How hard is it for an adult business to get a merchant account?
 

How hard is it for an adult business to get a merchant account? What did you go through to get yours?

netbilling mitch is always on call, he should have some good insight on this.

hard as stone?

:glugglug

Not hard but a different set of risk elements then if you use third party billing.

Easy. I emailed dalton at armorytrust.com and within a week had a merchant account (I left another processor after 8 years). NO money in reserve, low application fee (under $500), great discount rate.

This new processor is 1000% better than my old one. Customer service when I need it, they all speak English, and give me no bullshit.

Hey,

Not everyone will have the same result. Some will say it was easy while others will say it was impossible. Then you have the few that would just rather let a 3rd party deal with risk factor. I worked for a 3rd party billing company b4. So, if you need any help, hit me up on icq. We'll talk then.


www.photogregg.com

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.

what risk factor?

I used to have an electronics store on the internet. They put my monthe cap at 20k the first time i started doing more then 1-2k per day they froze that shit faster than i could say "empty bank account". It wasnt even adult related and they didnt give it back for 15 days. Of course i had tp pay drop shippers and what not. That pretty much ruined my business so be careful.

Thanks for all the tips.. it sounds so daunting..

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!!!)

ArmoryTrust knows you are in the adult Internet business?

What gateway do u use to do realtime online transactions?

thanks

It's easy if you join Netbilling

Mark

ArmoryTrust knows adult spoke to them recently.

Did Dalton take care of you? :)

But yes, I told him upfront I do adult processing, and my previous processor knew that as well. Armory Trust does is not a processor, however, they just hook you up with merchant accounts, and then acts as your representative should there be any problems.

He's helped a lot of adult webmasters get accounts and he's a no-bullshit kind of guy, very upfront. SO many who try to get your business are sleazeballs.

If you don't tell them upfront, and you process Visa, and Visa finds out and you're not registered with them, they hit the processor with fines from $25,000 to $100,000, and many have in tiny print that should there be fines, it's passed along to you.

Better to be honest than risk ending up on the Terminated Merchant List

PS: Mutt, I don't do realtime online processing, I prefer using a terminal and manually processing. I did use the gateway the card company had but didn't like it

Hey Kimmy do you know anything about netbilling???


I know that you were in that biz for some time, you must have heard some info!!!

inthestars,

Kimmy summarized it pretty well. I have added a few points.

Having your own merchant account takes a few weeks to setup between submitting the paperwork and waiting for the approval. You do manage your own chargebacks (which takes a few minutes each day typically for a small paysite). For a U.S. merchant account, you are paid DAILY directly into your bank account. Offshore accounts typically pay weekly or 2x per month. For a US merchant account, you do have a volume cap which you cannot exceed. However, after 3 months, you can request that you cap be raised, usually with no problems. Offshore accounts typically have no volume restrictions.

You will not need to handle any of your customer service (unless you want to) using us or a few other gateways that offer call center services. You gain more control over all aspects and save $$$ in processing fees over third party processing but it is not for everyone. Typical transaction fee saving are about 40% (based on a $25 average ticket).

Make sure you use a reputable company to setup the merchant account and do your processing. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me directly or our sales department.

Thank you, Mitch Farber

Yep hairtostay, I have no doubt yours went easily -- however, running online transactions manually through a terminal is an issue on two points... that you may want to consider.

First off, are your trans being run as 5967 for the MCC code? If they are not, then you may have some trouble down the road with the cc companies if it comes out that you were running trans under the wrong code.

Second, running those by typing into a terminal is costing you money -- in essence it is reducing every one of your sales to a card not present status, something that the cc's frown on, and you may want to check your contract with your acquirers regarding those transactions. You are also paying a higher rate for each of those than you would be using a gateway setup online in real time, since card not present manual entries carries a penalty fee on top of your normal rate.

You're a sweetheart and I enjoyed talking to you in email awhile back, just want to make sure you aren't screwing yourself over. :)

No that hard, it all depends on your history, if any at all and if you don't how creidt worthy you are. I can get one done for you but I'll need a few items...discount rate would be around 3.75 though
.. you can contact me at

562.431.1140

Steve

Guardian Financial Services
www.guardianfinance.com

Fuck, now I owe Mitch an apology. His spams are much more well thought out and he does actually add to the conversations in many instances. This guy on the other hand, I seem to recall using another name to spam as well. Bad, bad, bad.

Sorry Mitch.

Call Jay Browder at Card Service International excellent customer support quick set up time.

Cindyxx
:thumbsup :thumbsup

Cardservice International is full of a bunch of fucked up, unorganized retards.

Kimmy... thanks

ThePornGuy,

Cardservice has agents that sell the accounts. You have to have a relationship with a good agent that will not BS you and knows the system.

Mitch

This is true but your agent does not handle chargebacks, the chargeback depertment does. And your agent dosen't deside when its time to freeze your funds. And your agent dosen't deside when to post negative shit on your FUCKING PERFECT credit report in complete violation with the FCRA when it's Card Sevice's faiult in the first place.

Um, hold on. The acquiring banks are instructed by the cc's as to what they need to do with a particular account unless the ratios are so skewed that the bank realizes there is no cure for the problem.

On high volume accounts, the Visa Monitoring Program and the corresponding Mastercard program are usually invoked prior to terminating an account if there is no indication of deliberate fraud or attempt to defraud -- since the bank realizes that in many cases the funds they have the ability to freeze may be exceeded by the amount of chargebacks and credits that will be applied against the account.

This is not something that Mitch or CardServices would invoke, this is a bank issue.

And if something like that did occur, and it were a CSI error that was reported on your credit, then I would assume you filed a dispute notice with all three major credit reporting bureaus and that the company that actually reported the negative either responded with proof or it was removed from your credit when they failed to either respond or prove their case?

webair,

Authorize.net does not take ANY adult now. People signup for their adult sites and are quickly turned off Authorize.net finds out.

Mitch

CSI will fuck you, only a matter of time before you are really fucked and I mean REALLY fucked HARD

Hey, you're a sweetie too, you tried SO damned hard to help me after no one else would :)

I'll call Dalton and check with him, but I spoke to every risk management person at the current processor to be sure I was Kosher before I signed my contract, so I should be ok

To the person wanting to go to Cardservice Interntional, good luck. I was told (by a sales rep there) they have been moving away from adult since they were bought 2 years ago

Kimmy, I know this will make sense to you :)

"5967 is a Retail SIC code that should only be used for retail (swiped business), not retail Visa/MC Card present Swipe (CPS) key-entry versus Visa/MC CPS card not present..."

Guess I'm set up correctly :)

I have had an adult & mainstream CSI merchant account for over 2 years without any trouble. We also have dozens of merchants with accounts there as well.

Mitch

We have been with CSI for 7 years with no problems.

I'm reading it but it didnt make sense to me, so I asked about it -- how about dropping me an email -- [email protected] -- I want to make a couple comments for you to mull over privately --

:)

Kimmy, you have mail :)

we just got our 1st merchant account set-up, we went with card sevices intl.
2.67% discount rate
no hold-back
no cap

i inquired at armorytrust and never heard back from anyone

i applied at banckcard-services and got fucked over for 3 weeks before they came back with
3.75% rate
5% holdback
no cap
(btw, the contract they sent me included terms for authorize.net, not sure what they were thinking) and they added a $25 per month fee to "manage" our money being held in a holdback account. all this after they told me they need to process our transactions offshore. red flags everywhere


good luck, do your research, and read the fine print

Good luck with CSI

*snicker*

I guess that's not a 5967 acct sltr.

Any chance for Us Canadians to get a merchsnt account?

I have been approached for offshore stuff, but that gives me the shivers. I am at the mercy of some company that I am supposed to trust as they set up the company, etc. So I dont think Offshore is an answer.

I have a merchant account in Canada via Royal Bank. I used to process adult through it. from 1996 till about 2000. Then Moneris took over and had a 0 tolerance on Adult. I had maybe 4 chargebacks in over 10k+ transactions and did the customer service myself.

I now use, ccbill, ibill, paypal, partykey, websitebilling(frozen until they pay up).

However I wouyld like to get processing the way I used to.

Any idea?

correct
we are 5964

I said 5967.