5 Free Merchant Account Mistakes Merchants Make

Nobody’s perfect.

And in the world of business, mistakes are made on the way to success that can either hinder or delay the “planned success” of a business and never has this been truer than for an ecommerce business. Merchants are too quick sign contracts or agreements from ecommerce “helpers” such as free merchant accounts.

Free merchant accounts are not the culprit here. And this wasn’t meant to point a finger on who’s to blame.

Before entering into any business – whether retail, MOTO, or Internet – agreements & contracts are always present. Some merchants who see free on the paper don’t account the fine print on the contract. That’s one of the downfall of merchants. After a month or two, they go running back to their providers with contracts in hand, only to admit defeat that they have no escape from the dreaded contract.

So what are the common mistakes merchants make when getting a free merchant account? Educate yourself on some you can easily avoid:

They don’t look out for hidden charges/fees

As long as summer days are long, and nights are short, so will anybody who’s ever been in business has to make money – and free merchant accounts providers are no exception. It’s sooo cliche, but there is seriously no such thing as free lunch. Merchants can avoid committing this mistake by asking for all charges and fees they might incur when they start processing. This includes but isn’t limited to the discount rate, transaction fees, and monthly processing fees.

They don’t poke around the FINE print.

Our rates are FREE! Often, just a mention of the word free and anyone in the FREE world will scurry to see what they can get without giving. Unfortunately in business, this isn’t the case. Some can give you free coupons but you have to buy the whole newspaper, or get a free lunch but pay for dinner – the point being merchants easily see the word free but they don’t poke around the FINE print. If there’s another word starting with F that merchants should be wary of – it should be Fine with the word PRINT to follow.

They don’t ask when they can access funds

Your merchant account provider should free you of restrictions when it comes to having access to your funds/revenue 24/7/365. Start scouting fast for a new one if they impose restrictions.

They don’t make a background check of the company

Everywhere there’s a thief. It’s up to you to make the necessary precautions. Whether it’s a credit card processing provider, a payment gateway, or a shopping cart, always make background checks. The features of Web 2.0 has made the world a smaller place, as well as placed consumer information within reach. Easily you can get free reviews of merchant accounts, payment gateways, the latest news on celebrities, and what-nots within seconds!

They don’t look for freebies

Although there is no such thing as free lunch, there is such a thing as appetizer! Consider the freebies offered by free merchant account providers as appetizers – free setup, application fees, monthly fees, etc, depending on your provider, can be tasty and make you want to get ahead with the whole meal – or service. Of course, as a merchant you should always be on the look out for providers who normally change their freebie offerings from time to time and take the best deal out there.

When you get an offer sheet, it helps to be a bit skeptical. Don’t look at it with doe eyes – innocent and believing every word spouted by the agent. Knowledge is also powerful – with it, you can attack the agent with a barrage of questions. If you feel they haven’t successfully answered your questions, then start shouting… NEXT PLEASE!

It’s your business after all.

Top 3 Free Merchant Account Security Features

Search for free merchant account in your favorite search engine & most probably, the numbers will come up to more than just a million. In fact, Google alone has 41 million sites for those keywords & half of them are actual free merchant account providers.

If you’re a small start up merchant, you might want to get a free merchant account – however with those numbers looming on your screens, how do you separate the ones that are effective from the ones that are just plain scams?

Free merchant account providers offer a lot of “freebies”, hence the term free. It could either be a free terminal, free set up, or free application fees. Despite the dizzying amount of freebies, one has to stop & see what else they can offer to make merchants’ businesses more productive & cost-effective – how about security tools?

Security measures used by free merchant account providers protects merchants from fraudulent transactions. Billions of dollars are lost every year to these ecommerce criminals, & more often than not, small merchants are the ones feeling the pinch.

How do merchant account providers secure online transactions? Here are the top 3 ways to secure on line transactions:

1. AVS (Address Verification Service)

This pretty nifty security measure is helpful to Internet merchants. For card-not-present transactions, customers are asked for their billing address & this is verified against the address on the file of the card issuer. In case they don’t match, the merchant receives a response code & it’s up to the merchant whether to continue or stop the transaction.

2. CVV2 (Card Security Number Confirmation)

Developed by Mastercard, CVV2 or Card Validation Code 2 is a three digit code you can see printed on the signature panel of MasterCard cards. Merchants can verify in real time whether the customer has an actual card in possession for card-not-present transactions. These codes are never stored by merchants, so customers are assured of their protection as well.

3. 3-D Secure Code

This XML (Extensible Markup Language) protocol was developed by Visa, & later on adopted by MasterCard. Each card has its own password & card-holders can only continue with the transactions if they provide the passwords for their cards. Free merchant account providers display proudly on their sites “Verified by Visa & MasterCard SecureCode”, as a selling point to merchants.

Merchants can also reduce the risk of fraud with a few common-sense tips:

Call the customer to verify the order first before any shipping occurs. Fraudsters order numerous items that they can’t keep track of what they purchased online or even remember the information they provided for the transaction.
Customers will develop a purchasing pattern over time; be on guard for sudden changes.
Take note of merchandise prone to fraud – priority shipments of these items is a tell-tale sign of fraud.
Receipts. Receipts. Receipts. Always keep them safely stored.

By making a conscious effort to secure transactions, & with the help of the security measures used by free merchant account providers, merchants can avoid fraud. When choosing a provider, don’t just rely on what’s free for the taking – make sure what you’re getting is not only economical, but something to enhance productivity & revenue – & in the ecommerce market, security can make or break your business.

Offshore High Risk Merchant Account

Get the experience from not just a seller of a high risk offshore merchant account – but a merchant who has been thru all the hoops and has seen everything from “both sides”.

The risks of offshore high risk merchant accounts

Most sellers of such high risk merchant account are delivering low-grade products – or simply take your money and run away (this has happened to me several times in the past). These sellers have never processed 1 single cent themselves from credit cards – and therefore do not know (or care) about the requirements of a merchant. They only know how to sell a useless “solution” that will go down after 1-2 months of use.

These days the scam artist make your account run for 2 months and then suddenly it gets closed – and then you never see the funds from the last 3-5 weeks processing – plus the standard 10% reserve that you normally should get back after 6 months.

A new variation of this scam is that the high volume high risk merchant account processor has very poor reporting system making it difficult or impossible for you to see when and how much you will get paid for which period.

For example a gateway processor that claims to be located in Switzerland (they have no telephone that actually works) and be operated by a Swiss person shows only 7 transactions per page – and has no reporting system whatsoever. This processor claimed that their discount rate was 8% and reserve was 10% – but actually, they kept 53% of all processed amount – and after7-8 weeks the account suddenly closed. This so-called Swiss gate also put a chargeback belonging to a completely different merchant on my account and never removed it even though they promised to do so. Another chargeback I was able to prove that the product was delivered but the chargeback still remained.

Another example was a so-called Chinese gateway processor using a gateway went down (lost their bank connection) also after 6 weeks of processing with them – and never told anything to me – ever – so for 2 weeks all my orders got declined – making my potential customers upset and me very frustrated. Besides the cheating then this gateway is so badly built that you can only use Internet Explorer to access the gateway with and you must disable popup blockers. The DNA-gateway does not permit you to use the mouse for copy/paste of customer info which makes it very slow to use. This doesn’t really matter because they never pay you 1 single cent.

A great way that these sellers also make money is to make up fines from Mastercard or VISA – that supposedly requires 1-4 years litigation. These fines do not exist at all or at a much lower amount – or, are only temporary fines that are refunded to the processor after a short “hold”-period. The processor has already deducted these funds from the merchant – but the merchant never gets these funds again. Ever.

A processor broker/seller having a foreign name – Gany Karim – (this is not his real name – just the name he uses for his customers – so he can not sue me for defamation and supposedly located in Canada sold me those 2 solutions. The total loss was more than 40.000 USD in direct losses – plus I was not able to process for several months waiting for a new solution to be made – which never came. However, all his “fees” that ran into 2.000 USD – including extra fees that were never explained to me – was deducted from my processed funds and funny enough I never saw 1 cent at all.

Before a processor loses his bank connection then the bank has for some time asked the processor to change certain procedures which the processor chooses not to do so. Then the bank closes the processors merchant account and then the processor blames the bank for the problem.

When you ask the processor which bank they use then they will never tell you.

After a couple of years you have forgotten all about it and have moved on – which is what these scam artists hope for.

These processors also have no or very poor customer service (before they close down your account). And after they close down the account – then they have zero customer service and you can not get hold of them at all or not talk to the decision maker.

Other times then the processor sets up another corporation which they process thru. Then in your contract it says that the processor is not liable for losses incurred if your processor is not paid. The funds will then be in the other company (that the processor also owns).

Are there any offshore credit card processors that are not con artists?

Yes, there are some good offshore merchant account processors out there. I use some of them myself for my own websites so I know that they are reliable.

You will get your own MID account and be able to accept VISA, Mastercard, ACH and maybe other cards also (depending upon your business area) – for a small setup fee of $599.

You also get to talk to a real life person – who knows the requirements of a merchant – and uses the very same processor solutions that I sell. So, I practice what I preach so to speak.

Essential Tips While Using a Merchant Account

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Earlier it was hard to get a merchant account that is well tied to your electronic shopping system. But nowadays, almost every company is ready to give you a merchant account. Whether you are a large business with a physical location, or a small business operating only online, you can easily get a merchant account. Currently, there are various merchant account providers available for businesses.

When shopping for a merchant account, it is important that you get clear numbers on up-front fees, monthly fees, credit card percentages and costs per transaction. Be careful to get the merchant’s definition for a “transaction,” like whether obtaining authorization only constitutes a transaction or it includes processing a return also.

If you are owning a large business or do a lot of sales each month, then your own merchant account is the best answer for you. It can save your money in the long run. But if you are just starting out with an online business, then a third party merchant may be the right choice for you.

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Usually, third party vendors handle all the background details, pay the monthly fees, assume the risks of fraud and charge backs. These merchants will handle all the security part which your customers will expect when shopping online. While the monthly fees may be a bit higher, you need not pay any set up charge, gateway fees, SSL charges and also the shopping cart set up.

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You can choose the service you want and then, they can give you simple HTML code to add to your site or allow you to use “buy buttons” or both depending on the service chosen. The fees generally range between 5% and 13.5%. Few companies charge a set up fee and a per transaction fee.

If you want to offer your customers a convenient way of making a payment with a credit card or electronic check, you’ll have to apply for a merchant account. Setting up a merchant account is very simple and affordable too. With the emerging new technologies, online payments through merchant accounts have evolved as the most convenient payment mode for customers.

Business Merchant Account- Home Business Success Through Merchant Services

A home business merchant account might be out there waiting for you, whether you realize it or not. Many people find themselves satisfied with their progress, and feel that they don’t need a professional merchant account service because they are doing fine. Chances are, when you started a business, you didn’t dream of the days when you would do ‘fine’. You probably dreamed of the days that you would be successful and go above and beyond the call of duty to get customers to your business. If you want to achieve that dream of success in your home business, a merchant account might be the next step.

Some people might think they don’t need this type of account because they’re not planning on having a huge empire. However, your intentions don’t matter, because offering your customers a more effective and convenient payment method is just good business sense. The success that will come with this change in your business will happen on its own. All you have to do is find a business merchant account provider that will meet your needs and start an account. Once it is setup, the rest will take care of itself. Finding the account that works for you might prove to be somewhat challenging simply because there are so many companies to choose from.

As an offline business, accepting cash or check payments might be working for your business. However, accepting credit cards through a business merchant account can only serve to enhance your business. Perhaps you’ve looked into the option and feel that it’s too expensive for your means. However, if you think about the fact that the extra $200 or $300 per month in expenses might bring you an extra $1000 in sales or more, you’ll quickly see that it’s worth it. If you’re not sure whether your home business will benefit from credit card acceptance, ask around. Do a survey of your current customers and people that you know, and find out how credit card acceptance would affect your business. The chances are high that people will find your business more convenient and accessible with the option to pay by credit card.

Once you have a business merchant account for your home business, you’ll easily see that there are many more benefits than you thought. For starters, you’ll be able to set up a website for your business, which you can attach to your merchant account and use to generate more business for your company. You don’t have to have dreams of being the next big thing to justify having a merchant account. You simply have to understand that more sales and profits will be generated when you have a merchant account, which can help any business, no matter how small.