Quote:
Originally posted by Kimmykim
They all speak English? Um, that's interesting to say the least lol ;)
Getting a merchant account requires a few things - either a previous history with a merchant account or some qualifications to get a first one.
They will need corporate info, personal info, your company and personal credit will be checked.
If you are approved you will put up a particular amount of money for reserve, based on what you estimate your transaction volume to be monthly, and if you don't have the cash some times they will allow you to put up a % of your gross initially to cover the reserve.
You will also have a cap, or limit to the amount of volume you can do per month on your account -- and when you hit that amount you cannot run more transactions until the next period. You are also responsible for all your own risk management and customer service, though you may contract either or both out to another company, including the one that helps you acquire the account.
ANYONE claiming to have true 5967 processing without either reserves, caps or to have exceptionally low discount rates is either lying or taking you for a ride in the end, since that simply does not occur.
The very same Visa compliance department that Martin E runs handles own merchant account people just like they do the IPSP accounts.
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Yes, it was nice to be able to understand customer support and not have to keep saying "excuse me?" or "can you repeat that, I did not understand you". Sometimes those accents from India trip me up
I had a limit on the amount of volume I could do, but when I had to triple that one month on a single transaction, I called in advance, explained the situation, etc, and they didn't put the funds on hold and it went smoothly. They had told me risk management "may" put the funds on hold for up to 6 months, but I also told them I could send them previous merchant statements showing this customer doing up to $10,000 in one shot so I think they believed me
I was offered a discount rate of around 2% from someone and didn't even investigate it -- it sounded too good to be true and probably was.
I didn't have to put up a reserve as I had an 8-year history with a previous processor and very low chargeback rate, but the processor told me if you have good credit, they don't require a reserve for the most part, but of course, each case is on an individual basis.
I got a fairly decent discount rate considering the business I'm in, and it's up for review after 6 months at which time I was told it could drop 'significantly' based on sales volume, chargebacks (none so far) etc.
(my application went to 2 processors, the one I went with and another who wanted $15 grand up-front but a very low discount rate AND $200 chargeback fees!!!)