As an Australian what are my options when it comes to processing cc's?
 

I am seriously considering making my first move into the paysite industry. Now although I would of liked to get my own merchant on a new subscription site with no history it is going to be impossible so I am looking for third party processing.

Can any Aussie's (or anyone else) tell me what my options are? I really wanted to use paycom but it seems it is quite difficult as an Australian to get setup through them? I know Veretol looks after Australian webmasters but if possible I'd prefer not to go through them (just my own experiences in the past). So can someone just give me a rundown of what is open to me in this area? As I am trying to price up what I'll need to get up and running.

Much appreciated.

dibill... good luck.. :2 cents:

One option would be to establish a presence within the EU - specifically, set up a corp there and use any of the processors operating within that area. This should give you access (apart from Verotel) to Segpay.com, CCBillEU.com and Paycom as well as a few more.

A UK company is relatively cheap or if you want an offshore equivalent, possibly Gibraltar is worth looking at. Both would be non-resident companies with no taxation applicable.

A question for you. How would you get around the Principle in region part? While we have setup companies in EU and whatnot (to gain processing), PaycomEU still told us we needed a principle. Would a lawyer/accountant be recomendable in your opinion?

Sure.. an accountant or preferably a lawyer can act on behalf of a company. It may be worth considering having such a person as a nominee director. (This does not mean you are parting with any rights within your corp - the nominee, by law, must act on your instructions.) Company formation agents often have lawyers either on their staff or people they can recommend as nominees.

If a UK company is of interest, it's worth contacting Jordan's in the UK - they are probably the oldest established formation agents in the UK and are please to give advice before forming an entity. They have a website at
http://jordans.co.uk

Only my preference, but it's good to actually chat with any nominee (a lot of folks never ever speak with their nominees - especially in offshore) and at least make yourself known and not just be another name on forms. They can be very useful in real life on occasions. I use nominees in a few corps and have Power of Attorney over the corp and just get on with whatever is needed and using their name as the principal.

http://www.gmbill.com
or
http://www.ozbill.biz

If you can get in with those guys they will get you going, all you need is a registerd Australian Business and Tax file number etc.

See what you come up with.

Rydz.

Stay offshore with:

Verotel

and

MyVirtualCard

And bill no credit card countries with:

PasswordByPhone

As far as I remember you will need a Limited Liability Partnership with non resident partners to avoid taxation in UK, not a private limited company although it would be good to have minor partner in uk (maybe 5% of the partnership) and pay a minimal tax to avoid inspections and so but that's an option.

The non resident company qualification is that the actual owners are located in another country. In the instance of Aussieland where a double taxation treaty in existence, the UK Inland Revenue will agree to the non-resident status and issue tax exempt paperwork and kill any UK taxation.

If you wanted to take that a step further and reduce the actual taxation on the company (tho private earnings/dirs fees etc would still have to be paid in eg Aussieland) you could have another company set up in eg Malta where this company was the parent of the UK corp and where the local company taxation rate would be less than that of Australia. It all depends on the monetory benefit as to whether this is worthwhile and is something a decent lawyer with some experience of jurisdictions can be useful.

So that's for ltd too?

Btw.. you can do the same with US LLC, I have a Florida LLC with Seychelles and BVI partners.

Ah.. missed a bit!! On that last para... in the instance of a Malta corp owning the UK corp, there are still deals in place with locations like Malta (and other jurisdictions) which are recognised by the UK IR and do still enable the UK corp to qualified as non-resident.

Yes.. was actually referring to a normal UK limited company.

Yep.. agree - there are loads of options! It's just a matter of sorting out a structure, usually with more than one corp and using the different jurisdictions to whatever suits personally.

From what I knew the "trick" in UK could have been done just with Limited Liability Partnerships where the partners are exposed to direct taxation and ,not being resident, they should pay taxes in their own countries, while for limited private companies being UK entities, the company income tax took place locally while taxation on dividends would be paid in the country of residence of the foreign shareholders.
Ah well, this explains there is always something new to learn :)
Thanks.

There are a few options.
ANZ & St George are the only adult friendly AU banks, IIRC.

:)

I've never actually got sight of the details yet.. but may be relevent if you are actually resident in the EU. Apparently the UK IR won an agreement the other day with .. think it was OECD, where eg... if you were resident in the UK and were the beneficial owner or had some "arrangement" with offshore operations, that they were entitled to approach eg a bank in a jurisdiction where where that jurisdiction had already agreed to OECG terms and open the account. Penalties of 100% were being applied to non-disclosure within the UK. They were basically attacking anyone who still remained in their home country and "forgot" about their foreign earnings.

Bottom line is... you can be assured that once the UK IR won this concession, the rest of the EU will follow along the same lines.

Just another reason to be legitimately offshore and not fall under these laws :thumbsup

But I am going to run into the same problem with a startup if I don't go third part no? I.e. no history of billing.

Thanks for the information so far, particularly Webby.

Definately MyVirtualCard & Verotel. You can also use CCBill and just not accept Visa.

Depending on your volume and exact needshahaha8230;

High-Volume: WebTrade (merchant account)

Orhahaha8230;

CCBill
Netbilling (merchant account)

Just hit them up. They are all solid companies and have been around for a long time!

Both great companies - we use Netbiling exclusively now

Z

Great info as always Webby :thumbsup

If anyone has any questions regarding SegPay, please contact me directly.

It is not impossible to get a merchant account or IPSP processing, you just need to decide which route you want to go, set up a compliant business entity in the region where you want to process and then get an account.

I'd suggest talking to processors about their specific options and seeing which one would work best for you as far as the location of the company and how you go about setting up a corporation in the region.

Visa and Mastercard are divided into regions, for instance, the EU, US, Caribbean, Asia/Pacific, etc. In order to settle your transactions in a region you must meet certain criteria. You cannot settle in a region that you do not have a compliant presence in without running the risk of termination across the board. Meaning that if you have a US company, you must settle in the US. If you are a sole proprietor in the EU, you must settle in the EU.

However, Visa/Mastercards regions are defined by the associations and do not always include a country you would think in a certain region - for instance, just because a country is an EU country, they may not be in the EU region for the associations. Rare, but possible.

I'd suggest talking to the processors you're interested in and seeing what they have to offer as far as advice and setups.

Segpay great option for third party MA
 

I am currently working with segpay great work guys!:thumbsup

Does anybody knows of somebody else than the processors already mentioned for a EU incorporated company.

Hey Validus! how much volume is considered high Volume?

THXS

Terrific idea if he has a EU passport. Company formation is easy, the hard part is when CCbill or Paycom asks you for a copy of your EU passport. :2 cents:

Obviously you need to speak with the CEO or managing dir of your company to resolve that problem :) That's what nominees are for.

Hell I hold an Australian passport. I moved to EU. I recommend that too.

Are you targetting AU customers or US customers?

keep flippin burgers... theres no money in adult

Primary US, but of course being on the net all. But I don't want to move to the EU, I am pretty happy in Australia and have other commitments here. I guess I'll take KimmyKim's and Webby's advice and just shoot off a bunch of emails to my preferred processors, as well as a few people who can help me with the formation process.

Hi Chief,

you should not miss to take a look at www.eurobill.com . We process payments in all major currencies and support the Australian Dollar as well. There are no requirements to use our system, you even don't have to pay any setup fees or Visa fees.

Please contact me on ICQ 108145717 or by email if there's anything I can assist you with.

haven't they been offline for a long time?

How deep was this thread ?