Maybe you’re just starting a business and you are considering a high risk merchant services account? Perhaps you sell a niche product? Regardless of what the case may be, you’re having trouble obtaining traditional merchant services. Put simply, the bank finds you to be too big a risk.

Fortunately, there’s an alternative available: high risk merchant services. What do these services entail? What are their benefits?

We’re going to get into all of that and more below. Without further ado, here’s everything you need to know about high risk payment gateways and payment solutions.

What Are High Risk Merchant Services?

To understand the concept of high risk merchant services, you must first understand the concept of traditional merchant services. Merchant services refer to the services that a bank provides so that a company can accept different types of payments.

In most cases, this refers to the acceptance of debit and credit cards. However, it also covers the realm of online payment processing.

With traditional merchant services, there’s generally a credit score requirement that must be met in order to receive such services. In addition, the provider of such services must find that your business is viable enough to justify providing such services. Therefore, if you sell a niche product, your application for such services might be denied.

Effectively, the service provider considers your business venture to be “high risk”. In other words, they’re not confident that your business is going to make enough money through their services in order to justify them giving them to you.

This is where high risk merchant services come into play. These services are available to essentially anyone, regardless of credit score, products sold, or otherwise. They ensure that you’re able to make card transactions, and thereby help to either improve the success of your business or, at the very least, keep it afloat.

Who’s Considered High Risk?

We’ve discussed what high risk merchant services are. Now, let’s discuss the types of companies that might need them. In particular, there are companies that bring more risk to the table than the typical company.

They possess a variety of characteristics. Let’s discuss them in detail below.

Those Who Sell High-risk Products

There are low-risk products and high-risk products. Low-risk products are things like clothing, books, and office supplies. They sell on a regular basis and will almost certainly trigger regular card payments.

High-risk products are things like software, tickets, and electronics. They don’t sell quite as often, and also have a higher risk of return. This makes them riskier for payment processing companies to get behind.

Those Who Sell to High-risk areas

Another group that might need high risk merchant services is those who sell their products to high-risk areas. This includes, in most cases, impoverished or underdeveloped countries.

If the majority of your sales come from these countries, you’re going to have trouble obtaining a standard merchant account. As such, you might have to go with a high risk account instead.

Those Who Receive Many Chargebacks

Does your company sell a product that results in a lot of chargebacks? If so, you might have to get a high risk merchant account as opposed to a standard account. This is because chargebacks can make it difficult for merchant service providers to financially justify providing their services to you.

Those Who Offer Subscription Payments

Do you sell subscriptions? If so, there’s a decent chance that you’ll need to use high risk merchant services as opposed to standard. Subscriptions leave a high risk of missed payments which can financially hurt the service provider. Therefore, the company is forced to take on more liability.

High Risk Merchant Services Benefits

High risk merchant services are beneficial in a number of ways. Some of their biggest benefits include the following:

Available to Anyone

The biggest benefit of high risk merchant services is that they’re available to everyone. It doesn’t matter whether you have bad credit, experience an abnormal number of product returns, sell a niche product, or otherwise, you can get your hands on high risk merchant services.

This is simply not true of traditional merchant services, which come with credit requirements and are dependent on the acceptance of banks and other rigid financial institutions.

Worldwide Processing Capabilities

Another big benefit of high risk merchant services is that they come with worldwide processing capabilities. As such, regardless of where your customer is located, you will be able to accept their credit cards and debit cards.

This opens you up to an endless number of clients, all of whom can contribute to keeping your business thriving.

Work for Both Debit and Credit Card Payments

Whether your customers pay with credit or debit cards, high risk merchant services will accommodate you. These services work with cards from a variety of brands, allowing you to accept payment from as many people as possible.

Secure Processing

Not only are high risk merchant services worldwide in their capabilities but they’re also highly secure. Regardless of where the payment is made, it will be encrypted so as to allow for as much security as possible.

This means that there will be almost no chance of data theft. That, in turn, is good for the reputation of your company.

Need High Risk Merchant Services?

Are you in need of high risk merchant services? If so, look no further than First Financial. We provide such services to countless clients in countless industries.

Regardless of your credit score and regardless of the products you sell, we can provide you with high-quality merchant services at reasonable interest rates.

Contact us now to discuss details!