Forte's Extra Costs

Forte's Extra Costs

Hello everyone in the Zoho community,

I wanted to share some information about Forte in case anyone wanted to look into them as a processor.  I currently use Stripe, but wanted to use Forte's ACH to pay vendors and take ACH payments for our products.  This is one of the only ACH processors that Zoho accepts.

They state their cost is $25/month plus their transaction fees for ACH.  However, after signing up and going through their approval process, I found this out they work with a PCI compliance service that charges you more.

See below for their exact wording form their acceptance email:
IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING CARD ACCEPTANCE AND PCI-DSS!!!!
You have been approved for Forte credit card processing services; as such, you are required to be compliant with the PCI DSS at all times to protect cardholder data If you do not comply, your sensitive data - and your customers' sensitive data - is at risk for compromise. You may also face fines levied by the card associations and processors for non-compliance, and fees for costs related to the breach, such as chargebacks and card reissuance fees.
The security of card processing is a top priority at Forte. We have partnered with Aperia Solutions to help launch our Forte PCI Compliance Program. In order to proceed with enrollment into the Forte PCI Compliance Program, please email your request to customerservice@forte.net. Be sure to include your Merchant Name and Merchant ID. The email must be sent from the primary contact email address provided on your application. You will be provided further instructions once you have been enrolled.
The monthly fee for this program is $7.99 and will be included on your regular monthly invoice. The cost of the program includes online instruction and assistance with registration and completion of the PCI online questionnaire, individualized response for any questions you have in completing the questionnaire, notification of PCI compliant status and ongoing monthly vulnerability scans of your systems.
Merchants who have not validated PCI compliance will be charged a PCI Non-Compliance fee of $29.99 per month until a PCI compliant status is achieved.
Merchants who have already validated PCI compliance by:
Use of another Qualified Security Accessor, or
Validating PCI compliance on their own;
must provide a copy of their Attestation or Certificate of Compliance to avoid a monthly PCI Non-Compliance fee. Merchants that validate PCI compliance in this manner will not be charged.



Just thought I'd share this with everyone in Zoho in case they are considering Forte, they do not tell you about their extra PCI compliance fees until after you are approved.

And I might add, they are not very helpful when you ask them about it.  It'd be super great if Zoho would just allow ACH through Stripe so things are more clear and customers are better supported.



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