What is a merchant account?
 

Maybe a stupid question, but what is a merchant account exactly? And what does it require to get one?

Can I as a EU cititzen get a merchant account in USA and keep my comapany in EU?

My own country(Denmark) will not touch adult related stuff. Can I get a merchant account in the Netherlands and use with Ibill, Epoch etc.? And how?

A merchant account is an account with a bank that allows you to conduct credit card sales. Most website owners do NOT have a merchant account, and so they have companies like CCBill, GloBill, IBill, et al, do their credit card processing for them.

Unfortunately, in today's climate, you will almost certainly have to present yourself as a merchant for some non-Web-related product in order to get one. The credit card companies are not very friendly to web-based adult businesses, and membership sites in particular.

Your best chance is to start off as a dealer for sex toys, but even so, you may be required to have a "brick and mortar" (physical and accessible to the public) location in order to get an account.

I have a merchant account which I got in order to sell some booklets I wrote. While I do have a membership site now, I won't risk my merchant account by using it to process memberships, because I might lose it.

Awww a newbie

W/ a merchant account, you will have your own merchant ID. Meaning you'll have more control over your business. It also means you'll have more accountability as far a chargbacks go. At least that use to be the case. However, with the new chargeback thresholds, IPSP sponsored merchants are now looking just about as accountable.

You'll need to be registered w/ both Visa & MasterCard totaling $1500. If you're an EU citizen, you'll need a US mailing address and a US checking account to qualify. It would be worth your while if you have existing sales volume and your chargbacks are in line..

Unseen is right about most banks not being too friendly to web-based adult businesses. Also , I would say that for the most part those bank who do accept adult business don't completely know what's involved in getting an adult content based merchant approved. It's important to make sure you're dealing w/ a bank who is up-to-speed on all the new and upcoming V/MC regs.

BTW...you don't need a brick and mortar store before approval.

Unseen: I've a merchant account also and, from everything I've gathered, it seems that this protection is now moot. If you register through an IPSP and get TMF'd, then you're personal merchant account is also TMF'd -- unless it's under a different name/company.

About the only real reasons to stick with our current IPSP('s) are:

1) if we like their software/admin setup
2) to keep existing rebills
3) to keep existing affiliate webmasters

If there's anything I'm missing here, please S C R E A M!!

Just getting the details of this shit-storm together is more bewildering than uninitiated oral sex from a total stranger on public transportation. :Hollering

There may be something missing.

If we stay with our present IPSPs I think they will be forced to include the domain name of the web site on the subsciber's bill.

So if the bill reads CCBILL today, it will read
CCBILL/Screwinghookers.com (name used as an example only)
Nobody can be sure as to exactly what will actually happen but I have seen that pop up a couple times.

Assuming that does happen, it will probably kill off about 20-30% of recurring billing and may even raise chargebacks to an unacceptable point. In other words, Visa sank our ship, gave us a liferaft but made sure the liferaft had a hole in it.

I am considering using my merchant account with some pretty hard scrubbing. I make a decent living now and would much rather maintain it that be pissed off at scrubbing.

Calvinguy,

247 explained the merchant account situation right on. Netbilling can actually help you establish a merchant account right in Europe at a good rate and we will handle all of your proccessing, fraud scrubbing, customer service etc...

Let me know if you are interested and I will be happy to arrange a phone conference with our sales manager to show you our incredible system and get you setup.

It is not that difficult to get the merchant account when you work with the right company. It just takes a little time and patience but the benefits are well worth it.

Thank you, Mitch Farber