Who here has their own merchant account? If so, what
 

Who here has their own merchant account? If you do, what do you consider the biggest plus? And what is the biggest "issue" compared to 3rd party billing...

Also what fraud scrubbing do you use?

Andre

The biggest plus is not trusting my money to any third party providers like ibill.. Never again.

And we use netbilling for the gateway and fraud controls.

I see. Thanks for the reply. Also isn't it cheaper for you?

Some adult affilate programs have their own merchant accounts, but they still use 3rd party because it makes the more money it seems.

Or do they use their own merchant account, with ccbill/epoch gateway/fraud scrubbing?

Having your own merchant account does not necessarily mean it is cheaper at the end of the day. By the time you factor in customer service, chargeback fees, etc, the percentage is usually around the same as if you were a larger client with an IPSP.

However, having your own merchant account does offer you the ability to own your customers. For instance, if you want to leave your bank to go to a new one, you take your own data with you, something that does not happen with an IPSP, unless you specifically negotiated that into your contract, which is rare.

Youll be able to get more data and be more flexible thats a big pro imho. If you had 5k recurring members at Ibill and theyd say sure heres the data everyone could start processing them again.

Other then that ccbill with their support etc still does the job for us.

We use Netbilling to handle our processing, customer service, phone orders and scrubbing with our own merchant accounts as well and certainly do pay less than 3rd party. We also see much better conversions too and adjust our scrubbing differently for our site groups..

yep, Ive switched between merchant accounts 4 times so far. Biggest advantage by far.

Mickey, why do so many sites that have a merchant account still use third party processors as primary rather than their merchant account? For example I think you guys do.

Hi,

Let me know if I am can answer any questions for you regarding our services.

Mitch