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Cover Story continued

There are agents who do bad things and merchants have. Today, it is complicated as there are so many
who do bad things. This business was the wild wild people, agents, ISOs, ISVs, VARs, payfacs, etc. selling
west in 2001. In 2026, it's wilder. There are all kinds processing.
of players who are faceless companies with no phone
numbers, and agents who are cloaking websites and Justin Volrath
doing underhanded things, and even companies that Founder & CEO
get large fines from the FTC. PayCompass

Yet those people somehow can stay in business, bad
agents burn ISOs, the large fines get paid, and they 1. While I firmly believe the vast majority of ISOs and
go on doing the same dirty business. I did not name agents operate with strong moral integrity, the pres-
any names, so I do not have to enroll in the witness ence of greed is a tale as old as time. The fast-paced
protection program. nature of our business, combined with the fact that
most agents are financially incentivized to push mar-
In the end we want to make a living and be fair but, gins as high as possible, leads to far too many agents
in this business, sometimes that is not easy. You sign purposefully hiding the full costs behind their pro-
up with company A. Company A sells to Company B. posals to switch processors.
Company B has a whole different business plan and
style than A. And now your clients are being treated That being said, I feel the vastly more sinister be-
poorly, rates go up, etc. As an agent you are put in a havior in this regard lies with the processors or
pickle, as you have a contract to abide by. READ any ISOs who continually raise rates and add arbitrary
business agreement before you sign. fees with absolutely no additional value. No matter
how much effort is placed on the initial disclosure
There will never be transparency until there is an and education of merchants at the time of contract
organization that will be the BBB for payment pro- signing, rate creep and new fee additions, which are
cessing. Then there is hope that everyone will be- usually levied with little to no advance notification,

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