A high-risk merchant account is the best account a merchant can have if you are in the high-risk pool. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you are high risk, it just means that you have three things against you. One; you are new to the merchant servicer and two; you have no credit to your history and three; you have a business in a high-risk area.
You need to be smart with your high-risk account. Follow their rules and take care of the customers and you can’t fail. Have a sound business plan that you follow and you should do just fine.
Don’t mess with your account
You don’t want to mess with your account or the merchant servicer. They can and will put you into jail. This means, you get filed and at last check, you stay in the file for the next five years. That won’t do you any good for your customers. So, find out what all the rules are for running and servicing your merchant account and follow them.
Don’t have chargebacks
With good customer service, you shouldn’t have chargebacks. You just return the money to the customer on the spot and then your chargebacks don’t happen. Avoid them at all costs. The less you have, the better your account will look to your merchant servicer. The better you look to your merchant servicer, the less likely you end up filed and on the list. It sounds much like you’ve been stuck in the corner by the teacher, but, it has greater consequences than you would ever think.
It could cause you to not ever be able to have another high-risk merchant account with another service. It goes onto your credit as TMF or Terminated Merchant File. That designation will haunt you for well over five years as people look into you for other options down the road. Things change and you just don’t want to have to fight with that forever. So, avoid it at all costs.
Be a smart cookie
You were smart enough to know you wanted to run a business. So, when you set up your merchant account, make sure that you cover all the bases on what you will be selling. You don’t want to be a used clothing store and sell a used car that you took on trade for something. That would put you right up there with an alert and a lot of issues. Whether you meant to or not, you just messed up your account.
So be a smart merchant with your new high-risk account. Follow all the rules and ask questions about your new account. Find out about all the what ‘if’s’ and make certain that you understand what you are getting yourself into. Make sure that you are comfortable with the merchant that you have chosen to be with and understand what their services mean to you.
If you aren’t sure about something, do the smart thing and make sure that you cover all the bases so that you do understand. It can only do you good.