How to Accept Credit Cards with an Online High Risk Merchant Account

Regardless of the size of your business, your goal must be to increase annual sales revenue. For this, you must give your customers more alternative mode of payments. It includes credit card payment, debit card payment, net banking and others.

A Study to know

According to studies, business accepting credit card payment is likely to generate more revenue as compared to others. The main purpose of you being in the industry is to earn profit and credit card is a great mode of payment. So, it is better to get a reliable credit card processing before starting off.

There are many third-party service providers with payment solutions for credit card processing like PayPal, but it comes with shortcomings. But special measures must be taken to provide a secure environment to conduct transactions. Else customers will either drift away or will not come back for another sale, and this will increase abandonment rate and funds paid through check or direct deposit will take days to get transferred. Payment solutions like PayPal are good if merchant needs to handle low-volume sales. But if you are looking for growth, the merchant has to look for alternatives.

What do Business Owners need?

If you want to accept payments through credit card, the first thing that is must is Merchant Account. To carry out online transactions and validate credit card acceptance, a merchant account is mandatory. A merchant account is like any other bank account with a slight difference; it enables merchant/business to accept payment through various means like credit and debit cards. If the merchant has an online merchant account, so this will eliminate the need for credit card processing machine or terminals to accept payments.

Parties involved in merchant account set up process are: 

• The Retailer
• Payment Processor
• Merchant Bank

Three things that every merchant should be aware of when accepting credit card with an online merchant account are discussed below in detail:

ONLINE PAYMENT GATEWAY

A payment gateway is a merchant service provided by e-commerce provider responsible for carrying out transactions or direct payment processing for e-business or retailers. E-commerce transactions (online transactions) are authorized by this e-commerce service (payment gateway). E-commerce service provider can be: 

• Bank
• Specialized financial service provider.

A payment gateway transfers the information between a payment portal and acquiring the bank, where payment portal can be any of the following: 

• Website
• Mobile phone
• IVR machine (Interactive Voice Response)

MERCHANT DISCOUNT RATE

For every payment processing service on debit/credit card transactions, the merchant has to pay. It is a fee imposed on the merchant that he/she must consider while managing overall costing of the business. Merchant must discuss the fee for this service before starting to accept debit/credit card payment. It is basically a card-processing fee that is charged to the merchant. Discount rate includes the following:

• Card processing fee
• Dues
• Assessments
• Markup and network charges

ADDITIONAL FEE

Hence, along with the merchant discount rate, an additional fee is there to the merchant when conducting transactions through an online merchant account. These fees are:

• Statement fee
• Monthly minimum fee
• Authorization fee
• Annual fee
• Chargeback Fee
• Early termination fee
• Customer service fee
• Batch fee (charged when settling a terminal)

13 Tips For Merchants To Avoid High Risk Credit Card Chargebacks

For many small businesses that accept credit cards, chargeback is way costlier but there are ways where you can protect your business against those unfair chargebacks. Before going further, let us understand what is a ‘Chargeback’?

Chargeback

Chargeback happens when a customer after purchasing a product, contact to his/her card issuer to dispute the charges. In simple words, when a customer purchases a product and due to some reason disputes a charge with his/her bank, the money is returned to that customer as well as he/she gets to keep the product. But the bank charges the business owner, from whom the product was purchased. This payment, which the business owner gets to pay to the bank, is called the chargeback.

Here are few tips that can help you prevent chargeback and minimize the time and money spent while dealing with it. Being business owner you should understand that disputes could be considered valid due to many reasons. Customer may dispute charges if:

1. A hacker using the customer’s identity made the purchase illegally.
2. The wrong item was received.
3. The product was adulterated
4. The customer does not recognize the charge on his credit card statement.
5. The customer was billed incorrectly.

LET US NOW DISCUSS FEW TIPS WHICH CAN HELP YOU IN PREVENTING A CHARGEBACK.

DECLINED AUTHORIZATION

If the authorization request is declined once, do not go ahead with that particular transaction instead ask customers to opt for different payment method. Also, keep in mind not to request multiple authorizations for a particular transaction.

AUTHORIZATION CODE

There will be cases when word “Call” is displayed on your terminal while authorization is being checked. At this point call the credit card company right away. The representative will ask you a few questions and may speak to its customer as well. After that he/she may or may not provide you with an authorization code. If the authorization code is provided, record it else request the customer to try a different card.

System not working

There can be cases where a system is not functioning properly or the card is worn out. At this point, you should key-enter the credit card number, and also remember to make an impression of the card for keeping the record. This is important because a customer’s signature is not enough to protect you from a chargeback.

GIFT CARD

Gift cards are unembossed cards and there is no way to take a manual imprint of it. In case customer wishes to pay by gift card it is advisable to ask the customer for a different payment method.

SIGNATURE 

Regardless of the type of the card used for the payment processing, the signature of the cardholder on the receipt is mandatory. This can be used as a proof that the customer made the purchase himself.

SWIPE ONLY ONCE

You should swipe the card only once to avoid duplicate transactions, which can lead to a major chargeback. If such situation arises, write “VOID” in bold letters on the customer’s receipt and tear it in front of the cardholder.

Record keeping: To avoid duplicate transaction chargeback, make sure that you deposit only one copy of sales receipt. Be cautious about recording sales; do not record the same transaction more than once.

CLEAR COMMUNICATION 

Clearer is the refund and returns policy, better will be the communication and it will protect you from chargeback as well. As far as refund policy is concerned, it is better to print it on the receipt directly. If not possible, stamp it near customer’s signature.

Receipt deposit: To avoid chargeback, deposit receipts as soon as possible. Make it a point that all the receipts are deposited within a day or two.

Cancellation request: It is a good practice to honor all customer requests to cancel recurring billing and provide them with a written statement for the same with a date on it. Delay on it can put you at risk for a chargeback.

Unexpected Delay

If, due to any reason, there is a gap between the time payment was made and the time when the product was delivered, it is advisable to inform the customer about the same in written and if possible, also let the customer know the new expected date.

Out of stock: If in case, the product is out of stock or unavailable due to any reason, it is important to intimate the customer about the same and ask them whether they would like to cancel the order or would like to purchase another item instead. Keep in mind that without customer’s permission do not send any substitute product. This will help in reducing chargeback risk.

SHIPMENT

Never deposit the money you have charged from the customer before product being shipped to the customer. Streamline shipping process in order to get the product out to the customer as quickly as possible. There are chances of a customer getting upset about paying before receiving the product.

Avoid High Risk Credit Card Processing Scams with Merchant Stronghold

‘FRAUD’, the word itself generates a warning sign to both customers as well as the merchant. According to recent studies, every fraud valued 1 dollar, costs merchant $2.40. The amount may seem less but has a huge impact on annual revenue.One of the main reasons for these frauds is the credit card processing scams. Credit card payment processing companies have noticed a significant growth of such scams among small or medium-sized businesses as compared to large industries. And, if these SMBs do not have sufficient resources to handle them, the impact of scams are much more significant. A major retail can bare the impact of the loss of a couple of dollars but it is not the case with small or medium-sized businesses.

Most Common Credit Card Processing Scams

Let us discuss in detail about the most common credit card processing scams and a few tips to avoid them.

Forced Authorization Scam

To complete the transaction when customer’s credit card is declined, the merchant can perform forced authorization. Now, to finalize the sale, where the merchant already remits good, forced authorization is conducted. To do so, merchant calls the issuing bank directly to obtain the authorization code when a card is declined and overrides it. Few things to remember while conducting forced authorization are:

• The customer might provide you with an alphanumeric code, which is not valid to override.
• If the authorization code is not valid or fraudulent, the merchant cannot file a dispute.
• In this case, the merchant will be subjected to chargebacks and a fine.
• Always allow card processing terminal to get an approval code.

Wire Scam

If the order placed by a customer is much larger than what merchant processes, beware, as wire scam might occur. It is a scam where customer overpays for the orders he/she has placed and asks the merchant to wire the exceeding amount to a third party. This third party is responsible for picking up ordered product from the merchant and delivering it to the customer who ordered it. To avoid wired scam, always remember two things:

1) Never accept excess money to be wired to a third party, no matter what reason may customer give.

2) Doing so can cost the merchant a fine and a fee for conducting fraudulent transactions.

Gift Card Scams

This is the most common scam and according to a recent study, 13% of the gift card frauds are by store employees and usually, they steal from already load cards. In totality, retails lose almost $70k annually from gift card scams. This includes:

• Skimming card number to create a fake card
• Returning stolen goods in exchange for gift cards.

TIPS TO AVOID CREDIT CARD PROCESSING SCAMS

1) To protect cards from theft and unauthorized use, implement security measures.

2) For all returns, request receipt and ID.

3) If it happens, refund the transaction immediately and do not give away the product.

4) For assistance on any suspicious activity, contact your payment processor’s risk department.

HOW CAN WE HELP?

Merchant Stronghold provides a payment processor for high risk merchants and has a well-qualified payment processor risk department, which can help you resolve issues with high accuracy and within time. Our experts are available 24*7, 365 days to take any credit card processor query. Just give us a call on +1(888) 622-6875

Offshore High Risk Merchant Accounts for Nutraceutical Products

For any E-commerce site, to accept payment by multiple means you need a proper payment gateway and a merchant account that supports your needs. Without a merchant account, you will not be able to accept payment via credit card or debit card. If you are finally looking forward to spreading your business worldwide, it is important to have the capacity to process such payments.

Nutraceutical products (commonly known as Nutra products) have formed a billion dollar market. Business dealing in such products is categorized as high-risk business and therefore most conventional banks and merchant processors will not provide services to companies like this.

Why considered as high risk

Nutra products include weight reduction remedies, anti-aging, and sexual enhancement products. Although it is a prize-winning industry, it is still considered high-risk because of the following reasons:

• A higher number of chargebacks
• Frequency of bankruptcies
• Customer Enrollment Cancelations

Benefits of Merchant Services for Nutra Product Sales

Some merchant account providers specialize in high-risk merchant account but charge the higher fee for certain accounts. There are few providers who offer customized end-to-end payment solutions, which are more beneficial for the merchant as compare to others. Some also offer to process for numerous currencies. For these and other reasons, it’s best to do very systematic research of merchant processors that offer merchant accounts for Nutra deals.

Several benefits of using the merchant account for Nutra product sales are:

Payment acceptance through various means: If you want to grow your business it is important to accept payments by multiple means. Customers feel comfortable if they can pay or choose the payment option as per their choice and convenience, for the products or services they require.

Acceptance of all type of credit cards: If you have a payment processor that works with all credit cards, the merchant can deal with people and companies all over the world and expand their business.

No volume limit: Merchant service provider can provide you with a payment system that does not restrict you from making business deals and financial transactions. Also, a system where you can carry out transactions without any interruption or issues.

Extra benefits provided by some of the merchant account providers:

• 24/7 technical support
• Fast set-up and approval in 24 hours (depending on Acquiring bank)
• No hidden fees in terms of Nutra Merchant Account Solutions
• Instant integration with the website
• Affordable data processing rates

How to Shop for Merchant Services

Despite the fact that there are more choices nowadays in the card preparing industry, as a result, finding the correct processor can be challenging. You will require one that addresses your organization’s issues, but that can take some time and legwork. Discover what different administrations they are offering, for example, online installment doors. You can also inquire whether they handle things like various monetary standards. Also, discover a processor that can make different Nutra deals and shipper accounts accessible to your organization.

Instructions to Work with Conventional Merchant Services Providers

Pay organization bills on time and keep financials in order. Give clients great services and make returning items simple and convenient. Nutraceutical related merchants who give genuine items at reasonable costs could hope to remain in business and expect outstanding income. Search for long-term solutions for your Nutra deals here.

Apparel Payment Processing And Merchant Account Services

The clothing industry is growing by leaps and bounds, so as the level of competition in this industry.

On a daily basis, bulk transactions take place in each apparel store. It is important for a merchant to provide their customers with a payment processor that is convenient and secure. A good payment processor not only saves time for the customer but also takes less effort in making a successful payment.

Payment processor should be simple and seamless so that the merchant can invest his/her time more in the business plans rather than fixing payment issues. To run a business without much chaos, fewer errors and simple checkouts is like a blessing.

The Need for a Payment Processor

Customer waiting in a long queue to pay for the product at times gets impatient with the delay that increases the chance of the customer leaving the store without purchasing the product. It is important for a merchant to install a fast and reliable payment method in order to increase the sale and buy customers loyalty (if a customer’s experience in your store is comfortable and relaxing, there are chances that the customer will return). For the best customer experience, it is advisable to provide multiple modes of payment (i.e. excepting debit as well as credit cards).

To accept debit or credit card payment, business needs to have a high risk merchant account. Credit card payment processor provides a secure environment to carry out transactions without putting sensitive information of customer at risk. Unlike the traditional way of carrying out financial transactions, the impact of modern payment processor is long-lasting and more effective.

Painless Payment Processing Service

When we talk about payments, the first thing that a merchant would expect is a secure and uncomplicated payment processor. But it is common to come across certain complications like wrong entry, human error, duplicate authorization etc. While dealing with these issues, it is also important to take care of the data security and compliance. So choosing a payment processor that simplifies these complexities rather than increasing the mess is a highly important decision that every merchant has to take.

Payment Processor for Apparels Store

Three things that your payment processor should fulfill are:

1. Connect from anywhere

2. Connect to any payment

3. Connect via the device of your choice

It is important for the merchant to choose a payment processor that provides a comfortable payment experience to his/her customer so that you can win customers trust as well as his loyalty. It is important to understand what your requirements are while choosing a payment processor. Few “must haves” are:

FLEXIBLE PAYMENT PROCESSOR

Payment processor should work in favor of your business and customer, both. It should be well integrated, should reflect working of the business (how business operates), type of payment accepted and back-end system. A highly integrated system works as a lifeline for the merchant and the business.

SCALABLE

Payment processor should be able to cop up with the growth of the business, else merchant will end up in wasting a lot of time, resources and money in the up gradation of payment processor.

SUPPORTIVE

There are times when things do not work as planned. Choose a payment processor provider that is by your side when needed. The provider should be available either by phone or through email or live chat whenever needed.

FINAL WORDS

We at Merchant Stronghold are a leading provider of payment processing services. We have a long list of happy customers who are engaged in the apparel industry and hence, we can do the same for you! Our team understands the unique needs of various industries including clothing and they are the best professionals to meet your business needs.

Gaming Merchant Account & High Risk Business Providers

As of now, the greatest internet gaming markets are generally in the USA. The European online betting industry is fast regardless of a calculation 10 billion Euros. The reason is that a few nations, for example, the US and China confine betting intensely. Or permit it in specific territories like Las Vegas and Macau.

Online Gambling Merchant Services

Online gambling is commonly known as gaming within the merchant services industry. It’s tabbed as high risk by most card processing providers. The reasons are as follows:

• Online gambling businesses feature a high-volume turnover

• Most gaming businesses are based offshore

• If the business is a startup or new, acquiring banks can be put off by the lack of credit and transaction history

Gaming Merchant Account

Merchant Stronghold understands the unique needs of online gaming. Whether it's online casinos, online gambling, online poker, social gaming or skill gaming, our experienced team intimately understands the challenges these businesses endure. Our high risk payment processing expertise can help your legal gaming business acquire merchant accounts and protect those accounts from excessive fraud using proprietary transaction algorithms created to seek out potential chargeback threats before they happen.

Gaming Merchant Account from Merchant Stronghold

Merchant Stronghold specializes in both online gaming merchant accounts and online gaming payment gateways and offers the best gaming merchant account in the industry. merchant stronghold team of experts in online gambling payment processors work closely with providers to ensure you can get the best for your business needs. So while once again we come to the risks involved in gaming, the higher the risks, the more unwilling a majority of the merchant account providers will be and lessen the risks, the more easily they will approve your website for money transactions through them. For the ones with the more risky gaming businesses, Merchant Stronghold gives you the opportunity to partner with us for numerous high risk merchant accounts including gaming merchant accounts. As long as your casino and gambling business can maintain a chargeback rate below 3%, High Risk Merchant Accounts can get you a merchant account geared for either your high ticket or your high volume need. Be sure you can have your merchant account set up in as little as 48 hours.

Most gaming businesses are offshore

If it’s a startup, getting banks can be put off by the absence of credit and exchange history In any case, in the event that you operate in the high risk industry such as gaming and internet betting, you shouldn’t think you can’t secure a merchant account for your business. All you require is to turn to a reputable payment processor like High Risk Payment Gateway & Merchant Account| Merchant Stronghold that specializes in the high risk area and knows your professional business like no one else. Merchant Stronghold specializes in merchant accounts developed specifically for gaming and casino companies.

5 Key Steps to Start Your Own Small Business And Payment Processor Solution

It’s era of technology, an era where most of our needs are fulfilled with just a few clicks. The Internet has made our life way more comfortable than we could imagine a few decades back. With the increase in technology, our lifestyle also changed dramatically and changed the way we do basic tasks. it includes sending emails, banking, purchasing things, contacting people etc. The Internet has brought almost everything at our fingertips. As the use of the internet is increasing, it has provided an opportunity for business owners to grow their business worldwide, to reach customers they could not a few decades back.

For setting up an online business, all you have to do is follow few simple steps and instructions which we will discuss one by one in details and your business will be ready to enter the online world. These days it has become easier than ever to develop & design your own website and have it uploaded either for free or cost that suits your pocket. It is not important to have the complete technical knowledge to develop a website. Let’s move with few basic steps to get you started your online business.

Steps to be followed to open your online business are:

CHOOSING DOMAIN NAME

Choosing the correct domain name is extremely necessary. It is ideal if your domain name is similar to that of your business name or your brand so it is simple for your sponsors and potential customers to find out your website. Once website name is finalized and it is up and running, you have to invest plenty of resources into promoting it and conveyance in traffic. Keep in mind to check the name’s accessibility to check whether the domain name of your choice is free to use or available. If the name is not accessible, don’t get demoralized. Often the owner of the domain name is willing to sell it and it’s simple to work out who owns the name by merely wanting it up in “whois” section on the domain registration portals.

PICK A WEB HOSTING SERVICE

Web hosting services offer space for storing and access to websites. Don’t get attracted by free internet hosts as they put advertising on your website to cover their prices. As a business owner, you must be searching for an internet host that’s esteemed and reliable. Before going for hosting services, it is important to have a rough idea about how much space your website would take and how much traffic you are expecting through your website (web hosts can help you with an estimation). Read the reviews of different clients to perceive how frequently they encounter downtime or technical issues and how rapidly those issues are resolved.

DESIGN YOUR WEBSITE

Website designing was work professional as it was complicated and technology used to design these websites was not that advance as compared to the technology used these days and people had less knowledge about it. Today designing your website is less complicated than ever and can be done by an individual who has little knowledge about it. There are two methods via which you can design your own website:

First is to start from scratch and design your website which will include coding, complete technical knowledge and is very time consuming and can cost you the good amount of money as well.

The second method is way easier. There are plenty of professionally designed templates available, which are either free of cost or cost very less. All you have to do is choose any of the themes to design your website. Few of them also offer the live preview, so that you can check the chosen theme on demo website and ones you finalize the theme for your website add it to your cart and download the file. If you do not want anyone else to use the same theme as yours, you can become the sole owner of it by checking the option.

SHOPPING CART

A Shopping cart is a software that provides facility to p urchase products online and allows accepting payments. Distribution of payment information to the merchant, payment processor, and other parties is also organized by shopping cart software. So it becomes extremely important to choose best shopping cart software. There are mainly three features of shopping cart:

• Product information is stored in it
• Gateway for order and customer management.
• Provides product data and site information for user display

There are two types of carts:

• Hosting Shopping cart (which is hosted and maintained by the third party and it is free of cost but the customer will be directed to the different domain for payment)
• Licensed shopping cart (This is hosted by the business owner and is much more flexible but is costlier)

Payment Processor Solution for your online Business

More payment options you give to your customer, more payment processing you will do. In simple words, if a customer wants to buy a product or service. And, can choose the mode of payment of his/her choice, there are more likely chances that your product will be sold rapidly. Reason being, compared to the scenario where a customer is not comfortable with the method of payment and might search the same product elsewhere.

Payment options you can offer on your website are:

• Credit card
• Debit Card
• eChecks

Once you have got the website going, we’ll be happy to assist you. Let’s set up an online payment solution that’s best for you and your business. Contact us to Merchant Stronghold & find out more.