High Risk Merchant Accounts

[AshanD]

Hi,

Does anyone know a good merchant account provider (or other payment processor) that will take on accounts in a high risk industry or higher than average chargeback rate?

Thanks

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

PM "Sprite" ... I think he was in the same situation a few months ago. There might be some info in his progress thread as well. (VIPWithMe.com)

 

[Knowledge Kick]

I'm interested in this as well. I checked Sprite's progress thread but it seems he hasn't jumped that hurdle as of yet.

 

[LightHouse]

He actually has not found the correct provider either. there are a few like CCbill but they are recurring billing only i believe. best bet would be to start calling gateways, i had a list of them for high risk but they have to still evaluate you and your business.

 

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[Knowledge Kick]

He actually has not found the correct provider either. there are a few like CCbill but they are recurring billing only i believe. best bet would be to start calling gateways, i had a list of them for high risk but they have to still evaluate you and your business.

I actually have a payment gateway established at authorize.net. Their primary bank actually declined me for the merchant account and I'm in the process or trying to get the merchant account set up with one of their "partner banks". It's pretty frustrating. I'm actually awaiting a decision from the underwriter today. If I get denied again I'm not sure what I should do. If I do get denied, I'm going to need some advice on which direction I should pursue next.

 

[LightHouse]

I actually have a payment gateway established at authorize.net. Their primary bank actually declined me for the merchant account and I'm in the process or trying to get the merchant account set up with one of their "partner banks". It's pretty frustrating. I'm actually awaiting a decision from the underwriter today. If I get denied again I'm not sure what I should do. If I do get denied, I'm going to need some advice on which direction I should pursue next.

hopefully it isnt wells fargo. i had bad experiences with them and they are a "partner" I use firstdata now with A.NET.

 

[Deuce]

Since we are on the topic, why are there only a few payment processors (seems to be)out there that will take on these risky industries? I'm doing some research into this to find out how they work, but it's going slow.

Sorry AshanD....I don't mean to hijack your thread.

 

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[biophase]

Since we are on the topic, why are there only a few payment processors (seems to be)out there that will take on these risky industries? I'm doing some research into this to find out how they work, but it's going slow.

Sorry AshanD....I don't mean to hijack your thread.

Because in high risk industries there can be alot of fraud and stolen cards. The merchant takes on this risk for a mere 2-5%.

Suppose you open up a site and collect $100k in cc charges on day 1. You withdraw the money and spend it all the next day. A week later the credit card owners see all these fraudulent charges and file chargebacks. The merchant can't take your money because you spent it, now they are on the hook for the $100k.

The merchant account may hold your money or at least keep a certain percentage of it due to this. If you were to charge $100k a month, they could hold conceivably $150k on your money interest free forever since they usually want 10-25% of 6 months worth of transactions.

 

[MrPink]

I think it would be helpful to have a list of decent merchant account providers.

what merchant account providers have been declining people?

what merchant account provider are you using?

 

[Toiletcake]

I can tell you to stay away from any merchant websites or businesses that use First Data for processing. They are the worst and sadly are the elephant in the room, I hear they control the majority of all merchant transactions. If you see an ad for merchant services from rockbottommerchants or merchant warehouse on the web, thats first data.....Not recommended

Chase/PaymentTech is ok but if your business is service they can make things tuff on you. Including random locked accounts for "security checks" without your notice. Not recommended.

Merchant providers that use HSBC are very fair and reliable.

Bank Of America and Wachovia are very old school and if you have a service business you can forget them.

Paypal is garbage, they will screw up your business with no regard. Almost as bad as First Data.

If you go offshore you need the cash flow to cover transactions b/c many pay weekly or 2 times a month. Plus they charge 4-7% transaction fees "average" but you do get a safe chargeback ratio of 2% versus 1% stateside.

Hope this helps a tad.

 

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[LightHouse]

I can tell you to stay away from any merchant websites or businesses that use First Data for processing. They are the worst and sadly are the elephant in the room, I hear they control the majority of all merchant transactions. If you see an ad for merchant services from rockbottommerchants or merchant warehouse on the web, thats first data.....Not recommended

Chase/PaymentTech is ok but if your business is service they can make things tuff on you. Including random locked accounts for "security checks" without your notice. Not recommended.

Merchant providers that use HSBC are very fair and reliable.

Bank Of America and Wachovia are very old school and if you have a service business you can forget them.

Paypal is garbage, they will screw up your business with no regard. Almost as bad as First Data.

If you go offshore you need the cash flow to cover transactions b/c many pay weekly or 2 times a month. Plus they charge 4-7% transaction fees "average" but you do get a safe chargeback ratio of 2% versus 1% stateside.

Hope this helps a tad.

Intersting, I had orginally went with wells fargo, they are terrible. I then talked to my bank whom i have all my accounts with and they said they use first data for processing. The experience was 10x times better and much less expensive. This is for online e-commerce stores not a service business, so it may vary depending on what industry you are in.

 

[Toiletcake]

Yes, I think that makes a big difference.

 

[TC2]

I have used Chase Payment Tech with Authorize.net. The only complaint I have is that Chase Payment tech separate the fee, charge and credit in different transaction line. So it's hard to track on my statement.

They also charge higher rate when processing Business credit card. They send money the next day to my Chase bank account. In case, they need to take money from me, they simply go straight to my checking account to withdraw money. If I don't have enough fund in my checking account, they will take that from my linked Chase business card.

I also use PayPal.com payment standard and pro and never had any problem.

I do however, has bad experience with Wells Fargo and Bank of America. Long story short, they simply give small business hard time.

I am also thinking about using Amazon and Google Checkout. The only downside is that the user has to have Amazon or Google account.

 

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[MrPink]

One company that hasn't been mentioned yet is evalon

I looked at elavon, but the reviews online are horrible. I called to get a quote and the customer service agent acted like I was wasting his time.

I did learn this lesson.

It does matter who refers you to a merchant (lighthouse touched on this):

Keybank to elavon vs. Cocstco to elavon the rates and transaction fees are quite different (costco was way lower in my case).

 

[ZDS]

Man, judging by this thread seems like their would be alot of opportunity for someone to make a quality product.

 

[Toiletcake]

Correct me if im wrong but there are many players in the chain of any single credit card transaction.

You have the website that you call to setup the account, glorified brokers..
Sometimes you have the interface where you make the transactions, Authorize.net
You have the processor that makes the transactions happen
You have the bank that's tied to the processor, lending you the funds
Then you have the credit card company behind that.

Low profit, high volume industry

 

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[davidtenna]

I want to open my merchant account in US I know it is outside from my domicile country. So, I want to hire one agent who provides me proper knowledge about merchant account.
Offshore Merchant Account

 

[Energy]

yeah talk about getting screwed last year - NEVER ever use Bank of America or Wells Fargo for merchant processing - they outsource this to a company like First Data, just go google that and see how many people's lives they have destroyed. absolutely horrid.

After further investigation, it turned out Bank of America signed up my internet company as an offline retail store (uh, ooops - even though it had .COM after the name) and when they wanted to see receipts they put my company on the TMF list as comitting fraud because I had only digital copies from my 1shoppingcart. Now that's cleared up.

I don't use paypal any more ( they can freeze your account for just about any reason, even depending on where you put the checkout paypal link on your website, I still have money frozen in accounts that I'm not sure I'll ever have access to ) and that's no good.

So long story short, be VERY careful who you use as your merchant processor.

Yep, overseas you are going to have to pay more money and have a higher rolling reserve they usually keep for 6 months. I still would only use high risk overseas companies only as a last resort.

If it's an offline service business, maybe you can get away with some of the old school processors,
but anything to do with online, watch out.

The BEST merchant company to work with for doing large sums of money quickly and anything to do with digital products or internet based - Power Pay - these guys ROCK and they understand the internet game extremely well and they won't freeze your money or shut you down and hold your money.

I would be interested to know of any others that work really well - Thanks!

Brandon

 

[jm1080]

Just joined the forums and was reading forums, but I personally do merchant accounts. Be careful with banks, they are just the middle man and use First Data, which they have many hidden fees, contracts, leasing of equipment, and rates constantly change with them. If anyone needs any help with Merchant service feel free to message me for any help, we usually deal with high risk accounts as well. Usually First Data will suspend accounts and/or reject accounts and I help them become approved with us.

-Jon

 

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[G-Man]

Just joined the forums and was reading forums, but I personally do merchant accounts. Be careful with banks, they are just the middle man and use First Data, which they have many hidden fees, contracts, leasing of equipment, and rates constantly change with them. If anyone needs any help with Merchant service feel free to message me for any help, we usually deal with high risk accounts as well. Usually First Data will suspend accounts and/or reject accounts and I help them become approved with us.

-Jon

 

[jm1080]

Sorry didn't know it was against the rules. Not really trying to self-promote, just stating the facts to steer away from First Data. Anywho posted my introduction as to what I do and how I can help, this is not the only business I do.

 

[BrianPM]

Intersting, I had orginally went with wells fargo, they are terrible. I then talked to my bank whom i have all my accounts with and they said they use first data for processing. The experience was 10x times better and much less expensive. This is for online e-commerce stores not a service business, so it may vary depending on what industry you are in.

One company that hasn't been mentioned yet is evalon

I looked at elavon, but the reviews online are horrible. I called to get a quote and the customer service agent acted like I was wasting his time.

I did learn this lesson.

It does matter who refers you to a merchant (lighthouse touched on this):

Keybank to elavon vs. Cocstco to elavon the rates and transaction fees are quite different (costco was way lower in my case).

I want to open my merchant account in US I know it is outside from my domicile country. So, I want to hire one agent who provides me proper knowledge about merchant account.
Offshore Merchant Account

Just joined the forums and was reading forums, but I personally do merchant accounts. Be careful with banks, they are just the middle man and use First Data, which they have many hidden fees, contracts, leasing of equipment, and rates constantly change with them. If anyone needs any help with Merchant service feel free to message me for any help, we usually deal with high risk accounts as well. Usually First Data will suspend accounts and/or reject accounts and I help them become approved with us.

-Jon

I can shed light on the entire credit card industry. If anyone wants to know PM, or reply. Its' highly convoluted for no reason than other to just confuse merchants. I see yearly savings in the $200,000 range still in 2017. It's absurd. It's simple once someone explains it, but until then you are left to deal with "trusting your bank" who would never steer you wrong or do something to deceit you, having a good referral, and praying to god you didn't lease equipment.

 

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[StevieB]

Yeesh this thread has turned into an advertising thread.

Anyways, CCBill charges 5.9% and .55 cents per transaction and will do high risk accounts. They don't charge a setup or monthly fee either, not quite as good as low risk accounts but good for high risk accounts.

edit :

Also found a good article on this.

https://www.merchantmaverick.com/best-high-risk-merchant-account-providers/

"Payline discloses a simplified interchange-plus pricing plan on their website: all retail (i.e., card-present) transactions are charged interchange + 0.20% + $0.10 per transaction, while all online (or card-not-present) transactions are charged interchange + 0.35% + $0.10 per transaction. There is a monthly $15.00 account fee. There are no application fees and no early termination fees. Contracts are all month-to-month. Customized pricing (with presumably lower processing rates) is also available to merchants processing over $80,000 per month. Unfortunately, as a high-risk merchant, this simplified pricing may or may not be available to you"

If the rates are anywhere close to that, that would be insanely good. Seems to good to be true, but I'm about to go through this process so I will report back with my findings.

 

[AdamMaxum]

Yeesh this thread has turned into an advertising thread.

Anyways, CCBill charges 5.9% and .55 cents per transaction and will do high risk accounts. They don't charge a setup or monthly fee either, not quite as good as low risk accounts but good for high risk accounts.

edit :

Also found a good article on this.

https://www.merchantmaverick.com/best-high-risk-merchant-account-providers/

"Payline discloses a simplified interchange-plus pricing plan on their website: all retail (i.e., card-present) transactions are charged interchange + 0.20% + $0.10 per transaction, while all online (or card-not-present) transactions are charged interchange + 0.35% + $0.10 per transaction. There is a monthly $15.00 account fee. There are no application fees and no early termination fees. Contracts are all month-to-month. Customized pricing (with presumably lower processing rates) is also available to merchants processing over $80,000 per month. Unfortunately, as a high-risk merchant, this simplified pricing may or may not be available to you"

If the rates are anywhere close to that, that would be insanely good. Seems to good to be true, but I'm about to go through this process so I will report back with my findings.

Hey @StevieB

Thanks for the info. I'm in the process of getting a merchant account for a high risk account/business type. What a pain in the butt.

I got approved for Risk Payments with not too much of a headache; Rate: Cost (Interchange) plus 1.00% + $0.20 per transaction. What really sucks about this processor is their API and integrating the payment processing into your website. It's outdated and my developers are having issues working with their team because they require unnecessary things and implementing it into a PHP solution is a giant hassle.

So I am in the process of trying to get an account with High Risk Merchant Account Specialists | Full-Service Payment Processing. Talk about the biggest pain in the a$$ ever. They requested basically every possible item to move into underwriting. They needed me to go to my bank and get some bank stamp on a paper even after I provided bank statements and bank verification. After jumping thru those hoops, the underwriting team wants a laundry list of items too. It's the biggest hassle I've every experienced (3 weeks counting now). Apparently the system behind payment cloud is authorize.net....which I'm hoping is better than riskpayments which uses globalonepay . com

I'm going to apply for another merchant qccount this week and give myself another option.

In addition to the above, I applied, got approved at stripe, and then after a few weeks they contacted me and denied by account/closed it. I applied to braintree, got approved, then went thru back and forth with support for a week before they finally denied my account too. All of this over a cashback based website where the merchant provider is only charging businesses and not holding any money or transferring to customers. Frustrating to say the least. The worst part is that each time I'm denied, they make up some BS loop hole in their terms and conditions that vaguely describes my situation at best. The bank people behind the underwriting just can't grasp new concepts and lump it under some abstract verbiage or state risk of chargebacks when I've countered those arguments w/my process.