Cost Per Month*:  

First Data is about average in terms of fees. No matter what service you choose to sign up with they charge a 10 dollar per month fee for customer service, which is available 24 hours per day, every day of the year.

Internet

For the Internet service it charges $19.95 per month for the gateway fee and $10 per month for customer service. Transactions charges are 25 cents per, the discount rate is 2.19% or $15, whichever is greater.

Retail

The retail account costs $229 for the terminal and printer and $10 per month for customer service. The discount rate is 1.59% or $25, whichever is greater and transactions are 30 cents each.

Mobile

Their mobile service starts out with a charge of $799 for the new terminal. The monthly fees include $19.99 for wireless access and $10 per month for customer service. The transaction fee is 40 cents each and the discount rate is 1.59%.

Startup Cost:  

First Data does not charge a set up fee. However, some services that necessitate a terminal require an initial purchase, ranging from $229 to $799 per terminal.

Account Setup Time:  

This service generally approves merchant accounts in two to three days and once it is approved credit cards can begin to be accepted the next day. So, with First Data you can generally expect to be able to run credit cards in two to four days.

Customer Service:  

First Data provides 24/7/365 customer service to its subscribers. They do however charge $10 per month for this service. You can contact them by email, fax or by toll-free telephone. We sent several questions to them via email and generally found that they answered our question by the next morning. The only thing we would like to see is chat support, though few services offer this feature yet.

As far as online help information goes First Data provides FAQs, First Data Global Gateway provides user manuals, downloads and FAQs.