Merchant Accounts
High Risk Merchant Account
Running a business is an exciting venture, but it can be challenging, especially when you operate in a high-risk industry. High-risk industries, such as online gambling, adult entertainment, pharmaceuticals, and travel agencies, arprone to financial risks such as chargebacks and fraud. As a result, traditional merchant accounts may not be the best option for these businesses. This is why high-risk merchant accounts exist.
High-risk merchant accounts are specialised financial solutions designed to cater to high-risk businesses. They provide businesses with the opportunity to accept credit card payments and other forms of electronic payments that their customers expect. However, as a high-risk merchant, you may be required to fulfill more stringent requirements and shoulder higher fees compared to traditional merchants. In addition, you may also be obliged to provide financial guarantees and pay reserve funds to mitigate risk for the payment processor.
Despite these additional costs and requirements, a high-risk merchant account is an essential solution that enables businesses to broaden their horizons, increase their profits, and ultimately succeed in their respective industries. It provides a way for high-risk businesses to stay competitive and thrive in an increasingly digital world.
A high-risk merchant account is a type of payment processing account provided to businesses that are considered to have a higher risk of fraud, chargebacks, or other financial issues by banks and payment processors. These businesses typically operate in industries that experience higher-than-average instances of chargebacks, legal scrutiny, or unstable business models. High-risk merchant accounts are subject to stricter underwriting processes, higher fees, and additional terms compared to standard merchant accounts.
Higher Processing Fees: High-risk merchants often face higher transaction fees, monthly fees, and chargeback fees due to the elevated risk profile.
Rolling Reserve: Payment processors may require a reserve fund where a percentage of transactions is held back for a period to cover potential chargebacks or disputes.
Longer Payout Periods: Funds from sales may be held longer before being released to the merchant.
Higher Chargeback Ratios: Businesses with frequent chargebacks (e.g., refunds, disputes) are classified as high-risk since they increase the processor’s liability.
Legal and Regulatory Risks: Some industries face more regulatory challenges or legal uncertainties, increasing their risk profile.
This is not an exhaustive list, but we typically see applications from certain industries are automatically classified as high-risk, such as:
- Adult entertainment
- Online gambling
- Subscription services
- Travel and ticketing
- Telemarketing
- Cryptocurrency
- Nutraceuticals (e.g., supplements, weight loss products)
Businesses in high-risk categories require specialised merchant accounts because standard payment processors and banks often decline to work with them. These accounts allow such businesses to accept credit card payments while managing the unique risks associated with their operations.
First and foremost, is your business actually high-risk? Factors such as the length of trading history with positive financial statements with good processing history can make a big difference. We also work with financial institutions that have a risk appetite for certain business sectors, as they are more experienced in managing specific industry accounts. Rest assured, we will always ensure you get the most competitive service offer…
Powerful Features
All of the features you need...
We provide a complete omni-channel payment solution with a fully integrated payment hub to enable you to manage your payments from a single platform.
PDQ Transactions
For any face-to-face card transaction, a PDQ device is required in order to authenticate the transaction using the cardholders PIN. CardPayGo is able to supply a wide range of PDQ terminal devices.
Direct Integration
With direct integration, your website (complete with SSL certificate) payment pages capture the cardholders personal and credit card details and then forwards these behind the scenes to the secure CardPayGo Payment Gateway.
Hosted Form
In order to make the Hosted Form process a little more seamless for the cardholder, we are able to fully customise the payment page. Either the merchant can supply us with full CSS design or we can simply apply a customised header and footer with your company logo to the page
Payment Modules
Fraud Management
Mobile Apps
Global Payment
solutions
We provide global payment solutions to over 128 countries. Our payment support teams have local knowledge on how to get the best out of your ecommerce strategy helping you to increase your sales.
24/7 Customer Service
The best customer support always ready to assist...
Our Business Support Team are on hand all year round, everyday to assist our merchants with technical support to ensure you are always one step ahead…
We will usually need some details about the business and the owners.
Once your account is approved we will provide a dedicated Business Support Assistant to get you set up.
We have a team of technical experts that will be able to resolve any support requirements promptly.
