Setting up a merchant account for an online tobacco company is not an easy process. Even if you sell electronic cigarettes, getting approval for a merchant account from a traditional provider can be something of a nightmare. This can severely hinder your ability to process credit card transactions cheaply, forcing you to rely on other payment methods or deal with the high fees imposed by services like Paypal. If you’re a high volume seller or a wholesale provider, high fees can destroy your margins and take a significant chunk out of your profits. So it’s important to find a way to set up a merchant account for your online tobacco business as smoothly and inexpensively as possible.
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In the tobacco industry, getting a merchant account is even harder than it is for many other high risk businesses. Tobacco is a product which has come under a lot of fire in past years because of its health associations, making it highly regulated – with new regulations often being introduced on short notice. Because of the high level of government scrutiny, businesses that sell online cigars, pipe tobacco or electronic cigarettes often have little to no hope of getting a merchant account from 99% of traditional providers.
That’s where services like eMerchantBroker come in handy, which can help you cut through a lot of paperwork and red tape by introducing you to merchant account providers that already deal with other online tobacco businesses, or at least are likely to give your application a fair look. It can be incredibly frustrating going from bank to bank trying to get a merchant account only to be rejected again and again.
Tobacco businesses have a hard enough time getting merchant accounts – when you add the fact that you’re doing business online, the risk factor goes up even further. That’s another contributing factor in the uphill battle to get an account. With eMerchantBroker, you don’t have to deal with the search as it’s already been done for you.
Once you know what options are available to you, you’ll then have to actually decide on the right account and provider. One of the first factors you’ll want to look at is the geographical reach of the provider – are they able to process transactions globally, or just within particular countries? This could have a big influence on which countries you’re able to sell products to and is an important consideration for an online business. Other factors you’ll need to look at are monthly fees and transaction fees.
Other features a merchant account might offer include things like real-time processing. This means credit card transactions will essentially be processed instantly. You may also want to look at factors like these ease and speed of setting up an account. Some providers may take several weeks to set up an account for you, whereas others may only take a day or two and require little paperwork.