High Risk Merchant Account Offshore or Not Offshore

Like many industries today, the internet has affected banking in a profound way, both good and bad. A bold statement like that is arguably vague and challenging for the individuals that make up those two capitalistic icons of our time. The ability to integrate the two, both banking and internet has brought up new challenges each day on both sides of the table. With no template to go off of, innovations are calculated and the territory is uncharted, which can be both expensive and half the fun at the same time.
It’s no secret that a lot of businesses have sprung up simply because of the internet. Ecommerce is fairly anonymous, inexpensive and can be lucrative; these characteristics can be both a boon and the bane of virtual business owners as they describe most industries within ecommerce but leave the daily rigmarole up them. Due to the fact that much of the banking industry places much of the ecommerce industry in the high risk file, many business owners struggle with their ability to accept credit cards. This has become a serious and frustrating problem as the ability to accept credit cards is a hinge point for the online world. Daily issues that online business owners face deal with high discount rates, numerous fees and having a portion of their funds held in lieu of impending chargebacks. If you’re doing business online, then you face these and many other challenges every day or if you’re lucky, week. Many think it is simply unfair treatment and that honest businesses are paying the price for a few bad eggs; the bad eggs being scammers and bad business people that use the internet as a way of making quick money carelessly. As it would be great to say that there’s a solution and that banks and processors can be leveraged, they can’t and it would be unfair on them to do so. For merchants today, their processing options are more vast than ever before. Many merchants are turning to offshore banks for their credit card processing; this is an evolution brought upon by strict guidelines and outdated rules being enforced. Merchants going offshore can expect higher volume account limits, secure processing and online virtual terminals; however, payouts may take a few days longer due to time zone differences and that the money has to be wire transferred. Merchant service providers or processing brokers are experts in drawing the line between their clients going offshore and processing domestically. With bank and processing contacts all over the world, their motivations are really quite clear and transparency is easy to maintain.

Every industry is different; while an offshore may seem to be attractive for some businesses, a domestic account may be the right long term fit. Understanding their client’s business is essential to the success of both parties. Finding the right processing broker is important; brokers with experience in your specific industry or a portfolio that contains similar businesses may save you a lot of lost sleep. Knowing your businesses busy times, working similar hours and being able to effectively handling chargebacks makes it all worth it in the end.

About Stradafee:

Stradafee is a leading international payments advisor based in New York. Stradafee is a retail and ecommerce credit card processing provider specializing in global retail and internet merchant account solutions. Stradafee also offers check processing, multi-currency processing, high risk merchant account and offshore merchant account options. Stradafee can help businesses of almost all industries and sizes. For more information on check and credit card processing please visit www.stradafee.com

Written By: Sager G. Loganathan