I was contacted by First Data in California which insisted that they had 'internet' merchant account 'deals' that were very reasonable. I was told it would be 25.00 a month to have one, that seemed fine, and I signed papers that were mailed to me. I'm a law student and I looked these over, and they all seemed to be pretty much boilerplate. There were no obvious gotchas.

After I signed, Linkpoint called me up insisting that they could NOT activate my account without a hardware purchase. This is something that I'd been very clear on with First Data, that I did not want or need hardware, and would refuse to do business with them if I had to buy hundreds of dollars in equipment just to sell over the internet.

Linkpoint insisted that the equipment could be billed out at 20.00 a month for just one year, and that it was a very good value. I told them I'd look at the equipment. They said they had to bill me before they could ship it. I agreed to one payment and stated that I'd better see hardware or I'd close the account.

Two months, no hardware. They billed me twice, and I shuttered the checking account. Now I'm getting collections for 500.00 from linkpoint, which I will ignore. No court in the world would ever side with them. I HOPE they sue, because it would be great fun to appear in court and make them eat dirt.

These people are A55holes. I never got connected, was never able to process any billing, and never got any hardware. This lesson cost me over 250.00.

Short story:

Avoid linkpoint unless you are one of those people who just pays off the credit card every month without checking to see who charges you. These are the people that seem happy with them. I've never met anyone who likes them. Personally, I'll stick with google checkout, because the banking industry is a screw festival.

DL