High-risk echeck processing: New way to accept payments.

Offering high-risk merchant account processing often means pressing the outer reaches to find solutions for the highest of high-risk merchants. Obviously, every e-commerce merchant wants the ability to process credit and debit card transactions – they are by far the most convenient way to pay when shopping online.

However, not every merchant qualifies for credit card processing for a myriad of reasons. Perhaps the merchant is considered too much of a risk by an acquiring bank or a payment service provider, maybe for his/her industry type, excessive chargebacks, volume, or instances of fraud. Or, the merchant has an imperfect credit history and perhaps has even been placed on the MATCH or TMF list by Visa and MasterCard.

Benefits Of A High-Risk Echeck Processing Solution

We’ve seen acquiring banks stop offering credit card processing for certain industries – multilevel marketing, pharmaceuticals, and tech support come to mind – leaving those merchants scrambling to find another acquirer to provide a solution.

At the very least, having some type of echeck processing solution in place – even if a merchant can process credit card transactions – allows a high-risk merchant a security net of sorts until they can find another credit/debit card solution.

For merchants who struggle to get a merchant account approval, however, high-risk echeck processing is a safe and practical alternative, which has come a long way in the last three years. Gone is the three-day window for a check to clear. Checks submitted in a weekday morning by 10:30 a.m. will settle by 1 p.m., while checks submitted by 2:45 p.m. will settle by 5 p.m.

More benefits:

• Our high-risk echeck processing provider offers a ‘PayNow’ button to be placed on the merchant’s checkout page, very similar to the checkout process when paying with a credit/debit card.
• Echeck processing is actually less expensive than credit card processing – there are no interchange fees.
• ECheck payments are secure and direct from consumers to merchants.

The Industries That Need ACH And Check Processing

Recurring billing/Subscriptions: I used to pay for my kids’ school lunches each month, often getting a reminder that their balances were running low. Then a few years ago, I decided to set up the ACH option, so that when the balances reached a certain level, funds were automatically replenished regularly, for which later, I’d receive a statement.

Debt collection: Merchants who are trying to receive an outstanding debt from a consumer with a bank account should opt to collect debts via affordable, recurring ACH installments.

Property management: To collect rents, property managers and landlords are well suited to have their tenants complete an ACH form, automatically deducting rents each month and virtually guaranteeing punctual payment.

Loans or lending services: Back in May, we reported how the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of Currency was urging U.S. banks to begin offering small installment loans so that they can compete with small business lenders such as OnDeck and Lending Tree.

• The bank offered no guarantees and noted it may take as long as a month for an approval or decline.
• The small business lender came back with approval in three days. The restauranteur went with the small business lender, even though the interest rate was higher.

It’s been found that merchants will opt for faster approvals with higher interest rates, rather than wait one month.

Documents required to get an ACH processor:

Personal Documents: Driving License and Personal Bank Statements for the recent 3 months

Business Documents: Article of Incorporation, Business Bank Statements for the recent 3 months, Processing Statements for the recent 3 months, Bank Letter or Void check, EIN - IRS, and a few supporting documents based on the business type.            

If you’re looking for a merchant account or ACh processor for the online business you’re at the right place. Merchant Stronghold got simple solutions for your complex business.