Revmrr

First Card PaymentsC50

Merchant Services · Merchants in verticals that mainstream processors decline outright, and particularly merchants who have alr…

Visit First Card Payments ↗

Overview

First Card Payments does what a competent high-risk broker does: it knows which of thirty-odd banks will underwrite your vertical, and it gets an application in front of the right one quickly. That is a real service, and the A+ BBB file with no visible complaint pattern is better than much of this category manages. But nothing about the actual deal is published — not the rate, not the reserve, not the contract term — and the tenure claimed in its marketing does not match the date on its BBB record. Take a quote, compare it against two others, and read every line before signing.

Best for: Merchants in verticals that mainstream processors decline outright, and particularly merchants who have already been declined or terminated elsewhere and need someone with existing bank relationships to place the account rather than another portal to apply through. Also a reasonable call if you want ACH and e-check acceptance alongside cards in a high-risk vertical, which many mainstream providers will not combine.

Strengths

  • + An A+ Better Business Bureau rating with no visible pattern of unresolved complaints, which is a stronger file than a large share of the high-risk category manages.
  • + Ten years on the BBB record as an operating entity, starting 2 December 2015 — long enough to have survived several underwriting cycles in a segment where brokers appear and vanish.
  • + Genuinely broad vertical acceptance: 40-plus categories including adult, CBD, cannabis-adjacent, firearms, nutraceuticals, debt relief, credit repair, travel, forex, gaming, dropshipping, web hosting, jewellery, auto transport and pharmacy.
  • + More than 30 stated bank and ISO relationships, which is the actual product in high-risk placement — the difference between a decline and an approval is usually which bank sees the file.
  • + ACH and e-check acceptance offered alongside cards, giving high-risk merchants a second rail when card acceptance is interrupted.
  • + Named in Fit Small Business's 2026 roundup of the best high-risk merchant account providers as its pick for one-stop account setup — one of the few independent signals available on a company of this size.

Trade-offs

  • – Nothing about pricing is published. No rate range, no monthly fee, no gateway fee, no PCI fee, no chargeback fee and no reserve terms appear anywhere on the site — even its own article about high-risk fees quotes generic industry ranges rather than its own numbers.
  • – The tenure claim does not reconcile. The site describes over twenty years of experience and twenty-five years of banking relationships, while the BBB records the business as starting on 2 December 2015. Those can both be true if the claim refers to the principals' careers rather than the company, but the marketing does not say so.
  • – It is a broker, not the processor. Your money, your reserve and your termination rights sit with an underwriting bank you will not be told about until late in the process, and the quality of your experience depends heavily on which one you land with.
  • – The favourable contract claims in circulation — month to month, no early termination fee, no setup or application fee, an instant 25% saving on switching — come from a high-risk lead-generation review site, not from First Card Payments' own published terms.
  • – There is almost no independent review record. No meaningful Trustpilot presence, no established merchant-services review coverage beyond directory listings, and a BBB file with no substantive customer reviews to read.
  • – A 25% saving guarantee, if offered, is a comparison against your current statement rather than a rate commitment. It says nothing about what happens at renewal or after a reserve is imposed.

Fees in detail

  • Contract: Not published by the company. A third-party review of First Card Payments states that it offers month-to-month contracts with no early termination, setup or application fees, and that it promises to cut a switching merchant's existing fees by 25%. Those claims come from a high-risk lead-generation site rather than from First Card Payments' own published terms, so treat them as marketing until you see them in your own agreement.

Standard published rate for a domestic online card payment. Confirm current pricing on First Card Payments's pricing page.

Startups on RevMRR using First Card Payments

RevMRR can't verify revenue through First Card Payments yet. Verify your revenue →