The Subscription Economy continues to show signs of robust health and growth. Zuora, a leading cloud-based subscription management platform has released the biannual “Subscription Economy Index” which measures the health of subscription businesses and its impact on the overall economy. In the last seven years, the companies that were featured from North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific have seen their sales explode to over 300%.
It is clear that these companies above have done something right to secure the trust and the patronage of their customers. However, just as there are trust-worthy players in the world of subscriptions services, there are some unsavory characters who are wanting their piece of this lucrative pie, at the cost of unsuspecting consumers.
Continuity billing is a term used to describe an online marketing scam used by merchants to lure consumers to enter their credit card information on their website to make a small purchase. The problem is that they continue billing or having a recurring bill for an amount they never authorized.
This type of scam has seen explosive growth, mainly due to the forgetfulness of consumers. With more people leading busier lives, the tendency is for them not to scour their credit card statements for any suspicious charges. Some simply pay their bills and go about their days. Meanwhile, these scam artists take full advantage of these time-starved victims.
Another weak link that these unethical merchants use to catch consumers is provide excessively long and complicated financing, account, and privacy policies in very fine print. Hurried consumers typically and blindly agree to the terms without actually reading them.
Due to the aforementioned practices, and the higher rate of chargebacks and friendly fraud, subscription services have inevitably fallen into the “high-risk” category and would find it difficult to secure a merchant account.
Luckily, there is a high risk merchant account service provider who is capable and fully equipped to handle the needs of subscription merchants, and that is EMB.
EMB offers dependable and secure credit card processing, ACH processing, secure payment gateways, integrated fraud protection, and chargeback mitigation programs.
Fees associated with high-risk industries tend to be higher yet EMB offers the industry standard rate for its merchants.
Also, it is standard practice for high risk merchants to acquire merchant accounts with monthly caps on their credit card processing volumes. This translates to merchants being limited to a certain number of credit card transactions per month. Once this number is reached, the merchant is unable to gain new sales and would need to wait for the following month. This inevitably kills growth and the bottom line.
With EMB, merchants can prove they are able to conduct business with low chargeback ratios and no outstanding bills, thereby getting these caps lifted in as little as three months.
It all begins with filling out a simple online application. Although EMB does not offer a guaranteed approval, it does provide a completely honest and open application process. Plus, approvals can take in as little as 24 hours.
Merchants must make sure that they do have certain elements in place before they apply for a high risk merchant account. They must have a secure, working website, have a chargeback ratio below 2%, and bank statements, just to name a few.
EMB is ready to answer any questions you have and are ready to help you navigate your way through the merchant account process. Their knowledge and professionalism is what has earned them an A+ Rating with the BBB.