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Accept Online Payments with an Internet Merchant Account

With consumers spending every minute online, it would be an understatement to say e-commerce businesses are flourishing. When planning on buying a product or service, our first instinct is to check for it online. Keeping up with the trend, many brick and mortar businesses have started selling their products online too.

With running an e-commerce business arise the need to accept online payments too. Customers want variety, be it in products or payment options. With credit card payments on the rise, offering seamless online payment options will make sure merchants don’t lose out on those sales.

Whether you are a physical store selling products online, an established ecommerce business looking to expand payment options or a start-up online store, here’s what you need to accept online payments – Internet Merchant Account.

What is an Internet Merchant Account?

Internet Merchant Account is an absolute necessity if you want to accept credit or debit card payments through your e-commerce store. The account allows you to accept payments via your website.

An internet merchant account has the same features as an ordinary merchant account. Except, with an internet merchant account you can run online transactions in real time.

A merchant account offers two types of transactions, “card-present” and “card-not-present”. Internet Merchant Account, also known as E-commerce Merchant Account, falls into the second category. Just like how a brick-and-mortar store can accept payments by swiping their cards through a POS terminal, an internet merchant account authorizes online payments by allowing customers to simply enter their card details into your website to make the necessary transaction.

Bank or Merchant Account Provider

If you already have a merchant account, you can ask your bank to provide you an internet merchant account or switch to ‘card-not-present’ transactions to start taking online payments. The other option is to obtain complete merchant account solutions from an independent merchant account provider.

While it is instinctual and only logical to stick to your current provider, banks are usually much stringent with the application and approval process, especially if your business is relatively new.

A merchant account provider offers customized solutions tailor-made to suit your payment requirements. Chances of getting your business approved with such providers are also greater whether you are new merchant or an established one, regardless of your business type or industry.

Whichever way you choose to go, your business will be assessed for risk, credit history and legitimacy during the underwriting process.

It is strongly advised against using a standard merchant account to process online payments since it follows different set of policies and requirements. Providers can shut your account in such cases.

Check out top-rated merchant account providers such as Instabill, International Bank Services (IBS), Vantiv, TSYS, etc. that offer complete expert online payment processing solutions.

Merchant Account & Payment Gateway

Do I require a payment gateway as well? No, it is not necessary to integrate a payment gateway to an internet merchant account since you can process transactions using credit card processing software. But here payments are not processed in real time with merchants manually entering card details resulting in delay in transactions.

Merchant account accepts payments while payment gateway processes it. Without an internet merchant account, your payments option will be redirected and processed through another site. This can be a long, tedious process as well as not entirely secure.

On the other hand, an internet payment gateway complete with a payment gateway proves to be the best solution. With an internet merchant account the funds are held in your own account and a payment gateway is what you need to authenticate and process credit card payments in real time, the entire transaction process happening on your own website is an added advantage.

Choosing either an internet merchant account or a payment gateway or both should depend on the type of business you operate and your monthly sales volume.

There are several providers, such as IBS, offering internet merchant account with an integrated secure payment gateway.

Propel your business & streamline your payments with an Internet Merchant Account. Do not compromise & choose wisely!

Open a Merchant Account for Bad Credit

Each merchant account provider follows different criteria while approving a merchant account. But if you go through the basic requisites needed to fulfill in order to get approved for a merchant account, having a positive credit rating is one of them.

Merchant account providers are wary of accepting businesses with low or poor credit ratings due to risks of high chargeback threats and frauds.

Checking Credit History

Major Banks and merchant account providers are required to do a background check once you apply for an account. Background checks entail reviewing personal credit history or business credit history or sometimes, both.

A personal bad credit can usually be approved under certain conditions. If you are a limited company or corporation, your business credit history will be reviewed, not your personal credit.

If your credit rating history does not meet the provider’s eligibility requirements, obtaining a merchant account will be difficult. In some cases, you may be offered a limited merchant account.

A credit check entails reviewing debt history, whether the past debts are paid or not. The credit history of the business, the owner as well as the business partners will be checked.

Fees – Higher the risk, higher the cost

With the risk associated to merchants with poor ratings, fees can be a concern for merchants. Merchant account providers charge a higher processing fee to bad credit merchants.

Fees can also be based on the industry your business operates under. Bad credit merchants are categorized under the high-risk industry due to obvious reasons. A high-risk business merchant will have an even difficult time getting approved. The costs will also be significantly higher for such merchants.

However, you can negotiate and adjust the fees with positive and long-term processing relationship with your merchant account provider.

Merchants also need to be careful and discuss any hidden or extra fees that may be charged by the merchant account provider. Make sure to ask around and exhaust your options before accepting a high processing rate.

Bad Credit Merchant Account

Are you having difficulty obtaining a merchant account because of poor credit ratings or previous bankruptcy? Do not worry! There are several reputable merchant account providers willing to take on your business.

Many bad credit merchants are concerned about compromising and receiving limited payment processing services from providers. However, you need not worry about getting limited facilities as there are merchant account providers offering a variety of payment options and services. Bad Credit Merchant Account solutions offered are on par with standard merchant accounts and sometimes, even better.

Choose a fitting bad credit merchant account for your business and serve your customer better!

How to get a High Volume Merchant Account

Business thrives on sales. The sole purpose of operating a business is to make a profit.

There are merchants who start with a limited number of sales and grow over time whereas, other businesses sell large ticket items, to begin with. While processing a high amount of transactions is a dream for any merchant, obtaining a merchant account to process can be an obstacle. It is, especially, difficult for high-ticket product merchants to secure a merchant account simply due to their business type and being categorized under the high-risk industry.

Merchant account providers usually set a limit to the number of transactions that can be processed monthly. Once it hits the monthly limit, a merchant cannot process further sales. The merchant has to essentially stop taking in sale orders until the following month.

With the current competitive market businesses also need to ensure growth in sales in order to survive. Business cannot afford to miss out on valuable customers. No merchant wants to hit stagnancy.

Chargeback Risks

When obtaining a merchant account, merchant account providers set an average upper limit on transactions for a business. Setting a processing limit is a necessity for merchant account providers. Reason being, a limited processing volume protects processors against an increase in chargebacks.

Friendly frauds are frequent in the industry. Unusually large amount of transactions raises the probability of high chargeback ratios, fraudulent sales, scammers and other fraud activities. The risks associated with these businesses are what make it difficult to get a standard merchant account for high volume merchants.

What is a High Volume Merchant Account?

High Volume Merchant Account is a merchant account wherein a merchant can process high-ticket items or a large number of transactions on a monthly basis.

If a merchant consistently crosses the upper limit set by the processor, there is a threat to their funds being put on hold. A merchant account that specializes in high volume transaction processing proves to be the perfect fit for such merchants. Features offered by high volume merchant account are similar to a basic merchant account.

High volume merchant accounts are beneficial for merchants planning on expanding their business. Merchants need not worry about rejecting sales after surpassing a certain amount with the maximum processing volume being available to you.

Involvement of large-ticket items, being considered vulnerable to frauds and chargeback risks, high volume merchant account are provided with an extra level of security than a regular merchant account.

Obtain a High Volume Merchant Account

Getting approved for a high volume merchant account requires your business to be proven legitimate with a low or no chargeback history.

Also, it is extremely necessary for a merchant to discuss the business processing volume with a potential merchant account provider before taking a decision.

Sometimes, a merchant may apply for high volume merchant account but will be granted an account with a certain processing limit. In such cases with longevity, trust and low chargeback ratios, a merchant should build a positive transaction history with its processor and negotiate the limit over time. The longer you process, more the chances of increasing the limit. A high volume merchant can request increasing the processing caps in typically 3 months.

Turn to high volume merchant account specialists such as IBS and get multi-feature benefits and top-notch services customized to meet your business demands.