There are very few individuals and companies that kept struggling to keep afloat during the past recession that do not have more than one hiccup on their credit reports. Some people maxed out their credit cards and were slow in making payments. They did make payments – but not fast enough or enough money to cover the minimum due. Some were forced into bankruptcy protection while others suffered tax liens. Any of these can market you as a high risk because of bad credit. If you want to process credit and debit cards in your business, you need a bad credit merchant account.
So what is a merchant account? In all reality, it is like a credit card with a line of credit. The merchant fills out an application and states that he will accept credit cards for $7,500 in sales per month. He wants a $7,500 line of credit because the processor will be settling and depositing money into the merchant’s checking account before the processor gets paid for the transaction. So the processor is trusting that the sale is good and that payment from the card issuer will be forthcoming.
There are several things to know about a bad credit merchant account. First, you need to deal with a high risk specialist. Conservative processors and traditional banks are looking at your credit score and your past failures. A high risk specialist like EMerchantBroker.com does not place as much weight on your credit score. EMB looks at your future. Their approval rate is over 95%.
Much like a credit card, you want to be careful with your new bad credit merchant account. If you applied for $7,500 in billing each month and when you begin to accept cards you run $7,500 in receipts through in two days you are not raising a red flag, you are waving a red blanket in front of a bull. This is a sign that you either did not know what you were doing when you opened your account or something fishy is going on. Payment processors are like high school principals. They have seen it all and heard it all. The odds of trying to beat the system are stacked against you so do not even try.
The good news is that you can use your bad credit merchant account to rebuild your credit and get your life back in order. Once your processor sees that you are indeed a responsible business person there may be some discounts or perks available when you renew your service.
EMB does not charge an application fee and many times bad credit merchant accounts can be approved in as little as 24 hours. For you, there is no risk in applying.