Who is the Best Merchant Account Services Provider?

As a person that works in the merchant services industry I get questioned quite a lot who, in my opinion, is the best merchant services provider. Well, in my opinion, there is no such thing as “the best merchant services provider” and let me explain; my answer breaks down into multiple levels and steps. The answer really depends on the following characteristics:

Acquiring Banks

All merchant services providers have an underwriting department. The underwriting’s department is to check if the applicant, the merchant applying for an account, is legitimate and if the risk involved with the account is low or safe enough for the company to handle. The underwriter’s job is pretty much to select which accounts are getting approved and which are not.

Although many merchant services providers have in-house underwriters sometimes the underwriters do not have the final say about an account, and if the acquiring bank refuses to approve an account, the account will get declined.

Some merchant services providers have relationships with multiple banks and are able to get an account approved with a different bank.

Business Model (Industry Type)

By nature, every business is different. There are dozens of industries that businesses are seeking merchant processing and some industries may be restricted or prohibited by different merchant services providers. Just because one merchant that has a retail store got approved with one provider it does not mean that similar business model but with E-Commerce need will get approved with the same provider. The reason is again, because of the risk involved with the merchant account.

Application Process

Merchant applications can be long and tiring. I’ve seen merchant applications that ended up with over 15 pages. A typical merchant application is about 4-5 pages and is usually a generic one for all merchant types. Because the merchant application is made for all merchant types and includes equipment and Telecheck information (sometimes), many merchants can get confused filling out the form.

This is a crucial step and I recommend having a person with experience (usually the sales rep) help you with completing the app. Underwriting depends on the application as their greatest resource of information about the company and that application includes the most important information regarding how much risk is involved with an account.

Merchant Services Provider

Just like every business is different, so is every merchant services provider. Each provider may set their own parameters in order accept or decline different business types. Some providers may just want to stick to retailers and brick and mortar businesses while others prefer the higher risk one due to the higher markup.

Business History

Business history comes into effect when a company is being in business for some time. If a company has a good processing / financial history it will be relatively easy getting an account approved. On the other hand, is a company has bad credit card processing history, due to excessive chargebacks or a note on the TMF (Terminated Merchant File) list it will be much harder finding an account provider.

Personal Credit

People have different financial strength which results in different credit ratings. The stronger your credit is, the easier it would be for merchant services providers to get you approved. Although credit is not the most important role, it does play a crucial step if your business is online based. Retail businesses have less risk and therefore MSP’s do not require much financial strength from them. On the other hand, E-Commerce and MOTO merchants require more financial stability due to the increase in risk for the ISO/MSP.