELEMARKETING, OR, DONATIONS FOR COMPANIES NOT REGISTERED WITH THE IRS AS A NON-PROFIT
  • ANY PRODUCT CONTAINING SYNTHETIC CANNIBINOIDS, “BATH SALTS,” OR OTHER CHEMICALS NOT INTENDED FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION
  • Hate products
  • Cell Phone Flashing/Unlocking also, UDID ACTIVATION
  • Colon Cleanse
  • Online Prescription medicine (retail pharmacies are ok )
  • HGH
  • Synthetic Urine
  • Timeshare Advertising (timeshare liquidation is ok )
  • Garcinia weight loss products
  • Student loan doc prep

EU Based Accounts

Here is the information for the EU based accounts:

For EU Merchant Accounts , we are registered with 2 EU processors to board International Merchants with their processing solutions. All Merchants MUST be EU based. Shell Incorporations are no longer acceptable and are non compliant to VISA Master Card Association Rules.  Here are some highlights of the solution:

Cards Accepted are: Visa, Visa Debit, Visa Electron, MasterCard, Maestro, American Express, Solo and JCB

Current Currencies: USD, CAD, GBP, EURO, HKD, SGD, AUD,AED, CHF,DKK,JPY,NZD,NDK,SEK and ZAR.

Below is a list of difficult to place sectors we can look at (of course lower risk merchants are welcome as well):

Astrology / Horoscope / Fortune tellers

Adult Content / Products

Auction Houses

Art Dealers/Galleries

Charitable Organizations

Claims (post-paid only never pre-paid”)

Collection Agencies (debit cards only)
Contact Lenses EU customers only

Counselling Services

Computer Programming/other related services

Cryptocurrency/Virtual Assets

Dating/Escort Services

Debt Collection

Discount Stores- ECom only
EU Gaming (coded correctly at 7995 MCC)

eWallet (if UK EMD2 licenced)
FX (if UK licenced)

File Sharing Services

Furniture- Home furnishings

Insolvency Practitioner

Insurance
Jewellery, Precious Stones & Metals
Lotto Syndicates

Money Remittance

Monthly Memberships
Nutraceuticals/Herbal Supplements (but not continuity/recurring billing)
Payday Loans 

Payment Protection Insurance
Pre-paid loads (3DS mandatory)

Property Rentals
Real estate brokers

Skill Games

Taxi Cabs & Limousines

Ticket Agencies/Brokers

Travel Agency/ Tour Operators

Tobacco Sellers- Ecom only.

Durango also has ACH /check 21 solutions as well as Buy now Pay later program and crypto Solutions.

We have a banking relationship in Panama as well the ability to look at accounts from Puerto Rico

A Snapshot of our Durango Merchant Services Review

Usually, payment service providers that specialize in high-risk merchant accounts offer the most outrageous rates and fees alongside other unsavory stipulations. This is where Durango Merchant service stands out as a remarkably dedicated partner ready to support and assist (not punish) high-risk merchants. You will also love their suite of tools and pristine transparency.

Durango Merchant services do not also require that you pay any setup fees or any unscrupulous hidden fees. From the many reviews we evaluated, it’s quite clear the company offers the most decent rates for high-risk merchants and we did not find any reviews about horrible contract terms.

Durango Merchant Service Review: Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Swift approval process with expert guidance every step of the way.
  • Dedicated 24/ account manager support.
  • Free quote and custom pricing.
  • Plug and play tools such as shopping carts, and ‘pay now’ buttons.
  • Zero setup and signup fees.
  • A wide array of security features to protect you from fraudulent transactions
  • Allows merchants to accept international payments
  • No early termination fees in most cases
  • Some merchants can access the interchange-plus pricing model.
  • Decent chargeback fees.
  • Works with most POS hardware
  • 24-hour funding.

Cons

  • No support for age-verification tools
  • No pricing disclosures on their website.
  • Some e-commerce tools are expensive

Business Products and Services by Durango Merchant Services

Durango Services

Durango Merchant Services operates in varying ways to meet consumer demand. Each set of features, tools, and services will depend on your business needs among other things.

Merchant accounts (host merchant services)

First off, it’s important to realize that Durango merchant services is a processor and therefore registered with acquiring banks that will hold your funds. Presently, Durango is a registered ISO of American Express and BMO Harris Bank NA. They also have other acquiring banks and processors that will cater to your host merchant services. So your approval rate and contractual terms will depend on who you are paired with.

Credit Card Processing

Durango Merchant services offer a variety of software features for credit card processing. With Durango, you can accept debit and credit cards, e-check, cryptocurrency, and ACH payments. Durango also allows you to enjoy support for electronic invoicing and recurring billing. You will also love that it includes a mobile reader and payment app for mobile payment processing, alongside fraud protection tools, CVV rule matching, payer authentication, iSpy Fraud among others.

Fraud Protection

Durango Merchant Services feels very strongly about fraud protection. It is imperative for all merchants, but even more so for those merchants categorized as high risk. If a transaction is deemed fraudulent, the merchant takes the loss on both the cost of the goods or services and from a processor penalty. If more than 1% of sales results in chargebacks, the merchant’s account is terminated, which can force a merchant out of business. The merchant may even be placed on the TMF list, preventing them from procuring any account, even high risk.  These laws are in place for the protection of customers, not the merchants. The merchant must protect their business from fraud.

Durango offers fraud protection to their merchants using MasterCard SecureCode, Verified by Visa, Fraud Scrubbing, and dCheck Demand Draft. You will also access iSpyFraud which is a utility for discerning legitimate transactions from fraudulent ones. Certify PCI is another tool for ensuring you are dealing with qualified businesses. Beyond that, you have Payer Authentication for verifying the authenticity of payers. Durango also allows you to use Check21 processing instead of electronic checks or ACH. The Check21 provides a 10-day window (instead of 6 months like ACH and eCheck) where customers must prove that fraud occurred thereby protecting you and your funds.

ultimate guide for merchant services

Ecommerce payment gateway (Durango PayTM))

Ecommerce brands would love the variety of features available to take your e-commerce business to new horizons. You will access a customer vault to store credit card details securely without the huge expenses of PCI compliance. You will also love the ability to batch process multiple transactions at the same time, alongside a gateway emulator that enables you to switch from your current gateway to Durango PayTM.

Beyond that Durango offers integration with API-based options for developers, alongside third-party shopping carts and their very own proprietary DurangoCartTM for e-commerce merchants without coding skills.

Durango also includes a virtual terminal that enables customers to send payments from anywhere using an internet connection, alongside access to your payment processing tools from the platform. Durango supports fraud management using Watchdog allows you to set filters and rules and detect suspicious transactions before authorization.

Mobile payments

Durango Merchant Services supports a wide range of mobile devices from iPhone to Android and even Blackberry. They also support the iPad. All these occur through Durango’s third-party iProcess app and an encrypted EMV-compliant mobile card reader to give you a tablet-based or smartphone-based processing solution. You can use the reader through Bluetooth, especially for smartphones that don’t have a headphone jack.

E-Check Processing

Tens of Millions in the US do not have sufficient credit for procuring a credit card. These customers want to order products too but are forced to use checks as they have no available credit. This is a huge untapped financial resource for merchants who do not accept eChecks.

In this competitive market, selecting a reliable partner to process checks is an intelligent business choice. Durango Merchant Services has the most recent technology to assist the merchant in accepting check payments in person, online, in the mail, or over the phone. The most efficiently run businesses use various payment options which boost sales potential, lower expense, quicken the collections process, and protect from fraud targeting.

With Durango, you will also enjoy same-day or next-day funding. You can also capture IP addresses and send electronic receipts to customers who pay online using e-checks. You can also use Durango to send e-check payments to vendors and employees. You can also perform bill payments and check deposits using Durango without actually doing it on your own. You will also be able to add a ‘Pay Now’ button on your website where customers can pay and e-sign their checks. For your echeck processing, you will also enjoy integrations with third-party shopping carts like Shopify and WooCommerce.

Cryptocurrency Processing

Durango Merchant Services will also allow you to accept multiple cryptocurrencies from any invoice, online, eWallet, and in-store payments. You can also enjoy cross-border transactions and process refunds with ease. Durango services also ensure that you will have guaranteed price protection with instant settlement.

Durango Hardware Solutions

Durango Merchant Services also carries its own card reader solutions. Its sales team emphasized that it does not want to burden potential clients with upfront fees, so it’s safe to assume that it offers payment terms for purchasing hardware. You won’t also have to pay any fees for set up when you purchase their offered credit card terminals. These terminals vary by model and are from popular terminal brands including Magtek, Ingenico, Hypercom, Verifone, and lots more.

You can access mobile card readers with EMV compatibility that connects with your smartphone through Bluetooth. There are also terminals with features such as integrated PIN pads, and built-in receipt printers. Your EMV chip card-ready terminals can also accept contactless payments (Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Wallet). They might come with 3G and/or Wi-Fi support. Touch-screen terminals are also available. Costs range from $150 to $250 (approximate).

Durango Merchant Services Pricing

Durango Merchant Services will not disclose their rates or fees, as there is no fair way to standardize these rates and fees. This might seem like a deal-breaker, but for a high-risk merchant service provider, it’s expected. The lack of a fixed price range ensures you can negotiate your rates and fees and access a deal that is suitable for your brand.

Durango treats merchants with fairness and really tries to win a merchant’s business, sometimes offering interchange-plus pricing, tiered pricing, or waiving the early termination fee, particularly for lower-risk merchants. For high-risk merchants, the rates and fees will be higher than average, but it wouldn’t be outrageous in any way. You won’t also pay any setup or sign-up fees and your account can be approved in as little as three to five business days. Tiered pricing is usually offered to high-risk businesses that are just getting started with accepting credit cards but we recommend asking for interchange-plus pricing or negotiating your account terms.

Generally, Durango’s contract terms will vary from one merchant to the next:

  • Low-risk merchants can often get a month-to-month contract with no termination or cancellation fees
  • High-risk merchants can expect a 2-3 year contract with an early termination fee assessed at $300-$500

Beyond that, here are additional fees to consider:

  • Monthly fee of average $25
  • Cryptocurrency processing fee of about 1% per transaction
  • Ecommerce gateway fees of average $10 to $15/month plus additional 10 cents per transaction
  • Chargeback fees of average five to 15 cents per transaction
  • Check processing fees on average 1% to 5%.

Rolling Reserve

Some high-risk merchants may also be assigned a rolling reserve while Durango sets up their accounts. A rolling reserve holds a certain percentage of your funds every month as a hedge against the possibility that you might go out of business or have excessive chargebacks. Nevertheless, your rolling reserve should gradually decrease over time as you take steps to mitigate chargebacks. This system helps protect the payment processor, but it also means you might deal with short-term cash flow issues if you are just starting as a business. Regardless, we love that Durango openly talks about this rolling receive from the onset so you know what to expect.

Early termination fee and contract terms

Durango does not disclose contract terms so it’s not easy to know if they charge any early termination fee. However, the reason behind this disclosure is that they work with diverse banks and processors and so your contract terms will vary from one to another. However, we were able to discover that Durango offers a month-to-month contract with no early termination fee. But then some high-risk businesses may be given a three-year initial term with an automatic renewal clause and an early termination fee of $500. But this only applies to very high-risk businesses.

Durango Merchant Services Customer Support

As said earlier, Durango boasts of a dedicated team of support professionals. You can reach these professionals via phone support available during business hours, from Monday through Friday, 8.30 am – 5 pm. You can either use their local office phone number (970) 797-4947 or their toll-free general customer service at (866) 415-2636. Besides these professionals, you also have a 24/7 dedicated account manager available to help you in any way. Durango merchant services also have a dedicated email address for customers via customerservice@durangomerchantservices.com. Their website will also include a Glossary and FAQ section alongside the Get Help page for self-help.

Durango Positive and Negative Reviews

Positive Reviews

The internet is teeming with glowing reviews of Durango’s customer services, setting them far removed from many other high-risk merchant specialists. On BBB, Durango Merchant services maintain an A+ grade rating with no complaints in the last three years. They also have 4.7 out of 5 stars from 29 reviews on Trustpilot. On Google reviews, Durango also has 4.7 stars from 26 reviews.

There is a lot more work involved in managing a high-risk account, particularly with customer service. There are many complex questions asked, and a lot of obstacles to overcome. Durango handles it all with grace and a friendly, helpful attitude. Many of their customers talk about their high approval rate and quick and reliable setup which is a surprise as most high-risk merchant providers often have a lengthy process.

Customers also rave about their expansive technical integration and decent rates and fees despite being a high-risk business. Businesses also talk about the fact that Durango acts as an advocate and solid partner, helping their clients negotiate the best solutions with acquiring banks.

On the Durango website, you can also access a section for testimonials which is submitted via TrustLink, a review program affiliated with Better Business Bureau. These testimonials won’t include full names of reviewers or their businesses unless the reviewer states so in the review.

Complaints

The Durango Merchant Services profile on the BBB site has an A+ rating for their business and no complaints have been identified.  On other sites, there have been no complaints for the last several years.

There are several “complaints” from merchants being denied, however, Durango cannot legally approve every merchant. Durango responded and invited the merchant to contact them to see if they could resolve it. There were also complaints from some customers about their money being held. However, such reviews are untrue as generally merchant service providers do not hold funds. Funds are held via the acquiring banks in their networks. Usually acquiring banks may hold funds for a set period, if there were numerous fraudulent transactions done via that merchant’s account. They are required by law to close the account and hold on to all funds there for about 180 days.

Besides these misconceived claims, Durango merchant services have almost no complaints and negative reviews which says a lot about their integrity and dedication. We also did not find any class-action lawsuits or FTC complaints filed against this merchant service provider.

Concluding Thoughts

There seem to be no other services out there quite like Durango Merchant Services—they really punctuate the service. They are solution-driven and do not shame a high-risk applicant. They rise above the slime that high-risk merchants usually have to deal with. They are professional problem solvers who take on issues that other companies avoid. The price and contract are fairly based on what each merchant’s portfolio displays, not categorizing high-risk merchants as a one-size-fits-all moniker that dictates the contract template. Durango merchant service review also stands out for their professionalism and dedicated support.

The sales team is professional and ready to work, the customer service department is friendly and ready to help, and the technical services department is skilled and ready to troubleshoot. Plus, you can get a free quote and consultation to figure out if their rates and fees are right for your brand. So reach out to them today and discover what makes Durango merchant service one of the best high-risk processors.

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