Wells Fargo Merchant Services Review

Wells Fargo is one of the largest banks in the US. With over $1.74 trillion in assets, it ranks third behind JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America by asset size. 

But in addition to traditional banking, Wells Fargo also offers merchant services for payment acceptance and credit card processing, which is what we’ll be focusing on for this review.

Whether you’re currently relying on Wells Fargo to process payments for your business or you’re thinking of using them, I’ll cover all of the most important information you need to know—including rates that aren’t published anywhere else on the web.

MCC Quick Take on Wells Fargo Merchant Services

We have several clients using Wells Fargo Merchant Services. In our opinion, they’re a solid processor. But they definitely aren’t the cheapest option on the market.

Wells Fargo actually uses Fiserv as its backend processor. So there’s definitely an overlap and similarities if you compare them to Fiserv, although Wells Fargo’s rates are going to be slightly higher since they’re an ISO.

Wells Fargo Merchant Services used to make businesses commit to three-year contracts and enforce strict early termination fees. This practice is mostly gone now (but it depends on your unique contract).

What We Like About Wells Fargo Merchant Services

• Interchange-plus pricing is available for high-volume businesses.
• Rates are transparent, and Wells Fargo is open to negotiations. 
• They don’t raise their rates as often as their competitors.

Where Wells Fargo Merchant Services Falls Short

• Lots of various one-off and monthly fees. 
• They try to get merchants on a fixed-rate pricing plan.
• The processing rates advertised publicly are much higher than what you should be paying.

Wells Fargo Merchant Services Pricing and Credit Card Processing Rates

Wells Fargo offers two different pricing structures for its payment processing services—fixed rate and interchange-plus. 

The interchange-plus option is by far the best option for businesses seeking the lowest possible price. But those fees aren’t advertised online, and you’ll need to contact Wells Fargo for a custom rate.

We’ll take a closer look at both of these structures so you can see the difference. And I’ll even show you some of the custom rates that one of our clients is paying on an interchange-plus plan.

Wells Fargo Fixed-Rate Pricing (Tiered)

Wells Fargo’s fixed pricing is based on two factors:

• Total monthly processing volume
• Transaction environment

In-person transactions are cheaper than keyed transactions or payments accepted online. They’ll also give you a lower price-per-transaction as the dollar amount you accept in a month increases. 

Here’s a quick summary of those rates:

These rates are criminally high, and there’s really no reason to consider them at all. 

Other PayFacs known for charging higher-than-normal rates aren’t charging 3.40% + $0.15 per transaction. So the fact that one of the country’s largest banks using one of the world’s largest processors is charging such a high rate is a bit ridiculous. 

Even if you’re processing over $40,000 per month, 2.20% + $0.15 per transaction is not a good deal. You can get better rates elsewhere.

Wells Fargo Interchange-Plus Pricing

Interchange-plus pricing is always going to be the best option for merchants. But Wells Fargo doesn’t advertise these rates online, and they set the rates uniquely for each business.

We just negotiated an interchange-plus deal for one of our clients back in May of this year. Wells Fargo offered them a rate of 0.85% + $0.10 per transaction. 

Is this the cheapest rate we’ve ever seen? Definitely not.

But it’s significantly lower than the fixed-rate prices on the table shown above. 

For additional context, they process roughly $1.7 million in card transactions annually (let’s call it $141,000 per month). So it’s about $100,000 more monthly than the threshold for the lowest tired rate. 

They’re a single-location merchant providing professional services, and their average transaction amount is about $800. 

These are some of the factors that Wells Fargo considers when underwriting your custom rates for an interchange-plus pricing agreement.

Other Fees to Look Out For From Wells Fargo Merchant Services

Beyond the rates per transaction, Wells Fargo charges a laundry list of one-off and monthly fees. If you go to the pricing page on their website you’ll only see a few listed, but when your contract gets structured, you can expect quite a few more.

Here are the fees Wells Fargo advertises online:

• Clover terminals fee — $9.95 per month per location
• Virtual terminal — $24.95 per month
• Keyed transaction terminal — $9.95 per month
• Third-party hosted software — $14.95 per month

And these are some of the most common fees we’ve seen in custom contracts for interchange-plus deals:

• Incoming chargeback fee — $25 each
• Incoming and/or outgoing chargeback exception fee — $25 each
• Mail and/or fax chargeback fee — $10 per response
• Monthly service fee — $15 per location per month
• Voice authorization fee — $0.75 per attempt
• Annual fee — $25 per location
• Electronic AVS service fee — $0.05 per attempt
• Voice AVS fee — $2 per attempt
• PCI non-compliance — $25 per location per month

Remember, Wells Fargo uses Fiserv on the backend. So we should expect some similarities here. 

But if we compare this to the fees outlined in our Fiserv review, we can quickly see that the list of additional fees is much longer for Wells Fargo Merchant Services. As an ISO, they look for markups wherever they can.

A Closer Look Wells Fargo Merchant Services’ Operating Rules

If you’re using Wells Fargo to process payments, you’ll need to abide by certain rules and procedures. The operating rules document is a whopping 51 pages long and packed with your responsibilities as a merchant. 

I encourage you to read this on your own so you fully understand it. But here a few key points of interest so you have some idea of what it includes:

Authorization and Settlement Timelines

Wells Fargo sets specific timelines for you to validate authorizations and settle transactions. This also depends on the card brand. For example, Visa and Discover authorizations are valid for 10 days, whereas Mastercard is only valid for 7 days.

Industry-Specific Guidelines

Merchants in certain industries need to follow specific rules and procedures. These guidelines include scenarios for things like estimated charges, delayed charges, and pre-authorizations. Examples of industries affected by these guidelines include car rental services, lodging, and petroleum sales. 

Chargeback and Dispute Handling

This guide contains detailed procedures for how chargebacks and disputes must be handled—including specific timeframes for responding to chargebacks and what types of documentation are required.

Data Security Requirements

Wells Fargo’s operating rules place a strong emphasis on data security and PCI compliance. There are different validation requirements depending on your transaction volume and the clear-cut procedures for what to do if you have a data breach.

Card-Specific Rules

As you may already know, every card network has its own rules and unique requirements. Wells Fargo provides additional information on this for Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. 

Our Final Thoughts on Wells Fargo Merchant Services

Overall, Wells Fargo Merchant Services is an average-at-best processor. 

I would never recommend agreeing to their rates advertised online. You’ll get a much lower rate if you qualify for an interchange-plus contract. But even those rates aren’t as competitive as other processors.

If you want to get your processing from one of the country’s largest banks because you’re comfortable with the brand name, go for it. Just know that the processing services are actually coming from a third party (Fiserv) on the backend—so expect to pay higher rates since you’re using an ISO.

With all of that said, I would not cancel your Wells Fargo Merchant Services Agreement if you’re a current customer. This is rarely cost-effective, as the steps required to switch all of your operations can be expensive. 

You’re much better off negotiating your rates directly with Wells Fargo. They’re willing to offer better deals if you push hard enough. 

Reach out to our team here at MCC if you need help with this process. As you’ve already learned from this review, we’ve been able to negotiate rates for our clients up to 75% lower than Wells Fargo’s advertised prices.