An excellent idea, good entrepreneurship skills and a strong financial backing just don’t complete the equation. One must be a big risk taker to want to venture into a high-risk business.
To excel at high risk payment processing, you must identify and mitigate the risk factors plaguing your specific industry. Failure to do so can mean trouble, both legally and financially—and threaten to ruin your connection with clients.
So what’s the challenge for high risk merchant categories and which industries can benefit from payment processing?
Payment Processing for High Risk Merchants
Traditional banks and payment providers would rather stay away from high-risk businesses. These “high-risk factors vary from one institution to another but these five will mean an automatic risky classification;
- High chargeback risks
- Dealing in products that call for age-verification.
- Selling items in high tick sales & volume.
- Industry reputation, such as high fraud incidents
Some businesses won’t even classify as risky until they run into problems in the processing process (e.g. accumulate chargebacks) and everyone else considers them risky.
Merchant Industries that Can Benefit from High Risk Merchant Services
A high-risk business is not eligible for a low-risk merchant account which makes the search process different for risky merchants.
Not all merchant account providers serve risky businesses. In fact, you want to narrow down to a service that has a history with merchants in your sector.
These payment processing enablers understand the unique needs of your business and may tailor custom-made offerings that support your business model.
Merchant account & payment processing relationships with any other vendors may start well, only to end in account terminations and a ruined business.
This often happens because such payment enablers lack the right skills to deal with certain high-risk business models.
In contrast, many partners who’ve served an industry before know the risks involved and will monitor new businesses closely to ensure they survive and grow.
Examples of sectors that can benefit from high-risk services include;
- Nutraceutical
- Adult and Entertainment
- Vape And E-Cigarette
- Subscription Box
- Firearms
These five merchant account offers are hot and trending as they have grown popular over the past decade. Any other business labelled high-risk must search in the right place and follow best practices.
Conclusion
Small high-risk merchants must spend quality time searching for the right partner. Ensure your service provider offers enough support because, above all, you need guidance as you begin high risk payment processing.