Opening a High Risk Merchant Account

Certain kinds of businesses such as travel, cruise, e-commerce, Forex, casino, business process outsourcing, telemarketing and several others mostly operate in a high risk arena. The trade volumes and monetary transactions involved in these businesses are huge and hence have them prone to all kinds of risks both offline and online.

Because of the very natures of such businesses there always lies the possibility of fraud payment, where it becomes essential for these businesses to consider introducing high risk merchant accounts in their system. These accounts can be accessed easily by contacting agents/service providers who specialize in these fields. 

What do these service providers do?

The high risk merchant account service provider works with banks and acts as a gateway for payment solutions. This method helps in protecting clients from various kinds of transaction frauds. However, keep in mind that a merchant account is not the same as a payment gateway. 

Opening a High Risk Merchant Account

The foremost condition put forward by a high risk merchant account provider is that the business should possess a transparent and default free credit history. In case, your business carries an impaired credit history, you may find it difficult to arrange for a high risk merchant account for yourself.  So, credibility is must in order to secure a high risk merchant account.

There are certain businesses which hide away their impaired credit history in order to become eligible for the account only to be exposed later by the service provider, resulting in their own loss. Such behavior is not advisable.

Secondly, make sure you are fully aware about the charges associated with the offshore merchant account that you are considering to take up. The major charges include transaction fee, discount rate, reserve fee, chargeback fees, monthly minimum fees, and e-commerce facilities.

You would find that high risk merchant account providers charge slightly higher fee than the regular accounts. The higher fee charged is on amount of increased risks associated with running such businesses. Also, it’s worth paying a bit more in order to get access to a safe payment transaction gateway that they have in offer.

It’s always advised to thoroughly check for the hidden costs. There are times when businesses tend to overlook certain minimal costs initially only to get troubled by them later.

Once satisfied with the conditions put forward by a service provider, then only apply for needed services.

You are only required to submit certain documents (to the relationship manager of the company) which are needed to open a high risk merchant account with the service provider.

The common advantages offered by a majority of the high risk merchant accounts include:

a.    High charge back threshold

b.    Online transaction reports

c.    Compatible with major credit cards

d.    Round the clock customer service

 It is important that all businesses operating on higher risks must ensure that they have high risk merchant accounts incorporated with their system. Not only will it help in trimming down various kinds of systematic and unsystematic risks in the system, but will also make monetary transactions much safer.