Things To Know About Using an Australian Merchant Account

If you’re selling products and services online with an international internet business, you will need an avenue to collect the funds. There are different ways you can do this.

In places like Australia, merchants are defeating the purpose if they resort to having customers sending payment in the form of a cheque or sending the payment information via e-mail. Doing the latter can cause a serous breach. E-mails can be intercepted at any time and the customer’s credit card information can be compromised. Why would any merchant want to subject their customers to such an inconvenience?

With an international business, credit cards are the most used form of payment, even in places like Australia. When Australian merchants accept credit cards for payment, the money can be deposited in their merchant account quickly. Having credit cards for their merchant account provides a quick cash flow for them. When you adapt to this method of payment, you can be assured of receiving orders and payments anytime of the day and night.

The orders that are processed should be using “real time” transactions. This means that once a purchase is made, the information is processed through a gateway. It takes a brief moment to check if your payment will be accepted or not. By the time you blink your eyes twice, the process is complete.

In order for the “real time” transactions to take place, merchants should have an internet merchant account. The Australian merchant can get this account from a bank in their area. The merchant will also need a payment gateway service to process the credit cards.

Or merchants in Australia can use PayPal. PayPal is one of the popular payment processors that is used all over the world, including Australia. Even though there are no monthly fees with PayPal, the merchant’s payment can take between three to four business days before payment is deposited into their account.

If the period happens to be on weekend, merchants may have to wait longer. Then there’s the thing about having high sales volume profits within one or two transactions. Payment processors like PayPal sometimes get suspicious and place a temporary limit on your account.

Only when you send in requested documentation from them will they restore it With the account originating in Australia, it may even take a while for a merchant to get their money.

When you’re operating an international online business in places like Australia, its better if merchants have a merchant account. With a merchant account, there are no limits or holds on high sales volume profits. Merchant accounts allow Australian merchants to get their money much faster, like the same business day. If a merchant works with an Australian bank to get an account, the banks have merchant accounts for VISA, MasterCard and BankCard.

When merchants do apply for a merchant account in Australia, they should be aware that they may have a lot of paperwork to fill out. The merchants will probably be asked for everything under the sun except the kitchen sink. That’s because some Australian banks feel they are taking a risk just by providing local merchants with an account.

Once the Australian merchants get up and running, they will be free to run their business and make lots of money.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jennifer Loganathan is the President and CEO of Stradafee Limited. Stradafee is a leading international payments company based in New York. Stradafee is a retail and ecommerce payment processing provider specializing in international and Internet merchant account solutions. Stradafee also offers check processing, high risk merchant accounts and offshore merchant account options. Stradafee can help businesses of all industries and sizes. For more information on credit card processing and check processing please visit www.stradafee.com.

High Volume Merchant Account Set Up 7 Days or Less

Many businesses in the United States and abroad have applied for merchant accounts within the last three to five years due, mostly in part by the inundation of new ecommerce businesses. With these new businesses starting up and performing maintenance on banks and processors current customers, set up and integration lead times have become longer. High volume, high capacity merchant accounts have become very popular among ecommerce merchants, especially; the internet boom sees no slow down in sight and the ability to get big and very quickly leaves new merchants with little choice but to apply for these high volume accounts from the inception of their business. The thought of a new business being granted a high volume merchant account is a new concept. Traditionally, businesses need to show an upward trend in sales, along with a proven track record of stability and low chargeback’s to be granted a processing limit increase. Today, many merchants are turning to banks and processors overseas for their credit card processing needs. International banks in recent years have become aggressive to gain business by offering high volume merchant accounts to new and young companies that wish to achieve high volume status from inception. The term seven days or less is a reality; processors and merchant service providers or brokers see the opportunity to enable new and young merchants to achieve high volume processing status and fill the gaps that a lot of banks cannot by funneling in business to their banks. This new way of setting up merchant accounts is proving itself to be a win win situation for the banks, processors and merchant service providers. Essentially, using a broker to prequalify customers and handle the brunt of the paperwork takes a tremendous load off of the processors and banks by handing them a willing and competent merchant. From the time a new customer’s application and documents are processed, integration and processing can take about three or four days; making a seven day window absolutely feasible. From the time a new customer is integrated, their merchant service provider’s job isn’t done. Through a merchant’s processing cycle, questions and issues always rear their heads; while they don’t offer all of the answers, a merchant service provider is a great tool and definitely the right, “first call” for a merchant to make, especially when dealing with chargeback’s. Having a high volume merchant account doesn’t mean that your account will always have a high limit. This is a little known fact that most banks and processors don’t disclose. Domestic banks offer high limit accounts and will even raise limits under the right circumstances; however if they see a lot of chargeback’s or the merchant isn’t using their account to the limit, that limit will decrease. Offshore banks typically won’t be so quick to judge an account in the short term. There is no proper or better protocol when dealing with these types account issues, just different rules for different banks. If you do have or wish to know more about how to obtain a high volume merchant account, contact a merchant service provider.

About Stradafee:

Stradafee Limited is a leading international merchant service provider located in New York. Stradafee specializes in placing high volume global eCommerce companies. Internet merchant accounts makes it possible for online stores to accept credit cards as a form of payment for goods sold. For information on credit card processing for card present and card-not-present transactions please visit our corporate website at www.stradafee.com.

About the author:

Sager G. Loganathan is a freelance Search Engine Optimization writer specializing in the banking and finance industry. Sager Loganathan, a United States Marine Corp Veteran, has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from the State University of New York at Buffalo.