Feelings on a Merchant Account?
 

Hey guys n gals whats your feelings on getting a merchant account?

Pros vs. Cons.....

I know there are 3rd party processors i use ibill currently.... but any tips n or advice is more than welcome :0)

They're great if you like torture.

Really? Are charge backs a mayor issue??

Give me some advice oh great amateur pages dude!!!!

One of my friends had to deal with a MA, personally I'd rather deal with globill or ibill.

Even with a Merchant account though, you can still use Ibill (or other) gateway program I think.

Doesn't that avoid the excessive processing fees? Can anyone clarify this?

Yeah the processing fee's are greatly reducd i do know that.... but are the chargebacks major pain in the ass?



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Hey want some rukas? Goto http://www.plrradio.com

Everyone I've known that has had their own merchant has told me The HorrOr of it....

That's not first hand info....but shit, after being told the horror stories a few times I begun to believe it...

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...type-atcha-later, TheJ

Ahh but ya see the question is .....

Is the horror worth it? i could deal with a littl headace if its making good $$$ http://bbs.gofuckyourself.com/board/smile.gif

Me too. These companies are great to work with, I cannot say enough good things about them. :thumbsup

Having a merchant account isn't a nightmare if you are smart about keeping full disclosure on your site as to what your customer's will pay, and you use good fraudscrubbing and gateway technology. If you try to pull all kinds of crazy stuff with pre-checked cross-sells and up sells, and you don't provide an easy-to-find cancel link and customer service page, then yes, it will be a nightmare

I find it rather amusing that a few of you would rather work with Globill than your own merchant account.

I've had my own merchant account since before there was even such a thing as an internet merchant classification and have used it exclusively since last fall. Don't know about anybody else's headaches, it's all been good for me.

Lensman is correct! I had a horrible experience in the beginning with an Adult Merchant Account. Between the banks fucking us, the transaction software not working the way it was promised to, customer fraud and loads of webmaster fraud, I said never again.

Its nothing but aggravation and risk, risk, risk.

i wouldn't do it, but talk to netbilling. they handle the support for folks with their own merchant account - lots of experience there.

Can't you use your own merchant account with IBill and CCBill? If you can and use the same level of scrubbing shouldn't you in theory have the same CB ratio as using them as a 3rd party biller?

I think its going to be the future, I think the cc companies dont like third party billers. I think if you are a smaller webmaster without a affiliate program and you are honest you can do well. With a merchant account you can also go after friendly fraud(You have the name and address ,so you can start collections) ,where now there is really nothing you can do. Also right now my third party processor fucks up with a customer I pay , I dont like having no control. Also with your own merchant account you dont have to do the MC mall thing. Even though its been floating around that amazon will have to do this, its not true only third party processors.

I have been working very hard to get the an aggregator merchant account for Intertrans and will have one in a few weeks. If you have the finanicals to get your own merchant account that is the way to go, it greatly reduces your rates. Then process through the third party biller so that you can use our fraud scrub. This will keep your chargebacks within the limit.

Getting your own merchant account may be the way to go if you manage it right. We offer e-commerce businesses several products and services. A state-of-the-art fraudscrubbing program, a full gateway with very comprehensive reporting and lots of features, and we also have relationships with banks in the US and the EU,, as well as other regions. We can assist in getting you your own merchant account if you wish to have a more direct connection to the bank and want to be more in control of your own business.

You can call me anytime on my mobile, I'm used to having no life and taking calls day and night! :-) .....+1 954 650 5789

Michael Sperber
VP business development
Fraudscrub.com
[email protected]

sperbonzo, please check your mail :)

Come on....

I'm reading words like torture, horror and headache to describe merchant account experiences on this thread....How many IPSP horror stories have been posted about IBill? For every horror story connected to a merchant account, I'll guarantee there's at least one about an IPSP acct.

Is a merchant account more strict then an 3rd party acct? You're damn right it is, and for good reason too. When we take on an adult account, we're taking on a lot of risk. If you screw-up w/ Chargebacks, and then go insolvent before you can make good on the transaction, we are on the hook. With a merchant account each one is unique. You can't hide an account w/ heavy chargebacks among a sea of other merchants.

Do we want you to stay below 1%, your damn right we do. And we'll help in every step of the way to keep you under 1%. If one of my merchant's chargebacks gets close to the threshold, they get a call from me telling them to tighten the screws on the scrubbing and bring in more legitimate sales. Will this lower the $$ they take in for that month? Yes...but at least they'll still have an account three months down the road when those chargebacks are figured in.

If you're thinking of getting a merchant account, and your chargebacks are in line, I can't think of a better idea. But, you'd better be sure your merchant account provider (and more specifically, your agent) knows this industry. It makes all the difference.

It can be hell dealing with merchant banks, the main problem with getting an account is the amount they let you proccess.

If you don't have a good transaction history be lucky if they give you a 10k monthly limit

True...Transaction history is key to the amount of volume you'd be approved for. $10k is basically automatic, unless the principal has poor credit. If the merchant can show processing history, and is inline w/ chargebacks, there's not too many reasons why they wouldn't get approved for an appropriate volume.

You need to understand that getting a merchant account is pretty much the equivalent to being approved for an unsecured line of credit. So we're not going to approve an account for $500k, if the merchant can only show $10k on the statements.

I have had my merchant acohahahaha for about 5 yrs now, I know alot of people wont use a merchant account for subscriptions for fear of chargebacks. Well, if you run a legit site, allow people to cancel easy, give them what you say you are giving them you wont have a problem.

The key is to be a honest business person. You will see that you get ALOT of repeat members by being honest and have good cust. service.

I am glad that the third party processors are tighting things up and wish they would even more. Hopefully it drives out the people who riun this business and we can all get back to making all that good money from years gone by.