With the divorce rate at 50%, it’s not a surprise that you have come across some issues. We all have them, and there’s only one way to fix them; One step at a time.
You’ve come to notice that you could increase your income with debit and credit card processing through a merchant account. You know you have bad credit and you cringe from the embarrassment every time you think of it, but really there is only one trip to make here.
Start by filling out the application
Once you have found the bad credit merchant account you are looking for, you need to follow a few simple steps to clean up your act. Everyone realizes that it takes two to tango, and that means it took two to mess up the credit.
• Begin with your credit report. Find all the mishaps and contact those that you owe.
• Make payment arrangements.
• Begin making payments but only amounts that you can afford to make.
• Don’t overextend yourself. It will only make things worse and you already have worse.
Since you
Since you are working through a bad credit stretch, you may be asked to deal with a trial period. Not everyone has to do this, but likely you will. So, as you are now accepting credit and debit cards, 1% to 9% of each daily transaction will be put into a Reserve account. That amount is destined to sit there. For either three to six months, with a traditional Reserve, or if they give you a month-to-month Reserve….. you get it next month.
Either way, you probably will have some things to budget for. You don’t want to have a shortfall when you need the extra income, to begin with. Isn’t that why you wanted the merchant account to begin with?
As time goes by
As you clean up your credit and things are finally beginning to hum along prolifically, talk to your merchant account servicer. See if they are willing to negotiate with you and lower any of the rates that you are paying. Find out if you can be downgraded to high risk or maybe even all the way to a low-risk account. Things can look up and they can get better.
The divorce wasn’t easy and walking through bad credit isn’t either. Just know, that nothing is forever and you always have options. Just know, that no matter what is going on in your own life, make it a point to continue working on your credit. You know that the better your credit is, the more options in life you will have.
Take a deep breath
So, start at the beginning and take the baby steps that you need to, to correct things. Start with your credit report and work your way through it step by step. Call and make payment arrangements and begin the repairs that have gone awry. Good luck and don’t forget to follow through to finish what you started.