High Risk Merchant Account
Just what is a high risk merchant account? Some financial institutions will view certain industries including but not limited to travel, cruise ships, telemarketing, pharmaceuticals as high risk. Often they will also consider companies based outside of the USA as being too risky for them to treat as they would a resident US based company. This will make getting approved for credit very difficult and this will make it difficult if not impossible to accept clients credit cards.
If your business is deemed to be a high risk merchant account there are some things you can do to help you get accepted into a merchant account processing service. If you personally or your business has any bad credit, you should try and improve your credit rating before making an application for these types of services. This is particularly important if you have had bad experiences with merchant providers in the past. You need to be completely honest in all your dealings with the account provider and don’t be tempted to hide things which you think they will not discover. It will only have a negative impact on your application.
When you make your application provide as much detail as possible about your business. You probably already have some form of fraud or risk management systems in place so provide details of these. Provide a full history of your business trading including explanations where possible if you experienced slumps in sales. This could be due to seasonal demand or an overstocking problem with your supplier etc. Just explain it rather than ignore it. This will show your new account manager that you understand your business and attempt to run it in a professional manner rather than just thinking you can make a quick buck here and there.
Just because you are deemed to be a high risk merchant account you do not have to pay exorbitant fees and charges. You should always check the credit card processing rates and other charges your new provider will charge to your account. You are in business to make a profit and paying fees that are too high for online payment systems will obviously have a negative impact on your profit margins. As time goes by the number of credit card merchant accounts providers will increase especially in the international arena as the number of people making purchases online continues to rise exponentially. Mastercard merchant account and Ach merchant account will face more competition. This is a good thing as an increase in competition between international merchant account providers usually leads to a reduction in charges for you the customer.
If you have been a customer of a credit card payment gateways system for a while and have operated your account satisfactorily you should ask your account manager to review your charges and see if they can reduce them. Even a small reduction will have a positive impact on your profit margins which is always a good thing.
If you fail to get approved as your business is deemed to be too high risk there are other avenues and services available to you so don’t despair. There are plenty of ways to do business, the question is just finding the right one for your requirements at the right price.
