The popularity of Paypal, a service which requires consumers to set up accounts similar to an online banking institution, kept many online businesses from opening Internet Merchant Accounts for the benefit of their customers. Disadvantages to using the Paypal system were soon evident, however, as bad experiences with the system were publicized by both merchants and consumers. The stigma of a flawed system was not the only consideration for Internet shoppers and online businesses, however. Many consumers were unwilling to use a system that required setting up an account, memorizing yet another password and using a third party to transmit credit card or bank account information.

The level of convenience available to consumers declined sharply as a result of having to navigate a completely new and often confusing separate web site in order to make a simple transaction. On the merchant side of the equation, the realization that Paypal offered no additional fraud protection and charged rates very similar to and often higher than merchant services providers has caused many to second guess it’s usefulness. Of particular concern is that there is simply no way to determine the amount of lost sales due to consumer hesitation aimed at opening a Paypal account.

Consumers generally feel more comfortable using payment formats that mirror those used by their neighborhood retailers. When purchasing small items especially, many will not go through the trouble of spending an additional five to ten minutes online in order to purchase an item that only costs a few dollars. While the prices of these items may be small, the losses incurred by business owners who don’t offer a tried and true merchant account system can be substantial.

Ed Quinton is a certified iPhone merchant accounts instructor and assists credit card processing companies.

Characteristically, it’s very hard for high risk and non-US businesses to obtain a merchant account. High risk merchant accounts offered by different service providers allow International Merchants to privately process their credit card transactions and have the proceeds sent to an offshore bank account. The fees are higher for offshore/high risk credit card processing.

Credit card processors are likely to reject you if your business is considered Online. The aim is to locate a credit card processor that gets you approved and has you up and accepting credit cards quickly and efficiently, with either a high risk merchant account or an international merchant account.

Examples of high risk merchant accounts include pharmaceuticals, telemarketing, infomercials, travel industries, online dating, replica, gaming etc. Some of these are considered more high risk than others.

High risk merchant accounts are available with international banks. A merchant has to do the following to obtain a direct account if their merchant account is considered high risk:

1. Incorporated in the bank’s jurisdictions (this requirement is based on credit card operating regulations)
2. Have 6 months of existing processing history (preferable the last 6 months)
3. Chargebacks in the last 6 months must be less than 1 %.
4. Pay the required set up fees
5. Provide principal’s passport, business incorporation documents – some jurisdictions require a local nominee director’s passport and a utility bill of the nominee director. This is done to avoid cross border issues.
6. The merchant website has to be in compliance to Visa and MasterCard requirements

These merchant accounts can also be classified as offshore high risk merchant accounts, international merchant accounts, and high volume merchant accounts.

The other option if you do not have processing history and you do not want pay the expensive of incorporation in the bank’s jurisdiction, you can always get a third party merchant account. A third party merchant account’s underwriting is less stringent and is set up much faster than a direct account.

Ed Quinton is a certified online credit card processing instructor and assists internet merchant account companies.