You signed up for a merchant payment processing account. The salesperson was friendly, the rates seemed reasonable, and everything looked fine until you tried to cancel. Then a fee appeared that wasn't in the original pitch. Then another one the following month. Then the same fee the month after that, even though you had already cancelled.

The FTC has a name for that last part: zombie charges. Fees that refuse to die no matter how many times you cancel the account. First American Payment Systems had apparently made them a business model.

Who was First American Payment Systems?

First American Payment Systems LP was a payment processor serving small businesses across the United States. What made the company unusual was its approach to branding: rather than operating under a single name, it ran sales offices under at least eight different business identities. If you signed up for merchant processing services through any of the following, you were dealing with First American:

🏢Eliot Management Group
🏢Cypress Bay Solutions
🏢Sundance Payment Solutions
🏢Billy Goat, LLC
🏢Chelle Communications
🏢Appstar Financial
🏢Payscape Advisors
🏢Blue Dog Business Services

Why eight names? Possibly because a payment processor with a long trail of complaints is harder to research if every sales office has a different identity. One of these names is Billy Goat, LLC, which raises its own questions, but the FTC complaint focused on the fees rather than the nomenclature.

What did the FTC allege they were doing?

The FTC's 2022 complaint laid out a multi-layered scheme targeting small business owners. There were three main problems.

Misleading sales pitches. Sales representatives allegedly made promises about rates, terms, and costs that did not match what ended up in the actual contract. Small business owners who signed based on what they were told verbally found themselves bound to terms they had not fully understood or agreed to.

Hidden fees. Charges appeared on monthly statements that had not been disclosed at the time of enrollment. For a small business running on tight margins, surprise monthly fees are not an abstract annoyance. They come directly out of cash flow.

Zombie charges. This is the part that earned its own nickname. When businesses tried to cancel their accounts, First American continued charging them anyway. Early termination fees kept hitting. Monthly charges kept appearing. The accounts were supposedly closed but the billing was very much still alive. The FTC specifically called out these post-cancellation charges in its press release, and the "zombie charges" framing stuck.

The FTC sued in July 2022 and First American agreed to a $4.9 million settlement. The order also prohibited the company from the deceptive practices described in the complaint.

Who got a refund check and when?

In February 2025, the FTC sent 5,588 checks totaling more than $2.6 million to small businesses that had been enrolled with First American between June 2017 and April 2020 and had been charged early termination fees.

If you received a check, it had a 90-day cashing window from the date printed on it. If that window has now closed, contact the administrator directly to ask about reissuance.

No active deadline is currently published. The FTC's refund page says claims are under review and will be updated when more information is available. This is an unusual status that makes it harder to give a clear "file by this date" directive. The most useful thing you can do right now is call the administrator at 1-877-595-0114 to find out where your business stands.

What should you do if you think you qualify?

Unlike most FTC refund programs with online claim forms or automatic payments, this one requires a phone call. There is no claim website to visit.

  1. Call JND Legal Administration at 1-877-595-0114
  2. Tell them your business name and the name of the alias you signed up through (Eliot Management Group, Appstar Financial, etc.)
  3. Ask whether your business is in their records and what your current status is
  4. If you received a check but didn't cash it in time, ask about reissuance options
Check your old statements first. Before you call, dig up any merchant processing statements from 2017 to 2020. Having the account number, the name the service was billed under, and the approximate amounts you were charged will make the call significantly faster and more productive. It is also solid evidence that you were actually enrolled, which helps.

How to verify this is legitimate

✓JND Legal Administration is the FTC-contracted administrator. Their phone number (1-877-595-0114) appears on the official FTC settlement page for this case.
✓The case is publicly documented. Search "First American Payment Systems FTC" or any of the eight aliases plus "FTC" and you will find the July 2022 enforcement action and February 2025 refund announcement on ftc.gov.
✓The call is free. The FTC never charges a fee to inquire about or receive a refund. If anyone contacts you claiming to help recover your First American refund for a fee, that is a scam. Hang up and call JND directly.

The bigger picture on payment processing fees

The First American case is a useful reminder that merchant processing agreements deserve the same scrutiny as any other business contract, which is to say: considerably more scrutiny than most people give them. The standard merchant processing contract is long, dense, and written by lawyers whose clients are not you. Early termination fees, monthly minimums, PCI compliance fees, statement fees, and batch fees can add up quickly, and they are often not the numbers discussed during the sales pitch.

A few things worth doing before signing any payment processing agreement:

  • Ask for the full fee schedule in writing before signing anything
  • Specifically ask what the early termination fee is and under what conditions it applies
  • Ask how to cancel and get that process confirmed in writing
  • Search the company name plus "complaints" or "BBB" before committing
  • If a sales rep is reluctant to put verbal promises in writing, that tells you something useful

The FTC permanently barred First American from the practices described in the complaint. The zombie charges, at least from this particular operator, are dead. Whether they stay that way is worth monitoring on any new processing agreement you sign.

Source: This article is based on the FTC's official settlement page and press releases. Primary source: ftc.gov/enforcement/refunds/first-american-payment-systems-settlement. Administrator: JND Legal Administration, 1-877-595-0114.