• Authorize

Authorize

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Overview

Authorize has a rating of 1.28 stars from 109 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Authorize most frequently mention customer service, bank account, and credit card problems. Authorize ranks 110th among Payment Gateway sites.

  • Service
    16
  • Value
    17
  • Shipping
    8
  • Returns
    12
  • Quality
    15
Positive reviews (last 12 months): 0%
Positive
0
Neutral
0
Negative
8
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What reviewers want you to know

Positive highlights

No positive highlights yet

Critical highlights

  • Thanks to this repetitive scam I knew enough to close down the bank account!
  • Customer service has left me on hold for over an hour and are extremely rude.
How would you rate Authorize?
Top Positive Review

“Reliable service since 2002”

Sara M.
9/21/20

We have been using authorize.net on our website since 2002. I have always had a wonderful experience with the people that I work with there. Additionally for our customers, they provide comfort that their information will be safe... with one of THE most secure platforms around.

Top Critical Review

“Fraud company”

Ellie W.
8/8/23

I'm deeply disappointed and alarmed by my experience with Authorize. Their actions closely resemble those of a deceitful company. Without any legitimate reason, they withdrew nearly $8,000 from our checking account. Additionally, they've unjustly held over $50,000 of our funds. To add to the frustration, they continuously request documents from us, seemingly without end. It's essential for businesses and individuals to be aware of such practices and exercise caution when dealing with this company.

Reviews (109)

Rating

Timeframe

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Reviews that mention popular keywords

bank account (13) customer service (19) merchant account (13)
Thumbnail of user rickb1300
1 review
0 helpful votes
February 7th, 2024

On 12-2-22 I called and cancelled service. It was documented in there system. Unaware to me, they say they sent me an email form of closure that also needed to be completed and returned. Never told me that to had to be done, to officially close. I never completed that form. Where I come from a call to cancel means cancel my service. Do they do this on purpose to continue milking hard working people? Making more hoops to do a simple closure. WTF. With that said they continued taking money out of my bank account that was on recorded for 14 months over 2k for a service I cancelled. They will give no reimbursement. I consider them thieves. They steal. Don't use them..

Thumbnail of user elliew116
1 review
0 helpful votes
August 8th, 2023

I'm deeply disappointed and alarmed by my experience with Authorize. Their actions closely resemble those of a deceitful company. Without any legitimate reason, they withdrew nearly $8,000 from our checking account. Additionally, they've unjustly held over $50,000 of our funds. To add to the frustration, they continuously request documents from us, seemingly without end. It's essential for businesses and individuals to be aware of such practices and exercise caution when dealing with this company.

Tip for consumers:
I'm deeply disappointed and alarmed by my experience with Authorize. Their actions closely resemble those of a deceitful company. Without any legitimate reason, they withdrew nearly $8,000 from our checking account. Additionally, they've unjustly held over $50,000 of our funds. To add to the frustration, they continuously request documents from us, seemingly without end. It's essential for businesses and individuals to be aware of such practices and exercise caution when dealing with this compan

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user toddm949
2 reviews
0 helpful votes
October 27th, 2023

Stay far away from them. They will put a hold on funds even if the transaction never goes through. Total fraud.

Tip for consumers:
Stay away from innovations west.

Products used:
Never had purchase go through

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Value
Shipping
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Thumbnail of user saram643
1 review
0 helpful votes
September 21st, 2020

We have been using authorize.net on our website since 2002. I have always had a wonderful experience with the people that I work with there. Additionally for our customers, they provide comfort that their information will be safe... with one of THE most secure platforms around.

Thumbnail of user janes1579
1 review
1 helpful vote
February 21st, 2023

Had a fraudulent eCheck transaction. Was told by support to refund check. Authorize Net refunded it twice which caused money to be taken out without receiving funds. They claim they cannot return our money. We're out the amount they refunded twice. Worst business practices. No controls. No accountability. No responsibility for errors. Customer is always wrong and not reimbursed for their mistake. Worst experience. DO NOT do business with this company. Their software is outdated and flawed. Their fee structure and statements are so confusing to reconcile. They charge fees galore. Stay away!

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Thumbnail of user annad1097
1 review
2 helpful votes
August 29th, 2022

Literally used this POS for a couple of days before we realized what we signed up for. Totally confusing site, nothing is convenient, money takes days to hit our account, you can hardly log in without issues. Accessing reports and transactions or even trying to figure out how to send a receipt is nearly impossible. And yay for us we signed a contract through the bank so we are stuck with it

Value
Thumbnail of user michaelt61
1 review
1 helpful vote
August 3rd, 2014

A lot of feedback here about Authnet. They are the largest Gateway around. If you need a WooCommerce Authorize.net payment gateway check out the easiest plugin to use: http://pledgedplugins.com/product/authorize-net-payment-gateway-woocommerce/

Thumbnail of user staceyw330
1 review
3 helpful votes
June 23rd, 2022
Verified purchase

We signed up with Authorize.Net to help jump start our business, however they could not meet our needs.
We needed the ability to accept credit cards remotely, they were unable to provide the necessary equipment, so we canceled our service and went with another company. Not only did they continue to charge us after canceling, they turned us in to collections. They agreed that we had canceled, but still needed mkney.

Thumbnail of user shannone270
1 review
1 helpful vote
April 24th, 2023

We are a small business who needs access to money in a reasonable time. So, I wish they had said up front we will hold your first few transactions for 4-6 days and then request at random reviews that hold up your money up to 5 days longer and then will consider releasing the money. They are currently holding over $600 of my money for 11 days before they consider releasing it. Had I known this information (I am sure it is in small print of a brochure somewhere) upfront because someone cared enough to share I would have used someone else. Very disappointed and will be looking for another company.

Service
Value
Thumbnail of user frankc1
114 reviews
844 helpful votes
February 22nd, 2010

I have been using Authorize.net for my E-commerce needs (CyberSource is the main company) for about 12 years now. The rates are competitive, and I've had no customer service issues whatsoever. Their client website is well constructed, and includes ALL of the real-time reporting you would ever need about your transactions including a virtual terminal for manual processing of off-line transactions. Complete e-mail merchant receipts and batching, never missed a beat with them. I would recommend that you contract a GOOD web-tech who can handle the installation of the Gateway software. Ultimately you should build your own interface. My only critique would be their payment processing screen which can be a little finicky. If the consumer doesn't absolutely complete all the fields and enter the 'security' letters precisely as show (case sensitive) the transactions don't go through.

Overall I give it a good rating and recommend them for your e-commerce merchant processing if you're shopping for a new company or better rates.

Thumbnail of user moonradiance.skin
1 review
1 helpful vote
June 1st, 2023

This company stole money out of our checking. The bank was able to give us a new account. But not the money back because AuthNet makes it look like customer withdrew! We don't know these people and the customer service agent hung up on me.

Thumbnail of user stephenh2249
1 review
1 helpful vote
September 8th, 2023

I am a small merchant. I last sold services using Authorize.net on 8/31/23. Today is 9/8/23.9 days. I have not been paid yet despite multiple calls. Have I been scammed? Not sure. But I can't wait 9 days for payment after I do the work.

Thumbnail of user blendzol22
1 review
1 helpful vote
September 30th, 2023

On 9-24-2003 I finally accepted the terms and conditions and application form for Authorize.net to process my website's e-commerce and online credit card processing. After a few days, I noticed that my funds were not being deposited into our company's bank account. I contacted Authorize.net's customer service to request an explanation and their representative told me that he has forwarded my request to the appropriate department, and I would receive an email with an account representative in charge to address my concerns and questions. Nothing was received and no email or call was made to me. I called again and discovered that the first representative never opened a service ticket and that this new representative, Sam, would now open a new service ticket. I then received an email from them asking for a Preprinted voided check to verify my bank account which had already been verified in the initial application and contract. I once again complied and sent the requested voided check to the email for the underwriters/Risk Department which had already approved my account. The next day I called again and I was told that it takes two business days to get a reply and a decision. Meanwhile, $14,000 of funds were accumulating and not being transferred to my bank account. I explained that my application was already activated by the underwriters and I was using Authorize.net to process my online payments which now has summed up to over $14,000 and not been deposited into my account. I had been using PayPal with no risk issues for over 10 years and would gladly send them all the transaction reports for their information. The representative told me to wait for their decision and I would get a reply soon and there should be nothing else that they will need. I explained that the bank account had been verified in the initial application and why was I being asked to provide this information again which I once again and gladly offered with the voided check. He could not explain and once again asked me to wait for a representative to contact me. I also mentioned that two of their representatives during the application process promised and guaranteed a 3-day funding time for my account which has turned out to be false. Much to my surprise, I received an email after the call informing me that my account had been closed for no reason and that my funds would be held up for 120 days! I am the owner of this company and have been using PayPal for our e-commerce for over 10 years due to some incompatibility issues with PayPal and my website e-commerce forms I decided to move on to Authorize.net and give them a try. My company has been in business for almost 30 years and to have been treated with such neglect by Authorize.net with no justification and to have my company's funds frozen with no explanation is unacceptable and frankly fraudulent. My company has not violated any of their policies. I have provided them everything they asked for and have been approved for transactions. I was merely investigating to find out why my funds weren't being transferred to our Business Bank Account and suddenly received a closure notice and the withholding of my company's money. I request that Authorize.net explain why they closed my account without any reason and to provide that in writing to the FCC/FTC and to me and to release my funds as they had agreed to in 3 days for each settled transaction. I have all the paperwork, the signed application form, which they approved, My Gateway ID and Merchant Account number, and all the correspondence I have had with their representative. This type of fraudulent and haphazard method of doing business with an established company with excellent standing and reputation in the industry, such as my company, is unacceptable and shameful on their part. I hope and expect for Authorize.net to resolve this issue immediately release our funds and transfer them to our bank account. In addition, my company was a previous Authorize.net account holder a couple of years ago. We had an account with them in good standing and for them not to take that into consideration is unprofessional. I have requested for a written explanation for their actions and honestly, not holding my breath for one. I am not one to sit back and wait for them. I will take action as necessary if this issue is not solved and my company's funds ($14,000) is transferred and deposited in to our account immediately. I would not trust this company with $1.00. Their fraudulent activities will be reported to state and federal authorities.'

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user dayanan4
2 reviews
2 helpful votes
September 29th, 2022

Yes, that bad. Stay far away from this horrible company. Their support team is the worst. Can't answer simple questions. And they do not return phone calls. Cannot escalate call beyond the initial incompetent phone screeners. There are a lot of other better options out there. This is not one of them. authorize.net is really bad service.

Thumbnail of user jeffn764
1 review
0 helpful votes
October 13th, 2022

They are the worst credit card and eCheck company to ever use. They find whatever reason to hold your funds for as long as they can. Risk department is only reachable by email and never send you an email before they do anything to your money. They treat your money as if it is their own and hold it for as long as they like. Do yourself a favor and run away from this site.

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Thumbnail of user nicholasg160
1 review
6 helpful votes
May 26th, 2020

We had an absolutely horrible experience with using this company as our payment processor. Not only are they horribly mismanaged and unorganized but they constantly tried to sneak in additional fees hoping we would not catch them. Even after realizing what was going on and calling them out on it and going through fee negotiations, they still tried to sneak in fees that were explicitly against the agreement we made. I don't think we could have had any worse of an experience with this company.

Thumbnail of user tonya890
1 review
0 helpful votes
September 29th, 2022

I have been doing business with clients both national and international going back to 2008. And I have never had the headache with a merchant processor like I had with authorize.net. If you care about cash flow and not having ridiculous long funding holds... steer clear of authorize.net. After an insanely long review / underwriting process for simple ACH account, Authorize. Net collected ACH funds then proceeded to hold them for about a month before stating they needed to once again but my company through an underwriting review. Mean while they collected their fees right away. After asking what is going on with my funds that were on hold they stated that my account would be canceled and it could take an additional 5 to 7 days for the ACH funds to show up in my account. What a nightmare.

Thumbnail of user omarb114
1 review
1 helpful vote
May 19th, 2021

Stay away from this company. Do not send any of your information to them! They will open an account using that information and perform monthly unauthorized transactions! When I became aware I called them to close the account out, and they agreed to refund money back months ago and still haven't done so!

Tip for consumers:
Stay away from this company. Do not send any of your information to them!! They will open an account using that information and perform monthly unauthorized transactions!!! When I became aware I called them to close the account out, and they agreed to refund money back months ago and still haven’t done so!!!

Products used:
SCAM COMPANY

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Value
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Thumbnail of user nelliea29
1 review
0 helpful votes
March 9th, 2022

I just want to share our experience with Authorize.net. I do not recommend them to my enemy. I activated it at the big commerce app I think like 3 years ago and I was looking to see details. Never used them and they charged me $80. I fight for it and the balance continues to go higher. My husband was so upside and paid much more to close the balance. Well, a few months back we received a collection letter to make payment. After 2 years. I called the collection agency and they told me I have to pay. I called authorize.net and they confirmed I don't owe them anything. A small Google search shows they do this to a lot of customers and a lot of people request a general attorney to look to this. Just a heads up.

Products used:
Braintree by Paypal

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Value
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Thumbnail of user alexd462
1 review
3 helpful votes
May 2nd, 2020

This site looks like it hasn't been updated in 10 years. It's hard to use, and they put the wrong category for my business on the customer statements. They said it's coming from Chase/Paymentech, but I called Chase, and they told me it's coming from Authorize.net because it is correct in their system.

If you want to pass the name on the card, you have to use two fields for first and last names. You cannot use one full name field like Amazon does, for example. Internally we use only one field because we sell to different countries and one field is much easier for our customers who are not in the U.S.

Their customer service is terrible as well. I was trying to enable the PayPal option, but it gave me an error. I opened a case, and they just closed it after two weeks and said they have no estimate when it will be fixed. They also said they escalated it to an engineer and asked me for my login names, but 6 months later it is still not fixed! I even posted it on their community board, but received no reply from anyone. I did not really wait for them and integrated PayPal directly without Authorize.net, and it works fine.

Also their SDK is old. It does not work with. NET Core. They uploaded a beta release 4 years ago, which no longer works, and they never bothered to update it. They literally said they will support it and then never updated it or even replied to any one asking if update is coming.

I am considering moving to Stripe or another service that's more up-to-date and easier to use.

Thumbnail of user diegop118
1 review
1 helpful vote
March 8th, 2023

This is the most disturbing thing that could happen in the e-commerce environment. These questions all the foundation of the e-comm industry at levels that everyone should be revising what is happening with all the transactions that are going between Authorized.net and Shopify.

We have got 314 operations that Authorized.net flagged as potential fraud and needed attention from our end, (of course we did not review then on time) the transactions went from FRAUD risk to a new EXPIRED status. So far, we understand this regular process, but here comes the X-FILE, all 314 transactions that were EXPIRED arrived at Shopify as approved (at least this is what Shopify is stating), and the result of that was the system and the 3PL shipped the 314 orders in value of approximately 52.000 American dollars.

Right now, after a few weeks of being pushed between these 2 monsters, saying that it's impossible this to happen, we are getting ZERO solution and being requested to provide tech info from each other day after day and week after week.

If we can't longer relay on the transactions that we are getting from this billions of dollar companies, that their job is to guaranty that the transactions are getting paid and fulfilled, what is left?

I challenge and ask for all of you to check on our transactions, I cannot believe that we are the only company in the globe facing this crazy anomaly in the system.

Enjoy you day and I will start building a collective case.

Please contact me if you have got the same issue!

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Thumbnail of user maynorg1978
1 review
2 helpful votes
April 18th, 2023

DO NOT DO ANY BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY STAY AD FAR AWAY AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN ** THEY ARE NOTHING BUT A FRAUD AND AN INCONVENIENCE FOR YOUR BUSINESS AND ITS CUSTOMERS ** STAY AWAY

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Thumbnail of user vardenh
1 review
4 helpful votes
January 26th, 2021

Authorize.net has been holding $8097 in customer payments for more than 56 days and refuses to release the funds to me for 90 days. All customers have had the funds withdrawn from their accounts and have signed written agreements to have the funds transferred via ACH. I have never had one customer cancel a check or credit card payment, and I have excellent credit. I've already paid for and shipped all the products to the customers, and they're satisfied with the products.

This is a painful dent in my small business cash flow. Business is hard enough without someone suddenly keeping your money for 90 days!

I first signed up for authorize.net as a payment gateway because I needed both credit card and ACH echeck services. I entered the first customer check payments as instructed, and the funds were withdrawn from the customers' bank accounts.

Then authorize refused to give the money to me and said it was on hold for 30 days. I asked if there was a problem with the customers banks being able to pay, and they said no. I double-checked with the customers and they confirmed the funds had been withdrawn from their accounts and they were satisfied with my products.

After 40 days, I checked with authorize and they said authorize was now keeping my money for 90 days. Still no explanation or justification. I sent written signed agreements from each of the customers showing they had agreed to have the funds withdrawn from their accounts.

Getting desperate because of this painful dent in my cash flow, I called and emailed support, involved my payment processor and asked my bank for help. Each time, was told the funds remain on hold for 90 days.

It's now been 56 days and I still have not received my first three customer payments via check totaling $8097.

Thankfully, I've found another gateway and payment processor and will avoid authorize.net like the plague.

Tip for consumers:
Avoid it like the plague. If you like to keep your own money, this is the wrong financial company to deal with.

Products used:
Payment gateway processing

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Thumbnail of user marchelar
1 review
3 helpful votes
August 1st, 2019

Do not use them! Horrible customer service! It's been over 2 months since we got approved for Authorize.Net but my account is still on test mode. I have tried to call to get help to activate it over 6 times no one HAS EVER PICKED UP! Each time I have waited over 45 minutes! It was easier to find another company and do another application than waiting for someone to help from Authorize.Net! I do not recommend them at all!

Thumbnail of user pauld1584
1 review
2 helpful votes
March 13th, 2021

I have had an authorize.net account for over 15 years. In business for the same duration. I recently signed up for e-check services to give my customers the choice the use their routing and bank info to make payments. After review they approved my request. I processed one charge for $ 1000. 00. I waited 7 days and the funds were not deposited in my account. I called them, and they told me to continue to process payments so that they could see regular activity and the funds would be deposited in 7 days. I processed another $ 4000. 00 in charges. Then they sent me an email cancelling my e-check account, no warning or explanation. Told me to email them in 90 days to ask to get my money back... called them. They underwriters are arrogant, rude, self serving, and clearly could care less. As a small business owner during Covid I need those funds. I have already provided my services to my customers, yet now have to wait 90 days, with no interest to get MY MONEY. This is a sleezy company that you should stay away from. I have also contacted my states district attorney to look into their practices. They are criminals

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About the business

Authorize.Net's payment gateway provides services to help merchants accept online and mobile credit card processing, payments via echecks, and more.

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