Merchant Services

Merchant account  is the basic necessity for the businessman and apart from that a smooth payment gateway.    Both have an equivalent ratio for the smooth and balanced working of the business. Merchant Account A type of account that allows accepting online payment from the customers through many ways under legal wings of the  payment service provider. Merchant The account is created under the mutual agreement between a merchant and merchant’s acquiring a bank, so to further proceed with future online payment. Meaning Of  Payment Gateway A payment gateway is a software program that works behind the scene. It is basically a process that enables the flow of the payment securely. It’s a secure way to transfer your customer’s money safely into your merchant account. It’s really very important to have a payment gateway for the following reasons: • It creates a trustworthy aura between you and your customers. • It maintains a good graph...

When I started my research for this business, I communicated with a number of people whom I thought might have some practice in managing such merchants, and what I heard from them didn’t precisely come as a surprise to me. Most of my contemporaries warned me that such businesses could be very difficult to work with — that their company practices were doubtful, that they could infrequently doctor the required paperwork, that their chargeback ratios were sky-high, and that customer objection levels were off the chart. “Where have I heard that before?”, I wondered, and my initial practice rapidly confirmed the authenticity of these warnings. However, I had the good fortune to quickly stumble upon a high-risk merchant who turned out to be hardworking, trustworthy and legit. He also ensured low levels of customer complaints and chargebacks. Equally important, the volume per month was extravagant— about $500,000 and still continues to grow. Finding the best payment processing solu...

Merchant Account for Running Tour and Travel Business Find consultants who specialize in the helping high-risk merchants finding a merchant account. We at merchant stronghold provide you the same. If you have a good record of risk, fraud, and charge-backs, you will be required to provide at least 6 months of prior financials to prove it. The best side of this is that if you can provide financial statements of 3 years, you will have more leverage to negotiate a better deal. Startups with a weak or non-existent record, you must accept a very well relationship. A common mistake that everyone does is to find big banks and merchant account providers . If these processors receive any hint that you are high risk, there is a chance that the merchant account will get a termination. Develop and put into action a strong fraud prevention plan. Introduce new tools that will help you detect and fight fraud. Purchase a financial failure insurance plan to boost financial security. ...

It appears on the credit card statement or any other bank statement of the customer that contains details of the company and merchant involved in the particular transaction. The purpose of the merchant descriptor is to identify whom the payment was made to. Whenever a merchant goes for the  merchant account , he or she is asked to provide the merchant descriptor as well. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF HAVING TRANSACTION DESCRIPTOR OR MERCHANT DESCRIPTOR? Having a transaction descriptor can save the merchant from a chargeback. This is the most important benefit of having the transaction descriptor. A descriptor gives clear information about the merchant and the purchase. This helps a customer to quickly identify the transaction. That also results in a low chance of the chargeback from the customer’s end. According to the various reports from the card networks, most chargebacks are filed simply because the customer did not identify the transaction. Now you...

Personal Credit History  – Your personal credit history plays a large part in your application. If you have a good history, it will lead you to get a  merchant account  easily. Tax Issues  – Make sure that you have resolved all your tax issues, submitted your annual declarations, and that there are no tax liens on your account or property. High-Risk Business Types  – Most acquiring banks maintain a list of industries that they generally will not service due to their traditionally high-risk nature in order to protect their interests. Merchant Stronghold always plays a very important role and partnered only with the top tier banks that accept applications easily. Processing Volumes Should Remain Within the ‘Norm’  – Your expected volumes are based on past processing and expected growth in the near future. To improve the odds for getting approved, show processing amounts within the “norm” for your industry. Avoid being on the TMF (Termina...

Effects of Poor Merchant Underwriting Your high-risk business may suffer from one or the other reason even without in-depth analysis and these are: Incorrect Limit: You should set limits for your business as per requirement. It should not be too high or too low, as both will put your business at risk. Limits lower than required will hinder the regular processing of transactions. As a result, it may constrict the flow of cash or timely payments from the customer. If a limit is too high, this may lead to unexpected fraudulent charges. Hidden Fee: An additional fee is there if the volume exceeds the limit. However, even if you have set your limit, some providers let it exceed without notification. And they also charge you with a penalty. Downgrades: Once your  high-risk merchant account  is set, you are inclined to transaction downgrades if certain required features and security measures are not set along with the account. Although, setting up these features...

The first thing you have to do Determine the way credit card payments will work for your company. This means that you need to figure out the type of credit card payments that you want to accept and how you accept those payments. You need to see if you accept website payments if you want to use a POS solution or mobile payments. You will also have to think about the amount that you get from credit card sales, to begin with. Aside from that, when you create a new merchant account you will need to think about the merchant payment processing and you will also have to make a comparison between all the services offered to you. This way you will be able to see which one actually delivers the best value for your money, so you should consider that as fast as possible. Each merchant account provider has a flat rate that will be charged each time a payment is processed or it might have a percentage fee based on the total transaction amount. Stay in Control Sometimes you wil...

Mеrсhаnt Accounts соmе with a secure payment gateway to uѕе on уоur wеbѕitе. You can customize thеѕесuritу levels that dеtеrminе what kindѕ of transactions аrе flаggеd оr dесlinеd thrоugh уоur рауmеnt gateway, and уоu can be соnfidеnt in thе security thаt рrоtесtѕ уоur customers’ dаtа because it nеvеr leaves уоur own wеbѕitе еxсерt thrоugh thе рауmеnt processor’s ѕесurе gateway. Pауmеnt card рrосеѕѕing соmраniеѕ аrе hеld to ѕtriсt industry ѕtаndаrdѕ about privacy, аnd will nеvеr ѕhаrе any of your сuѕtоmеrѕ’ dаtа. PауPаl iѕ a private company and has diffеrеnt policies about сuѕtоmеr рrivасу. Thеу openly ѕtаtе thаt thеу will share customer infоrmаtiоn with third-party market research соmраniеѕ and thеir раrеnt соmраnу, еBау. Sесuritу with PауPаl also ореrаtеѕ diffеrеntlу: whеn a сuѕtоmеr mаkеѕ a рurсhаѕе thrоugh PayPal, thеу are redirected tо thе PауPаl wеbѕitе tо enter their finаnсiаl information, which can bе a ѕignifiсаnt ѕоurсе оf аbаndоnеd ѕhоррing саrtѕ in аn есоmmеrсе еnvi...

This means, for a merchant, the transaction descriptor is far more important than to a customer. An incorrect or non-informative merchant descriptor can lead to chargeback, which is, even more, worse for the business. This article contains all the details necessary for a merchant regarding the Merchant Descriptor. WHAT IS TRANSACTION DESCRIPTOR OR MERCHANT DESCRIPTOR? It appears on the credit card statement or any other bank statement of the customer that contains details of the company and merchant involved in the particular transaction. The purpose of the merchant descriptor is to identify who the payment was made to. Whenever a merchant goes for the merchant account , he or she is asked to provide the merchant descriptor as well. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF HAVING TRANSACTION DESCRIPTOR OR MERCHANT DESCRIPTOR? Having a transaction descriptor can save the merchant from a chargeback. This is the most important benefit of having the transaction descriptor. A d...

You must then understand that E-commerce websites are not like any other websites. They need to created, designed, and optimized according to the market demand. If you are a merchant and need guidance with the basic E-Commerce website requirements then this article will provide you with all those details. Furthermore, get in touch with Merchant Stronghold for further information. MANDATORY  E-COMMERCE  WEBSITE REQUIREMENTS When selling your goods and services using a website, you need to follow some rules of the E-Commerce business. Otherwise, you will be barred from continuing any business online. Some of the mandatory website requirements for E-Commerce are listed here. TRANSPARENT TERMS AND CONDITIONS Providing all the details related to your business is important not only for the customers but also for the business. A customer or any user can report the website if you are not providing the terms and conditions properly. It helps the customer to ...

This is for a business owner, it’s stressful that merchant account will go to rejection. A contradiction might make you question to your business existence. In fact, denial of an entire channel of payment processing probably crippling impact on business. DEPEND ON CREDIT HISTORY A provider has checked the personal credit history of customer i.e. revealing trouble of paying bills. A merchant services provider does not want to get on a customer who can view as a susceptibility, even if a customer that pay in a good proceeding of profit will have to reduce the value to a bad credit history. NOT DEPEND ON YOUR BUSINESS TYPE A merchant will be labeled as a High-Risk Business and High Risk commit to a raised percentage of chargebacks, it can solely point to the published brand blended with the type of business. When a customer attempts to chargebacks to pay back his credit for one reason or another. The method of fighting chargebacks needs some time and if the merchant...

Add a merchant account to your online ID theft Protection business and keep your customers happy. As a result, providing multiple payment methods to customers will return you trust and money. Ultimately, if you are starting or already started your ID theft Protection Company and like to accept  credit card payments  then you just need an online merchant account. Because this is the account where your customer’s card details are sent for verification. Therefore, once the details of the customer’s card get verified, money is transferred to your company’s bank account. Our team will give you advice on merchant accounts so that you can start as new or switch current provider and save money. INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED PLATFORM Merchant Stronghold  has set up many accounts of ID theft protection companies. The online merchant account provides convenient multi-currency solutions so that you can offer better service to your customers. Business owners...

Are you running an Identity Restoration Business? Few things should know for an online merchant account. You require a merchant account to accept credit card and debit card payments. Your merchant account works as a bridge between your bank account and the customer's bank. When you get a merchant account, you are required to take after standards and controls set up with the credit card companies and your bank. This incorporates the number of fees related to both the accounts. Fees associated with a merchant account Cancellation fee: It is charged when you send your contract with an online merchant account before the due date of your contract. Not all the providers require a contract, but those who have this police ask for the cancellation fee. Chargeback fee: When money is returned to the customer. This fee is initiated by the bank of your customer, often because of fraudulent transactions. Chargeback is one of the reasons why merchants around the globe lose tho...

High-risk  Merchant Account All kinds of financial institutions process money. And when it comes to processing money. They are followed by regulators to classify merchants as low risk, medium risk, and high-risk merchants. Payment processor will never accept you when they think you process high risk and there are chances that they will lose money. And even if they accept you they will charge very high transaction discount rate. There are a few reasons why your business can be a high-risk business. Few reasons are: Questionable sales and marketing tactics You have lost your previous merchant account due to high chargeback ratio. Potential legal and financial liability An industry is known for excessive chargebacks or fraud incidents Your credit is really bad. Trial continuity business Also, you’ve been branded as the terminated merchant (TMF). Previous credit card processing is not good enough OBTAINING HIGH-RISK MERCHANT ACCOUNT If you are not getting...

Having a high-risk business or high-risk merchant account can be very demanding and challenging, to begin with. It might be very hard for you to process payments properly due to the high fees and other challenges. However, just because you have a high-risk business. The idea of having a credit repair business is that many gateway providers will see this as a high risk. It isn’t really coming with the highest possible risk, but there are plenty of challenges to be had here and you should think about that the best way you can. Should you get a high-risk merchant account despite the potential issues that might appear? Yes, because you can either do that or you can opt for an offshore merchant account. Either one works, the idea is to just find the best options that suit your needs and which delivers the utmost value for your money. You have to keep in mind that the main focus here is on finding a good payment processor and lowering the amount you have to pay in the end. I...

Today, organizations are extending their range to the worldwide level that is helping them to develop at a much faster. This explanation of business has been observed due to the advent of technology. Technology also has help businesses to create a point of sale that can be accessed from anywhere in the world and customers can order online and pay through their cards. In any case, one issue that business can face if they don't have experience of selling and sending products to different nations is their lack of physical presence in that country. As every one of the nations has their own laws and requirements for beginning a merchant account. In any case, in this article, we will discuss just the requirement and approaches to get a merchant account for a business that isn't registered in the United States and likes to sell their products in the Country. The basic requirement of getting a merchant account in the U.S. The business needs to have a registered “Doin...

Have you ever seen all the pricing on your Merchant Account Agreements and asked what they mean? Online Business must always read and understand the terms and conditions for their payment gateway.  Merchant Stronghold  explains the pricing schedule of fees: Tiered pricing ERR Pricing (Enhance Recover Reduce) Pass-through interchange pricing Pass-through Pin Debit Tiered pricing: Tiered discount pricing allows you to group interchange programs into different tiers “buckets” and then price those buckets separately based on the range of interchange costs grouped into each bucket. ERR Pricing (Enhance Recover Reduce): Pass non-qualifying interchange costs to merchants. Using err, you have the option to assess a surcharge to the merchant’s downgraded sales volume. The surcharge is a client-defined percentage that is applied to the downgraded sales volume of participating merchants. Pass-through interchange pricing: Using interchange passes through allows...

Recommendations to Improve Merchant Statistics Below have listed recommendations that could help to reduce fraud level. Merchant must provide an activity plane to  reduce fraud levels   by the payment system. On the off chance that the merchant doesn't successfully lessen reduce fraud level Risk and Compliance department will close merchant traffic. To avoid penalties and disqualification, Merchant must survey its business processes. The following are recorded suggestions that could  reduce fraud level . Here are some guidelines for preventing Internet, telephone or mail order fraud: Request that cardholders provide the following information during the order taking process: Cardholder Name, exactly how their name appears on their card. Card Number Card Expiration Date, four-digit number MM/YY. CVV (Card Verification Value) and/or CID (Card Identification Data) for some regions, the three-digit number located on the back of the card in the signature panel. Ca...

Retail Merchant Accounts are most appropriate for the business that requires transaction processing at the time of the sale and arranged under Card Present OnlineMerchant Services.  Merchant Stronghold  can set it for your business whenever. It is sometimes referred as CP or Card Present account, it fills in as the esa establishment for rate structure. Retail Merchant accounts require a brilliant, strong and quick process at the time of the sale. Some Types of Retail Business •Department Stores. •Discount Stores. •Supermarket. •Warehouse Stores. •Speciality Stores. •E-Tailers. Etc Retail Merchant Account  It is obvious that having a credit card present when the transaction is being processed will reduce chances of fraud. But there are other variables as well that should be considered when going for a retail merchant account. One example can be the Volume of Transaction and Average Ticket Size. Consider someone is selling jelly beans or ...

Offshore Merchant Account An offshore merchant account, also known as an international merchant account or “offshore” merchant account, The Main benefits offshore merchant account is the security and option the accepting major currencies. Popular Offshore Account among Merchant Offshore Account & E-commerce mostly communication as Merchants, irrespective of their industry types. Merchant aim at attracting a majority of customers and look for maximizing sale to earn good profit. To accomplish this, the merchant needs a merchant account that acknowledges the greater part of  credit cards . In any case, it isn't that simple to open a merchant account, as it incorporates numerous prerequisites and long strategies, which isn't the situation with an offshore merchant account. A large portion of the businesses maintains at them to keep up an offshore account as it gives numerous financial and legal advantages to its client. No matter how small or big business y...