Host Merchant ServicesC61
Merchant Account (ISO) · Small and mid-sized US retailers, restaurants and online sellers that want interchange-plus pricing with th…
Overview
Host Merchant Services does the thing most ISOs refuse to do: it publishes its markup. Retail is interchange plus 0.25% and $0.10, restaurants plus 0.20% and $0.09, e-commerce plus 0.35% and $0.10, on top of a $14.99 monthly account fee and, where you need one, a $14.99 monthly gateway. The rest of the schedule is on the same page — $0.75 batch fee, $0.75 PCI, $0.20 per PIN debit batch, $5 a month optional voice authorisation, $24 a year for 1099 reporting, no AVS fee, no closure fee. Terms are month-to-month with a $0.00 published closure fee, and the company has held an A+ BBB rating since it was accredited in March 2011, with 4.6 out of 5 across 61 Trustpilot reviews. For a standard-risk small business that number of published facts is rare and valuable. Two caveats: the same page that lists a $0.75 PCI fee also promises "No PCI Compliance Fees", and the high-risk accounts it advertises come with no published rates at all.
Best for: Small and mid-sized US retailers, restaurants and online sellers that want interchange-plus pricing with the markup stated up front, month-to-month terms, and a support line that answers — without negotiating a bespoke rate card from a salesperson.
Strengths
- + The interchange markup is published by business type — 0.25% and $0.10 retail, 0.20% and $0.09 restaurant, 0.35% and $0.10 e-commerce — which most ISOs will not put in public
- + Month-to-month agreements with no long-term contract and a published $0.00 closure fee
- + The rest of the fee table is public too: batch, PIN debit, voice authorisation, 1099 reporting, and a $0.00 AVS fee
- + A+ with the BBB and accredited since March 2011, with no government-action alerts on the profile
- + 4.6 out of 5 across 61 Trustpilot reviews, with reviews still arriving in 2026 and support named repeatedly as the reason
- + Free equipment for qualified merchants instead of the equipment leases that trap small merchants for years
Trade-offs
- – The pricing page promises "No PCI Compliance Fees" and then lists PCI compliance at $0.75 in the fee table on the same page
- – High-risk accounts are advertised with a 24-hour approval claim but no published rates, terms or reserve policy
- – The $14.99 monthly account fee plus a $14.99 gateway is real money against a very small merchant's volume — under about $3,000 a month, flat-rate providers with no monthly fee usually win
- – Its Trustpilot profile runs on a paid Trustpilot subscription, so review volume reflects active solicitation as well as sentiment
- – As an ISO sponsored by Wells Fargo rather than a processor in its own right, the underlying platform, funding timetable and risk decisions are not entirely HMS's to make
Fees in detail
- Online rate: Interchange plus 0.35% and $0.10 per transaction for e-commerce
- Contract: Month-to-month; HMS states it uses no long-term contracts
Standard published rate for a domestic online card payment. Confirm current pricing on Host Merchant Services's pricing page.
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