BankCard USA

A California independent sales organization founded in 1993 that has changed hands three times in five years, and since September 2025 has operated as Ecrypt Inc. The legal record is clean and the complaint file is quiet. The price is the part nobody publishes.

Written by Robert Day, Founder and Managing Partner of weAudit.com, previously an executive at Fifth Third Processing Solutions, later Vantiv and Worldpay, now part of Global Payments, the world’s largest card processor. Published October 2026.

Who you are actually signing with

BankCard USA is not a bank and not a processor. It is an independent sales organization, or ISO: a company that sells merchant accounts on behalf of sponsor banks and runs them through larger processors. Its own disclosures name it as a registered ISO of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Westamerica Bank and Esquire Bank, and it has long resold processing through First Data, now Fiserv, and the Authorize.Net gateway.

What makes BankCard USA unusual is how often its ownership has changed.

Sources: Quisitive’s 2021 and 2024 announcements and quarterly filing, the September 2025 merger announcement, and BankCard USA’s own published disclosures.

None of that is a red flag on its own. But a merchant who signed with BankCard USA in 2015 has since been a customer of three different owners, and may now see a different company name on their bank statement. Pricing and terms do not always survive a change of owner, which is why a rate you were quoted years ago is worth re-checking.

What the sale price says

In 2021 Quisitive called BankCard USA a transformational acquisition and paid US$100 million in cash for it, plus 50 million of its own shares and an earnout of up to US$20 million. Three years later, in 2024, it sold the business to a group led by the founder and BankCard employees for US$40 million in cash, plus the return of Quisitive shares the sellers held and a release from a US$10 million earnout. In cash alone, that is US$60 million less than Quisitive paid three years earlier. It also booked a US$12 million loss when it marked the business down to its sale price.

The reasons Quisitive gave were to focus on its Microsoft cloud business, to cut its bank debt, and that payments demanded too much management attention and too many approvals from the card networks.

This is our opinion, based on the public figures above from Quisitive’s own announcements and filings. BankCard USA, Ecrypt and Quisitive are welcome to respond, and we will publish any response.

Fee practices: the menu is published, the price is not

BankCard USA deserves credit for one thing most ISOs never do: it publishes a schedule of its ancillary fees online. That schedule includes a $4 charge per call to the help desk for inquiries the processor’s help desk handles, a $25 fee to change the bank account on file, $25 per chargeback, $5 per retrieval request, 10 cents per address verification inquiry and $1 per live voice authorization.

What it does not publish is the price that matters: the discount rate and markup on your card sales. That is set account by account, often by the agent who sold it. Independent reviewers have reported:

1. Three-year terms with early termination fees of $99 to $295. The company has told reviewers it no longer charges one on every account, and that a $99 fee applies mainly where free equipment was supplied.
2. Reserves of up to 180 days on some accounts, which matters most for higher-risk merchants.
3. An advertised rate of 0.23% on its home page in the past, far below what almost any merchant actually pays once interchange and fees are counted.

Complaints: a quiet file, with one loud exception

The Better Business Bureau shows BankCard USA Merchant Services as A+ rated but not accredited, with three complaints in the past three years, and the company responds to them. Its public review scores elsewhere are weaker, reported at around 2.5 stars on Google from a few dozen reviews.

The more telling complaint sits under a different name. A separate BBB profile, for a Camarillo business named Leaders (see our Leaders Merchant Services rating), carries a 2025 complaint filed against “Bankcard USA – Leaders Merchant Services” from a merchant who said the account had been debited every month for 44 consecutive months, about $6,160 in total, for services never used and fees never disclosed. The company’s response called every fee valid under the signed agreement and waived a $350 early termination fee as a courtesy.

That is the agent channel in miniature: the merchant deals with an office under one name, the fees come from another, and the contract makes the charges valid even when nobody remembers agreeing to them.

Regulatory and legal: nothing found

We found no Federal Trade Commission or CFPB actions and no class actions against BankCard USA, and independent reviewers report the same. That earns most of the available points. We hold back two because Ecrypt Inc. is a newly combined entity with a short record of its own.

Sales channel

BankCard USA sells through both in-house staff and independent agents, some operating under their own business names. That is common in the industry and not wrong in itself, but it is where most merchant problems start, because the person who sets your price is often paid on it. Combined with unpublished pricing and a history of teaser-rate advertising, it costs the most points of any category after fees.

If you have a BankCard USA or Ecrypt account

1. Find your signed agreement and check the term, the renewal clause and any early termination fee before you call to cancel.
2. Check which company names debit your bank account. BankCard USA, Ecrypt and an agent office can all appear.
3. Look for small recurring charges such as help desk calls, PCI fees and monthly minimums, and read about fees processors invent.
4. Check your reserve terms if you sell anything considered high risk.
5. Get the statement audited. It is the only way to see your real markup.

Common questions

Is BankCard USA legit?

Yes. BankCard USA is a long-established, registered independent sales organization that has been in business since 1993, and we found no federal enforcement actions or class actions against it. Legitimate is not the same as low-cost, though: its pricing is not published and depends on who sold you the account.

Who owns BankCard USA?

It was acquired by Quisitive in 2021, sold in 2024 to BUSA Acquisition Co., a group that included founder Shawn Skelton and other BankCard employees, and in September 2025 merged with Preferred Payments to operate as Ecrypt Inc.

Is BankCard USA now Ecrypt?

Yes. In September 2025 BankCard USA announced its merger with Preferred Payments, with the combined businesses operating jointly as Ecrypt Inc. Charges and paperwork may carry either name, or the name of the agent who signed you up.

Does BankCard USA charge an early termination fee?

Independent reviewers have reported three-year terms with early termination fees of $99 to $295, and the company has said it no longer charges one on every account. The only reliable answer is your own signed agreement, which you should read before you cancel.

What bank is behind BankCard USA?

Its own disclosures name it as a registered ISO of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Westamerica Bank and Esquire Bank. Sponsor banks can change, so check the disclosure on your agreement and statement.

Does BankCard USA work with high-risk businesses?

Yes. It markets to new and existing businesses selling low- or high-risk products, and owns AgeChecker.Net, age-verification software used by online sellers of age-restricted products. High-risk accounts usually carry higher pricing and reserves, so read those terms closely.

About this rating: scored on weAudit’s five categories, Regulatory and Legal (25), Fee Practices (25), Complaints and Resolution (20), Transparency (15) and Sales Channel (15). Evidence was gathered in October 2026 from company disclosures and filings, BBB records, and independent review sites, which are credited by name; reported figures from third parties are labelled as such. BankCard USA, Ecrypt and AgeChecker are names of their respective owners.

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