Leaders Merchant Services Company Wells Fargo Bank Deceptive credit card processing services with many hidden fees CalabasasInternet, California

As a naive new business owner of a small crafts company, I signed on with Leaders to be my credit card processing company.  The original fees, as described to me by my salesperson, were the lowest I had found after doing much research and speaking with several other companies.  However, there were many hidden fees that were not explained to me, so as time went one, I was being charged dormany fees, annual fees, increases on basic fees, etc. The contract contains not only fine print, but impossible to read without a magnifying glass fine print that mentions the annual fee, but not the other fees. The salesman purposely evaded my questions re fees, cancellation of the account, etc.

I found another credit card processing company that did not charge those fees and so cancelled my Leaders account in June 2009 by sending a fax stating so. However, I continued to be charged fees through September 2009. I finally received a written cancellation of my account in August 2009.

If that wasn't bad enough, on my December 2009 bank statement, 6 months after cancelling the account and 4 months after receiving my written cancellation notice, I discovered that Leaders charged me an annual fee of $99 on Dec 28th.  And they refuse to remove the fee!!

I requested the name of the owner of the company so I could write a letter of complaint, and was told that information was not available. I was given the name of a Manager, but not an owner. I went to their website to find a name of an owner, and there wasn't a single name on the site. The site just states that is is a division of Wells Fargo Bank. And I have found that the company has multiple addresses in different cities in California.

Be foreworned.  There are reputable credit card processing companies out there who do not prey on little guys, but Leaders is not one of them.