Articles by Tina Brandon on ArticleSnatch.com

Hedge Bets And High Risk Processing

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:04:47 -0500

During the trip to Las Vegas last week, the group we travelled with started talking about various betting strategies, including hedge bets. For those of you who have never gambled, hedging is betting both (or all) sides, on the outcome of an event. Some of us thought hedging at the roulette table and on sports bets was a good idea. Others said it was a sucker’s bet. Is hedging a good bet for high risk processing? It all comes down to one question. How much do you have to lose? Let’s say you are a business that runs a substantial volume of transactions. After considering various high risk merchant processing providers, you chose a single one to work with. Among all the high risk processing providers, the one you chose may have lower rates or reserves or be attractive in other ways. It appeared to be the sure winner among high risk processing providers. You decide not to hedge by getting alternative high risk processing as well. You put your entire volume through a single high risk processing service. In essence, you were betting the house that one provider would continuously give you the high risk processing you need. **End Summary** Topics: high risk processing]]> high risk merchant]]> merchant high risk]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Tina Brandon is an expert in merchant high risk solutions designed to increase revenues while mitigating risk. For over 15 years, high volume merchants have relied on her expertise to successfully establish and diversify payment processing accounts with banks and payment processors throughout the world. Please visit http://www.merchantaccountsoffshore.co.uk for more information and details.

Is A Merchant Account Offshore Legal?

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:11:54 -0500

Traveling back from Europe the other, I exchanged business cards with the gentleman sitting next to me. He saw merchant account offshore on my card and said “Isn’t a merchant account offshore illegal or something?” Then one of the other passengers chirped in “Yeah, I hear that a merchant account offshore is a scam. A way for people to launder money or avoid paying taxes.” Both these comment about a merchant account offshore were incorrect, of course. Yet, the reasons for the false beliefs were totally understandable. The term offshore merchant account has long had a bad rap. Years ago, accounts were set up with banks in small obscure island countries. Hence the term offshore merchant accounts meant the banks were literally offshore. Exotic island locations which few average people have ever seen became suspect. Were the rich people mysteriously squirreling away hoards of cash? Well, a lot has changed since the olden times. And a merchant account offshore no longer refers to some island location. These days, merchant accounts offshore are set up almost everywhere in the world. Switzerland, France, UK, Netherlands, Germany, UK, US, South America, Asia, Pacific Rim, Middle East. You name it. **End Summary** Topics: offshore merchant accounts]]> offshore merchant account]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Tina Brandon is an expert in offshore merchant accounts solutions designed to increase revenues while mitigating risk. For over 15 years, high volume merchants have relied on her expertise to successfully establish and diversify payment processing accounts with banks and payment processors throughout the world. Please visit http://www.merchantaccountsoffshore.co.uk com for more information and details.

Merchant Account Offshore Beneficial for International eCommerce

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:57:38 -0500

Establishing a merchant account offshore is no longer mysterious or complex. While it is true that many high risk accounts prefer a merchant account offshore, not every merchant account offshore is established for high risk accounts. Companies in a variety of industry types choose to set up a merchant account offshore simply because the payment processing option makes good business sense. The ultimate goal of any business is have the best payment processing solutions, regardless if the solution includes a merchant account offshore, domestic processing, or any combination thereof. Business Benefits of a Merchant Account Offshore A merchant account offshore diversifies payment processing and mitigates risk. Similar to a financial portfolio with a mix of domestic and global stocks, a merchant account offshore is strong protection against the vagrancies of world events. Interchange varies in different jurisdictions. Therefore, it may actually cost less to process certain transactions through a merchant account offshore than through a domestic account. For companies involved in international ecommerce, foreign exchange of currency is a consideration. A merchant account offshore can save a company a considerable amount of money in foreign currency exchange. Multicurrency processing. **End Summary** Topics: offshore merchant accounts]]> offshore merchant account]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Tina Brandon is an expert in offshore merchant account solutions designed to increase revenues while mitigating risk. For over 15 years, high volume merchants have relied on her expertise to successfully establish and diversify payment processing accounts with banks and payment processors throughout the world. Please visit http://www.merchantaccountsoffshore.co.uk for more information and details.

Is a Dating Site a High Risk Merchant?

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 05:04:13 -0500

Being attractive, witty, and all together perfect, I have never availed myself to online dating services. But, lots of my less perfect friends are trolling the internet, looking for a connection. Online dating sites are one of the fastest growing segments of internet commerce. People from all walks of life take advantage of the sites to connect with potential mates. Of course, some dating sites are sexually oriented and need high risk merchant processing. These sites require a high risk merchant account because of adult content. But the vast majority of dating sites do not have any adult content. What are the main reason dating sites need a high risk merchant account? The biggest reason a dating site is considered to be a high risk merchant is a subscription billing model. After an initial trial period, recurring subscription billing is required to obtain more information on potential dates. Subscription billing in general are prone to more chargebacks, an underlying cause for a high risk merchant classification. There is a big churn among members on dating sites. People come and go as they try different sites or give up the search. People get discouraged or bored when they do not connect. **End Summary** Topics: online dating merchant account]]> high risk account]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Tina Brandon is an expert in online dating merchant account processing solutions designed to increase revenues while mitigating risk. For over 15 years, high volume merchants have relied on her expertise to successfully establish and diversify payment processing accounts with banks and payment processors throughout the world. Please visit http://www.nationalach.com for more information and details.

High Risk Merchant Account Approval in 3 Easy Steps

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:37:02 -0500

High Risk Merchant Account Pre-Application: Easiest Way to Begin. Often a high risk merchant wants to know whether or not a high risk merchant account will be approved before submitting a complete application. Of course, a business will also be interested in finding out what high risk processing rates will be. A quick way to obtain the information is simply to submit a high risk merchant account pre-application form, along with three months of processing statements. The business will be informed of the likelihood of high risk processing approval and will be provided with anticipated rates for high risk processing. Although a pre-approval not a guarantee of acceptance, it is helpful in helping a high risk merchant decide whether or not to move forward with the application process. During this first stage of the high risk account account process, the most important documents are prior high risk payment processing history through which the underwriters determine chargeback ratios. Low chargebacks generally indicate that a company knows how to correctly manage a high risk merchant account. This will translate into reduced high risk processing rates being offered to the business. **End Summary** Topics: offshore merchant accounts]]> high risk account]]> high risk account]]> merchant account international]]> high risk merchant]]> high risk processing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Tina Brandon is an expert in high risk account solutions designed to increase revenues while mitigating risk. For over 15 years, high volume merchants have relied on her expertise to successfully establish and diversify payment processing accounts with banks and payment processors throughout the world. Please visit http://www.highriskmerchantaccounts.net for more information and details.

Will an Offshore Merchant Account Benefit Your Business?

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:04:06 -0500

A merchant account offshore is simply payment processing with an acquiring bank located in a territory outside of a company’s original incorporation jurisdiction. As an example, let’s say a company is registered as a corporation in the United States. The company establishes a payment processing account in Europe. The European account is considered an merchant account offshore for the American company because the acquiring bank is located in the EU, not the United States. Financial considerations are the most compelling reason for a company to establish a merchant account offshore. The bottom line for a offshore merchant offshore is saving money. For companies with global operations, an offshore merchant account reduces operating costs by decreasing payment processing expenses. Payment processing interchange rates vary throughout the world. For an American company with customers located outside of the US, it is frequently less expensive to process transactions through an offshore merchant account located in the EU than it is to process those same transactions through an American acquiring bank. Interchange rates are lower than in Europe than in the US. Cross border payment processing surcharges can substantially drive up payment processing fees. **End Summary** Topics: adult merchant account]]> high risk account]]> offshore merchant account]]> merchant high risk]]> merchant account offshore]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Tina Brandon is an expert in Offshore Merchant Account solutions designed to increase revenues while mitigating risk. For over 15 years, high volume merchants have relied on her expertise to successfully establish and diversify payment processing accounts with banks and payment processors throughout the world. Please visit http://www.merchantaccountsoffshore.co.uk for more information and details.

Travel Merchant Accounts For Your Financial Needs

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:24:17 -0500

Over 50% of all travel reservations are now made online. Travel and hospitality is the world's largest industry, with the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), predicting revenues in excess of US$15 trillion by 2017. Travel merchant accounts are established by all segments of the travel industry including: transportation, hotel reservations; timeshare, membership clubs, vacation certificates; newsletters; travel agencies; tour operators and packages. It is frequently challenging for a company to find a payment processor willing to underwrite a travel merchant account. The reason is that Travel Merchant Accounts are classified as high risk. High risk merchant accounts, statistically, have a higher incidence of chargebacks and fraudulent transactions. Travel merchant accounts are susceptible to chargebacks for a number of reasons. Travel is an emotional purchase, combining both the excitement of new adventure with the fear spending a lot of money for an unknown outcome. A company can offer the best customer service, but the degree of emotionalism involved in purchasing travel makes it difficult to avoid a certain percentage of unhappy customers. As a result, there are endless reasons that travellers can chargeback transactions in what is known in the industry as “friendly fraud”. **End Summary** Topics: Travel merchant accounts]]> adult merchant account]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Tina Brandon is an expert in Travel Merchant Accounts solutions designed to increase revenues while mitigating risk. For over 15 years, high volume merchants have relied on her expertise to successfully establish and diversify payment processing accounts with banks and payment processors throughout the world. Please visit http://www.merchantaccountsoffshore.co.uk for more information and details.

High Volume Merchant Accounts For High Volume Transaction Throughput

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:19:51 -0400

A high volume merchant account is exactly what it sounds like. That is, a payment processing account that accommodates high volume transaction throughput. But, like most of the payment processing industry, these accounts are sub-categorized into segments depending upon assessment of payment processing risk. A high volume merchant account for standard industry classifications has different payment processing criteria than high risk, high volume merchant account processing. And a company in a standard industry classification experiencing rapid growth can also easily be thrown into a high risk merchant account category. There are literally thousands of sales agents hungrily prospecting for High Volume Merchant Accounts. For businesses in traditional industry classifications, payment processing over $100,000 per month is targeted by every new sales agent. Therefore, companies with high volume merchant accounts are constantly bombarded by calls from agents offering ever-lower payment processing rates. Competition among merchant account independent sales organizations is intense. Profit margins within the industry are continuing a downward squeeze. High volume merchant accounts in non-risk categories are a commodity driven by demands for rock-bottom prices. Interchange plus pricing is the norm. High volume merchant accounts with multi-million dollar monthly throughput can negotiate rates of pennies per transaction. **End Summary** Topics: High volume merchant accounts]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Tina Brandon is an expert in High Volume Merchant Accounts solutions designed to increase revenues while mitigating risk. For over 15 years, high volume merchants have relied on her expertise to successfully establish and diversify payment processing accounts with banks and payment processors throughout the world. Please visit http://www.merchantaccountsoffshore.co.uk/ for more information and details.

Forex Merchant Accounts for International Payment Processing

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:17:12 -0400

Forex firms offering quick funding of trading accounts with international payment processing increase sales conversions and maximize profits. Forex market conditions fluctuate constantly in response to real-time events or speculation about future occurrences. FX traders make or lose money depending upon rapidly changing currency movements. The ability to quickly fund a trading account is crucial to your trading success. International Payment Processing allows Forex traders to fund trading accounts in multiple ways, including credit cards and direct debit from any international bank account. Funding of accounts can be done in the local currency of the trader. The old fashioned way of funding a Forex trading account through wire transfers is no longer enough in todayâ€™s modern world. Wire transfers are inherently inefficient and costly, both for Forex merchants and for FX traders. Wire transfers have limited tracking, reporting and reconciliation capabilities. Benefits of Forex Merchant Accounts: Establish and fund trading accounts quicker Streamline tracking, reporting, and account reconciliation Maximize your cash flow Increase your profits Gain new customers Decrease your operating expenses Improve your business analysis Special Advantages of Forex Merchant Accounts VIP Trader High Limit. Quickly establish high limit sub-accounts for VIP Forex traders. VIP Identification. **End Summary** Topics: Merchant Accounts]]> International Payment Processing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Tina Brandon is an expert in International Payment Processing solutions designed to increase revenues while mitigating risk. For over 15 years, high volume merchants have relied on her expertise to successfully establish and diversify payment processing accounts with banks and payment processors throughout the world. Please visit http://www.merchantaccountsoffshore.co.uk for more information and details.