High Risk Merchant Account Guidelines

In spite of which companies and/or banks you could interview as prospective merchant processors for your credit-card payments, be sure you ask the next questions:

Find out the total Setup Costs involved. - Confirm specifically just what the grand total upfront costs will be, including any initial costs that you'll incur throughout the first few months of processing.

Find out the total Monthly Costs that apply. - In particular, you will need to ask about any "monthly minimums" that might apply. This may often add $20-25/month in additional cost. Make sure you ask "if I processed $0 in sales, what would my grand total monthly billing amount be?"

Find out if there is any Yearly Fee or Yearly Cost. - Some processors charge a yearly fee after just the very first 1-2 months of service. Others charge fees all the way to $95-$150/year and place this within the fine print of the contract.

Find out the Per Transaction Costs in Detail. - You really need to make certain that you understand the "Per Trans/Item" costs and additionally any AVS, batch header or gateway per transaction items.

Ask what "Downgrade Fees" apply. - It really is not uncommon for some accounts to have 3 Tiers - Qualified, Mid-Qualified and Non-Qualified. Unfortunately, you will find often *many* transactions billed out at the Mid-Qualified level which could significantly impact your total cost. A 2 Tier program is thus preferable but make sure you ask what % of transactions are billed at each level statistically.

Ask how Chargebacks & excellent high risk merchant provider Management issues are handled. - This is a *critical* operational area that effects many merchants and any company should be able to tell you in great detail how it handles these kinds of issues. For example, do they automatically notify you via email? Or merely mail out rebuttals in U.S. mail that may delay your ability to return a rebuttal?

Do your Due Diligence and see what other merchants have experienced using that processor. - Keep in mind, the very best predictor of future results is a processor's current background with virtually all its merchants!

Often, the answers to these questions may surprise you. You will discover an enormous range of businesses that just "go with their bank" for merchant processing and find yourself paying the cost. Just while you shopped for bank accounts you need to too shop for merchant processors.