Merchant accounts are required in order for a business to accept credit card payments. As a merchant, there are two places you can obtain a merchant account; a bank, or a third party provider. For online merchants the most popular, so in most cases cost effective, source is from a third party merchant account doctor.

A high risk merchant account is required by businesses that, when compared with ‘traditional’ goods/services business, close to a higher risk of:

Bankruptcy

Fraudulent Transactions

High amount of sales

high risk pharmacy merchant account rate of refunds

High rate of charge-backs

Other reasons a merchant may be categorized for a high risk are:

Merchants Location – Some merchant account providers won’t accept merchants from certain countries.

The Product/Service the merchant sells is prohibited in some jurisdictions.

Merchant Credit standing – Some providers won’t accept merchants with poor or no credit foundation.

Due for the high risk classification, most banks will not provide your free account to those involved with a high risk industry (such as adult entertainment, replica goods, pharmacy etc). Consequently some third party providers offer their services to both general merchants and precarious merchants.

Merchant account providers that have been developed to service perilous merchants will probably provide a higher level of fraud protection, with a purpose to decrease charge their merchants incur. However, in order to cover the advanced of risk, rates high risk merchant account will definitely be higher than their lower risk counter-parts.

When hoping for a high risk merchant account, there many factors that you should take note. Rates will be one of the most basic factors, like includes fees for refunds and charge-backs, along with transaction fees, the discount rate and recurring fees. Require need to contemplate fraud protection, customer service and reporting available a person as a merchant.