Become a merchant account provider

Merchant account providers help provide accounts to merchants. Banks are the best known providers of business accounts. Additionally, there are third-party merchant account providers that are extremely popular with internet and international traders. In order to become a successful merchant account provider, there are some basics that one must understand.

The merchant account provider requires the assistance of at least two other entities to grant a merchant account to a customer. One is an ISO (Independent Service Organization) and the other is the subscriber. An ISO normally comes from local debt collection. Their job is to verify the risks involved in granting the merchant account. They look at the applicant’s transaction, as well as his history and wealth. Often ISOs are also business account managers, with the power to liquidate the business account in case something goes wrong. The subscriber is usually a bank. Their responsibility lies with the cardholders. They re-evaluate the website, the merchant’s operations and the report provided by the ISO. It is the insurer that actually grants the merchant account to the applicant. Subscribers often request superficial and even structural changes to the merchant’s website in order to protect the latter’s interests.

The merchant account provider should be adept at handling high-risk accounts. These businesses include pharmacy accounts; adult accounts; travel accounts; telemarketing accounts, etc. They are high-risk in nature due to their potential for unnecessary chargebacks, legal violations, or may simply give the merchant account provider bad publicity for accepting your type of business.

Today, it is essential that someone wanting to become a merchant account provider have some experience and knowledge with e-commerce doctrine, terminology, and operation. Indispensable command of computer science.