Your VERY OWN merchant account...
 

Has anyone had an experience with a merchant account instead of 3rd party processors? Is it worth it? What are the main pitfalls?

Also, can anyone recommend a European merchant account provider that accepts adult businesses?

Thanx in advance!:)

Just be prepared for some major security comittments to your bank if you do huge volume. Before all this 3rd party stuff, we did an adult merchant account and it was the biggest headache in the world. Keep in mind back then a lot of software that makes things happen wasn't even available yet. So we had to do a lot of stuff manually and then we became the banks guinea pigs when they did get software to automate processes in place and the software was dog shit, fucking up like crazy til they worked out all the bugs.

Anyway we started doing some significant volume very quick and then the bank called one day and said you're expanding too fast and we'll need you to secure your account with your house and some additional collateral. The banks were scared to death of high risk porn billings coming in such big quantities I guess. We also had to handle our own customer service which was beyond a total nightmare.

So no I would not recommend your own merchant account unless you like having more control and are willing do take the risks and handle the responsibilities of it all. There are advantages don't get me wrong, but in my opinion 3rd party is safer and easier to manage.

Butcher - I'm currently struggling with the same question Mercahant account or 3rd party. I've done a lot of research on the issue and the only thing I'm sure about at this point is that if I do go with a merchant account I will do so through NetBilling.com They will assist you with getting a merchant account if you dont already have one and they have a VERY powerful admin system to manage subscription based sites - even a shopping cart feature. They will also handle your customer service for a slightly higher transaction fee. Anyway, you need to contact Karen or Mitch at NetBilling and get all the details and decide which way is best for you to go. Hope this helps you out. Charlie

You have to be able to do your own customer support and have someone (smart and reliable) on staff to manually review every single join and immediately refund anything that looks even remotely wierd. What you really need is to get your hands on a really good negative database, which is unlikely. If you let someone else handle customer service you are dead. If you don't manually review every signup (and know what to look for) you are dead. If you rely on the billing gateway's negative database alone for scrubbing you are, well, dead.

From what I understand NetBilling has an extremely comprehensive negative database and also gives you the option to add to it using a number of different criteria. I've also talked seen posts from several people who didnt have a negative word regarding their customer suport. Anyway - I'm begining to sound like a salesman for them at this point. I have no affiliation with them, not even a customer (yet). I've just heard a lot of great things about them! Worth you time to contact Mitch or Karen My :2 cents:

First post huh?

Cool.

GoFuckYourself. :321GFY

Karen and Mitch over at Netbilling are really reliable people to work with, If you go that way.

We have used our own merchant account for years. It is a constant pressure dealing with fraud and the chargeback issues. The upside is you control your money, we get paid daily. We deal with refunds, chargebacks, customer support etc, etc a lot of time and hassle.

I would not deal with CCbill, Ibill or any of the other 3rd Party processors. I do not want to be dependent upon their business decisons affecting whether I get paid.

I suspect the Netbilling type of situation is a good mix of the two. I have not dealt with them but I would not want to try and deal with the issue myself as a startup in todays banking climate.

Yes... first post so GoFuckYourself!