Multiple High Risk Merchant Accounts – What’s the Catch?

On the surface, it may appear as if having multiple accounts for high risk payment processing is going to cost you more. Everyone tends to look at it that way. The fact of the matter, however, is that multiple accounts can actually help you cut processing costs in the long term.

Here’s a compilation of the merchant account benefits you can avail by opening multiple high risk merchant accounts.

Use the best high risk merchant account for a particular payment processing method

There are two main types of credit card payment processing methods namely ‘credit card not present’ and ‘credit card present.’ Using the specific merchant account for high risk business is going to help you save a great deal of money on unnecessary service surcharges. You should stick to one type of account only if and only if more than 95% of all payments processed are of one type.

Use profitable high risk merchant accounts for multiple websites

If your company runs multiple websites where customers are likely to make credit card payments, it’s advisable to have a different high risk merchant account for every unique URL. Charge backs received against a single account can be overwhelmingly large if it’s used for processing credit card payments on multiple e-commerce portals.

Let customers pay in more than one currency

Even the best high risk merchant account available today is not going to help you receive payments in more than 2 or 3 currencies at most. In most cases, banking institutions do not support that. If your business is targeting a global audience, it’s important that your website can receive payments in US dollars, Australian dollars, Indian Rupees, Yens and Euros at least!

Be prepared for the worst

Various rules and regulations for Visa and MasterCard credit card processing mechanisms change after routine intervals. On many occasions, banks too change their policies. In near future, if an unexpected change in policy, regulation or misinterpreted information leads to termination of your account, you should be in a position to continue receiving payments without any hiccups. That’s when multiple high risk merchant accounts for businesses can come really handy!

Successfully lower the overall risk factor

Banking institutions consider credit card payment volumes over a certain figure as ‘highly risky.’ Many banks, for example, would perceive payment volumes totaling over 10 grand as very risky and either refuse to extend services or levy excessive surcharges. With multiple accounts at your disposal, it is possible to ‘legally’ reduce the overall volume against each account and thus, lower the perceived ‘risk factor’ too!