Vendors: Change Premium & Parting Penalty

Dan Fisher

With over 35 years in the financial industry, Dan M. Fisher has proven himself as a leader in the financial industry holding roles as the former director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and former Chairman of the ABA Payment Committee.

Have you ever asked your vendors to make a change to one of your services or products and received back a quote to make the change some horrific and outrageous number that you immediately conclude must be a mistake?

Or better yet, after an extensive review (combined with declining service from your vendor), you inform them that you are going to leave and you need to start planning for a deconversion and then you receive a statement of work quote that is not only earth shattering, but more than what you paid that vendor for a full year? Furthermore, it requires your institution to pay back all of the incentives you have received in the last five years.

All we can say to you is; Welcome to the realm of the unfortunate reality and your vendor partner.

Many vendor processing agreements contain clauses that refer to a quote for future services to be at the “Then Standard Fee”, but they never tell you what it is. Some vendors also have claw-back clauses that are hard to find but become perfectly clear when they point it out to you. Vendors love these clauses because it gives them the ability to charge you whatever they want, and they will. It is alarming. Some vendors won’t hesitate to assess a ridiculous charge to make up for lost customers due to their poor service.

It is sad but true, but some vendors make a lot of money out of deconversions. That cold hard fact is that a vendor that is experiencing a high level of customer attrition will need to replace that lost revenue through these types of tactics. The same can be applied to services you want to change. We have seen unbelievable fees that absolutely can’t be justified but forced upon the customer because they do not have a choice. Over the last several years we have observed a significant increase in this type of poor vendor behavior.

From our perspective, we exclude these vendors from our list of potential vendors for core and EFT reviews by virtue of the fact that we would not want any client of ours to have to undergo such terrible treatment.

We also have some suggestions for you. There is a reason why a vendor has remained silent regarding particular costs or charges. So, before you start any major project, you should start a very specific conversation with your vendor and insist that they disclose the associated costs to you in advance of major decision in writing. Their rational cooperation will help you define and determine what type of vendor they truly are or if you need to start planning to move.