To get a merchant account, do they check your personal credit?
Will personal bad credit keep you from getting approved for a merchant account?
Yes, merchant account providers check every applicant’s personal credit history, however, your bad credit should not prevent you from getting processing services.
First of all, let me strongly advise you against adding a co-owner exclusively for the purpose of using his or her credit history during the application process. It will create more problems than it will solve. The first issue has to do with trust and for most people adding a relative or a close friend takes care of that. But what happens if something goes wrong? Unfortunately, in business thing can and do go wrong more often than not and a co-owner is fully responsible for everything that happens. The potential of harming your relationship with a trusted friend/relative is enormous.
My advice is to apply for a merchant account and provide all required information. Unless you’ve had a bankruptcy during the last seven years, you should be able to obtain payment processing services. Keep in mind that, with the right processing provider, your bad credit will not affect your rates. As long as you get approved, you should get the same rates anyone else gets. The difference in your case is that you may be required to keep a reserve. Reserve is a portion of the monthly revenue from a merchant’s payment card transactions that a merchant account provider may request to hold in an escrow account as an insurance against possible loss from chargebacks and other sources. Used mainly with high-risk merchants, upon satisfactory completion of a predetermined period, reserves are returned to the merchants. In the case of a rolling reserve, a reserve is held every month for a certain period (usually six months). On the following month the first month’s reserve is released to the merchant, and then the second month’s reserve and so on until there is no longer a reserve.
To conclude, your situation is by no means desperate and does not call for desperate measures. Go ahead with the application and it might turn out that it is much easier than you feared.
What is the function of a credit card processing company? And What connection does it have with banks?
I want to know the primary roles of a credit card processing company (ex. Flagship, First Data) and how do they function? Are they an independent company apart from the bank?
Yes, they are an independent company separate from the bank, and they provide a number of services to banks.
Consider you have just set up a small bank, and you want to issue (for example) Visa cards. There’s a lot processes and infrastructure you would need to set up, and the processor can provide one (or all) of these services on your behalf if you choose to engage them:
– Card production: Printing and embossing the cards, and performing the cryptography to generate and mail the PIN numbers.
– Authorization: Providing computing services to authorize transactions against a credit limit.
– Fraud detection: Providing computing services to check incoming transactions against likely fraud (i.e. a transaction comes from Russia, but you did one in Atlanta two hours ago)
– Connection to networks: The authorization system has to be certified and connected to Visa and/or MasterCard
– Settlement: Clearing the transactions after authorization
– Chargeback: Managing the arbitration of dispute cases when a customer says he didn’t perform a transaction, or disputes the amount
In addition, the processing companies provide the same services for issuing branded credit cards which aren’t associated with a bank – for example, a football team or an airline.
Credit Card Processing Companies – Merchant Services – Video
What % rate do visa/mastercard etc. charge the co.’s that provide credit card acceptance terminals & systems?
I have one company quoting me a rate of 1.59% to accept corporate cards (an additional 1.50% for international cards) while others charge anywhere from 2.1% to 3.85% and claim that no company can offer that low a rate… where can I find out what rate Visa charges them?
stormpaysuxs , paypalsuxs? i heard many good and bad reviews abt them,which is true???
Payment gateway? merchant account?
getting a merchant account in my country singapore is costly? what would be advisable for a , payment gateway and merchant account for my country n0n-us? i am looking at
asia pay,stormpay,paypal which doesnt charge for a montly subscription. what other merchant accounts offers a ecard with Maestro so i can make a withdrawal once the funds arrive?
I need to be able to accept credit cards. Presently, my warehouse doesn’t ship internationally. Many of my customers are in other countries. Many of these countries do not like to use PayPal because of the high tax tarrifs and fees involved with using PayPal’s service. I’d like a Merchant solution that is affordable and does not require me to open a Commericial Bank Account. Presently, I have just a regular checking account and I’d just like to use that. Any suggestions, as to where I could go to find a solution like this that is affordable?
Thank you for your suggestions….
What accounting system do you use? If you use Quickbooks you can set it up directly through there. Otherwise I would google it and just pick a provider. The bank account shouldn’t be an issue, as long as you have one to deposit the money into you should be good. Good luck!
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i have a merchant account that’s three digits for my pos terminal its not working did something change?
You need to contact the technical support department for your terminal. Your terminal may need an update, may be broken, or your account may be changed or suspended.
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How do I become payment gateway service provider in india?
what are requirements to become payment gateway service provider or merchant service provider in India? what is the full procedure for it?Please tell me , how much it will cost?
if you want to take money from ATM/credit card
then you need to implement a payment gateway from the respective bank , nd it is very costly to implement a gateway . so check all options before you put any money in the business
We are starting up a business, and as everyone knows credit cards are very common. We have no idea how to go about searching for credit card terminals, the going rate per transaction or anything about the process. Does anybody know how to get further info? I would really appreciate it. Thanks.
Terminals and processing are two separate issues. You may decide to purchase your terminal from your processor, but make sure that it suits your needs and that it is priced competitively. A nice standard choice for a retail endeavor is the Omni 3750. It is universally certified by nearly all merchant processing companies and offers many upgrade options including IP, gift card, smartcard and more. It’s really a workhorse. If you decide to go in another direction, make sure that the equipment you purchase is not proprietary and allows you the flexibility of being used by muliple service providers. Another option altogether is to set up a POS system or other processing software on your network or PC.
As to actual processing, this is an excerpt from an educational article I wrote for a local merchant group. Merchant processing isn’t really exciting, so it is kind of dry, but it should help you ask the right questions when you look to make a decision on a new processor.
Visa and MasterCard, the card associations, receive the majority of the fees that merchants pay for their processing services. The remainder of the fees, or the margin, is what the merchant processor receives. The card associations have designated over 240 different card categories that each merchant processor must recognize and process. Every merchant processor, no matter how big or small, is charged the same rates and fees by the card associations and every merchant processor differentiates each card category utilizing exactly the same card category name as designated by the card associations.
The card categories are designated in the following manner:
1.) Industry – Retail, Restaurant, Hotel, Government, Utility, Service Industry, Gas Station, Supermarket, etc.
2.) Type of Card – Personal Visa or MasterCard, Visa or MasterCard Debit, Visa Rewards, MasterCard World, Commercial Visa, Corporate MasterCard, etc.
3.) Method of Processing – Face-to-Face (swipe), Mail Order/Telephone Order, Key Entered, E-Commerce, etc.
4.) Processing Efficiency – Address Verification, Authorization/Settle Match, Timeliness of Settlement, etc.
These categories are as diverse as they seem. If a cardholder uses the same card to buy something from a retail establishment, lunch at a restaurant and pay their electric bill, all three of these transactions will be designated as a separate card and rate category. If a retail establishment accepts two different types of cards (ex. – a Visa Debit Card and a Visa Rewards Card) for a purchase of the exact same amount, both of these transactions will be designated as a separate card and rate category. The same is true for a Face-to-Face transaction as opposed to a telephone order. Furthermore, if a merchant does take a telephone order and doesn’t enter the required cardholder information, the transaction will be downgraded to a higher priced card and rate category than a properly executed telephone order.
So what does all of this mean to you?
For many merchants, the hardest thing to do is accept the fact that the merchant processing system, to some extent, simply is what it is. There really are that many card categories. There really are that many different rates and fees. Your merchant processor deals with and manages this system – they do not have the power to change it. Any merchant processor who claims to be dealing with a better or more advantageous system than other processors isn’t being honest.
Sure, some merchant processors offer a simplified statement format with bundled categories, but only to keep from disclosing individual rates. The simpler the statement format the less a merchant knows about what their true credit card processing costs are or should be. A simple statement also makes it very difficult to perform an accurate comparison to other programs. For many merchant processors, their most successful customer retention tool is their customer’s complete inability to understand their services.
One of the posted answers is a great example of this issue. If Visa and MasterCard charge the exact same amount to every processor for every transaction, why would a merchant pay a higher amount depending on how they identify themselves? (To the author’s credit he reveals this nuance of his company’s pricing structure) Your profile will dictate what your effective rate should be and a merchant processor should be able to help you identify this. Make sure that you are not penalized for accepting cards outside of your normal channels.
what are the competitive interest rates when you set up an offshore merchant account?
i’m working for a travel agency and my supervisor has assigned me to open an offshore merchant account.
The rate in the market would be ranging from 5%-8%. I suggested a range because your rates will actually depend on the type of business you are into and other several factors. Just to make sure that you get what you’ve bargained, contact a third party processor will be useful. They have coordination with foreign banks and will give the features that will suit your needs.
Offshore Merchant Accounts, Unsecured Small Business Loan – MerchantCashAdvance.Com
Hi,
Our Organization is planing to host a in-house website.They developed with C#.Net with SQL as database.My Question is what are the softwares required for hosting the website that should support the below requirements.
1.ASP v3.0,.NetFramework1. 1,Access Database DSNs,PHP 4.3 Scripting,CGI Bin and SSI,MDAC 2.8,ADO 2.8,Microsoft XML 4.0 SP2,Site Builder Tool,Photo Album Creator,Express Site Creation,Custom Site Creation,Windows Media HTTP Streaming,Flash/Shockwave,Microsoft® FrontPage 2002,
ECOMMERCE FEATURES
Merchant Manager,Integrated Merchants Include,Papal, Secure Trading,World pay,Virtual SSL
EMAIL FEATURES
50 POP3/Email Accounts,SMTP/Outgoing Mail,Catch-All Email Account,Web Based Interface,Sit email,Unlimited Aliases/Forwarding,Auto Responders,1 FTP Account(s)
SECURITY FACILITIES
Firewall Protected
Please let me know the software’s that required that should support the above features. Thank you fro the help.
Windows Server 2000 – 2003 32-bit as you base sever. Comes with IIS 5 or IIS 6, which supports ASP 3.0
You can get the Zend / PHP engine for Windows directly from http://www.php.net
IIS natively supports SSI. Perl (which you probably mean when you say CGI) is available from http://www.perl.com as a 32-bit executable.
MDAC 2.8,ADO 2.8,Microsoft XML 4.0 SP2: All these are built-in to Windows Server 2000 – 2003 or can be downloaded directly from Microsoft.
Site Builder Tool,Photo Album Creator,Express Site Creation,Custom Site Creation — this software is up to you. There are a number of freeware apps out there such as Joomla, Gallery, etc.
Windows Media HTTP Streaming — this is built into Windows Server 2003 and is available as an add-on for Windows Server 2000. However, support for it is scant; you will pay a hefty price to a consultant to get this up and running.
Merchant Manager,Integrated Merchants Include,Papal, Secure Trading,World pay,Virtual SSL: This is available for free in ZenCart.
50 POP3/Email Accounts,SMTP/Outgoing Mail,Catch-All Email Account,Web Based Interface,Sit email,Unlimited Aliases/Forwarding,Auto Responders,1 FTP Account(s): This is all supported by IIS with built-in SMTP and FTP service, but I would upgrade to SmarterMail http://www.smartertools.com/
Firewall Protected: This depends on your network. Generally speaking, proper router setup and network intrusion detection should suffice.
Where can I find people or merchants to join a new merchant account provider?
I know it’s hard to trust a new company. Especially when theres money involve. But I don’t know whre to find these people. Is there a site whre I can find them? I tried chat but they ignore me and boot me because of yahoos terms and conditions. Thank you in advance for your answers
No there’s no such site.
Soliciting for new merchant accounts is all about trust. Store owners and business people are not quick to transfer their merchant accounts from one vendor to another — because if your merchant account proves to be crap, then they cannot get all their sales from credit and debit cards.
You need to woo the customers. Let them know you. Sending unsolicited emails or even cold calling can lead to nowhere. Waste of energy
To get clients, say a restaurant, you need to talk to the owner. Visit the restaurant often. Chat with the owner regularly. Once they know you, ask to see their merchant account statement. Then make a proposal by showing them where they can save if they use your merchant account
For example, will you offer lower transaction fees? Are you removing fees such as monthly statement fees? How can they save by using your account
This is one of the hardest sales business to get into. It’s not easy. With all the NO SOLICITATION signs outside of businesses, it is hard to penetrate the owner. If you are a member of the chamber of commerce or other networking organizations where you’ve got contacts with other business owners, you’d do well.
But if you don’t know any business owner, and you have no patience or time to develop relationships, I suggest you find other sources of income
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Can anybody enlighten me on the meaning of Third-Party Processor?
What is their role in transferring funds of merchant accounts? All your ideas will be truly great. Thanks!
A third party processor allows other businesses to share their merchant account. This means the merchants who shares their account doesn’t have to apply with a merchant account provider. They apply directly with the third party processor.
The ramification of this are as follows:
1) You have to follow the rules of the third party processor. Because it is their account and they are responsible for it their rules are tighter then a normal merchant account’s rules. They can shut down your account at any time for any reason. Same goes for holding your funds.
2) Their name appears on your customer’s statements. Because it is their account their name is what will appear.
3) Their rates tend to be higher then a normal merchant account because they have to mark it up to make a profit. But other fees, like monthly fees, may be waived which is a good thing.
4) They tend to accept people that merchant account providers don’t. This includes people with bad credit or high risk products. Merchants who have had their merchant account closed can usually still use a third party processor.
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