Best High Risk Merchant Account Solutions

Online businesses, by definition, incorporate more risk to the credit card processor than conventional businesses. These businesses are considered high risk merchants because of high sales volumes and the susceptibility to fraud due to the "card not present" environment. High risk merchants can earn high processing volume and revenue but often encounter difficulty accepting online payments due to a lack of processors willing to accept certain industry risks. Any businesses with one or more of the following characteristics can be categorized as a high risk merchant business:

• The merchant is not registered as required by law.
• The merchant is blacklisted by merchant account providers/credit card processing companies for reasons of bankruptcy, fraudulent dealings, etc.
• The merchant's credit history is inconsistent. (Bad/Poor Credit, Low Fico Score)
• The merchant's business is in any of the following industries: telemarketing, travel, online pharmacy, gaming, ticketing, entertainment, downloadable software, adult, credit repair, loan modification, etc.
• The merchant generates large volumes of sales resulting in a large number of transactions; this is likely to lead to increased instances of fraud and numerous charge-backs.
• The merchant processes an insignificant volume of sales and fewer numbers of transactions. Such a business may not be able to afford the heavy expenses involved with the purchase of fraud screening software/tools and other miscellaneous features as well as making payments required towards third party processor fees.

Who Are the High Risk Merchant Companies?

• Adult entertainment, XXX, Adult Book Stores
• Travel, Tours, Timeshare Advertising & Relief
• Pharmacy, Mail Order Pharmacies, Pet Med Pharmacy
• Online Casinos and Gaming, Fantasy Sports
• Documentation Prep, Doc Prep Student Loan Merchants
• Interest Rate Reductions, Loan Modification, Refinancing
• Real Estate REOs, Foreclosure Relief, Debt Reduction
• Auto Title Loans, Payday Loans, Check Cashing Storefronts
• PC Tech Support, Computer Repair, Virus Removal
• Advertising & Marketing Companies, SEO Businesses
• Credit Restoration and Credit Repair Business
• Telemarketing, Call Centers
• CBD Oil Merchants, Medical Marijuana, Kratom Retailers, HCG Diet Drops
• Tobacco and E-Cigarettes, Glass Retailers, Smoke Shops, Retail Head Shops
• Debt Settlement Companies, Debt Buyers Collection Agency
• Male Enhancement, Diet Pills, Weight Loss Supplements
• ISP and Hosting services
• Large Ticket Items, Big Transaction Tickets, High Monthly Volume
• Discount Membership Clubs, Vacation Clubs
• Escort Agencies, Online Dating Services

Businesses in these industries are not automatically considered high risk merchants. The degree of risk varies from one merchant to another depending on a host of factors, including banking or aggregation parameters.

Business Types Classifications

• Online merchants are often considered a risky bet. If there is a business without a physical office it would be an even riskier situation according to the conventional merchant account providers. Though e-commerce has now gained a lot of popularity, there is also a significant rise in the number of fraudulent activities on the internet. And this causes the online merchants to be seen as high risk. Also when there is the option for refund and returns, then it might result in chargebacks. This is again something that most credit card processors would not like to underwrite or approve.
• A Start-up/Business with little to no credit history also falls in the high risk category.
• Industry to which the business belongs is another consideration as some industries are, by default, considered to be high risk.
• Companies with poor credit scores and very bad performance in the past, including delayed payments.
• If there was an instance in the past where a merchant provider had stopped supporting the business due to exorbitant chargeback’s.
• Subscription based services are considered risky.
• There are also some countries that have a reputation of leading to high chargebacks and any business operating in these regions would also be denied and shut out by most popular credit card processors.
• Businesses with multi-currency processing requirements.

Been Denied, Declined or Closed?

The dependable option for any such high risk business, any business that falls in any of the above category, would be to approach a high risk merchant account provider like we are. The high risk merchant providers such as HighRisk PaymentService will operate by working with multiple underwriting banks. With a high risk merchant account you would be able to get the option to for processing most of the popular credit cards. They would also be able to cater to businesses that operate with the popular shopping carts like Shopify, Wordpress, Woocommerce, Wix, Magento, BigCommerce, NMI,Authorize.net, USAEPAY, Volusion, and 3DCart and the likes. With the experience in handling a variety of high risk businesses the merchant processor would have the right strategies to tackle the situations where there are high chargebacks and long delays in payments.