Learn the Difference Between Payment Gateway and Merchant Account

Merchant account is the basic necessity for the businessman and apart from that a smooth payment gateway.  Both have an equivalent ratio for the smooth and balanced working of the business.

Merchant Account

A type of account that allows accepting online payment from the customers through many ways under legal wings of the payment service provider.

Merchant The account is created under the mutual agreement between a merchant and merchant’s acquiring a bank, so to further proceed with future online payment.

Meaning Of Payment Gateway

A payment gateway is a software program that works behind the scene. It is basically a process that enables the flow of the payment securely. It’s a secure way to transfer your customer’s money safely into your merchant account. It’s really very important to have a payment gateway for the following reasons:

• It creates a trustworthy aura between you and your customers.

• It maintains a good graph in the competitive world.

• Prevents your money from fraudulent activities.

• Keeps you away from any future threat.

Short Overview

Above mentioned content shows the nature of the account, now below we can compare both of them:

• Merchant Account is an account where the funds are deposited and payment gateway is the channel from which we receive our payments.

• Merchant account holders get their amount through the payment gateway

• Merchant Account holds the money, which they earn from selling their goods/services and with the help of a payment gateway, they get their amount secured under the safety of the acquiring bank.

• Payment Gateway gives a piece of evidence for the particular transaction for future Disputes.

MerchantStronghold

A place where you will get solutions to every query. We undertake many responsibilities such as Opening Merchant Accounts, Merchant Account Underwriting, Secure Payment Gateways, High-Risk Merchant Account & Low-Risk Merchant Account profile management and much more.

If the vision is still vague, you can approach us frequently through our website https://www.merchantstronghold.com/or through our telephonic support, we are available here 24*7. Contact us on +1 (888) 622 – 6875.

Alternative Credit Card Payment Methods

Alternative Payment Methods: Methods that are used as an alternative to credit card payments. It is also referred to as CNP (Card Not Present) situations. The card and single mode of payment on your checkout page will not help you, only rob you of your customers by turning them down for the payment.

Let’s take an example;

Situation 1 (Without alternative payment methods) - 

So, John is on your checkout page, he has already selected your product. 

He tries to pay by his credit card. 

Error: Card Declined. Please contact your bank for more information. 

Retries

Error……

John abandons the order and goes away.

Situation 2: (With alternate payment methods.)

John tries and retries. Failed…

The third time, his eyes spot Pay using PayPal/Amazon option and he decides to go for it.

Before you know, the payment goes through.

Your new customer is equally proportionate to more revenue.

Alternate Payment Methods | Increased Sales:

The customers just need their product they want to check out very quickly and seamlessly, due to the competition you can lose your customer if you do not have a quick gateway or alternate payment method.

Take PayPal for example, the Express Checkout feature and cutting-edge technology have gathered wide popularity for PayPal as well as the merchant. Now, PayPal has become a widely known alternate method of payment for most of the merchants.

If you have a similar question or more, get an expert at Merchant Stronghold at the toll-free number +1 (888) 622 – 6875. We also provide other merchant processing services and high-risk merchant services.

How to get rid of poor merchant underwriting

Effects of Poor Merchant Underwriting

Your high-risk business may suffer from one or the other reason even without in-depth analysis and these are:

Incorrect Limit: You should set limits for your business as per requirement. It should not be too high or too low, as both will put your business at risk. Limits lower than required will hinder the regular processing of transactions. As a result, it may constrict the flow of cash or timely payments from the customer. If a limit is too high, this may lead to unexpected fraudulent charges.

Hidden Fee: An additional fee is there if the volume exceeds the limit. However, even if you have set your limit, some providers let it exceed without notification. And they also charge you with a penalty.

Downgrades: Once your high-risk merchant account is set, you are inclined to transaction downgrades if certain required features and security measures are not set along with the account. Although, setting up these features will cost you more. But it will help you in long run and enable smooth processing of transactions.

What Providers Check

Industry Type: Risk is in every kind of business but the level of risk varies from business to business. Few businesses are less likely to fraud and chargebacks as compare to others. Higher the level of risk, higher the amount of documentation.

Return Policy: Businesses that indulge in shipping products are risky because there are chances of non-delivery of product, wrongly delivery or delivery of the broken product that might result in chargebacks.

Business History: If you are not new in the market and have applied for a merchant account, underwriting will involve reviewing of your credit history as well as chargeback history (to know chargeback ratio) before approving or rejecting your application.

Financial Stability: To check the financial stability, underwriting may include your bank statement and credit. This is very important for the businesses while applying for a new merchant account, as it directly affects the decision of underwriting approval.

What is Credit Card Processing & How does it work?

Credit card processing is not a new concept. Everyone claims to know the process: swipe the card, hit the button and the transaction is complete in a blink. But do you really know the process? Do you think that it is as simple as it seems? It actually is a much more complex procedure than what you witness. The fact is swiping the card and signing the recipe is the first and the last step of the procedure. In between lays multiple steps that include more than one person working invisibly for the customer to complete that particular transaction.

Let us understand the transaction process in just three steps

STEP 1: AUTHENTICITY

At the point of sale, a cardholder gives the card to the merchant to swipe the card on POS terminal to make a payment.

Credit card details are sent to the acquiring bank, which forwards the same to the credit card network

Authorization request includes credit card number used for the payment, expiration date, billing address, card security code and the payment amount.

Credit card network clears the payment and a request is sent to the issuing bank for authorization.

STEP 2: AUTHENTICATION

When the issuing bank receives the authorization request, it validates the credit card number, checks the availability of the funds in the cardholder’s account, verifies the billing address and validates Card security code (CVV number).

It is up to the issuing bank whether to approve or deny the request. When they make a decision, it sends back the suitable response through a proper channel (credit card network and acquiring bank).

Once the merchant receives the authorization, the customer is provided with the receipt at the completion of the sale.

STEP 3: CLEARING AND SETTLEMENT

In the clearing stage, the transactions get the post to the cardholder’s monthly billing statement and in the merchant’s statement.

For settlement, service provider routes the batched information to the association member, which in turn forwards all the approved transactions to the corresponding issuing bank.

The merchant sends all the approved authorizations in a batch to the acquiring bank by EOD.

The merchant account gets credited for the cardholder’s purchases by the acquiring bank (minus merchant discount rate). At this time, the issuing bank posts the transaction information to the cardholder’s account. The cardholder receives the statement and bill is paid off.

Then the issuing bank transfers the funds (minus interchange fee, which is shared with the credit card network) within 1-2 days. Then the credit card network pays from the remaining funds to acquiring bank as well as the acquiring processor.

Credit Card Processing for Boat Lease & Rental Businesses

Internet based shopping has made online payment quit common for Boat Leases and Boat Rentals (MCC 4457) businesses. An online payment system also known as Electronic Data Interchange can easily carry out transactions for boat reservations. Everything can be managed from one website. Merchant Stronghold has advance online systems that are designed for businesses such as boat charters. Your booking system will be open 24 hours, and you can manage it from anywhere. Our Online payment services are:

• Easy to use and can be set up as soon as you want
• Able to provide Rate and booking management – just click of a mouse
• Able to increase visibility on popular search engines
• Can be integrated with your existing website or new one
• Suitable for any type of business under MCC 4457

Online Payment services for Boat leases and Boat Rentals

Before getting started with us, you should understand four basic things about online payment systems. If you hire us for your boat lease and boat rental business, you need to know this:

A payment gateway that will pass credit card information between merchant and a customer. It will also act as a bridge between payment processor and merchant. Consider it a middleman between merchant and sponsoring bank.

A merchant account or bank account that will allow you to receive payments via debit or credit cards. Merchant account providers have to follow rules and regulations set by card associations. There are some processors that act as payment gateway and merchant account.

PCI compliance so that your business is as per international standards. Payment card Industry (PCI) was created by security standards council to reduce frauds and increase security of credit card holders.

A payment processor that will handle all transactions for you. Payment processors have duty to integrate anti-fraud measures to make sure that merchant and their customers are protected from possible frauds.

Secure payment methods

A secure payment keeps you safe from possible attacks. It is important that you have a system that makes easy for renters. You can set pricing, security deposits, and extra fees for items like wakeboards – All can be changed and managed via one website. Renters will be assured that as long as they have read all the requirement on the site, there won’t be any addition fee or features. Any unexpected money or fee won’t be charged at dock.

Merchant Stronghold Offers payment solution having multiple payment options. We also accept on demand payment options request, means you can ask us to add a payment method in your website. All the information regarding payment will be provided to customers at the time of transaction so that your business is not blamed for additional fees, and you can stay away from chargebacks.

Start your online Boat Rental Business Today! Contact Merchant Stronghold for more information.

5 Easy ways to setup Your online High Risk Business

Choose the Right Domain

Choosing the correct domain name is extremely necessary. It’s ideal if your domain name coordinates your business name or your brand so it’s simple for your benefactors and potential customers to discover your website. Once you choose a web site name and have the web site up and running, you have to invest plenty of resources into promoting it and conveyance in traffic, so raise some of individual people as you’d prefer to think on the name before setting it in stone. Keep in mind to check the name’s accessibility to check whether the domain name of your choosing is free to use. If the the name isn’t accessible, don’t get demoralized. Often the owner of the domain name is willing to sell it and it’s simple to work out who owns the name by merely wanting it up in “whois” section on the domain registration portals.

Pick a Webhosting Service

Web hosting services offer space for storing and access for websites. Don’t get attract by free internet hosts as they put advertising on your website to cover their prices. As a business, you must be searching for an internet host that’s esteemed and reliable. think how much space your website would take and how much traffic you are expecting through your website (web hosts can help you with an estimation). Read the reviews of different clients to perceive how frequently they encounter downtime or technical issues and how rapidly those issues are resolved.

Design Your Website

Today designing your website is less complicated than ever as a result of there are several visual “drag and drop” templates to choose on from. There’s a range of website builder package resources out there. They’re very simple easy thus just about anyone can use them. Have a look at GoDaddy, WordPress, Wix or Weebly. Watch many YouTube tutorials to see however simple it’s to make your own web site. Confirm the design is simple and SEO friendly. There are many helpful tips provided by the website builder software system on this matter. Have a look at this detailed example

Shopping Cart for Online Business

shopping cart is a piece of software system that acts like an online web catalog. There are many various choices available to you on the market. As payment Processor consultants we are able to assist you to choose the right shopping cart that meets your business requirement.

Payment Processor Solution for your online Business

you would like our services to be ready to process credit card processing transactions online. Once you have got the website going, we’ll be happy to assist you set up an online payment solution that’s best for you and your business. Contact us to find out more.

How to Complain website for US Payment Gateways?

It’s very important that the business advertise and provide brief and fulfilling information about the products or services they advertise. The terms of sales should be clearly stated. Especially if it’s trial offer with continuity. If it’s a product such as a Weightloss Product or Teeth Whitening – Ingredient list and product label should be clearly mentioned on the website. All products comply with the same MCC code or SIC code. Delivery date estimate should also be clearly stated.

Business Information

• Businesses’ Permanent Establishment address and Customer Contact information must be clearly mentioned on the website. The Company’s name should be clearly identifiable to the customer. Here are a few things that are a mandate:
• Full Name of legal entity;
• Legal and Actual business address (the address should not be posted as a Picture or with just Google maps);
• Registration number of the legal entity;
• Contact phone number and email address and hours of operation;
• Company contact details for Customer Support must be clearly displayed;
• Return Address, in case of tangible goods;

Secure and Simple Check Out Process

It is very important that the high-risk business register for a valid and secure SSL certificate for their complaint website. TnCs, Pricing, and Currency should the same as advertised. Statement of estimated fulfillment time of the contract, shipping or handling charges and VAT must be clearly displayed. Have to have a checkbox to acknowledge that this is recurring transaction; Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover logos. The billing descriptor (as it will appear on the customer’s statement) should be displayed as well. Some of the basic details you must collect for each transaction are-

• Cardholder First and Last Name
• Cardholder’s Billing Address
• Cardholder’s Shipping Address
• Cardholder’s Phone Number
• Cardholder’s Email Address

At the end of the checkout process, you must confirm the receipt of the transaction via email to the Cardholder. The business should be PCI complaint to be able to perform and continue an eCommerce Business. Learn more about PCI Compliance in future Blogs.

A Guide To Chargebacks - How To Reduce Them?

Chargeback Security Expert and Risk Analyst will assist merchants in creating a formidable chargeback reduction plan that will benefit the merchant’s business in accordance with card brand rules. Chargeback Security Team Members will identify the wrong business practices that led to the excessive chargebacks or fraud.

Chargebacks are analyzed based on frequency, amount, BIN, IP, Geo and reason codes. Processing Statements and trends go through strict analyzes outlying the problem and isolate the cause. Chargeback Reduction tools and processes are educated to the business and urged to be utilized by the merchant:

● -AVS

● -CVV2

● -Negative Database

● -Velocity Screening

● – ISPY Technology

● –Chargeback Security Alerts

● -Third-party fraud Scrubbing service

Chargeback Analyst will analyze the effectiveness of the current chargeback reduction practices and work on implementing new parameters or new policies. New chargeback/fraud reduction initiatives and modifying existing tools and policies are suggested.

We will propose a more effective strategy that will benefit merchant’s business by reducing chargebacks and maintaining them within the appropriate threshold as required by the processing bank.

The Chargeback Security Alerts, Real-Time Management System and Chargeback Reduction Plan will enroll the merchant in the Chargeback Shield Platform, which will allow merchants to intercept chargebacks and refund them in time! Avoid a Chargeback altogether and lower the costs and risks associated with chargebacks. By creating this extensive merchant account chargeback reduction plan in document form, Chargeback Shield Platform will provide the merchant the acceptable documentation required to place the business in good standing with the processing bank within a projected time frame.

Merchant Stronghold offers the most comprehensive risk mitigation and management solution in the industry—the only one that effectively addresses both prevention and represented. We can show you how to get a handle on reducing chargebacks, then help you recover revenue lost to transaction disputes. We’re also the only solution to guarantee ROI, meaning our services are risk-free.

If you're looking for any kind of Chargebacks related information. You’re in the right place! Get more information you can contact +1(888)-622-6875 or visit website – https://www.merchantstronghold.com/

MERCHANT SERVICES AGREEMENT & IMPORTANT MERCHANT RESPONSIBILITIES

Have you ever seen all the pricing on your High-Risk Merchant Accounts Agreements and asked what they mean? Online Business must always read and understand the terms and conditions of their payment gateway. Merchant Stronghold explains pricing schedule of fees:

Tiered pricing: Tiered discount pricing allows you to group interchange programs into different tiers “buckets” and then price those buckets separately based on the range of interchange costs grouped into each bucket.

ERR Pricing (Enhance Recover Reduce): Pass non-qualifying interchange costs to merchants. Using err, you have the option to assess a surcharge to the merchant’s downgraded sales volume. The surcharge is a client-defined percentage that is applied to the downgraded sales volume of participating merchants.

Pass-through interchange pricing: Using interchange passes through allows the expenses associated with interchange fees and dues and assessments to be billed directly to the merchant. If you are using interchange pass through plus, a sale transaction fee and/or a percentage rate would be assessed against the monthly volume and would be billed to the merchant along with the dues and assessments and interchange fees.

Pass-through Pin Debit: Allows you to pass through PIN debit network fees to the merchant. In addition to passing the network fees to the merchant, you need to bill a per item charge, a percent of the volume, and a monthly flat rate debit access fee.

IMPORTANT MERCHANT RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Ensure compliance with cardholder data security and storage requirements.
(Go to www.Visa.com, select Small Business and Merchants, select Operations and Risk Management, select Cardholder Information Security Program)

2. Maintain fraud and chargeback below thresholds.

3. Review and understand the terms of the Merchant Agreement.

4. Comply with Visa Operating Regulations. (Go to www.Visa.com, select Small Business and Merchant Gateway, select Operations and Risk Management, select Rules for Visa Merchants)

The responsibilities listed above do not supersede terms of the Merchant Agreement and are provided to ensure the merchant understands some important obligations of each party and that the Visa Member (Acquirer) is the ultimate authority should the merchant have any problems.
If you’re looking for any kind of Merchant Services. You’re in the right place!Visit our services page to find out how we can help you today! You can visit website – https://www.merchantstronghold.com/

HOW TO OPEN SECURE HIGH RISK MERCHANT ACCOUNTS?

For a business owner, it’s stressful that merchant account will go to rejection. A contradiction might make you question to your business existence. In fact, denial of an entire channel of payment processing probably crippling impact on business.

To Create a Secure Merchant Account Tips:

In United States, Internet Secure affords high-risk merchant account services. If someone started a business as owner then they unified with the Internet Secure merchant gateway where provide authorization to payment process through any method like order forms, shopping cart, or standard orders.

DEPEND ON CREDIT HISTORY

A provider has checked personal credit history of customer i.e. revealing trouble of paying bills. A merchant services provider does not want to get on a customer who can view as a susceptibility, even if a customer that pay in a good proceeding of profit will have to reduce the value to a bad credit history.

NOT DEPEND ON YOUR BUSINESS TYPE

A merchant will be labeled as a High-Risk Business and High Risk commit to a raised percentage of charge-backs, it can solely point to the published brand blended with the type of business. When a customer attempts to charge-backs for pay back his credit for one reason or another. The method of fighting charge-backs needs some time and if the merchant loses charge-backs, then it costs everyone who associated.

TO CREATE A SECURE MERCHANT ACCOUNT TIPS

If business owner looking a Secure Merchant Account follow these steps:

Create a Business Required Strategy

Before reaching merchant services, Recognize some circumstances:

Should be looking which payment type preferred by customers.
Which you prefer for order and transactions i.e. phone order or online transactions.
You are providing recurring fees support system.

Comparing Option should be start
You may research the market and their find at least ones that give you an idea to make enticing for your business.

Able to Setting it up and Moving Better

By the way, this is different of determining a business leader, for a powerful way to grow their business and moving instantly. Sometimes a merchant takes so many days to fulfill every step included with getting account activation. Sometimes a merchant takes so many days to fulfill every step included with getting account activation. But if you had a planned to set up your business, may take minimum time to become the business track.

Get US Payment Gateways for Transportation Services

Hardest thing is finding a merchant service provider who deals with focused services such as car, bus and taxi. These are direct services related to transportation. Direct services are those which help customers to choose from a range of things without third party involvement. It could allow customers to book a taxi in near area with the help of a mobile application or E-commerce website. The application can complete transaction on the spot using Merchant Stronghold’s us payment gateways. It will be quick, simple and clean

Payment brands use codes to classify businesses by the type of goods and services. Payment gateway providers use these codes to inform their clients which category a business belongs to. A good example of these codes is MCCs 4000–4799 (Transportation Services). All the numbers between MCC 4000 to 4799 are transportation services such as passenger railways, bus lines, air lines, marine services, courier services, and more.

Merchant Stronghold provides flexible payment gateways for all transportation services. We offer multiple payment options and new features for your customers. Our transportation payment gateways bring innovation to your business type. You get fast support and services. Some of our features include:

• Secure multiple payment options
• High protection for cardholders and merchants
• Future support for mobile payments and EMV

Our payment gateways for your Transportation services can improve business-efficiency and enhance customer experience. You can achieve your goal of a successful business with the help of Merchant Stronghold.

Your first priority is to offer speedy payment system to customers. A flexible and fast payment system makes it easy for merchants to sell. You may be thinking that there are many other merchant services providers so why choose us? First you have to understand few basic things about payment systems.

What is the main building block for online payment application? The very first thing is to keep PCI compliance in consideration and create a system that doesn’t cause problems for you or your customers. A number of things can be done to achieve this goal including:

• High security as per international standards
• Secure Storing information for repeat or recurring charges
• Complete control of design and user experience
• Monthly or weekly sale analysis
• Multiple payment options integration–and Scalability

There are other things such as currency support, fees, local payment options, disbursement, and others. These things may vary person to person, but above 5 things are building blocks of a system.

Get more information visit website – https://www.merchantstronghold.com/

Match List of Merchant Account - Merchant Stronghold

It is true, but there is such a thing as a merchant account blacklist. It’s actually known as the MATCH list or “Terminated Merchant File,” (TMF for short). The Terminated Merchant File is a shared online list among processors and acts as a blacklist scrubber, where merchants with high risk accounts or excessive chargebacks [www.chargebacksecurity.com] and/or terminated for violation of agreement are put on the list and prevented from opening an account with a different credit card processor.

MATCH LIST: Why merchants could be put on it

• Excessive Refunds and Declines
• Violation of Terms of Merchant Agreement
• Illegal Product or Advertisement
• Adult or Porn or Escort Endorsement
• Merchant Collusion
• Fraud
• Excessive Chargebacks
• Money Laundering
• Terrorist Activity
• Wrong MCC code Service/Product

By far the most common reason for termination amongst Trial Continuity and Subscription Type of Business, The merchant deposited sales that were not authorized by cardholders; most typically in a card not present environment with recurring charges.

Why Put the Merchant on the Match List?

Merchant’s Merchant Acquiring Bank. In order to get off the MATCH list, the acquire who put you on it is the only one who can remove you. Merchants are placed on this list because they were found to have violated their credit card processing agreement at some time. Due this breach, these merchants had been terminated from being allowed to have a merchant account. The master match list is used as a screening tool by other credit card processing companies to see whether or not a business is suitable for a merchant account. Being on this list raises a red flag to merchant processing companies that this company applying for the account may be a high risk.

It is not impossible to get a merchant account if you’re on the MATCH list. Please contact Merchant Stronghold at 1-888-622-6875 and we can find out if you’re eligible for a merchant account and how to help you get off the TMF / Match List. Get more information visit website - https://www.merchantstronghold.com/

How to Integrate Payment Gateway on your Online eCommerce Store

A Secure Payment Gateway can be integrated on eCommerce Store allowing the business to accept credit cards payments for their businesses. It’s used to encrypt sensitive information to ensure that the information is secure between merchant and customer.

These payment gateways come with tools to detect frauds before sending it to the processor. There are a number of other tools such as Velocity Pattern Analysis, Black list lookup, Computer finger print, Delivery address verification, Geo location, Basic AVS, and Identity Morphing detection. Payment gateway has to be acquired by the merchant and integration will be done by Merchant Stronghold. Different type of payment Gateways exist, their basic working principal could be found below.

How Payment Gateways work?

It may sound difficult to some merchants, but the entire process is simple. There is a step by step processes of how payment gateways processing transactions –

• When a customer purchases a product from your Adult Book Store, it’s sent to web service in an encrypted format. The encryption is done with the help of SSL (Secure Socket Layer).
• All the transaction information sent to the concerned Payment gateway.
• Payment gateway then sends this information to merchant’s acquiring bank.
• The acquiring bank then sends this information to issuing bank. Customer’s credit card belongs to issuing bank so the transaction will be approved by them.
• Issuing bank sends a message back to Payment gateway. This message will have information about whether the requested transaction was approved or decline. If there is declination then reason is also sent to the gateway.
• Gateway sends response to the merchant’s server.
• When the response reaches server, it is encrypted again and sent to the customer. This will inform customer whether the transaction was successful or not. If order is placed then customer is informed about it.
• This entire process takes not more than 5 seconds. At the end of day or as per policy, acquiring bank deposit the amount in merchant’s account. If it takes more than 5 seconds to complete whole process then payment gateway is not good enough.

Why you need a payment Gateway?
If you are running an Adult Book Store then payment Gateway is the first thing you need. You can’t receive online payment without a gateway. It is the main building block that acts as a bridge between banks, and authorizes payment for Businesses. You can also call it a physical Point of sale terminal that is located in your store. It encrypts sensitive information such as card number, name, and address to ensure that information is secure between customers and merchants.