DigitalFinance

Tips for High-Risk Merchant Account – Approval and Setting Up

A merchant account is a popular account designed exclusively for business purposes. These accounts allow the user to accept electronic payments such as debit & credit cards, wallets, net banking etc. Finding the right merchant account can be overwhelming. Especially for a small organization who have less knowledge of the high-risk business. Setting up a high-risk merchant account can be a nightmare.

What is a high risk business?

Know what is high risk business? – online business that has high-risk, unsafe and financial failures are considered as a high-risk business. There are multiple factors for a high-risk business such as location, domain age, business type and more. High-risk is classified into two types such as red zone and grey zone. The key factors of the red zone are high-volume sales, the great risk of chargebacks, high employee turnover and more. The grey zone is due to less credit score, high chargeback, accepting the international currency.

What is a high-risk merchant account?

A “high-risk merchant account” is defined as a payment processing account for both small and large online businesses considered to be of high-risk to the banks. It’s no secret high-risk online business are have bad credit history and huge chargebacks, they have to pay excessive charges for merchant services. 

The high-risk industries are auto rental, bitcoin, electronics, travel, gambling, insurance, jewellery, financial services, software and more. If you’re business. If you’re running above mentioned or similar industries, then it’s time for a high-risk merchant account. This account is the best way to accept online transactions on your website. Keep a note, if need to deal with the excessive cost of merchant account compared to other regular merchants.

Are you planning to set-up a high risk account? Yes!!! Following are the hand-picked tips for approval and set up a high-risk merchant account for your online business.

Find the authorized merchant service providers

Start surfing!!! Find the best merchant service provider for your business. There are thousands of services providers have a 5-star rating for providing low rate and excellent service. Be cautious while choosing the provider, there are few services that approve your high-risk business but they charge high-rate and ruin your business. A payment processing provider that is specialized in managing the high-risk account will provide amazing options and better cost. Set up a merchant account at a cost-effective price.

Keep an eye on your credit

A high-risk merchant account is a popular service that allows your online business to accept credit card payments from your customers. The credit card processors are responsible to assign the merchants to categorize the business – a high risk or low risk, based on the factors.

Before you submit a high-risk merchant account to the provider, it’s important to clear the late payments and past bankruptcies from your report. Minimize the work of providers by requesting the credit reports from popular reporting agencies such as Equifax and TransUnion. Carefully review the credit reports and detect the mistakes. While submitting the merchant account you need to provide identity proof.

Study different payment models

The merchant account service fee is the top-most concern for business.

There are two types of payment models available – flat rate and tiered rate. A flat rate is considered as the set percentage. It means an extra fee for every transaction. The tiered rate is a group of transaction charges – qualified, unqualified and mid-qualified.

Business can provide multiple payment models to clients such as one-time payment or quarterly payment. Make sure whether the bank supports these payment methods for your online business. Check out the bank rates and pick the best one that is perfect for you.

Watch out for scams

There are thousands of merchant account providers in the market. Not every provider is authorized and specialized. Few merchant account providers employ a few shady sales techniques during the transaction. Consider, the provider may guarantee to approve all the business with low processing charges. Be aware of the fraud merchant services, it’s important to cross-check when you hear negative feedback.

Buy equipment instead of leasing

Small businesses prefer leasing the equipment. Since the cost of the equipment is expensive. Considering the credit card processing equipment, buying equipment is important to save money in the long run. There are few lease contracts that may provide 2 years agreement and businesses will face several issues when they plan for cancellation. Though you stopped using the equipment for a year, you need to pay till the contract ends. Therefore buying equipment is the best choice rather than leasing.

Prefer month-to-month contract

A month-to-month contract is the secured and safest option for a high-risk merchant account. When youy business is unsafe or risky, finding the merchant service that agrees to a month-to-month contract can be a daunting task. Spend time on searching for a provider that accepts this contract. Because it is the best and ideal way to keep yourself safe. When you’re unsure about a long-term contract, you need to negotiate for expensive fees for a flexible contract.

Documents required to get a merchant account

Are you ready to move ahead to get a high-risk merchant account application? Yes!!! Before approaching the provider you need to collect a set of documents about your business. Also, an agreement of point-of-sale, desktop, mobile, tablet or online transaction and these estimated sales and price of the products or services. These factors will minimize the overhead of the provider and offer a customized payment processing plan according to your requirements.

Conclusion

Are you running an online business with high-risk of chargebacks? Do you want to process credit & debit card transactions? It’s time to get a high-risk merchant account. Pre-planning is the effective approach to get approved for a high-risk merchant account. Follow these tips while setting up your account. By implementing these strategies in the right way will make your process smoother. Research the best high-risk merchant account, check your credits, select the payment method, prefer month-to-month control and get a requirement. Hurray!!! A high-risk account is created successfully for  a longrun.

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