Helcim review 2024: Cost, plans, features and more
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BLUEPRINT
Updated 2:33 p.m. UTC Jan. 17, 2024
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Pros
- Transparent pricing with discounts for increased volume.
- Access to a free suite of professional business tools.
- No long-term contracts or termination fees.
Cons
- Can be expensive for micro businesses.
- Limited hardware for businesses without a pre-existing setup.
- Doesn’t support high-risk merchants.
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Featured credit card processing offers
1
Stax
Monthly fee
$99
Swiped transaction fee
7¢ to 10¢ + interchange rate
2
Merchant One
Monthly fee
$13.95
Swiped transaction fee
0.29% to 1.55% per transaction
3
Payment Depot
Free Trial
No
Offers
$0 Setup & No Cancellation Fees
Pricing
Customized Interchange+ Pricing – Rates as low as 0.2% – 1.95%
4
Clover
Monthly fee
$14.95
Swiped transaction fee
2.6% + 10¢
Helcim overview
Helcim is a payment processing company founded in 2006 by Nic Neique in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, with offices in Calgary and Seattle, Washington in the United States. It offers a range of services ideal for small and medium businesses, including multiple payment processing options with no monthly contracts, useful free business tools and third-party integrations.
It’s a major name in the industry and comes in fourth on our list of the Best Credit Card Processors of 2024. It is popular for its customer service and transparency. Helcim also scores well with its users, with a ‘Great’ score of 4.3 on Trustpilot and 4.3 on Capterra. However, it has a two out of five-star user score on Better Business Bureau (BBB). Though this is based on only four user reviews. Still, it only has one complaint over the last year and three total complaints on the platform.
Helcim offers interchange-plus pricing, with no hidden charges and improved rates for higher monthly transaction volumes. In addition, it doesn’t charge a monthly or termination fee. You can use the service online or via a useful app on your smartphone. Unlike some competitors, it does not offer free equipment, such as card readers, for in-person transaction processing.
How much does Helcim cost?
Helcim credit card processing
Helcim offers an all-in-one credit card processing service, with no extra hardware needed. If you don’t want to pay for a card reader, you can log in through your Helcim account online or install the Helcim app on your device and set it up to process payments immediately. Below are all the key details including Helcim’s prices, services and offerings.
Pricing
Helcim does not charge any monthly fees, nor does it charge setup fees, cancellation fees, deposit fees, user fees or PCI fees — in fact, there are no hidden fees at all. There is, however, a chargeback fee of $15 (charged when a customer disputes a charge), but Helcim will reimburse this if you win the dispute.
Helcim only charges on a per-transaction basis. It claims the overall average fee for in-person transactions is 1.94% + $0.08 and 2.51% + $0.25 for keyed/online transactions. There is also a fee of 0.5% + $0.25 for ACH and EFT payments, capped at $6 per transaction, and its average fee for PIN-Debit payments is 1.01% + $0.08.
Helcim uses an interchange-plus pricing model, which means it adds a small fee to the base rate determined by credit card associations like Mastercard and Visa. It applies a different rate for in-person transactions and keyed/online transactions, and offers discounts for higher monthly credit card transaction volumes. The following table lays out the pricing you should expect based on your monthly credit card transaction volume.
This transparent approach to pricing is a plus for Helcim when compared to other providers like Gravity that do not show their prices online. In addition, the interchange-plus model is ideal for smaller enterprises with at least $25,000 in monthly credit card sales. It has no monthly fees and merchants are rewarded for growth as higher monthly credit card volumes get discounted rates for in-person, keyed and online transactions.
This is crucial in times where swipe fees are constantly on the rise: “These fees are a multiplier for already high inflation and drive up costs for small businesses and prices for American consumers every day,” said Merchants and Payments Coalition Committee Member and National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor. “Fees are going up nearly twice as fast as card volume, so this is not just a matter of increased card spending.”
Overall Helcim is on the more affordable end of the scale, especially given the well-rounded service it provides. It’s cheaper than providers like Intuit Payments and Elavon, but more expensive than others like Paysafe. However, keep in mind there are no offers for free equipment, so, if this is important, you might be suited to another provider, such as Square.
Features
Helcim offers a raft of features available at no extra cost, including:
- A point of sale solution, with smart reports, automatic sync with inventory and unlimited user support.
- An online checkout solution, allowing complete end-to-end e-commerce for your business.
- Virtual terminals so you can accept payments with just your device.
- Subscription managers to set up automatic and recurring payments and save information in a card vault.
- Invoicing software to keep billing and payments all on one central platform.
- Hosted payment pages that allow customer registration, subscriptions, shopping carts and more.
- Integration with third-party apps like Quickbooks, WooCommerce, Xero and more.
- Other features include online food ordering, SMS payments and QR codes.
With Helcim you’ll be able to accept the following payment types:
- Debit and credit cards.
- ACH payments.
- International payments.
- Mobile payments, such as Google Pay and Apple Pay.
This is a well-rounded credit card processing service, offering the basic functionality required for most merchants to process card payments. However, Helcim does not offer a list of accepted credit cards. You might also find that other providers offer more in the way of free equipment, integrations with a bigger range of software, and better rates for small-volume merchants.
Equipment
Helcim does not provide free equipment with its credit card processing service, but it does offer both a Smart Terminal at $349 and a card reader at $109. The smart terminal includes everything the card reader does, from tap and pay, chip and PIN, and email receipts to batch history, and inventory tracking. It also offers a built-in POS, a built-in printer and employee login.
Helcim customer support and experience
You can contact Helcim customer support by phone or email. Helcim offers a toll-free customer support number and its customer service line is available Monday to Friday, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mountain Time and Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Its current phone is available on its website. You can also contact the provider by email at help@helcim.com, or fill out the contact form on its website.
In terms of website-based support, unfortunately, Helcim does not provide a live chat service, which would be useful for quick support. However, there is a learning center where you can access help and information, including subject guides such as how to use its equipment, how to accept different payment types and how to accept international payments.
Many of Helcim’s positive reviews on Trustpilot cite its customer service team as a significant plus point, praising its representatives’ professionalism, expertise and responsiveness. Many say that the company promptly responds to emails and phone representatives take the time to provide personalized service, including walking inexperienced business owners through best practices as necessary.
Helcim vs. Square
Helcim and Square are two of the biggest credit card processing companies in the industry, and both offer services and pricing geared towards small businesses. However, there are some key differences to consider:
- Transaction pricing: Square offers a flat rate for transactions, which is likely to help businesses with low monthly transaction volumes, while Helcim’s interchange-plus fee structure is better suited to high-volume merchants who need volume discounts to keep fees manageable.
- Equipment pricing: Helcim does not offer free card readers for in-person transactions. Instead, you must pay a starting price of $109 for its readers. Square, however, offers one free reader when you use its services.
- Features: Both providers offer a well-rounded service full of free features that make them complete packages for credit card processing, including online stores, virtual terminals and more.
- Customer support: Square offers a live chat with a robot or a human, a support feature Helcim currently does not offer. Both offer phone and email support — but only Helcim offers weekend support with its free services. You can get 24/7 access to support through Square if you pay for its Premium plan.
Helcim vs. Clover
Clover is a point-of-sale system, rather than a credit card processor. It doesn’t own the actual payment platform itself, as this is owned by its parent company, Fiserv. It’s a popular choice with small and medium businesses. Here’s how its features and pricing compare with Helcim:
- Plan pricing: While Clover charges an unchanging per-transaction fee, it’s fairly competitive and can favor high-volume merchants. There are various pricing plans that are all based on your business type. Only select business types enjoy a free plan with Clover, such as home and field services businesses. With Helcim, however, all businesses can access a plan with no monthly fee.
- Equipment pricing: Helcim’s handheld reader is $109 while you must pay $49 for Clover’s handheld card reader.
- Features: Clover offers Rapid Deposits which makes your funds available in minutes for a 1% fee, while Helcim promises fund availability within two business days.
- Hardware: Helcim only offers two pieces of hardware (one POS system and one handheld card reader), while Clover has a range of different options depending on your industry and specific requirements. Clover is therefore more suited to businesses focusing on their physical presence.
- Customer support: Neither offers 24/7 customer support, but Clover offers a live chat feature on top of its phone and email options. Helcim currently does not offer live chat support. Helcim, in contrast, offers weekend support, making it a perhaps better fit for companies that operate on the weekends, such as hair salons or restaurants.
Is Helcim right for your business?
Helcim is one of the industry’s biggest providers, with an affordable and transparent pricing model and an all-encompassing range of features. You won’t have to pay a monthly fee and discounts are available to companies with higher volumes of transactions per month. Helcim is powerful and varied enough to provide an all-in-one solution for merchants, offering point-of-sale, merchant accounts, payment gateways and multiple business management tools.
However, some might find its pricing structure less cost-effective for low-volume businesses. Additionally, its relatively limited range of hardware means you might be dependent on a third-party kit for a more complete setup. It’s also worth noting that Helcim does not accept high-risk businesses.
We’d recommend Helcim for:
- Online businesses.
- Businesses with high monthly transaction volumes.
We’d suggest alternatives like:
- Clover: For in-store merchants like restaurants.
- Square: For merchants with lower monthly transaction volumes.
- Paysafe: For high-risk merchants.
Methodology
We extensively research the key competitors within an industry to determine the best products and services for your business. Our experts identify the factors that matter most to business owners, including pricing, features and customer support, to ensure that our recommendations offer well-rounded products that will meet the needs of various small businesses.
We collect extensive data to narrow our best list to reputable, easy-to-use products with stand-out features at a reasonable price point. And we look at user reviews to ensure that business owners like you are satisfied with our top picks’ services. We use the same rubric to assess companies within a particular space so you can confidently follow our blueprint to the Best credit card processing companies.
Featured credit card processing offers
1
Stax
Monthly fee
$99
Swiped transaction fee
7¢ to 10¢ + interchange rate
2
Merchant One
Monthly fee
$13.95
Swiped transaction fee
0.29% to 1.55% per transaction
3
Payment Depot
Free Trial
No
Offers
$0 Setup & No Cancellation Fees
Pricing
Customized Interchange+ Pricing – Rates as low as 0.2% – 1.95%
4
Clover
Monthly fee
$14.95
Swiped transaction fee
2.6% + 10¢
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Getting started with Helcim is pretty straightforward. Take the following steps to begin accepting payments:
- Download the app: You will need to download the version of the app you need, whether it’s for a workstation, tablet or mobile phone.
- Create an account: Create a Helcim account using your name, email address and password.
- Log in: Log into the Helcim app using your account credentials.
- Add device: Your device will automatically register when you log in, then you’ll be able to create a device nickname and select your chosen terminal type to finalize.
- Enable device: You should then enable your device on the app dashboard, after which you’ll get a configuration token that you can use to verify your device.
- Sync card reader: If you’re using the Helcim card reader, you should sync this to the app.
Helcim does not offer a free trial. Instead, its service is free, and there are no contracts or cancellation fees. This means you can use Helcim for as long as you want without having to commit to a subscription. However, you must pay for a card reader if you choose to use one instead of or in addition to your mobile device. You must purchase one and cannot lease one and there are no free trials with these devices, either.
Helcim does not require a contract to use its credit card processing service. You can cancel at any time without paying a fee for termination.
Helcim only offers two hardware options, a Helcim Card Reader and a Smart Terminal. The card reader allows payments in-store and on the move, costing $109. In addition, its Smart Terminal offers a more well-rounded solution at $349. It has a built-in printer. Using the card reader, you must purchase a separate printer for $79. Both offer inventory and customer management features.
Helcim is a trusted credit card processing company, and it takes advanced measures to protect user data and information, including:
- Regularly updated servers and network appliances.
- Automatic daily backups of all databases both between data centers and off-site.
- Multi-factor authentication for all staff.
- Intrusion Detection (IDS) and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) on all firewalls and servers.
- Level 1 PCI-DSS compliant service.
Helcim has a mobile app on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. Each has earned the following respective ratings. Customers complain about slow processing times and unstable app connections. They report overall good customer service experiences, though.
Helcim supports third-party integrations with QuickBooks, WooCommerce and the Great Exposure billing system. This is not as many as other companies like Stripe or PayPal.
There are no add-on services with Helcim, as you get full access to the entire service when you sign up with your free account.
Blueprint is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor. The information provided is for educational purposes only and we encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific financial decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Blueprint has an advertiser disclosure policy. The opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Blueprint editorial staff alone. Blueprint adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. The information is accurate as of the publish date, but always check the provider’s website for the most current information.
