Are you a responsible business owner who still can’t get a loan or merchant account? Many legitimate businesses are unable to get merchant accounts because they are classified as “high risk.” Even if they do find a bank for payment processing, they may ask for a higher processing rate to counteract the perceived risk. Some banks can even request a reserve on credit card processing. High risk businesses may reconsider signing with traditional payment processors anyway as some may demand to see a positive history in credit card processing before lowering excessive rates. This would require you to show a six month or year of low chargebacks, which may be impossible to reach.
Some businesses do not know they are high risk. Unfortunately, there are many profitable organizations that are considered high risk like:
- Gaming
- Bad Credit Assistance
- Nutraceutical
- Credit Repair
- Telecommunications
- Warranty
- Technical Support
- Travel
- eBooks
- Electronics
- Airlines
- Adult Industry
At first glance, some of these industries don’t seem high risk. But over the years they have developed this label due to high chargebacks, cancellations, and high rates of customer dissatisfaction. A business can also be classified for other reasons outside of an unstable industry. For example, a business can be classified as high risk if the business owner has a low credit score. Perhaps the company does a lot of work with customers overseas, or has poor customer service.
Some of these issues can be resolved by changing business processes that ensure customers are happy or that dishonest customers are caught when committing fraud. For example, companies should make sure their products are legitimate or post disclaimers that state products may or may not work. This gives the company grounds to deny responsibility if a product purchased by the customer does not do what it is supposed to do and limit chargebacks.
Either way, responsible owners can easily be put over a barrel by payment processors who charge excessive fees just to handle high risk businesses. The high risk merchant account managers of eMerchantBroker.com specialize in creating and maintaining high risk merchant accounts that traditional payment processors often deny or punish with excessive fees. Contact us today to learn more about low hassle high risk account management with EMB.