Main Merchant is online

While shopping for an online merchant account it can be pretty hard for laymen to understand the countless costs, rates, fees, and other expenses charged by most merchant service providers. Most of these charges are absolutely legitimate but there are a few that are unnecessary and should be avoided. This includes charges like Gateway Fee, Swipe Terminal Hardware Fee, Programming Fee, Batch Fee/Daily Close-out Fee, Annual Fee, Reserve Fund, Termination/Cancellation Fees, Foreign Card surcharges. Let’s understand what these charges are and how they needlessly add to your expenses.

• Gateway Fee: you may be charged $10-$30 by your merchant account processor for processing credit cards in real time.

• Wipe Terminal Hardware Fee – This basically includes the cost of terminal hardware used in retail transactions. They can expensive and can cost up to $300. If your requirements are simple avoid going the high tech terminal machines.

• Programming Fee – Some service providers charge up to $100 from businessmen who keep changing service providers. You should never agree to pay programming fees.

• Batch Fee/Daily Close-out Fee – Some companies charge a small daily fee of 10 to 20 cents for batching your transactions. This can easily be avoided by shopping for another provider.

• Chargeback Fee – Some merchant service providers charge an obscenely high amount each time a charge is refused by a customer. It may pay off to look for a lower chargeback fee.

• Annual Fee – Annual services have absolutely no justification and are an out an out excuse for minting money by service providers. The annual fees charged by service providers may be as much as $100 per year year.

These are a number of other charges used by service providers to increase their bottom lines and decrease yours. By logging onto Advanced Merchant Services and applying for a merchant account you can easily avoid all these charges. Let’s take the example of termination/cancellation fees. AMS won’t make you sign expensive contracts that will bind you to the company. Advanced Merchant Accounts, has complete confidence in the quality of its services and doesn’t need a punitive contract to keep its customers. Moreover Advanced Merchant Services also gives a free credit card terminal to all people applying for a merchant account. This gives you the option not paying hundreds of dollars for a hardware terminal. There are several other charges that you can avoid with AMS.

In the world of online sales, there are a lot of things written on the page but are left unread between the lines. In other words, you go about selling your products and services but there are lots of things high risk merchant account providers don’t tell you. Not because they could not or would not, but because they would not discuss the issues with you until you have experienced them. A good example is going through possible freezing of your merchant account.

If, as a high risk merchant, you have not exerted an effort to make a research concerning frozen accounts, then you’re in BIG trouble. I’ll keep it short. Once your merchant account is frozen, your present and future business is put under horrible risk. First, because you will lose the ability to process credit cards online. Second, you will be denied merchant account if you applied for another one. You certainly cannot allow this to happen and it will never if you are smart enough to take preventive measures.

VOLUME LIMIT EXCESS

Okay, so what gives? You would think if you made a mistake in stating your processing limits or average ticket size, there is an easy way to get out of the mess. But underwriters and high risk merchant account providers are realistic. If you make more profit than you have actually stated during the assessment period, you will be likely incurring more chargebacks. When this happens, your underwriter is liable to pay the issuing bank the losses. Obviously, the little mistake you made spelled trouble to your provider.

How do you prevent this? Find a high risk merchant account provider that is flexible with your monthly processing volume limit. This means that as soon as your ticket size grows, you can negotiate an adjustment on the discount rate and other fees.

NICHE PRODUCT/SERVICE FLEXIBILITY

Another issue that will most likely cause you trouble with your merchant account provider is your niche product or service. This is pretty easy to figure out and it’s lot like choosing a domain name. Define your product or service in the broadest way possible. Pick pharmaceuticals instead of hoodia. That way if you expand your catalog or change into a different but related product/service in the industry, then it will be easier for the provider to adjust.

REFUNDS

This issue will speak for itself. Is giving refunds to your customers a bad practice? Sure it may hurt your business, but a business also has to maintain a good reputation. One way to keep it is to make sure dissatisfied customers are able to return your products and get their money back, if only because you would want them to buy again and not spread ill words about your company. Above all, you do not want them to commit fraud against your business.

BACKUP ACCOUNT

Two merchant accounts? To some business owners, having one alone can be a pain especially with high discount rates. But there’s also an advantage in obtaining a back up merchant account. There is if your business relies solely in processing credit cards online! If one provider halts processing or encounters a glitch, you have support that will not put inconvenience to your business or customers. Having a backup merchant account is quite tricky but it always serves its purpose.

Frozen merchant accounts are horrible for your business. Now is the time you find out the issues with your high risk merchant account provider before your business goes down the drain!