You may already know that a high-risk merchant account is a bank online account or payment processing agreement with a payment system suitable for a business that is considered risky. Merchant services are often more expensive for high-risk enterprises, which might raise their operational expenses. As a result, we wrote this post to provide vital information just in case you want to open high-risk merchant account profiles for e-commerce.
What business is defined as high-risk?
Due to the nature of the sector, companies from a variety of industries are classified as high risk. High-risk businesses in Europe include:
● travel agencies;
● car rental companies;
● collection services;
● legal gambling;
● guarantees, etc.
Since dealing with these companies can be risky for banks and payment processors such as Maxpay, they only open a high-risk merchant account for each of them. You should also be aware that the high-risk merchant account has different fees than the regular merchant account, both in USD and EUR. And to open such an account is more difficult than opening account profiles on any payment system.
How a high-risk merchant account works
In a bank or payment system like Maxpay, a merchant account is a type of account that allows users to accept money through credit and debit cards, as well as online accounts, if they already have open account profiles with other payment systems. A payment processing contract may also be offered by the bank, or the business may need to open a high-risk merchant account with a payment mechanism that gathers payments and transfers them to an already opened bank account.
Payments to a high-risk merchant account are considered to carry an increased risk of fraud. For example, someone may make purchases using a stolen credit card or a phony eWallet, or a customer could rent a car with a debit card or eWallet that doesn’t have enough money.
This puts the bank and the payment system at greater risk since they must deal with the administrative costs of combatting fraud. Because companies do not see the credit card fingerprint, e-commerce might be a concern.
Requirements for e-commerce merchants from payment systems
When opening a high-risk merchant account, payment systems require that the client is not an individual but an official entrepreneur and has open bank account profiles. In addition to legal status, international payment systems require that the seller’s website or mobile application meet the required parameters. You can find the list of requirements:
● All of the site’s or mobile app’s pages are functional and open without issues;
● There is a description and attributes for each product in the catalog;
● Your company activity relates to the industry described on the registration form and is included among the high-risk activities;
● There includes information regarding the delivery and return of products or services, as well as a detailed description of how this procedure works;
● Your consumers will quickly discover a section with contact information and pertinent information.
